Chapter 28 #3
This man was truly an enigma. But she did enjoy a good puzzle.
They removed their hands from the wall and watched their prints slowly fade away before continuing on.
The tunnel steadily narrowed until Anya could brush both sides with her fingers as she went.
Roderick trailed quietly behind her. Despite going deeper, it wasn’t getting colder as it should have been.
In fact, the slight goose flesh that had covered her arms outside had disappeared, and the bone-chilling ache from the icy Aquillan waters was now a distant memory.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Anya dipped below a low-hanging passageway, pressing her hand to the ceiling.
“Watch your head,” she cautioned, grasping Roderick’s hand to goad him down a touch.
“So chivalrous.” He chuckled, ducking low.
The bottleneck gave way to a large cavern.
Every drip of water and skitter of small creatures in this place bounced off the walls—unnaturally so.
She ran her fingers along the walls in hopes of finding more moss, but instead traced over unnatural stony paths and grooves, some jagged, some curving and connecting.
These were deliberate. When she pressed the pads of her fingers into the divots, little bumps attested to a chisel tapping over and over at some point in the distant past.
“Someone carved these,” Anya murmured. “But why?”
“Maybe this will help.” Roderick held a ball of glowing moss out to her.
“Perfect!” Anya squeezed the moss, letting the moisture drip between her fingers. Light flared from the ball. Roderick ripped another strip off the ground and surveyed the other side of the cavern.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
“I think this is an Elvani,” Roderick said, holding his moss close to a carving.
Anya squinted from afar. An elegant figure with long, tapered ears stood like a stone sentry beside the passageway they’d come from, holding a staff that split from the stem into a circle.
Smooth swirls erupted from the staff, then disappeared into the shadows.
“It’s an Elf.” Anya gasped, holding a hand to her forehead. This was too much. Too much information to take all at once. She knew the ancient races were rumored to be here. She knew that. Marg was living proof. But seeing this hit her differently.
“Can you keep following that side?” she asked.
Roderick nodded. Anya turned her attention back to the wall in front of her.
With the light in hand, she found paw prints etched into the stone.
They were practically sprinting from the ground up the wall.
It was no wonder she’d missed them at first. She shivered as the familiar shape of a tail came into view, followed by the rest of an intricate carving of a wolf mid-stride, jaws wide, tongue lolling with delight.
Anya gave the moss another squeeze and continued along the wolf’s path.
Smaller wolves carved to appear distant multiplied as she went, until a whole pack was running along the stone—and she felt like she was right there along with them, forever hunting beneath the stars.
The wolves began to run uphill, almost climbing to the heavens.
She was so lost among them that she didn’t notice the rise of a dais beneath her feet until her shoulder brushed Roderick’s.
The first wolf’s carving was before her now, depicted sitting atop the dais, head drawn back in a howl.
Frosty breath was carved above it, rising into the stone sky.
The Elven magic curled into a cosmic swirl opposite the frozen breath.
Both their eyes fell on the inscription between the two glyphs.
Ulv, tr?kk der dine forfedre tr?kketTa med magien din til skaperen, og kom hjem
“This is the ancient tongue,” Anya said in a hush, tracing her hands over the words. “I only know the word ulv. It means wolf.” She pounded a hand into the wall, startling Roderick. “Damn it! Blackbird might know what this says. Marg tutored her for a while.”
Roderick rested a hand on her shoulder, drawing her eye. “It’s been a long day. You nearly drowned, Anya. Let’s go back and get some rest. Lady Rowan can take a look at it tomorrow. We’ll come back with torches and parchment and map this all out.”
He said it all so confidently. Did he not fear for Sir Oshfeldt? For Lady Rowan, Ornella, Annette and Bernard? And what about Yomira? That storm was far from ordinary.
Anya whimpered, fearing their discovery would vanish the moment they stepped outside. Another smooth howl rolled through the cavern.
“But I hear them. I hear them, Roderick. The wolves, they—”
“—Aren’t expecting us. Imagine how we would react if Elves and Weres came waltzing into Valeria.”
Anya puffed a strand of hair from her face. Roderick was right. In all her excitement and instinctual drive, any thought of diplomacy had been thrown out the window.
“Fine.” She sighed, squeezing the life out of the moss.
Roderick placed a hand on her slumped shoulder. “I’m no expert, but these have clearly been here a long, long time. They’ll be here tomorrow.”
“If they aren’t, I’ll kill you.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”