Page 15 of Witchlight
Aeduan thrust both chains into a pocket on his breeches, and with hasty efficiency, he finished dressing. Already, his magic was peaking, searching, tracking. The Earth Well had left its mark inside his witchery; he would have no trouble tracing which way these bloods had gone.
After checking Surefoot possessed what she needed—a warm spot to sleep and a bucket of water—he gave her a scratch at the ears. Pressed his forehead to hers. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised. Then Aeduan set off, tracking the smells like the Bloodwitch he was, no matter what element he might be bound to.
EIGHT
The only light in the mountain room came from the hungry ice. It glowed its vicious blue, radiating in threatening waves—but not entering the room where Vivia, Cam, and Vaness had fled.
How long this room ran, Vivia couldn’t sense. Shadows laid claim so quickly beyond the door. She could see the room was tall, like the Battle Room in the Lovats palace… yet also oppressive. Claustrophobic. Closing in like a tomb.
She yanked her pack in front of her, and in seconds, she had their lone torch withdrawn. “Ignite,” she whispered.
Flames whooshed before her. So bright, so warm. And so revealing. On her left was Vaness, austere and silent. She looked different without her shackles—not weak, but certainly exposed. As for Cam, he was spinning. Muttering. Stalking two steps forward, then three steps back.
“I’m sorry.” He met Vivia’s gaze through the flames. “I’m so sorry. Empress Vaness was right: we should’ve never come here, but I’ll get us out. I promise.”
Vivia lifted a trembling hand to silence him. Her lungs hurt. Her face too, where ice had clawed. “You were not the one who made the decision to come here, Cam. And there is no use in regrets. All we can do is keep moving.”
“To where?” Vaness asked, her tone hissing and fanged. “I see no doors.”
“No, thereisone,” Cam inserted quickly. “I remember this room—Ryber and I came right through it. It’s called the Past, and there was a broken blade and a… a broken mirror on an altar.” He pointed to the room’s center.
Vivia and Vaness both squinted—but if there was an altar there, Vivia couldn’t see it with only this one torch for light. By the Hagfishes,whydid she bring only one torch? What other vital items did her foolish self leave behind?
She rubbed at her forehead.Stop. Breathe.Now was not the time for storm clouds to fill her chest.
“If we go past the altar…” Cam hurried forward three steps. “We’ll reach a door into a long tunnel that’ll eventually hit some stairs, and then… well, it’s a long walk, but it does get to the Convent.”
“And how,” the Empress pushed, “does the Convent help us, Cam? It’s in the middle of the Sirmayan Mountains, is it not?”
“Enough,” Vivia bit out. Her voice was weaker than she wanted, because her lungs were weaker. This wasn’t Cam’s fault—none of this was Cam’s fault and she would not let the Empress take such a tone with him.She,Vivia, had chosen to come here, so it wasshe,Vivia, who should be the target of Vaness’s rage.
“No regrets,” she repeated. “We keep moving. Lead the way, please, Cam.” Vivia lifted one leg to shuffle onward.
Until Vaness lashed her words directly at Vivia: “I refuse to move.”
“What?”
Vivia rounded the torch at her. Flames cast crude shapes on the Empress. On Cam. And on the walls, where carvings looked as if they scuttled and seethed.
“I refuse to move,” Vaness repeated, “unless I know that forward is the safest way out of here.”
“Well, we can’t go backward.” Vivia flung a hand at the ice. “It’s sealed off and certainlynotsafe.”
“We have supplies. We can wait for the ice to move again.”
“Unless it never does. Then what? Do you expect us to wait here for the rest of time? Be reasonable, Empress.”
“Iwasreasonable.” Her nostrils flared. “And you did not listen. Now here we are, in a dark, cursed room in a dark, cursed mountain with only one path forward that will probably lead to more ice for all we know.”
“Majesties,” Cam mumbled. Neither woman heard him.
“Is this because you lost your iron?” Vivia demanded. “Is that why you’re upset? Noden’s breath, here. Take my cutlass.” She unsheathed her blade.
“That is steel,” Vaness clipped out. “Not iron. It takes time for me to separate the iron from the charcoal and manipulate what I need. You know that I only do that for the most important—”
“Majesties,” Cam repeated.
“Take the cutlass anyway.” Vivia shoved it toward Vaness. “Then at least you’re armed. Or would you rather carry the torch? What would make you move from this room toward the other doorway—”
