Chapter 25 #2
Xavier didn’t need further urging to push forward even harder.
The refinement site itself finally came into view just around the time the sensation in Xavier’s middle suddenly hardened into something much more substantial.
It was less a rope and more a silken strand, but it was definitely pulling him onward.
He let out a jubilant cry, only to pull up in irritation. The entrance to the site was barred, thanks to the now-completed fence. The group was forced to stop, and several members of the team dismounted, relieved to be out of the saddle.
Xavier stayed aloft. His horse was prancing, but he kept it under control with an iron hand on the reins.
Zuzu swooped back and forth over him, sensing his agitation.
Her mewls of annoyance were an excellent expression of his feelings.
The tug in his middle wanted him to charge straight through into the site.
“Hello there!” Xavier called imperatively.
It felt like an age, but finally someone appeared at the locked gate. With relief, Xavier realized that it wasn’t the site manager, who may still harbor some resentment over the prince’s suspicions.
No, it was one of their own people. Blair. The liaison had been stationed at the refinement site for a few days.
“Your Highness!” Blair’s surprise was evident, but Xavier didn’t have patience for explanations.
“Let us in, Blair,” he said. “We need to search the site.”
“Search the site?” Blair repeated blankly. “For what?”
“Just let us in,” Xavier commanded.
“I don’t have the key,” Blair said apologetically. “Let me speak to the site manager. He wasn’t expecting you, but I’m sure he’ll be happy for you to rest in his office while—”
“No one’s resting,” Xavier interrupted. Some of his team wilted visibly at the pronouncement. “Get the key and let us in now.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” Still Blair didn’t move.
“I’ll be glad to. It’s just…there’s some tension from the manager.
He won’t take well to you initiating a search without his approval.
It might be worth speaking with him first, just to avoid any incidents.
If I can just tell him what you’re hoping to find in this search—”
“I won’t ask you again, Blair.”
The change in the prince’s tone had its effect. Blair bowed quickly and turned away to do Xavier’s bidding. However, his progress across the site was far slower than Xavier needed it to be.
The pressure in his chest was all-consuming in its demand. It wouldn’t let him rest. He could barely think straight now he was sitting still. It wanted him to be moving.
“I don’t have time to wait for him,” Xavier told the captain.
“Stay here with those most needing rest, and start a search as soon as he lets you in. I’m going to follow this tug and see exactly where it’s leading me.
I’ll take…” He studied the group, naming everyone who was still sitting ramrod straight in the saddle.
“And Zuzu,” he added as an afterthought.
The captain cast a quick glance over the half-dozen guards Xavier had selected, then gave a curt nod.
Xavier urged his horse around the edge of the camp, his guards hastening to follow.
Zuzu flew just above him, a chittering sound indicating her presence.
The terrain was rough in the stretch immediately to the left of the gate, and the group was forced to angle away from the wall.
The linking enchantment didn’t like that, but Xavier wasn’t discouraged.
There could be no doubt now that it was working.
“What’s that?”
The sudden question from one of the guards had Xavier’s head swinging to the side, searching the expanse of desert where the man was pointing.
“It’s a light,” another said. “Could it be the kidnappers’ hideout?”
“It’s an alicanto,” Xavier said impatiently. “Trying to lure us away from our purpose.” Could they really not tell? It seemed so obvious to him. Against the pull of the linking enchantment, the alicanto magic felt weak and unconvincing.
His words broke the spell for the guards, and they fell silent, their expressions embarrassed.
Trotting past the rocky stretch, Xavier directed his horse back toward the wall.
The pressure in his chest purred in approval, reminding him of Zuzu when she napped on him.
Even though he was going alongside the camp, not through it, he could tell that the tug was getting stronger.
Then, abruptly, it started to weaken, just a little.
“We’ve gone past the point in the camp where she is,” he muttered to himself. He pulled up his horse, considering the solid rock wall that stood between him and the destination the enchantment was drawing him to.
“Any of you good enough with magic to get through this?” he asked the guards.
They all shook their heads regretfully. It had been an oversight not to consider that when selecting his companions.
Whether from the enchantment or just his own restlessness, Xavier couldn’t remain stationary.
He pushed on around the perimeter, the pressure continuing to protest but remaining steady.
His onward movement was rewarded. Around the very back of the site, they found a stretch of fence that wasn’t fully completed.
There were several roped-off gaps large enough to ride their horses through.
“Careful,” Xavier said, as the group passed single file through the spaces.
He’d realized that he recognized the place from his first visit to the site. It was where Alina had harnessed Dust to blow him closer to her, and his guards had chastised her for it. He remembered Blair’s warning.
“We’re going along the edge of the old quarry,” he told his companions. “Apparently it’s unstable.”
They all slowed their pace until they were clear of the area, then urged the horses forward.
The link roared into life as Xavier passed through the site, delighted at his proximity to its goal.
The pressure became so intense it was almost unbearable, and Xavier had no difficulty identifying the exact spot where it reached its peak.
The only trouble was, there was nothing there. They stopped halfway down a row of the giant poles topped by the wind-catching fabric. There was nothing there but the equipment, and not a soul in sight.
“Your Highness?” one of the guards asked tentatively.
“She should be right here,” Xavier said, panic rising. “The tug is very clear. I don’t understand it.”
He cast his eyes around for the craftsman, wanting to ask his advice. But it looked like the rest of the group was still stuck outside the wall. Blair hadn’t returned with the keys yet. Xavier frowned. What could possibly take him so long?
“Where exactly do you feel it, Your Highness?” a guard pressed.
Xavier pointed right to where his horse was prancing on the spot. “Right here.”
“Under the ground?” the man asked.
“No, I meant…” Xavier trailed off, his brow furrowing. He dismounted, kneeling and placing his hands flat against the sand. The pressure in his chest rumbled in approval. He scooped the sand with his fingers, but it just fell back into place.
“Would…would it still draw you to her if she was…”
“She’s not dead,” he snapped at the guard who’d spoken.
The man’s words touched on his own fear.
But he refused to believe Alina was dead and buried in this spot.
She’d been missing less than a day, and there was no indication the ground had been recently disturbed.
There must be some kind of cellar below their feet.
But if so, the entrance wasn’t where they stood.
He’d seen no basement level within the buildings on site when he toured them.
Where else had the ground been cut away?
“The quarry!” he gasped.
“The one outside the walls?” one of his men asked doubtfully.
Xavier shook his head. “No, the old one. The one that’s supposedly unstable.”
It hadn’t looked unstable, he realized. They’d ridden right along its edge when entering, and it had looked in fine condition. His only reason for thinking it was unstable was that Blair had told him as much. Blair, who for some inscrutable reason, didn’t seem to want to let the team into the site.
Suspicion rose in Xavier, not fully formed, but enough to make him question everything. Blair hadn’t wanted him and Alina to enter the old quarry, either. Was his stated reason the true one?
“Come on,” he said, leaping back onto his horse.
They thundered back to the quarry. Leaving one guard with the horses, Xavier set the rest to searching the quarry with him. They fanned out, no sound but the whistling of the wind through a nearby weather vane.
Xavier had descended some way into the quarry’s stepped sides when a flash of movement made him turn in excitement. His mind was a moment too slow in recognizing the sandy tail of the creature darting out from behind a boulder.
NO!
His silent protest was cut off by a yowl from Zuzu that could only be called a war cry.
The anzu must have performed quite a dive, because her fur-into-feathers flank whisked past Xavier’s vision, obscuring the snake.
Before he knew what she was doing, she’d opened her feline mouth and gobbled the basilisk right up.
“Uh…thank you.” Xavier blinked at the anzu.
Zuzu gulped down the still-wriggling tail before giving a self-satisfied purr.
“Your Highness!” The protest came from above, and Xavier looked up to see Blair hovering at the edge of the quarry. “Come out of there! It’s not safe!”
Xavier narrowed his eyes, suspicion growing as he took in the agitated demeanor of the liaison. Blair had probably noticed the guard standing with all the horses.
“To me.”
Xavier’s curt command had all five of his remaining guards at his side in a heartbeat. Ignoring the still-shouting Blair, Xavier pushed on, hampered by Zuzu, who’d decided to perch on his shoulder while digesting her snack.
The pressure in Xavier’s chest liked how far downward he was going, he realized. And when he found a miner’s tunnel and stepped into it, the pressure liked it even more.