Page 106 of Realm of Thieves

Kirney stares down at me while Andor helps me to my feet. “So suen really doesn’t work on you,” he muses, noticing my weakness.

I can’t help but glare at him. At this point it’s a touchy subject. “Suen doesn’t give strength to everyone,” I whisper harshly. “Maybe I got one of the hundreds of other magic traits that don’t involve scaling a cliff with ease.”

“Besides, she can still beat you up without it,” Andor says, giving me a proud glance.

We stand by the edge, waiting as the rest of our crew scales the cliff, while Andor keeps scanning the horizon with his enhanced eyesight to make sure we’re not being watched. Then when everyone else is up, we hurry as a group along a scrubby path of sagebrush and pricklepalms, doing our best not to kick up the dust. The sun is now starting to rise over the low eastern mountains, and soon all of us will be easy to spot.

“Time to split up,” I tell them, pointing at the sandy stone path that gradually gets wider as it fades over the mesas and plateaus. “This will eventually turn into the northern road. Follow it east and as soon as you see the cover of those rocks over there, keep to them as much as possible. You should be camouflaged.”

Everyone is dressed similarly to how they were when we trekked through the dunes to the Dark City, except here the fabrics are in shades of tan and clay to match the surroundings. Once my group gets to the spring we’ll switch out for our black armor underneath to keep us incognito.

Vidar, Raine, and Belfaust head down the sandy path, their swords hidden under their beige flowing robes. I feel a hit of trepidation in my chest, hoping it goes smoothly for them. The Black Guard stationed at the east gate has always been a small band since there isn’t anything beyond that gate except rockdeer and the convent, but that doesn’t mean the three of them will have an easy fight taking the guard down. The only thing they truly have going for them is the element of surprise and the fact that the Black Guard doesn’t ingest suen, nor does anyone else in the land.

“Come on, we don’t want to be caught in the open,” Andor says, and Kirney and I follow him, dodging to the left among cacti and rocky outcrops. I don’t know exactly where the spring begins since I’d never made it to this area, so we’re going by all the different maps Andor has collected. But luckily we have more cover from the chasms in the sand and various rock formations, and just as the sun gets too hot, Kirney stops and motions with his head.

I don’t hear anything but it’s apparent that Andor and Kirney do because they pick up the pace, and it’s not long before the chasms in the rock start spreading wider, wide enough for a person to fit through.

“In there,” Andor says. “It must be the spring. I can hear the running water.”

He drops to the ground and sticks his head over the side, peering down into the cavern. “There’s water all right. This must be it. There’s maybe ten feet between us and the water and it doesn’t look very deep.” He glances up at us, wincing at the sun. “I’ll go and report back.”

“We’re all going in there,” I tell him, even though it’s really the last thing I want to do. Out of the whole plan I think navigating an underground spring and cave system is my least favorite. I’m all right with caverns but once you add water to the mix, that’s when I get nervous.

Andor slips down into the chasm feetfirst, his fingers holding on to the edge of the ground for a moment.

“It might be a farther drop than I thought,” he says before he lets go. There’s a moment of silence before a big splash.

“Andor!” I yell as Kirney and I drop to our knees and peer down the hole. “Are you okay?

I hear another splash, then him spitting out water and gasping for air. “Fucking deeper than I thought! Water is nice, though, cold. Current is strong enough to take up the brunt of the work.” A pause,more splashing. I see a glimpse of him passing underneath as the sun hits his wet hair. “There might be places down the way to walk or crawl alongside the stream but I think we’ll be swimming for most of it.”

I exchange a glance with Kirney. “Well, it beats walking in the sun,” he says just before he slips in through the crack and drops into the water below.

I take in a deep breath, bringing my legs over the side and lowering myself down, my muscles shaking from all the exertion of earlier, so much so that they give out and I fall the rest of the way.

My yelp echoes a second before I hit the water, my robes trying to pull me under. I quickly kick to the surface, taking in air while trying to get the robes off me. Andor and Kirney pull at them until I’m free and we let them carry on downstream.

“You all right?” Andor asks, treading water beside me. The current is already pushing us along at a gentle pace.

“I’m fine,” I say. “Just lost my upper-body strength for a moment.”

He gives me a sympathetic look. “I’m not sure if you remember what that’s like,” I add.

He grins. “Sorry, I don’t.”

Then he turns around and starts swimming.

We spend the next several hours floating in the spring water and letting the current usher us toward the convent. The longer we swim, the less the rock ceiling opens to the sky, and the darker it gets. If it weren’t for Andor having the foresight to have Steiner create a light cube out of crushed glowferns, we wouldn’t be able to see anything. Somehow the light makes it even worse, the water blacker in contrast, the walls of the cavern stretching into oblivion.

Suddenly the sound of a splash comes from behind us. I gasp and the three of us whirl around to stare into the darkness.

“What was that?” whispers Kirney.

“Could someone be following us?” Andor asks me, the whites of his eyes glinting blue. “Are there people that could live down here?”

I shake my head, dread creeping up my spine. “Not people…”

Another splash, closer now, and in the dim glow I see the shiny length of scaled skin before it slithers beneath the black water.

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