Page 36 of Sun Elves of Ardani

She hesitated. “I hope Eliyr can do it. Because I don’t think I can, even if I could draw from the obelisk.” She ached with guilt at the look of disappointment on his face.

“I understand,” he said. “It’s not your fault.”

It wasn’t her fault. Of course it wasn’t. It wasn’t her fault that she was so useless, and so helpless, and such a failure.

“Don’t lose hope,” Roshan said.

She just shook her head. She was far too angry to give in to defeat when it came to her magic, no matter how hopeless it seemed. She’d keep trying until she died if she had to.

“Something you don’t want us to hear?” Neiryn called, looking over his shoulder.

The way he looked at them was infuriating. Ysurans all seemed to share the same facial expressions. They always looked like they’d smelled something bad when they looked at Ardanians.

She glared at him, then she remembered what he’d said about wanting to kiss her when she was angry.

Eliyr led them through a crack in the wall that Kadaki and Neiryn had missed in their search. It brought them to another new cavern, and at the other side of that cavern was the caved-in tunnel. It was not as bad as Kadaki had expected. The tunnel was halfway filled with rubble, but it was hardly blocked off. There was plenty of room to climb over the tops of the broken stones and get through.

Eliyr stopped in front of the tunnel, looking disturbed. “The rubble has shifted,” he said quietly.

Roshan was frowning. “He’s right. It was higher, before.”

Fear prickled up Kadaki’s spine. “You think the magic-eater might have escaped?”

“No,” Roshan said, kicking at a bit of stone. “It’sdefinitelyescaped.”

Kadaki listened for the clicking of the magic-eater’s steps. She heard nothing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Neiryn said. “We need to go through.”

“I agree,” Kadaki said. No one volunteered to go first, so she marched to the rubble and began climbing, hoping that the ceiling would wait until after they were through before it fell. Eliyr started through after her, followed by Roshan, then Neiryn.

Kadaki gazed around at the crumbling walls with interest as she climbed. “You used some kind of vibration to demolish the tunnel, Eliyr?”

“Yes…” He sounded suspicious. “How could you tell?”

“I guessed. I didn’t see a point in the wall that looked like it had been struck with blunt force. I assume your approach was more subtle.”

“I found a resonant frequency that allowed me to augment the initial vibration I put through the stone.”

She gave him an impressed glance over her shoulder. “So that you could cause more damage without using more magic! That’s very clever.”

He paused, looking surprised by the compliment. “Thank you,” he said. “Keep moving, please, before the rest of it falls on us.”

At the end of the tunnel, there was light. At first, she feared it was the magic-eater again. But this was something else. Something brighter.

She climbed down at the mouth of the tunnel, brushing her hands on her clothes as she stared at the room in front of them. It was an underground forest. Strange trees dripping with moss and vines filled the cavern, stretching high toward the ceiling, with roots crawling into the stone and through crumbling buildings. Thick lichens and plush mosses covered the ground like grass. It felt damp here, and warmer than the other parts of the ruin. A creek, perhaps sourced from that same canal they’d been following, trickled through the middle of the cavern. Magic was thick in the air, layered over the room like a heavy blanket.

But what caught her attention most, and held it, was the white obelisk in the clearing at the center of the cavern. Magic billowed around it in clouds, glittering and colorful. Power emanated from it. It was a beacon among the trees, drawing all eyes to it. The center of the axis. The conduit.

Eliyr let his flame go out. They didn’t need it here, because the cavern was lit with patches of faintly pulsing blue light.

“What is that light?” Neiryn asked.

Kadaki was looking past the physical world, to the iridescent particles of magic in the air. She recognized the patterns easily, because it was one of the first spells young mages learned to cast. “It’s mage light,” she said. “Naturally occurring.”

“That’s possible?”

“It’s a kind of anomaly, albeit a harmless one. I’ve read descriptions of it, but never seen it for myself.”

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