Chapter 44 - Cammon
Cammon
XLIV
One last puzzle.
The words echoed in my chest like a second heartbeat. A painful, heavy thud that rattled my ribs and made each breath a struggle.
No longer did weeks stretch out in front of us. No longer days.
By the time we made camp for the last time tonight, we would have the amulet in our possession. Tomorrow, we would board the ship and sail back to the city.
Glory’s fears remained a constant guest on my taste buds despite my words of encouragement, but I didn’t share them. Although I also wondered what we would find under that tree, I knew in my gut we wouldn’t fail.
But what kind of celebration would it be once we succeeded?
That question stayed with me as we rounded another hill, following the directions on the map.
I thought of my life the way it had been barely a month ago.
Free, loose, focused only on two goals: gathering wealth and ruining my traitorous siblings.
The day Glory had walked into my office with Evaniel’s letter, I’d had no idea how much that was about to change.
She’d offered me a chance to do my job, and the king had offered me everything I wanted in compensation.
The only downside to the mission had been the company.
Now…
Now nothing mattered except the company.
I wondered how I would have felt about everything if the mutts weren’t tracking us, if the only thing I had to worry about right now was helping Glory find the amulet. Would I have been willing to let go of my revenge and shift my energy to something—someone—else?
It was a shame we’d never find out. I couldn’t turn my back on my hunters if they were coming after me. It was one thing for them to have set me up in the eyes of our father, but it was a whole other battle when they came into my territory to finish what they’d started.
For anyone to be out here following us meant they had to have heard about the deal with Evaniel, pointing to a spy in the king’s court. Not my problem. Or it wouldn’t be after I crushed them. Ideally before they caused us any more trouble.
Signs of the mutts’ presence faded, and I hoped that meant Tersey’s directions had taken us off their expected course. If we could claw back a little more time, a little more space, we could escape their pursuit and I would have a chance to make plans of my own.
I allowed Glory to lead us while I kept watch on our surroundings, and sooner than I’d prepared for, we drew to a stop in front of a moss-drenched ruin.
I might have ignored the place as insignificant if it weren’t for the pouring water carved into the collapsed columns of the archway. Just as Tersey had drawn on his map.
Although we knew we’d arrived, neither of us took the next step.
“Think it’s safe?” Glory asked, peering through the crumbled stone to the interior of what looked like an old temple.
I set a foot on the stair, and when it held my weight, I shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
The ruin radiated a sense of peace, with the centre of the structure open to the sky, bathing the area in sunlight. Natural growth covered the fallen stone, and birds and other animals had made their nests among the clutter.
“What do you think this place was a hundred years ago?” I wondered aloud. “I can almost picture Tersey bungling his way through a religious ceremony to drop the amulet at the base of this tree.”
Glory peered down what might have been an old hallway, the roof still intact and the area shrouded in shadow.
“I haven’t the faintest. He doesn’t make any mention of it in his journal.
Nothing about the amulet’s final resting place, in fact.
I’ve always found that odd. It’s like he was so invested in the first half of his plan, but when he reached the end, something changed for him.
It became less of a game, maybe? I thought he just got lazy with his notes, but after the unfinished instructions at the last signpost and his choice of this temple to leave the amulet, I wonder if it was something bigger than that. Like he lost interest.”
“Lost heart.”
Glory met my eye. “Like he realized he wouldn’t use this amulet again and, in the end, didn’t care if anyone else found it. Maybe because it sank in that the reason he’d been prolonging his life was no longer around.”
I was beginning to understand how that might change a person.
With every step we took towards the centre of what had to have been a massive building, I inhaled the rich scents of decayed leaves and loam.
Of mossy stone and new growth and damp earth.
It tickled my senses, made my mouth water, and I pulled Glory closer to my side, wanting to share this moment with her.
We took our time. Not only because the energy in this ruin seemed to discourage any kind of rushed movement, but because we both knew what we were walking towards: an ending.
The king’s betrothed would be saved and Golthwaine would avoid a war, which would be a triumph, but for the people making that future possible, everything was coming to a close.
Unfortunate that we couldn’t afford to dawdle.
We climbed a low set of stairs towards the centre of the ruin, and both of us ground to a halt as we stared at the vast space in front of us.
It was clear by the design that there had never been a roof here, collapsed or otherwise.
This room had been built to stay open to the sky, with the towering red oak in the middle of it.
Its thick roots stretched out in all directions, some of them exposed and driving into the stone, the rest undoubtedly dug so deep into the earth that the entire building must be sitting over the base of it.
But the tree itself…
Glory released a heavy breath and, with trembling fingers, repinned the hair that had tumbled from her loose bun. I tasted her nervousness, and for the first time since we’d found that last clue, I joined in her uncertainty.
The tree had been destroyed. By the charred branches, I suspected a storm had come through at some point in the past hundred years and split it in two, leaving heavy bark and half the trunk across the ground.
Had the amulet been destroyed along with the tree? Had it been buried under that immovable mass?
I squeezed Glory’s shoulder and started a tour around the perimeter of the room, searching for any area that might have lent itself to treasure being buried beneath it.
For Glory’s sake—and my own—I hoped the Fates had finished making us their entertainment and the fallen tree hadn’t blocked our victory.
Glory was still standing where she’d stopped, her lips parted, despair written into every line of her face. Although she said nothing, pain emanated from her pores as all her hopes and dreams washed away at the sight of this mess, and it steeled me against my brief bout of hopelessness.
We would not fail here. I didn’t care if I had to tear this whole fucking tree up from the roots, we would find the amulet and get to the ship.
Pulling from my years of experience, I took a second walk around the room, stepping carefully over the fallen branches and split wood.
All my hunting, all my exploring had taught me to look for the subtle signs of unnatural changes.
Trees made it easy. So much easier than shifting sand dunes or eroding coastlines.
There was a solidness to them that meant that, even a hundred years later, Tersey’s interference would still be detectable.
On my fourth loop around, I found it. A perfect spot for someone to dig and expect whatever they buried not to be found.
The way the roots curved, creating a wooden embrace around the earth, called to me like a beacon.
It was half under the fallen tree, but even with the branches in the way, I was able to dig the toe of my boot into the dirt.
When I wasn’t immediately stopped by more roots, my hopes rose.
“Come and help me.”
Glory blinked out of her dazed stare and met my eye. “With what?”
I grinned and pulled my shirt over my head. “Digging.”
I snapped two large sticks off the fallen branch, handed one to Glory, and set to work.
Glory dropped to her knees and tore at the earth.
We worked together as the sun shifted overhead, veering towards the western horizon.
The shadows darkened, made visibility difficult, but we didn’t stop.
When Glory’s branch snapped, she reached for a palm-sized rock and kept digging.
Four feet, five, six. Blood joined the dirt as we split our skin and fingernails to clear the area.
The two of us were crouched inside the hole by the time my branch knocked against something hidden under the earth.
Glory sucked in a breath and held it, and I tasted her trepidation. I kept my own hopes to a tempered simmer. It could be a root or a rock or any other number of things buried down there. We wouldn’t know until we brought it up.
I sat back on my heels and let Glory do the honours as she cleared the top of whatever we’d hit.
Definitely something wooden. And by the goosebumps that rose over Glory’s arms, I guessed something magical.
It would have to be if it had stayed intact for any length of time.
Glory dug around the sides of it, searching for the edges, until she finally brushed away enough earth to reveal a small box.
At three hand-spans long and two wide, it was smaller than my usual prizes, but more than large enough for an enchanted amulet.
Etched into the top of the mahogany lid were the initials FT, which I could only assume were Tersey’s.
Beneath it was an inscription written in tiny print.
“It’s written in Old Golthic,” Glory said. “‘Love lives forever.’ This is it.”
Tears rolled over her dirt-stained cheeks, and her bottom lip trembled.
She let out a shaky breath and sat back on her heels, giving me space to wrench the box out of the earth.
Except it wouldn’t move. I put all my strength into tearing it from where Tersey had anchored it, but the damned thing held fast. I dug deeper and discovered that the bottom half of the box was wrapped in stone.
The bastard had locked it into the foundation of the ruin.
“Can we open it as is?” I asked, and shuffled to the side to give Glory better access.
She bent forward and silently read the final clue scrawled across the front.
It was a single line, the words written in a language I didn’t understand, but of course Glory had no issue translating it.
Of course the woman who’d led us more than halfway across the country had no trouble interpreting and acting on the mad mage’s final steps. A wry smile twisted her mouth.
“It needs magic.” More tears dripped off her chin. “I can’t believe we made it all the way here just to have my uselessness as a mage stand in our way.”
I snatched her hand before she could dry her cheeks.
“I never want to hear that word out of your mouth again. You are not useless, and you are not quitting. I don’t give a fuck if you need to unleash the hells to open this box, you do whatever it takes to see this through.
Not for Brynna, not for Evaniel, but for you. ”
She blinked up at me, her hazel eyes bright and her emotions tangled. She sniffled. “Well, maybe it won’t need that much.”
Still drowning in defeat that no words from me would dispel, she closed her eyes, deepened her breathing, and lay her hand on the lock at the front of the box.
The hair on her arms rose and a sharp breeze cooled the sweat on the back of my neck.
Overhead, the sky darkened, and I watched the furrow form between Glory’s eyebrows as she struggled to call her magic without pulling too much.
Her neck grew taut, her fingers shook, and all around us, dirt and pebbles clattered down the sides of our hole with the rattling earth.
The lock clicked. Glory froze and squinted one eye open before allowing the other to follow. The ground settled, the sky lightened, and I heaved a breath of relief that we weren’t about to be buried or drowned in mud with our prize.
With shaking hands, she opened the lid, and inside lay the amulet. A large, ugly, diamond-shaped hunk of gold with three gems—two sapphires on the sides and a ruby in the middle—pressed into the centre. It hung from a heavy gold chain, the links strong and untouched by age.
A sob escaped her as she pulled the amulet out and draped it over her head for safe keeping.
I grabbed her and bundled her to my chest. It didn’t matter that we were covered in sweat and dirt and blood.
My pride for her overshadowed everything else.
I dropped my bent knee to join the other in the dirt and pressed her to me so tightly our bodies moulded together.
She straddled my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck, squeezing until I struggled to draw breath.
I wished she’d hold me even tighter. I didn’t care about the pain.
I didn’t care about being a fucking prince.
The revelation was enough to hit me over the head with the branch I’d spent half the day digging with.
The title meant as much to me as any other treasure I’d dug up over the past ten years.
It had been something to strive for. Something to chase.
I didn’t want to rule over a bunch of demons in a land that had rejected me.
Clearing my name, proving my innocence—it would be satisfying, but it wouldn’t give me anything I didn’t already have.
I buried my face in Glory’s neck, inhaling her scent, devouring the waves of joy and excitement that had replaced her fear, pointedly ignoring the undercurrents of sorrow that accompanied them.
There was no reason for sorrow. If I was lucky enough that she wanted me to stay, I would stay.
She could have her library, I would keep on finding treasure, and we would find a way to make it work.
“Cammon?” she murmured in my ear, her voice wet with tears.
“Hmm?”
“Can we go clean up before I become one with this tree?”
I laughed and tightened my grip around her. We didn’t have enough space in this pit for me to spread my wings, but I anchored her arms around my neck and climbed us out, back into the fading light of our final day.