Midnight Quest (32 page)

“I would no lay odds on that,” Rialt responded dryly.

They spent several minutes just standing there in nervous silence. Even though Jewel anxiously awaited Elahandra’s return, she still started when her goddess reappeared. With the feeling of her presence came another, one that Jewel had never felt before.

A very masculine, cultured voice entered her mind. “
Priestess Jomadd, Priestess Moltabon, I have heard your request from my dear, sweet sister.”
The tone was exactly what a younger sibling would use after being threatened by an older sibling. There was a mix of nervousness, a measure of evasiveness, all under a dismissive tone as if the speaker didn’t really have anything to worry about. “
I will of course grant you leave to work in Veris to restore the barrier crystal.”

“And?”
Elahandra prompted impatiently through gritted teeth.

“
And…er…I do apologize for not noticing your attempts to contact me. I, er, shall attempt to be more vigilant in the future.”

Apparently, divine or not, older sisters could be scary when they put their minds to it. Jewel had to swallow a smile before she responded. “Thank you, Exalted One. We shall get to work, then.”

Relieved, Broeske immediately disappeared.

“Thank you,” Chantel said to her goddess.

“
You’re quite welcome, my dears. Now get to work.”

Gladly. Jewel turned to the door when Elahandra again vanished. “We have permission,” she informed Rialt, not sure if he could hear Broeske or not. Probably not. “Let’s go.”

“Good.” He took her hand and placed it on his elbow, leading her back down the stairs and to the waiting men. Chantel beat her there and cheerfully informed them that they could get to the main work now. She and Rialt mounted as everyone else did.

“Well, ladies, I realize that you know where we’re going,” Sarvell drawled sarcastically, “but would you mind giving us men a clue?”

“Ziehr’s Pass,” Chantel responded promptly. “But you’re so cute for asking.”

Sarvell, proving that he was a man used to a woman’s attentions, didn’t hesitate before responding smoothly, “You know that I aim to always entertain a beautiful woman such as yourself, Priestess.”

“And you do it
so
well,” Chantel purred in a smoky tone.

Jewel bit her lip to keep from giggling. She made a personal wager with herself right there. If Chantel didn’t somehow seduce Sarvell into staying with her by the end of this task, Jewel would eat her new hat.

“Come along, handsome,” Chantel crooned, spurs jangling as they set her horse in motion. “I’ll lead the way.”

As the horse under her started moving at a quick walk, Jewel turned sideways just enough to whisper to Rialt, “I can’t tell if they’re serious or not when they flirt like that.”

“Hard to say,” he murmured back to her. “They both be used to playing the game, do you see.”

She did indeed.

It took them a good hour to just leave Rounsefell’s city limits. Jewel knew that for a fact because she could hear the city’s clock chime out the tenth hour as they left through the west gate. Having to navigate through the crowded streets, constantly switching from one road to another, had slowed them down considerably.

The highway they were on had just as much traffic. It led directly to the only bridge that spanned Ziehr’s Pass, so every merchant and traveler that needed to cross into Evard’s borders used the highway. Last night they had planned to spend the time traveling productively by teaching Chantel how to start and operate an Order. But the heavy traffic on the road made that impossible. Whole caravans made it difficult to travel at anything but in a line, and the noise from the squeaking wheels, jangling harnesses, shouted conversations and the multitude of hoof beats created such a din that Jewel felt a headache coming on. The highway had been smoothly paved by stone, which turned out to be both blessing and curse. Jewel couldn’t complain about the smooth travel or the lack of travel dust, but the stone gave every sound a sharper edge. She resisted the childish urge to plug her ears.

The sun had gone
well
past its zenith when they reached Ziehr’s Bridge. Jewel didn’t need anyone to tell her, not with the scent of water strong in the air. Ziehr’s Bridge crossed the Honorvar River, and the scent of moving water and the sound of it moving rapidly between the rocks could be clearly heard even over the highway’s noisy traffic. The air felt moister and the wind had a brisker edge to it as it flew across the mountains.

In fact, the wind just felt stronger altogether. They had been bracketed by forest on both sides because the highway had taken them up into the mountains…at least until now. Someone had clearly spent a great deal of time clearing out the area around the bridge. Nothing blocked the wind from coming through the pass.

Jewel winced as a particularly strong gust stung the skin on her cheeks. Couldn’t they have left just a few trees?

They came to a slow stop, their party milling about for a few moments in the same place. She could clearly sense that the crystal lay directly ahead of them, so she didn’t understand their hesitation. Certainly the crystal wouldn’t be lying about in plain sight, otherwise it wouldn’t be considered “lost.” But after two crystals, Rialt and Sarvell should be able to discern where it would be…or so she’d thought.

“Well, gentlemen, what do you see?”

“A lot of people and a very crowded bridge,” Chizeld responded promptly. “The land is barren, nothing but rock aside from the river.”

Her forehead crinkled up in a confused frown. “So…no small hills covered in vines? No hills covered in dirt, for that matter?”

“Nothing like it,” Rialt confirmed on a weary sigh. “Lass, you still sense it?”

“Clearly. It’s straight ahead.”

“It can’t possibly be buried, could it?” Chantel asked uncertainly. “Or…oh no, they didn’t throw it into the river, did they?!”

“Let’s hope not.” Jewel grimaced at just the thought of dragging a crystal back up to this mountain peak. She flung a hand out, finger pointing unerringly to a spot not far from them. “The proper resting place for the crystal is right over there.”

Rialt let out a long groan. “Is it alright to pray for a miracle?”

“I certainly am,” Jewel responded dryly. On a hunch, she swung her leg over the saddle’s horn and slid down to the ground. “Bort,” she called, almost unnecessarily, as the dog instantly pressed up against her side. With her hand on his head, they started moving forward.

Everyone around her quickly dismounted, horses trailing along behind as they followed her. Jewel’s progress became impeded due to the traffic on the road, and Bortonor had to weave her in and around other people. Still, she could feel it getting steadily closer.

Jewel’s gut feeling said that the crystal had
not
been pushed to the river far below. It sat much closer than that. She had a suspicion that Chantel might be right—perhaps some very energetic fools had buried it. While that would
not
be fun to dig out, she did prefer a buried crystal to a submerged one.

The feeling under her feet changed from flat, smooth paving stones to the more uneven surface of weathered rock. The air felt different here, moister and sharper. The sound of the river below had more distinctness as well. She must be near the edge, then.

Rialt took two, long strides and abruptly caught up to her. He didn’t say anything, but she could practically feel his eyes burning a hole in her back. He didn’t like that she had gotten this close to a cliff edge. She had no intention of getting too close, either, but she had to find that crystal. “Chantel, it should be a little to my left but ahead of me. Do you see it?”

“I sense it too, but I don’t,” Chantel answered in growing frustration. “Are you sure it’s not buried?”

Jewel shook her head. She couldn’t say anything with absolute certainty at this point. Still, they must be running out of ground at this point, right? It would take a rather large area to bury a crystal of that size. Maybe only half of it had stayed buried, and half of it now protruded from the cliff face? It would simply look like a very large, clear stone to the rest of the world.

“Jewel…” Rialt’s tone held a clear warning.

She waved him down irritably. She had no desire to take a dive over the side of the cliff, she just had this unmistakable impression that she could actually reach out and touch it if she just went a few more steps.

Bortonor let out a whine and stopped dead, indicating that he felt it unsafe to continue. Jewel abruptly stopped as well, but her curiosity pushed her to go a little further. She cautiously pushed her left foot out, letting it slide against the ground. Just a little further…

“Jewel!” A hard arm abruptly wrapped around her waist and yanked her backwards. The breath whooshed from her chest and she instinctively latched onto the arm holding her, trying to find some purchase. “For the love of the gods, woman, donna get that close!” Rialt sounded shaken, half-terrified and half-angry.

Startled, she turned her head toward him, listening intently. His breath sounded strained, and his heartbeat could be distinctly heard. Had she really been so close to the edge? “I wasn’t going to fall—”

“Ya were inches from doing just that,” he growled. His free hand wrapped around the back of her head and drew her up even as he bent down, his forehead touching hers. From the back of his throat, he growled against her mouth, “
Donna be so reckless.”

And here she’d been trying to approach cautiously… A little unnerved with her close brush of death, she swallowed past a sudden lump in her throat. She could sense the unease of the people around her, but her first priority was the man she’d nearly scared ten years off of. Putting both hands around his head, she tilted just enough to place a soft kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

Rialt released another shaky breath, the tension leaving his body as he did so. He shifted so that his head rested on her shoulder, both arms around her waist. “Sorry, says she,” he muttered, “for nearly scaring a man into heart failure.”

Some part of her mind recognized that she would
never
live this down. Even so, she wrapped both arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “If it makes you feel better, I promise not to dance along the edges of cliffs anymore.”

“A fine promise that be,” he groused.

“Promise accepted,” Chizeld responded dryly. “Now, Rialt, put heart back in chest and go back to task at hand.”

Thank the gods for Chizeld’s even-keeled nature. Jewel let go and took a half step back, cautiously, as she no longer had a good sense of where the edge of that cliff was. “Someone please look hard. It should be
right there.
”

“No, Jewel, truly, it
must
be buried.” Chantel’s voice grew and ebbed, changing in volume as she moved around, the wind stealing her words. “I don’t see it…oh.”

Jewel’s ears perked at that
oh
. “Oh? What oh?”

Chantel ignored the question and directed, “Sarvell, do you see it? Bend down, and look right
there
.”

“Oh,” Sarvell responded in exactly the same tone. “Oh gods, that’s going to create problems.”

Jewel, getting frustrated, demanded, “What? Where is it?”

“They built the bridge on top of it,” Chantel explained, sounding like someone being marched to the gallows.

Someone had built the bridge on
top
of the crystal? All of the political and logistical problems that would crop up trying to get that crystal free again started running through Jewel’s mind. The only response her mouth could respond with was “…oh.”

Chapter Twenty-two

It took six long hours on horseback to return to Chantel’s home and once they arrived, everyone unanimously agreed that the problem could wait until tomorrow morning. Sarvell did nothing more than a quick wash and eat a hasty dinner brought up by the patient Piers before falling face first into bed.

In fact, the problem kept being pushed off until after they had sat down at breakfast and consumed most of the food on the table. The mayor apparently had an early morning meeting, so only the six of them were present. Sarvell didn’t know if he preferred this or not—part of him would have liked easy access to the mayor’s opinion.

“Alright, so let’s list out the problems in order,” Sarvell suggested. “How difficult is it to tear apart a bridge and build a new one?”

“Not first question,” Chizeld disagreed thoughtfully. “First question is, is bridge actually sitting on crystal? If only looks like it, then might be able to move crystal without tearing apart bridge.”

Jewel perked up at this thought. “Could any of you tell?”

“No from that angle.” Rialt sounded ruminative, as if he were trying to cast his mind back to that moment. “Was no looking either. I had assumed it sat squarely on the crystal.”

“So had I,” Chantel admitted. “But if it didn’t,
could
we pull it free, somehow?”

That is a very good question
. Sarvell tried to imagine it in his mind. He didn’t have a lot of experience with building projects, so he couldn’t really offer an expert opinion. “I think…we could? It would mean putting both priestesses in climbing harnesses.”

Rialt let out a growl. “If you think I would let her go swinging about by herself, you be daft.”

Errr…a point he had not considered, but a valid one. He highly doubted that either Chantel or Jewel had any climbing experience. Even if they did, it would take their full concentration to get the crystal to move upwards at that impossible angle. They wouldn’t have the headspace necessary to focus on climbing back up as well. At least one armsman would have to go down with them, probably in a tandem harness.

“But it
is
possible,” Chantel clearly meant it as a statement but her uncertain tone turned it into a question.

“Well, I dragged a crystal free of a Ramathan forest and up a steep slope, so I don’t see why not,” Jewel confirmed easily. “It just might be a little tricky. Assuming we wouldn’t be tearing the bridge apart trying.”