This must be why the Hissan had told Juste to keep me close. They would likely envision me sharing these insights with him, guiding his path along the way. Only because of his cowardice, this help was mine now, instead of his.
I shook my head.
I had an advantage that I’d give up in a heartbeat if I could. But I’d be a fool not to use it, wouldn’t I?
I began to scrape the lichen off the rock, but even when I removed a patch, the markings were too faint to see what was under it. Only Flame’s brilliant scarlet light brought out dark shadows that showed the outlines of what had been there before.
My vision came back. The warriors standing here, with straight backs and flowing hair. One touched a spot at the top right corner. Then another spot at waist height – which was about where the door reached the ground now.
I dropped to my knees, fingers dancing along the rock as I tried to find the same spot.
“It’s like you aren’t even listening to me, Aella. I saw a tree growing out of the fallen remains of two other trees. It’s a clear sign that I’m on the wrong path.”
I looked up at that. “I’m listening. You don’t want to go against the crown prince. And now you’re stuck with us.”
“Yes.” She seemed almost relieved. “That’s exactly my problem.”
“And you think that if you can find some way to get back to them and please them, then they won’t harm your sister, who they have as a captive.”
“Yes!”
“You’re wrong.” This spot. I was nearly sure of it. I scraped the lichen off to mark the place. “I tried that, and they just continued to torment my family.”
“Yes, but you’re ... difficult. Enraging. The crown prince hates you in particular.”
I met her eyes. “And do you think he wouldn’t hate you if you could just find a way to please him? He slit the throats of his own Claws and used their blood to fight the Forbidding back. He’d slit yours just as easily.”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not asking to be exalted to a named position, Aella. I just don’t want to be on the run from the Empire. I’ll travel with you, but if Osprey comes for us again, I plan to let him find me. It was a mistake to run with you and Ivo. A terrible risk that I shouldn’t have taken.”
Well, that explained all the calling in the forest even after I’d warned her.
“If you keep second-guessing yourself like that, your bird will stay tiny. You need to take a risk once in a while, Zayana. You know that we’re right. That what we’re doing is the right thing. You should be on our side.”
I tried to tap one symbol and then the other. Nothing. I frowned.
She scoffed. “Running for your lives from the most powerful Empire of the world is the ‘right thing’? Tell yourself whatever you want, Aella, but you’re all fools. The only way to deal with the Empire of War and Wings is to keep your head down and your mouth shut, and you don’t seem capable of either of those things.”
I stretched, reaching to touch both symbols at once as the rain began again, pouring so suddenly from the sky that Zayana let out a little shriek. Her bird disappeared.
The moment my hands touched both spots, the lichen-encrusted door swung inward with a groan. The smell of mildew and decay swirled out to meet us.
“See?” I said through the pouring rain. “I am capable of other things. I just opened a secret door.”
Chapter Four
“I’M NOT GOING IN THERE.” Zayana looked mulish. “The horses won’t even fit.”
“I think there are tunnels here that lead other places,” I said hopefully.
She looked up at the sky and I followed her gaze, worried about what she was seeing. Had Osprey found us? I slapped my hand to the leather cuff, but it wasn’t hot enough for that and when I looked back, Zayana was just shaking her head.
“You, Aella, are the most head-strong, frustrating girl on the planet. There is a hidden moldy door that leads into darkness. You don’t know where it goes. But you’re certain that’s the path. Meanwhile, we have horses and a clear plan out here.”
“A clear plan? We’ve taken all day to go maybe a couple of miles. Maybe. We’re not exactly lost, but it’s close. This door might be a chance for something better.”
Plus, maybe it would be a chance to stay clear of the one hunting me, in particular. I clenched my jaw and forced that fear from my mind.
“Or, the door will close behind us when we go inside and we’ll be trapped in a stone room to die together,” Zayana said. She had mounted her horse while we spoke, as if to emphasize her conclusion.
“I just want to look inside,” I pressed. “Come look with me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Well, I’ll look, then.”
It wasn’t easy to get in the door. Not only was the top half narrow, but the ground fell abruptly into the open door. I ended up going in backward, legs dangling into the hole until they found the ground. My cloak was muddy by the time I got into the doorway, wrinkling my nose at the mildew scent of the place.
I opened my palm in the darkness.
“Bees?”
They poured into my palm like honey, golden and liquid, their buzz almost a purr. Oh, look who is so well behaved now? I almost rolled my eyes, but I was too occupied with wonder.
“Let’s see what we have here!”
I was in a little room. It was obviously made by the Hissan people – it had their endless snake motif everywhere – along the edge of the floors, crawling up to unlit sconces and wrapping up the pedestal in the center of the little room right before me. I walked up to the pedestal and brushed dust away from a plaque sitting on it. I could not read the unfamiliar words on the plaque but after a moment, I recognized the shape. It was a map of Far Stones. A lot more map than I was used to. It stretched deep into the lands taken by the Forbidding, lands we didn’t even know the shape of.
There were carved symbols on various points of the map. One that must be where we were – just a little larger than the rest. And if it was our location shown there then we’d made very little progress traveling today. There were other points, too. Some of them were far from the known parts of the continent, deep into the tangled Forbidding north of here. Others, were not far from locations I knew. There was one near the great bridge that led to Far Reach. Another near Far Port. Another yet that was a few miles – if the scale was accurate – from one of the Pincher Towers. There were dozens of locations on both the known and unknown portions of the Far Stones continent. There was even one close to Glorious Ingvar.
Now, if I could just have another vision showing me how to make this next part work. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. Nothing. Okay. I’d have to work this out for myself.
I looked up to where three paths branched out from the room I was in and then back to the plaque where three lines led out from this marker to three other markers. One of them was inland from Astar Harbor. It had a line going from it to Glorious Ingvar – or close to that city. I looked back up at the branching trails. Easy enough. Take the trail on the left and we’d get there, right?
I felt my heart pounding at that. I hadn’t been wrong. I was sure of it. These undertrails really could take us where we needed to go. And Osprey couldn’t hunt us while we were in here. He wouldn’t even know this place existed. We could meet Ivo in Ingvar and find those records and if we were really lucky, we might even find that one of these trails led to where the general was held – and then we’d rescue him and raise our army. I was already halfway through the daydream when Zayana called into the little room.