Page 49 of Virelai's Hoard
She turned to him when he didn’t reply. The gunner’s feet were stuck to the forest floor, just beyond the edge of the stone pavement, his arms crossed and a stubborn frown carved on his face. He settled his one eye on her, not moving from where he stood.
Sable clamped her jaws around a sigh, praying for patience. “Do you know what these carvings are?”
His face contorted as if he’d just eaten something sour. “How should I know? Do I seem like a scholar to you?”
“No, you seem like a seasoned pirate who might’ve come across all sorts of strange things during his years on the sea,” she retorted, patience wearing thinner. “At least take a look.”
He flung an arm around them. “Does this seem like the sea to you?” he harrumphed. “If you wanted to listen to me, wewouldn’t be here in the first place! We need to turn back. The whole place is cursed. That’s what the blasted symbols say.”
Sable swallowed a growl, her fingers flexing around the machete at her hip. What a petulantchild. She turned her gaze to Thorian. He and Venn circled the walls, knives out and scraping the moss from the symbols, as if either could read them any more than she could. Or maybe one of them did?
“Thorian?” she asked.
He glanced back at her as he took another step. His foot sankwiththe floor.
Instead of a reply, a faintclickresounded. A pressure plate? Sable’s body went taut.
For a moment, no one breathed. Then Venn shouted, “Watch out!”
The floor opened up beneath Thorian, and the ground swallowed him up.
“Thorian!” Sable called, rushing after him.
She skidded to a stop at the edge of the sinkhole. The others joined her. The darkness beneath was impenetrable.
“Thorian! Are you-”
A pained grunt echoed up to them. Sable exhaled with relief. He wasalive.
“My fucking shoulder,” he snarled from below. “If I ever catch that Ryan asshole again, I’m gonna snap his fucking neck. One of you’s gotta come down here and set it for me. I can’t make the climb like this.”
Ignatius scoffed. “I say we throw him a rope and let him figure it out. He might make it by first sunfall.”
Sable rolled her eyes. For all of his posturing, he now stood beside them, fear of the stone forgotten. A worried frown replaced the stubborn one from before. They wouldn’t leave one of their own behind. Not even Thorian.
“Get the torches out,” she told Ignatius. Then she unshouldered her backpack, taking the ropes out and tossing them to Venn. “Braid these, and find something solid to tie them to. The two of us are gonna climb down–”
“Like hell you’re leaving mehere,” Ignatius groused as he lit the torches.
“Fine,” Sable snapped. They didn’t have time for arguing. It was already mid-afternoon. Aelion would go down soon, and they weren’t any closer to any fucking clue. “Thethreeof us are gonna climb down. The rest of you will keep watch.”
When there were no further complaints, they all searched for a solid post to tie the braided rope to.
“Don’t mind me down here. Take your fucking time,” Thorian’s voice echoed from below. It would’ve been sarcastic, were it not for the high-pitched strain in it.
“Quit your whining, pup. We’re getting there,” Ignatius said into the sinkhole.
Venn snickered as he tied the rope to a post, and Sable’s lips twitched at Thorian being called apup.
“I wanna see if you still think that’s funny once you’re down here in arm’s reach.”
Venn visibly paled.
They threw the rope into the darkness.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“Quit bullying the crew, Thorian,” Sable said. She grabbed a torch from Ignatius and tried to peer into the darkness, to no avail. “Was it a long drop? Anything broken? Can you see the rope?”
