Yes. She drew the ground around her, stilling it before moving itup the walls to hold back the ceiling. It flowed around her like water,carrying her to the cavern’s edge, and she fell deeper into the rhythm of ituntil she could sense the vibrations of all that stood apart from it, limbsslapping, breath coming fast, and the fragile beating of hearts. She grabbedthem and carried them to her, all of them covered in dust that she could willaway if she chose.
But why bother? She could do so many better things. Her mindfollowed the branches of this cave system. It went on for miles, meeting othercaves, dipping far into the earth to lakes that would never know the breath ofwind, down rivers that carved the rock with the patience of millennia.
Finally, her senses came to the mountains north of Farraday, aland filled with this new crystal. She sensed the hole where a glacier had slidaway from its brethren, carrying some of the crystal close enough to be foundby Farradains, but there was so much more of it about.
And some of it lived.
Beings made of pyramid stone? It couldn’t be. Yet she sensed themas they scented the wind as if feeling her touch. It had been a long time sincesomething had commanded them. They’d missed that. They were ready to destroy atan order for those with the right tools.
“Sylph?”
Someone called her name, or perhaps it was the wind sighingacross the glacier.
“Sylph, please.”
Thana’s voice, rough with tears. Something was wrong. And a warmhand clasped hers. She was flesh and blood and needed no cold mountaincreatures to wreak havoc for her.
She opened her eyes to find Thana kissing her forehead, her lips.Light shone weakly around her, and tears made tracks through the dust on hercheeks. “Come back,” she said with a hiccupping sob.
Unacceptable. Whatever hurt Thana would be buried and stay thatway.
Sylph collapsed the cavern beyond, filling it all the way towhere the pyradistés had found their crystal, taking with it those still in thetunnels. There were only a few, a small sacrifice that didn’t sicken her asmuch as it should.
She did not venture into the mountains again. The rest of thecrystal was too high for any in Farraday to reach. And it already had itsguardians.
She sat up from where she’d nearly encased herself in stone.Thana threw her arms around her, and Prince Gunnar and Dina peered at her. Hisface was bloody, and she held her left arm awkwardly, a line of blood tricklingover her ear.
“Wow,” Dina said. “The rock was like water, and…wow.”
Prince Gunnar nodded but didn’t speak. None of the captives hadsurvived, it seemed. It made sense, as they couldn’t scramble away from anynewly opened pits or debris. Still, Sylph embraced Thana and said, “I’m sorry,”both for those in the cavern and those she’d buried along the way. “I was ableto collapse this path and bury the crystal they found. It’s so deep now, no onewill ever find it.”
Thana looked at her in awe before kissing her. “Don’t ever gothat deep again.”
“Without the crystal’s presence, I don’t know if I can.” Herstone pyramid begged to differ, but she didn’t want to test it, preferring tostay in the present with Thana.
* * *
They were a sorry lot as they limped away from the collapsedcavern. Thana kept her hand on Sylph’s shoulder as they went, scared of losingher to the stone again, even if there was no chance of them losing each otherin the dark.
Gunnar had spoken about going above to travel back to the horses,but they’d all gotten turned around in the dark, and he wasn’t certain of theway. Thana thought about insisting. Anywhere was better than down here. She couldn’tget the image of Sylph’s body encased in stone out of her mind. Only her facehad been left uncovered and one of her hands.
And she’d looked so happy.
When they came to the first cavern they’d rested in, they pausedagain, all of them breathing hard and sweating, creating mud from the dust.Gunnar gestured to a corner. Thana swallowed hard, fear rising. He was going tosay that Sylph was too powerful, that even after everything she’d done for thecrown, she was going to be exiled upon their return to Marienne. She followedhim ready to argue.
“I can’t lose her now, Gun,” she whispered. “I feel more for herthan I’ve ever felt for anyone.”
He frowned. “Who said you have to give her up, you nitwit?”
She blinked. “Oh, I thought…what did you want, then?”
“Not to talk about your cursed love life. I’ve been thinkingabout all this tunneling, about the marks on that map that were under thepalace.” He lowered his voice even further. “What if the pyradistés don’t wantto break into the palace itself? What if their goal is underneath?”
It took her a moment to remember because she’d known him farlonger than she’d known his secret. One of the primary reasons for establishingthe Order of Vestra was to protect the fact that each Umbriel carried part ofthe great Fiend that slumbered under the palace. And they kept that Fiendasleep by using the massive pyramid that sat atop his prison.
Her belly went cold. She’d been forcing herself not to think ofthat while down here in the dark. One of her main duties as royal pyradisté wasto conduct the magical ceremony that let the Umbriels commune with Yanchasa theMighty. She’d never done it, but she’d seen it. It was conducted via a pyramidunder the palace that was itself a capstone for a larger, buried pyramid, theactual prison. She’d felt its malevolent power.
“How would they know about it?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Maybe with all their tunneling, they came closeenough to sense it if not use it.”
“We’ll have to go and…” She paused as his gaze flicked to Sylph.“Oh. She’ll sense it, too.”
“Probably inevitable at this point if she’s going to help us.We’ll have to think of a lie for it.”
She winced about lying but breathed a little easier because hedidn’t suggest they
