Page 44 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Jove didn’t know exactly what he would have given Saldr to speak highly about. He’d only been doing his job, and not very well at that. He’d only met with the quiet Yalv twice over the time he’d been in the city.

“Sure?” The words came out a little choked—not from emotion, but because his throat had begun to hurt, too. Now that he was conscious, the pain just kept building the longer he lay still. The fall hadn’t killed him outright, but maybe it was just taking its time.

The Yalven man’s eyes widened. Immediately, he dug into the pouch at his waist and sprinkled Jove with dust. Jove shut his eyes, blinking against the grit when some of the grains landed in his eyes. The man sang softly once again, no easier to translate despite being closer now.

Light burned against and underneath his eyelids. The dust glowed. Jove fought against the burning, its claws like a fire charring his flesh. His eyes throbbed. The light was so bright it blinded him. He could no longer hear the man’s words.

Then it all fell away at once, as if someone had dunked Jove in ice water.

His pain wasn’t gone, but all that was left was a dull ache that might easily be forgotten if Jove wasn’t focused on it. He blinked into the darkness. For a moment, he feared that he might have gone blind after all, but then his mother’s face appeared above him, her eyes glistening with tears.

She stroked his temple and looked to the Yalv. “He’ll be okay? What about his shoulder?”

The Yalv, Kainadr, breathed heavily. “Toro has answered swiftly once more, all praises be. He will recover fully once his body finishes accepting the Vasa. Most of his minor injuries have been healed, and the Vasa has sped up the healing process of the more grievous wounds. I would not call myself fortunate for falling deep within Yalvara’s depths, but perhaps it is you who are the fortunate ones that I am here. ”

Jove groaned. Apparently speaking in too many words was a common trait among the Yalvs. Kainadr looked him over once more. “Is there some other injury I have failed to ask Toro to heal?”

“I’m fine.” No need to insult the man who might have very well saved his life.

Jove clenched his teeth and pushed himself into a sitting position.

It was possible, but each movement felt a little foreign, like his body had never performed them before.

He nodded to his mother. “Will you please heal her next?”

Kainadr squinted at him in the faint light. “You do not have the curled hair Lord Saldr described, but the eyes, yes. Are you kin to the Master Shackley?”

Ah. He was talking about Kase. That made…well, about as little sense, if Jove was being honest.

Les gave him a soft, knowing smile. “I believe you might mean my youngest, Kase.”

Kainadr focused his attention on Jove’s mother.

“Lord Saldr had the highest praise for two Jaydians—this Kase, possibly, and another. A woman with red hair and golden eyes. She helped many of my brethren find jobs within the city, but then one day, she simply stopped coming. We feared something terrible befell them. No one has seen either of them here in the tunnels, but with the chaos this evening, it’s hard to say…

” He smeared some of his dust upon Les’ ankle and paused to sing under his breath. The dust glowed, and his mother gasped.

When the light faded, she smiled and stretched her ankle. “Thank you, Master Kainadr. It feels even better than it did before.”

Kainadr dipped his head in response before coating his fingers with his dust and singing a word or two.

It was hard to tell with his accent and Jove’s aching head.

In response, the dust seemed to catch fire on his fingertips before coalescing into a ball the size of Jove’s thumbnail.

It then rose into the air just above the Yalv.

“I need to conserve the holy metal, but this helps, yes?” Kainadr said, pointing at the floating fireball above his shoulder.

It was small, but it did flare brightly. Jove just caught sight of a trouser leg over to his right. He couldn’t see past the person’s knee. A mound of rocks interrupted the sight.

Jove looked away quickly. “Have you checked for other survivors?”

“I could not move until your mother helped me reach the dust. I will see to the others,” Kainadr said, standing up. He waved at his fireball, and it followed him.

Jove didn’t watch. He couldn’t. Being so close to death for the second or third or even fourth time in the last day had taken too much out of him.

He’d been High Guardsman. He should have helped. Instead, he found himself staring at his hands while his mother sat beside him, her arm around his shoulder.

It was some time before Kainadr returned, shaking his head.

“If anyone survived the initial fall, they succumbed to their injuries in the time since. I am sorry.” He squatted down beside Jove and held out his hand.

“However, around that corner there—” he pointed to where the subtle glow was, off to the right, “—I believe we will find a cluster of holy metal. Many times, the larger ones grow near streams, and if we are not to be rescued in the next few hours, it will be vital we have clean water.”

Neither Les nor Jove offered any argument. For Jove’s part, he didn’t have the energy or the will. His entire body ached, but everything inside felt numb. He could only watch where his feet trod as they made their way toward the other light.

The only sounds were their own footfalls and the echoing drip from somewhere beyond them. It was eerie, something out of nightmares, but he supposed it was better than being in the city above, where the houses were burning and bodies littered the streets.

And he still hadn’t found Clara and Samuel.

At last, they made it to the turn. The light was coming from the other end of the short tunnel, and now that they were closer, Jove could tell it was flickering.

It ended in a cavern not much larger than the foyer of Shackley Manor.

Near its center stood a large crystalline structure; it looked very much like the top of a fir tree, its branches fanning out and growing upward toward the ceiling.

It glowed a soft golden color, though black tentacles thrashed softly within each branch.

“May Toro have mercy on our souls,” Kainadr whispered, coming to a stop.

“I believe that is a Zuprium crystal?” His mother asked, inching forward to inspect it, but Jove caught her elbow.

“There’s something wrong with it.” He had no reason to know that, but a sense of malevolence crawled through his skin when he looked at it. He turned to Kainadr. “Do you know?”

Kainadr seemed very much in shock; Jove wasn’t sure if the man had even blinked again. He just stared, his little fireball guide wavering before flickering out. “This is why Yalvara is angry.”

Jove cocked his head. “I’m sorry. What?”

His mother turned back toward them. “The reason the tunnel collapsed? This crystal caused it?”

Kainadr pointed to the other side of the crystal. “See there? The rockslide? The corruption of the holy metal means Jagamot is returning, which is making Yalvara unstable.”

His mother turned back to the crystal and walked around it. “I do think it feels off, though I haven’t studied many texts concerning Zuprium in years.”

It probably brought up bad memories for her. Uncle Ezekiel had become famous from his work with the metal. “But we should still be able to find water, at least? ”

His question was answered by his mother’s gasp. Jove looked up just in time to see her dive forward; he lunged toward her, but his leg gave out. He cried out and fell hard on his knee. Kainadr ran forward and muttered what sounded like a curse in his language.

Jove managed to hobble back to his feet and painfully inch forward. “What? What is it? What happened?”

Neither his mother nor Kainadr seemed to be injured in any way.

The Zuprium crystal hadn’t done anything or moved or speared anyone with one of those branches.

But his mother was fixated on something regardless; she darted forward again, and when Jove finally made it to the other side of the crystal, it was easy to see why.

Anderson Enright lay sprawled upon the floor, eyes closed.

Jove went cold and nearly collapsed again. His mother bent next to the man, feeling the corner of his jaw, eyes scanning the rest of the man’s body. “He’s got a pulse, and he’s breathing, but both are too faint. I don’t see any injuries, do you?”

None of his limbs bent at an odd angle. Nothing seemed to be bleeding.

Nothing about him suggested he should be comatose at the bottom of some chasm…

except the last time Jove had seen him was when Loffler had been dragging him through the cells, claiming he had the power to make all the electricity go dark.

Jove still had only an elementary grasp on all of it. The power of the Essences wasn’t supposed to exist. The Yalvs had signed the Treaty hundreds of years ago…then had broken it.

And Kase had lied about it upon his return from Tasava with Zeke’s body in tow.

Staying angry at his brother was something he didn’t have the time nor strength for. Though Kase definitely deserved his ire, it could be dealt with later.

Once he knew Kase was still alive for him to be angry at.

As softly as he could without straining his still-healing shoulder, he knelt beside Anderson. Kainadr dug in his pouch and sprinkled dust over the man, whispering in a singsong.

Anderson’s body glowed brighter than the cluster now at Jove’s back. He raised a hand to block the light. It burned his eyes, though not as badly as when he was healed.

Once it faded, he lowered his hand. Anderson seemed to be breathing a little smoother, if he assessed it generously.

Les held Anderson’s wrist again and checked his pulse. “Stronger, but I’m not sure if whatever you did was enough.”

Hesitantly, Kainadr knelt as well and took out a pinch of dust, sprinkling it on Anderson’s face. He sang a little, but instead of the blinding light, the dust rose from Anderson’s skin and formed symbols above his head.

Kainadr inspected each one, tapping his lips in thought. “I am unable to perform more intricate diagnostics, but from what this here is indicating,” he pointed at a symbol that resembled what Jove thought looked like an eye, “I would say that this man is in perfect health.”

He moved his hands a little, and the symbols reconfigured themselves. “However, this here is telling me that he has something internal that is bleeding. And this other one here,” he pointed again to an eye symbol, “directly contradicts that.”

“So you don’t know?” Jove asked flatly. Why did Kainadr seem determined to give the longest possible answer to every question?

“I was named after the greatest warrior of our people and was even given a holy sword, but I was Called to heal after preparing my entire life to fight,” he said, not really answering the question. “My parents were quite distraught.”

Jove vaguely remembered Saldr saying something about Called in that breakfast meeting, but he couldn’t remember specifics. He didn’t need backstory. He just needed to know if the man could help. “What does that have to do with—”

“You should be able to help, you mean,” his mother interrupted, giving him a glare that shut his mouth, “but you can’t?”

“Indeed. Lord Saldr or Healer Jera would be able to perform more complicated diagnostics if we are ever recovered from these dark depths,” Kainadr replied, wiping sweat from his brow.

“However, I will watch him closely until that time comes and endeavor to make sure he doesn’t fall toward the darkness.

His condition seems to have reached an equilibrium, at least.”

Jove didn’t understand half of what the man said, but he could gather enough to understand that Anderson was healed enough that he was no longer in danger. And if that was the case, all Jove really wanted right then was to rest.

His mother left Anderson’s side and inspected the rest of the small cavern, where water slid down the walls and pooled into a narrow cistern-like basin among the rocks.

“We have water, and with a little foraging, we could likely find something edible.” She dusted off her gown.

“If we stay put, our likelihood of being found swiftly goes up quite a bit. We’ll be rescued soon. ”

Jove could appreciate her optimistic outlook, but he had to look at the harsh reality: they’d fallen into a hole during the middle of an attack on the city.

They had water, yes…and a giant corrupted Zuprium crystal that was supposedly causing cave-ins.

If anything, this was where they would probably die. No one would come looking for them.

And Jove wasn’t even sure if he wanted them to try.