But Brandt was pretty sure the bandit wasn’t home. If their suspect had a strong stone affinity, he would have come down and thrown them off the cliff face by now. They hadn’t exactly been sneaking up on the cave.
Besides that, time was against them. The bandit had been striking more frequently. The local governor demanded results.
And strong stone affinity or not, Brandt didn’t back down from a challenge.
“Want to risk it?” he asked.
“Against stone?” she paused, more reasoned than him. “Sure.”
Brandt agreed. Even if the bandit wasn’t home, any information might help them predict his movements.
They made themselves light and climbed the rest of the way.
The cave was bigger than Brandt had envisioned. He’d expected a small space, possibly wide enough for some shelter and storage but little else. Instead, a deep darkness greeted him. The cave went well into the rock face.
Fortunately, Brandt always came prepared to use fire. His small pack carried two small torches, and a moment later he had one of them lit with his own fire affinity. As always, he felt the warmth of the fire calling to him, a seductive, nearly irresistible song.
He ignored it.
All elements were dangerous.
But fire put the others to shame.
They stepped into the cave, Brandt leading the way with his flame.
The darkness retreated before his torch, and he found the end of the cave in short order.
There was no evidence of habitation.
Brandt slowly spun around with the torch. They couldn’t have been misled.
“Brandt.”
He turned at the sound of fear in Ana’s voice. She stood next to a wide crack in the stone. He’d walked right past it without noticing. He stepped closer, thrusting the torch forward.
He immediately took a step back. His legs felt weak.
The crack wasn’t a crack, but a tight passage. The stone of the floor, ceiling, and walls was perfectly smooth.
No hammer and chisel could make a hallway so perfect.
But that level of affinity was impossible. The cost was too high.
He heard nothing besides their quick breathing. The cave was empty, and any answers were through that passage. He refused to be cowed, even by a feat as impressive as this. He stepped forward.
Ana put a hand on his arm. Their eyes met. After a moment, she nodded.
Like the rest, she would follow his lead. He hadn’t let them down yet.
Brandt went through first. The passage was narrow. He had to turn sideways, and even then either the backs of his shoulders or his chest scraped against the sides. Ana slid through easily.
He wondered if the bandit was closer to Ana’s size than to his.
He froze on the other side of the passage, his eyes locked on another impossible scene.
The second chamber was several times larger than the first.
It had been devastated. Rubble lay everywhere, broken boulders larger than his torso.
Behind him, Ana pushed her way through. He stepped to the side to let her in. She froze beside him.
“Oh.”
She had a gift for understatement.
Brandt stepped deeper into the second chamber. Ana started to follow, but he waved her back. The light from his torch didn’t fill the whole space. He wanted to make sure they were alone.
After picking his way through some of the rubble, he found a flat spot where he didn’t have to worry about balance. He closed his eyes and listened to the song of the flame.
Most didn’t understand that heat surrounded them, every moment of every day. Even the frigid air of winter contained plenty of heat. The air in this cave, cold and clammy against his bare arms, held more than enough.
He pulled the heat from the air around him, felt the warmth of it as it flowed toward his torch.
He opened his eyes. Held high above him, his torch blazed, several times brighter than it had before. Light reached every corner of the second chamber, if only for a couple of heartbeats. Brandt spun around quickly, just to ensure they were alone.
He saw no one besides Ana.
He released the flow of heat to his torch. He shivered. The air around him had become much colder. It would take a few minutes for the circulation of air to heat the space back to its normal temperature.
Ana stepped closer to him, rubbing her arms to keep them warm. Together, they explored the cave.
Ana focused on the rubble first. She examined a few of the boulders while Brandt swept some of the smaller debris aside with his foot. He frowned when he found a depression in the floor of the cave. It had been partially filled in with loose pebbles, but he could feel the bottom with his toe when he dug it in.
He called to his partner. They stared at the depression.
He shook his head. “Does that look like…?”
She nodded.
“That’s not possible, right?”
“I didn’t think so.”
The depression was an impact crater. Made by a fist or foot of someone with a stone affinity. Each of them had seen plenty.
But it was too large by far.
Even their masters at the academy would have been hard pressed to create one half as wide or deep.
“A new weapon?” she asked.
Brandt wished he knew.
This wasn’t a bandit’s hideout. The man might be stealing from travelers on the road and hiding here, but this was something more. This was a training ground for an incredibly strong fighter. A place where his training wouldn’t be interrupted or discovered.
They continued their exploration. The chamber was filled with damage that shouldn’t be possible. Mystery piled on mystery.
As they neared the end of their search, a thought occurred to Brandt. Where was the fire?
If a bandit lived here, he needed to cook his meals. He needed light to see. He needed fire.
But there was no evidence of any. Brandt hadn’t seen any wood or ash. He hadn’t noticed any scorch marks from fire on stone. The realization hit him hard. “The bandit doesn’t live here.”
A soft sound, like the scuffing of a
