Chapter 18 #2
I search for about ten minutes until my lungs start to ache.
I know soon I’ll have to return to the surface for more air, but I’m not ready to give up yet.
My fingers dig into the mud, sometimes scraping against rough rock, and then—just as I’m about to give up and swim for the surface—I feel a large, smooth expanse of stone.
I push my palms outward, trying to gauge the size, but my body’s protesting too much now.
“Leon! Leon, where in the gloam are you? Don’t hurt yourself, you idiot.”
Ana’s voice finds me, even down here. She can obviously sense my physical pain through the mooring. She’s right, of course, and her message is the nudge I need. As my head starts to pound, I reluctantly place my feet against the lakebed and push away, sending myself shooting up into the light.
I break the surface with a gasp, the sunshine blinding me as I wipe water from my eyes.
“You actually listened to me,” Ana calls from the side of the lake. “It’s a miracle.” I can feel the relief emanating from her as I swim toward the edge where Phaia and Stratton are also getting air.
“Is Hyllus alright?” Tira asks, staring with concern across the lake surface.
“Oh yes,” Stratton smirks.
A few minutes later, Hyllus breaches the water and swims toward us.
“Nothing on the south side of the lake,” he says, sounding as if he’s just gotten back from a stroll.
“You must’ve been under there for over twenty minutes!” Tira says, impressed.
“Big lungs.” He smiles humbly.
Now we’re all back, I tell them what I found.
“I think it’s there, under the waterfall. I discovered a stretch of stones wider than my arms’ width, much smoother than the rest of the lakebed, like someone moved the stones from somewhere else.”
“So what do we do next?” Ana asks. “Can Phaia break them apart to see if they’re sealing something up?”
“I could,” Phaia says. “But then the cave would fill with water, if it hasn’t been submerged already. And once we’re down there, we’ll need light, or we won’t be able to find anything.”
Ana straightens up. “Well, I can help with that.”
“Not without going underwater too,” I point out. I pull myself onto the shore, shaking off some of the droplets from my hair before striding around the side of the lake toward the waterfall.
“Where are you going?” Stratton asks.
“I know roughly where those stones are embedded into the side of this lake,” I call back. “So if there is a cave behind them, I’m not diving to reach it.” I throw a smile over my shoulder, pleased with my idea. “I’m going to dig for it.”
It takes a few minutes to climb over to the other side of the waterfall, and I get soaked again in the process, but then I’m on the stretch of bank which I calculate is more or less above those stones.
“Tell them all to stay there,” I warn Ana across the mooring. “I don’t want anyone accidentally falling in.”
I crouch down to one knee as I place my hand against the earth. Contact isn’t essential for my geostri magic to work, but it does help me sense the ground I’m trying to split to feel out its layers and consistency.
The earth starts to rumble beneath my fingers. I can’t drain the whole lake, that’s beyond even me, but I don’t think this cave is so deep that I can’t crack the top off it like splitting the shell off a boiled egg.
A fissure opens up in front of me, beautifully deep, and I flood it with my magic.
My power swirls downward, shoving the earth aside until it’s piling up either side of me in huge, dense mounds.
The smell of fresh earth always clears my mind, and I inhale it into my lungs as the crack in front of me widens, stretching down into the darkness.
Eventually, when I’m about twenty feet deep, I hit bedrock.
I expected this, of course, and am about to call Phaia over when something else tugs at my senses.
I frown, climbing down into the hole, using my magic to shift little handholds into the earth.
When I drop down the last few feet onto the exposed rock, I bend and place my hand flat against the stone.
It’s there, like the whiff of a scent on the breeze, or a snatch of melody. A low resonance of power seeping through the rock. I recognize it, having felt a similar magic when the scythe was cleaving my body from my soul.
It’s Ethira’s power.
“It’s here!” I shout, unable to contain my excitement.
The others scramble over to my side of the lake as I climb back out of the crevice. I’m damp and mud-covered, but I’m grinning like a fool. We can actually do this.
“It’s down there?” Tira asks as she carefully peers over the edge of the hole. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Me either, but maybe the captain’s more sensitive to it after his run-in with the scythe,” Phaia suggests.
“Can you split it open?” I ask the silver-haired soldier. The cave is carved into the bedrock—it’s solid stone, and my geostri magic only works on earth.
She squints down at the rock face. “As long as there’s a groove or crack to work with, then yes.”
It takes a few trips climbing down and back out of the hole, finding a suitable imperfection in the bedrock and then a collection of stones for Phaia to expand.
The bedrock is thick, and it takes over an hour for her to pry the rock open one painstaking inch at a time, until the surface is littered with cracks and debris.
“One last push,” Stratton says to an exhausted Phaia. He lays a hand on her shoulder. “We’re nearly there.”
She nods, shoving her hair back from her face. Reaching out weary arms, she directs her magic once more down toward the rock. There’s a groan, like a huge beast awakening from under the earth, and then the rock collapses, crumbling down into a cavity beneath it—a cave.
“Ana,” I call over the sound of the falling rock.
“On it!” she shouts, and the largest pieces of rock start to rise up out of the hole, away from the opening. We discussed this ahead of time. There’s no use opening the cave just to bury it in rockfall again. But thanks to Ana’s orbital powers, most of the debris sails upward and out of the way.
Despite the long road to get here, I can tell the anticipation is keeping us all going.
Stratton quickly lights a lamp from his pack, and Hyllus ties it to a rope and lowers it down into the darkness.
The air down below is thick with dust, but we can still see the rough shape of a cavern through the gloom.
“I’ll go,” I say, and no one—not even Ana—argues. They know I have to be the one to do this. My father was the last person in that cave fifteen years ago. It’s only right that I be the one now to follow in his footsteps.
My boots hit the stone floor with a thud. The sound echoes around the cave as I pick up the lantern to get a better look at it.
It’s not big, maybe ten feet long and wide.
The walls are damp, shining with water droplets condensed on the craggy surface.
There are even a few small puddles below my feet, reminding me of the lake just outside the cavern.
I lift the lamp higher, and the golden glow illuminates the far end, where a patchwork of smooth boulders are wedged tight enough to form an impenetrable wall.
That must be what I felt on the other side—the stones my father used to seal this cave off.
And seated in front of it is a pyramid of smaller stones, forming a small cairn. There’s something on top of it.
I move cautiously along the cave floor, wondering if my father left any surprises or magical traps. But there’s nothing. It seems he believed the remote location and obscure hiding spot would be protection enough.
When I get close, I see the thing sitting on top of the cairn is a metal box. I immediately recognize the Claerwyn crest, and despite myself, I smile.
“Hello, Father,” I murmur, my voice doubling in the cave’s echo, making me feel for just a moment like someone else is here beside me.
I pick up the box and flip the hinged lid open. The wave of familiar magic hits me with full force as I draw out a metal disc attached to a worn leather strap. The seal is engraved with a scythe, fixed with a metal loop on one side so that the user can press it into wax.
I clasp the object between my fingers. This seal was held by a god once, long ago, but more importantly, it was held by my father. He wanted to make sure the seal wouldn’t be used to bring war and suffering to Tiearland, and now it’s my job to do the same.
I won’t let him down.