Page 225 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
Tonight, we called upon their gods for protection.
Tomorrow, we would delve into the bowels of the crater–and hope we’d come back out whole.
Chapter
Forty-Nine
ALLIE
The sun still hadn’t risen by the time we’d reached the rim.
The cold bit at my knuckles in the darkness, a hissing breeze snaking through the forest behind us.
We left the sleds and wolves at the edge of it, with two warriors guarding them on the promise that if we didn’t return within one hour, they would rush back to the city and warn the others.
“Do you think it’s wise to alarm them now?” I asked Ryker as we let the wolves loose–well, he let them loose, I watched, grasping the palaver book to my chest as if I could fuse it with my own skin. “The passage could be completely safe.”
“Better to warn them and have them be prepared than ignorant. If it’s truly safe, I will walk out, swallow my pride, and say I was too cautious.” His frown, which had been deepening the closer we got the rim, creased even more. “I trust my warriors with my life. They do not fear death, only senseless defeat. I intend to give them the best chance to win.”
“I passed through the tunnel mere weeks ago–in the back of a honey carriage,” I insisted. “The driver didn’t even react. He kept trying to calm his horse down.”
“He is the only man I envy in this world,” he said. One of the wolves nuzzled his hand and got scratches behind his ear and a rare Ryker smile. “I asked him once how he did it. He told me the voices sing lullabies to him, he enjoys it. Truly a pristine heart. Even when he lived in Solkar’s Reach, he was the happiest person I knew.”
“Why did he leave, then?”
“He said his bones hurt too much at night because of the cold. I suspect he couldn’t live in the same house after he lost his wife in the plague.”
Another life which could have been saved if the Northern Clans hadn’t turned their backs on Solkar’s Reach.
“What do you hear?” I ventured to ask, almost fearing the answer.
“Awful things.” Ryker’s jaw tightened. Even the wolf had sensed the shift in him, trotting away to join its pack underneath the trees. “Usually.”
Alarm bells rang in my ears. “Usually?”
“That’s the problem.” His eyes sparked as he turned them toward the rim. “I don’t hear anything now.”
My breathing tightened. Fewer words had troubled me more. “Maybe we’re too far away.”
“Perhaps,” he said, not sounding the least bit convinced. “Once we’re inside, if you see or hear anything amiss, you let me know instantly.”
“How will I know when something isn’t right? I don’t know how it is when it’s right.”
“You’ll feel it.” He placed a warm hand on my shoulder, which tried to be reassuring, but a knot had settled between my shoulder blades since the moment I’d risen today. The memoriesof the passage hissed in my ear and made my knees weak–but they wouldn’t stop me. “Only the two of us can see the veins, the rest follow on trust alone. We need to pay attention and guide them.”
I nodded like I’d seen the sentinels do when I gave them a command. He knew this realm better than I ever could. Today, I too would follow his lead.
“Ready?” he asked.
“I just need to check it one last time.” I opened the palaver for the twenty-third time this morning, heart tight as if waiting for impact, but still filled with foolish hope. Nothing. Again. My heart plummeted near my ankles.
I couldn’t keep lying to myself.
Something was wrong.
I’d tried screaming and pleading at the book, but, still, Dax hadn’t answered. He’d either left his own palaver closed or…
I closed my eyes.
