CHAPTER 31
Sakura
Keenan’s eyes widened, but then he grinned. “It would be best to send a fighter down. If a dainty thing like you went first, the ogres and cave trolls lurking down there might eat you up before I could come rescue you.”
She shuddered at the mention of ogres. “Be wary how you speak, weapon-smith. Not all frightful monsters are from ghost stories.”
“Which is why you’re right that I should lead the way,” he replied, sobering. Picking up the free end of the rope, he stepped up next to the tree and peered at the shaft’s entrance. The puzzled crease in his forehead was adorable, not that Sakura would ever admit as much. “How do I climb down?”
“You don’t.” Taking the rope from him, Sakura motioned Oliver over to hold it.
She lifted the movable block formed of the loose stirrups and said, “You put one foot in this, then crawl into the shaft. When Oliver feeds the rope through the pulleys, your weight will pull you down. All you have to do is hold on.”
He stared at her blankly for a few moments before tracing the rope with his eyes. Nodding, he worked the stirrups over one booted toe and said, “Once I’m down, you should be able to tie the packs to this and lower them. I’ll untie them at the bottom.”
His forethought was sound. The tug from the pea had grown murkier when they reached the tree, but she didn’t think the tinderbox was right at the base of the shaft.
Once Keenan’s shoulders were inside the trunk, Sakura turned to Oliver and held out her hands. “The rope, please.”
Keenan’s eyes turned the size of her tea saucers. “Princess, are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Do you trust me?”
He gulped, but he nodded. “Yes, ma’am. If you promise I won’t fall, then I trust that you know what you’re doing. You built this, after all.”
It warmed her to know that he was willing to trust her mechanical skill with his life. Most men would balk at something built by a princess.
Oliver slowly relaxed his hold, letting Sakura adjust to the weight so the shock didn’t rip the rope from her grasp.
It was a good thing; while she was correct that the four-to-one advantage of her pulley system allowed her to hold Keenan, she would probably turn the rope back over to Oliver in a few minutes.
She wasn’t strong enough to maintain a grip on forty to fifty pounds.
But she couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. It was working. Not quite as well as if she’d had wheels for her pulleys, but watching something useful that she’d built was incredibly satisfying.
Once Keenan was safely at the bottom of the shaft, Oliver and Mori began lowering the packs.
Kasumi pulled Sakura aside. “Are we all going down?” she asked, wringing her hands as she stole a glance at the men running the rope.
“Shouldn’t someone stay with the horses?
If they wander off, we’ll have to return on foot. ”
Sakura frowned. She hadn’t considered the horses or her little fox. Bunta probably wouldn’t appreciate the trip down the shaft, and they couldn’t take the horses; her makeshift pulley system wouldn’t hold a horse’s weight even if she had a way to strap them in. Besides, the shaft was too small.
“It would be unwise to divide our party,” she said at last. “If the horses are gone when we return, we can walk to the nearby farm and barter passage.”
Her eyes drifted over to her bay mare. She didn’t like the thought of losing Aya.
“Perhaps I could take the horses there?” Kasumi offered, perking up. “If the farmer is willing to house them for us, perhaps I could stay in the stable with them and ensure they are well-treated while waiting for you.”
“You cannot leave me alone with three men.” Sakura nearly gaped at her maid. “No matter how honorable they may be, the impropriety would be unthinkable.”
“Your Highness—”
“I cannot let them go on their own, but neither can I accompany them without you,” Sakura said firmly. “This is not a debate. If the pulley system supported Keenan, it will support you.”
Kasumi dropped her eyes, but she nodded stiffly. “Yes, Your Highness.”
Sakura folded her hands at her waist and faced forward again.
She did not enjoy the confrontation, but it little mattered that they had almost been friends three years ago.
Sakura was a princess with plans to be queen.
Kasumi was a simple commoner, child of a sailor and a woman from a tiny seaside village.
And the queen could not accept insubordination from such a lowly person.
Her conscience pricked her. Keenan was an educated and skilled craftsman, but he was a commoner.
Based on his statements, he hadn’t come from a wealthy family either.
If she could deign to exchange verbal spars with him, could she not extend a modicum of compassion toward her companion of many years?
“You may travel to the farmhouse with Kagemori and the horses once he has finished with the packs,” Sakura allowed, keeping her voice aloof. “I do not wish for Aya or Bunta to come to harm.”
The maid brightened. “Thank you, Princess!”
“But you must also return with him,” she continued, keeping her eyes on the activity at the base of the tree. “I still need you to be a second female in our party.”
She hoped Kasumi could hear the apology for what it was, even though none of it colored her voice.
“As you command, Your Highness,” Kasumi said dully.
Once Kasumi and Kagemori had been dispatched with the horses, Oliver waved Sakura over. “Your turn.”
She stepped forward, then froze when she remembered that Keenan alone awaited her.
Her right hand crept up to her elbow. Since their traditions were foreign to him, she knew his cherry blossoms had been an innocent gesture.
But Kasumi and Kagemori knew what it signified in Ryuni.
Even though she’d declined, if they discovered she had been alone with him for the length of their journey…
“I’ll let myself down after you,” Oliver said, his dark eyes watching her. “Mori can handle himself and the girl once they return.”
Being alone with two men would be only marginally better, propriety-wise. But she was already alone with Oliver. Better to be the only woman with two men for an hour than to be alone with either one of them.
“Very well.”
Her journey down the shaft was slow, as every four feet that Oliver fed through the pulleys only lowered her one.
When she finally reached the bottom, she gratefully stepped off her unsteady perch and watched it zip back up the passage.
Keenan had moved the candle, and its light threw her flickering shadow across the wall.
A gentle breeze nudged her skirt against her calves, then swirled around her, slowly climbing until it lifted the hair on her forearms with its chill, then swirled around her hair like a mischievous wind devil dancing across a fallow field. But she was underground. Where would a breeze come from?
She folded her hands at her waist and took a deep breath, closing her eyes against the pervading silence that made the slightest rustle of her dress loud now that the breeze was gone. Then she slowly turned to examine her surroundings…and her sole companion.
The sides of the shaft had been surprisingly smooth, with only the occasional section jutting out to catch her back or hip during her descent.
But while the shaft ended at the floor on one side, it opened into a vast cavern on the other.
Their packs sat inside the circle of light cast by the single flickering candle, but she could see neither walls nor ceiling in its paltry light.
She paused, listening as the shuffling echo of her riding boots dissipated. Above her, she heard the soft, distant sound of the rope’s movements drifting down the shaft toward her. But why did she hear nothing else? Where was Keenan?
Stepping toward the inviting light of the candle, she kept her footsteps as soft as she could and stretched her ears and eyes for any sign of him. A faint rustling sound from deeper in the cavern brought her eyes whipping around. Was it above her?
“Hello?” she called faintly. If some creature had caught the weapon-smith, she didn’t want to alert it to her presence. But she was standing in the candlelight; unless it was blind from its time below the surface, she couldn’t hide from it.
Sakura made a quick search of the packs, jerking a kitchen knife free and adjusting her grip on the handle as she watched the dark shadows.
The rustling came again, accompanied by a creaking sound that she would have called suppressed laughter if her hands hadn’t been trembling at the question of what kind of creature would laugh like that.
Light scuffing noises from behind her mixed with what might have been faint footfalls, but the acoustics in the cavern made it hard to tell the direction or the distance. What felt like minutes passed, but Keenan didn’t approach, nor did Oliver appear at the bottom of the shaft.
The strange creaking noise came again, and then she heard a faint groan somewhere ahead of her. Peering out into the darkness, she could just make out a lump that she’d thought was a rock. But it could be a man lying on his side.
Her heart pounded, but she picked up the candle and edged toward it. As she drew closer, the outline became more distinct. Sakura rushed forward, her weapon-smith’s name on her lips, but then she stopped.
This man’s hair was darker than Keenan’s, and what she’d taken for his leather jerkin was a more familiar sight than that.
It was a Ryunic guard uniform.
She glanced over her shoulder, but there was still no sign of Oliver or her other companions. So where had this guard come from? And what had happened to him?
Tightening her grip on the kitchen knife, she crept forward. The guard was motionless, not even reacting when she set a hand on his shoulder. She gently rolled him onto his back to check for injuries.