Page 11 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

Inside lay a long narrow staircase, the steps, walls, and ceiling smooth, carved from the stone Herstind castle sat on.

I didn’t know why the tunnel had been originally built. If the castle was under siege, it was a serious weakness in its defenses, but I’d been told it had been built as a means of escape for women and children — or in Edred’s case, Edred himself — in the event that a siege had turned dire or the main gate had been breached.

Sawyer, still holding the candle went first, his partially swallowed coughs making the flame tremble. His pace was slower than I liked but it was as fast as I knew he could handle without completely losing his breath.

The air was cool, nothing like the cold I’d felt from the mist in my vision, but it reminded me of what I’d seen.

I didn’t know how I’d actually seen it, but I knew in every fiber of my being that it was true… or would have been true if Sawyer had become a member of the Black Guard. What I didn’t know was how I’d seen it in the first place or what it might mean.

I’d had premonitions since I was a child. A sense of dread would overwhelm me and leave me wondering what was going to happen and when. Everyone said I just had a nervous disposition, but then the dread turned into a vague knowing, a storm was coming, the brigands were going to attack a nearby village, the winter’s yearly sweating sickness would be worse than usual.

I’d kept it a secret for fear someone would claim I was fae-touched and send me to the king to be used like the handful of other fae-touched humans discovered in Erellod. And when mother had married Edred, I tried even harder to keep my ability a secret, knowing he wouldn’t hand me over to His Majesty, he’d keep me for himself.

Over the last couple of years, the premonitions had grown stronger and more frequent, and the sense of what and whenhad also grown stronger. But I’d never actuallyseenanything before, and now I couldn’t make myself stop seeing Sawyer’s lifeless eyes staring into nothing, the cold mist swirling around him, and the Shadow Gate towering above him.

I hugged the rucksack tighter as if it would help keep me warm against the cool air. I was going into that mist and going to see that gate in person. I was going to have to lie and pray I could keep lying until Sawyer had left the Five Great Kingdoms and had gotten as far away from any fae ring as possible, and I had no idea if I could actually do that.

CHAPTER 8

Sage

We reachedthe bottom of the stairs and stepped onto ground that was just as smooth as the stairwell, the tunnel ceiling rising high above us. There was nothing natural about this tunnel and I couldn’t even begin to imagine the amount of work necessary to carve the stairs and passage. Unless, of course, a fae had helped. If the rumors of their magic were true, a fae gifted with the magic to manipulate the earth could have molded the stone around us with just a thought.

Sawyer’s breathing was already starting to sound strained, and it was getting harder for him to control his coughing, but he pressed onward. The tunnel ran a fair distance away from Herstind castle, but he knew as well as I did that once Edred realized what we’d done, he’d send riders to the tunnel’s entrance and men down the stairs to stop us. Our only advantage was that the ground between the castle and the entrance was rough and the horses would have to go the long way around to get to it. That and we probably had at least a little bit of time before Edred started searching the keep for either of us.

Except if Sawyer kept going as he was, he wouldn’t make it to Olinon. He’d collapse first.

I grabbed his shirt sleeve, giving it a gentle tug. “Slow down a bit.”

“We have to keep moving,” he insisted, maintaining his pace and making my insides squirm.

Yes. We did.Now now now.We couldn’t get caught. But?—

“If you collapse, we won’t be moving at all. We still have a bit of time before Edred realizes we’re missing.” And I prayed that was the truth. “We can get to the ring in Olinon before he does.”

“You honestly think he won’t follow us through the ring?” he asked, but he did slow his pace a little, filling me with a churning mix of fear that we weren’t moving fast enough and worry that the pace was still too fast for him.

“If we’re lucky, no one will see where we went,” I replied.

He huffed. “I wouldn’t want to bet on that. It’ll be best to go to Gastow then go somewhere else.”

“Do you honestly think Gastow is actually abandoned or the ring still works?”

Last winter a traveling minstrel had stayed at Herstind castle and told us tales about the abandoned mining village in the Gastanovian mountains. The minstrel had made it sound like no one knew why the village had been abandoned, but the best guess was that they’d taken whatever they could from the mountain and had moved on, or the wasting sickness killed most of the villagers and those who survived had left.

“Let’s hope so,” he said. “Once we’re there, we can turn around and go someplace else. Edred might be able to follow us to Gastow but there won’t be anyone around to see where we go after that.”

“And you remember the pattern to connect the ring?” The minstrel had only mentioned it once, and I wasn’t sure how well Sawyer had been listening to him. Quizzical tales and mysteries appealed to him, but not tales of adventure, and the minstrel’s story had been a bit of both.

“Of course I remember the pattern. I remember the pattern to almost every known ring in the Five Great Kingdoms.”

And I had no doubt he did. If it involved something intellectual, he remembered it. If it involved the physical, he was hopeless.

I, on the other hand, had been barely adequate in my studies — at least until Edred had dismissed my tutor and I’d become just another maid. It had always been difficult to sit and listen. I needed to move and always had to fight the call of the outside, even in the height of summer and the depth of winter.

Ahead, hints of light cut through the thick underbrush hiding the tunnel’s mouth, and we paused long enough to listen and look for signs that Edred had beaten us there.

The forest was quiet, or as quiet as it normally got with the gentle wind rustling through the leaves and birds chirping. Sunlight streamed through the thick canopy with great slashes of light and while it was still cooler beneath the trees compared to standing in the middle of the bailey without shade, I could still feel the summer’s heat radiating against my skin in contrast to the tunnel’s cool dampness.

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