Page 23 of Sun Elves of Ardani

“We can send a message to the Mages’ Conclave and the Historians’ Guild in Valtos,” Roshan said. “They can send archaeologists—”

Rhian raised her hand to interrupt. “All Auren-Li artifacts discovered in Ardani belong to Ysura, according to the terms of the treaty. Therefore, we will lead the exploration of this site. No one else is to touch it without my permission. Is that understood?”

Roshan put a hand on his hip, giving her a mildly annoyed look. “Then how would you like to proceed, Commander?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a loud, deep cracking sound. The earth beneath their feet shuddered briefly.

For a moment, none of them moved.

Then there was another crack, and the ground began to shift, slowly but steadily. Neiryn looked up at Kadaki. She looked back, wide-eyed. The two of them were the closest to the edge.

All of them began running away from the edge, but the earth was already slipping out from under them. Rhian was the only one fast enough to escape—as Neiryn fell, he saw her catch the hand of someone at the side of the hole who pulled her to safety.

Soil and stone overtook them. Hard objects pummeled Neiryn, knocking his breath away. Eliyr shouted something. There was a shift of magic in the air, and their fall seemed to grow gentler.

He hit the ground. Hard enough to knock the wind out of him, but not as hard as he should have. Eliyr had cast something to protect them. Dirt showered them, and the earth groaned as rock shifted. Gradually, things quieted again. Coughing in the dust, Neiryn pushed himself up.

He was lying on a bed of white stone and fallen dirt at the bottom of a hole. A very, very large hole. Eliyr and Roshan were on the ground some distance away, Eliyr emitting a string of curses as he shook dust from his hair, and Roshan clutching his head.

Neiryn twisted until he found Kadaki. She was sprawled on her back, grimacing. He rushed to her side, searching her for injuries. “Kadaki?”

She looked up at him, dazed. “Are we… in the ruin?”

Neiryn looked up. In the dark, as his eyes adjusted, he could make out high stone walls, arches, staircases.

There was another massive crack. Both of them looked up in horror as an enormous stone pillar splintered and began to fall toward them.

He ducked over Kadaki to shield her from it, realizing the futility of it but not knowing what else to do. Kadaki flinched. He felt her hand grasping at his vest.

The pillar crashed to the floor beside them. Then the floor under the pillar began to crumble, and the flagstones beneath their feet dropped away.

Chapter 7

This time, he did not remember hitting the ground. But he must have been unconscious only briefly, because when he came to, he could still hear bits of dirt and gravel settling around him. It was completely dark. And he couldn’t breathe.

Pain stabbed through his chest and side. When he tried to fill his lungs, it grew infinitely worse, and when he tried to move, things crackled unnaturally inside him.

He couldn’t breathe.

He flicked a shaking hand, and could produce no more than a brief spark of fire. It lit the room for a fraction of a second, long enough for him to see Kadaki sitting up nearby. In the midst of his panic, he felt a flash of relief. She was alive.

Another soft, magical glow lit the space with pale light. She was healing herself. The light disappeared again, and there was a pause that felt like an eternity. There was a soft scrape of fabric against the ground as she moved. Through the pounding in his ears, he could hear her breathing unsteadily. She was sitting over him. Watching him. Watching him die.

She wasn’t healing him.

Dread washed over him. He knew she hated him, but did she hate him so much that she would let him die? Was that what she wanted?

He flicked his hand again, wringing a pathetic spark of light from the air. He saw her face above him. He reached out and grasped the fabric of her shirt and held on tightly, as if it could keep him from being dragged to his death. “Ka—” He tried to plead with her, and choked on the word.

“Quiet,” she said sharply. “Stay still. Let me concentrate.” Her hands began to glow faintly as she leaned over him. And then the air started to come more freely. Slowly the pain in his ribs dwindled to a mere ache rather than agony.

Too soon, she stopped, sitting back as the glow around her hands died. Neiryn took a breath and winced. It hurt to inhale too deeply.

He concentrated, and this time he was able to conjure a small flame in his hand. They were in a small room somewhere in the ruins, on a bed of debris. The ceiling had caved in above them. Kadaki was looking down at him, her eyes wide. She was covered in dirt, and there was a large scrape on the side of her face.

He took inventory of his body. Everything hurt, but his left arm was the worst. He gasped as bolts of pain shot through him when he tried to move it.

“That’s as much as I can do,” Kadaki said quietly. “If I try to keep going, I’m more likely to damage you further than to fix you.”

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