Riven (The Arinthian Line Book 2) (25 page)

The ruins of Evergray Tower loomed silent and abandoned. Snow piled up against the lipped base. Dead vines clung to crumbling stone. The tower itself appeared smashed as if by some giant fist, the top half completely exposed to the sky. Windows gaped like mouths screaming in agony.

“Not a very cozy-looking place, is it?” Leera said.

The storm approached relentlessly, Augum noted with a glance. At least it would obscure their tracks. He led his palfrey across the shallow water, wondering how they would feed themselves and the horses. They paced by the iced remains of a ruined dock and on to the base of the tower.

“Shyneo,” he said, lighting up his palm.

Leera pointed. “Is that a gate?”

What he had mistaken for a wall of dead vines was indeed the remains of a rather large rusted iron gate. If they could get it open, they may even be able to hide the horses inside.

They dismounted and tied up the palfreys. Beyond the gate was a cobbled stone room full of rubble and broken barrels. Augum directed his palm to the gate lock. It was a crude mechanism long rusted over.

“Hmm, think Repair would work on this?” he asked, plucking at the brown mass.

“Worth a try,” Leera said, holding shivering hands around the lock.

Bridget suddenly grabbed her arm. “Wait a moment—we don’t want to
repair
it, we want to
smash
it. After all, we don’t have the key.”

“Good point.” He reached for a large rock. “Watch out.” The girls stood back as he repeatedly slammed it on the lock, distinctly conscious how every hit echoed around the chamber and out across the river. With each strike, the lock weakened, until finally snapping off.

He dropped the rock, panting and holding his sides, the grating in his chest causing shooting pains. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea with broken ribs.

Leera placed a hand on his shoulder. “You all right?”

He winced. “Fine,” and pulled on the gate, as if to show her he wasn’t hurting, when he so obviously was—and it wasn’t just a dull pain either, it was so acute it made him jerk suddenly, letting go of the gate.

Leera cocked her head and gave him a playful smile. “You don’t always need to play the hero, you know.”

But he barely heard her past the pain. Yup, he needed a healer.

The iron hinges were so rusted over that it eventually took all three of them to jar the gate loose. The girls then led the palfreys inside while he used an evergreen branch to clean up their tracks, all the way to the river, just in case. The wind was soon gusting with such violence he almost felt sorry for anyone tailing them.

As he returned to the girls, Leera waved him over. “Look at this. I think there’re unopened barrels under this rubble.”

They looked at each other and chorused, “Telekinesis?”

Bridget quickly joined in, reminding him of the time they cleared the doorway of Castle Arinthian. Soon rocks were flying everywhere, revealing a series of unopened oaken barrels banded with rusted iron.

“They had to have been meant for market once,” Bridget said, breathing hard from the exertion. “Must have been abandoned by a merchant.”

The first barrel was tightly sealed. They had to wedge the lid open with Blackbite. Inside were rectangular objects, wrapped in boiled linen.

“What could these be?” he asked, unwrapping one. Inside was a hard brown chunk, like solidified dirt.

Leera crinkled her nose. “Is that dung?”

“Gah!” He dropped it, moved on to the next barrel.

Bridget picked it up and nibbled on one corner.

Leera gagged. “Bridge, are you—”

“I don’t believe it. You know what this is—?”

They gaped at her in revulsion.

“It’s biscuit beef!” Bridget tore a chunk off with her teeth. “Must be ancient though.”

Leera picked one up and inspected it. “Wouldn’t it be bad by now?”

“Not biscuit beef, it’s specially made to last through long merchant journeys. I tried it on one of my father’s trade missions to Antioc, though it was much softer. This stuff is
really
expensive.”

Augum tried biting into one. “I think rocks are softer.”

“It’s frozen,” Bridget replied. “Soften it by chewing on it.”

Leera offered a few pieces to the horses. They bit into them immediately. “I think they’re hungry.”

Augum shrugged. “Well, you stick anything in front of a horse’s mouth when it’s starved …”

Leera returned to the barrel. “Enough here to last us a lifetime.” She took another small nip of the one she had started. “Though I think it’ll take me that long to eat just one,” adding with a mutter, “and it still looks like dung.”

The wind howled outside, whistling through cracks in the stone. The last remnants of light faded and they had to use Shine to see. They cleared more debris and opened four other barrels, though the remains of two were fruit that had long rotted away. One had nothing but axe handles. The last held colorful striped wool blankets, probably once destined for some rich linen shop. They quickly wrapped themselves up, sat cross-legged in a circle, and gorged on the beef while going over the days’ events. Outside, the storm turned into a raging blizzard.

When Augum brought up Sydo, Bridget fell silent. When Leera brought up Mya, Augum fell silent. When anyone brought up how to reach Mrs. Stone before the Legion did, everyone fell silent.

“Oh, come on, let’s just talk,” Leera said through chattering teeth, freckled cheeks shining in the watery-blue glow of her palm. “It’ll keep us distracted from the cold. Got nothing better to do anyway.”

Bridget rested her head on her palm. “I thought if I could just
show
him kindness …”

Leera unwrapped another chunk. “Bridge, if a Leyan Karma didn’t work on him …”

“Yeah,” Augum said, “and thanks to his traitorous big mouth, my father now knows acquiring all the scions would destroy him. So we don’t even have
that
as an option anymore.”

Leera waved her beef chunk around as she spoke. “Not to mention your father now also knows there’s a recipe that can build him a portal without a scion.”

“I know, I know,” Bridget said. “I’m just … disappointed.”

“And he’s supposed to be our next king,” Leera muttered. “Great.”

Augum unwrapped his second chunk. “Imagine if the Seers advised Nana to give Sparkstone the scion, but he figures out a way to keep all seven?”

“I think the Seers would
see
that, wouldn’t they?” Leera said. “I mean, isn’t that what they do?”

“Yeah, and wouldn’t they see that he saw—” He blinked. “Forget it. I’m not even going to try.”

“Mrs. Stone is going to ask the Seers how to defeat your father,” Bridget said. “It’s what she told us before she left.”

“Right,” he said. “Otherwise I was supposed to join him and talk him out of it.”

Leera scoffed. “Yeah,
that
would have worked.”

They finished their beef, each lost in thought.

“All right, I have to do some exploring or I’ll freeze to death,” Leera said.

Bridget nodded. “Agreed. Besides, Mrs. Stone told us to practice our spells every day. Pretty sure she meant all of them. Let’s go look for things to cast them on.”

They left everything but Bridget’s Dreadnought dagger behind. Palms lighting their way, the trio searched the area and found a black oaken door with vertical iron strapping. Strangely, it appeared to have no handle or lock. There was no way to open it, not even using Blackbite as a wedge.

“Think it’s arcane?” Augum asked.

“Maybe you have to perform some kind of secret knock or something,” Leera said, examining the frame. They joined her, pawing at the wall for any buttons or hidden levers like the secret passageways in Castle Arinthian.

Bridget finally stepped back with an exasperated sigh. “I’m trying Unconceal.” She splayed her hands out while Augum and Leera shone their palms at the door for her. After a time of silent concentration, she said, “Un vun deo,” and stood there a moment, before letting her hand guide her to a portion of the wall.

“There’s something hidden here.”

They gathered closely as Bridget pushed on a stone. It collapsed inwards into the wall and the door sprung open with a click.

“Nice one.” Leera pulled at the door. The iron hinges shrieked in complaint, the sound reminding Augum of the Legion’s prison.

A spiral staircase hugged the wall of the tower. Strangely, it was muggy and smelled a little like a farmyard. The tower groaned in the muffled roar of the wind.

Leera peered around the cobwebbed steps. “All right, castle know-it-all—what was this place used for?”

“I don’t know, maybe a watchtower or something,” he said.

“Not some foul warlock’s home?”

“Could be …”

“Shyneo.” Bridget’s hand lit up with glowing ivy.

“All right, down or up?” he asked.

“Up,” the girls chorused immediately.

He nodded and led the way, slowly traversing the steps.

They came upon another oaken door embedded in the center portion of the tower. This time there was a simple bronze handle, which Augum turned. The door squeaked as it opened inwards, revealing a spacious round room, the contents of which had completely burned, walls blackened with soot. The only thing visibly undamaged was a massive chandelier in the shape of a caravan wheel, hanging from a high ceiling.

“What a waste of books,” Bridget said, picking up the crispy remains of a leather tome. “Wait—it’s in the arcane tongue.” She and Augum gave Leera an eerie look—perhaps it
was
the tower of some foul warlock after all …

“Let’s search the place,” he said.

The trio flipped over burnt furniture and kicked aside debris, until at last Bridget picked up a yellow book that had mostly survived the flames.

“This one’s in the common tongue.” She pawed at the pages, eyes widening. “You’re not going to believe this, but it’s on the elements!” She began reading a passage. “ ‘The caster must be aware of the potential backlash when invoking the power of the Snaking Vine, for it can entwine her if she is not mindful.’ ” She looked up. “It’s talking about an Earth spell! Do you know what this means? We can now study our elements!”

“Well, at least some of them,” Leera said, picking off a burnt scrap.

“Maybe we can find an unburned copy,” Augum said as Bridget passed it to him. It was a leather-bound tome not unlike Mrs. Stone’s. The index and the first few introductory pages were missing. Still, it covered all the major elements—earth, fire, water, air, ice, lightning, and healing.

“Mya would have loved the section on healing,” Bridget said.

“Can we please stop talking about her?” he said, shoving the book into Leera’s hands. He pretended to search for something in the rubble. He didn’t know why he had reacted that way and felt stupid for doing it.

“Sorry, Augum, I didn’t mean to bring her up. I know how much you cared—”

“—it doesn’t matter, all right? She’s gone, probably being tortured as we speak, and I didn’t even
try
going back to get her.”

“That would have been suicide, and you know it,” Leera said.

“We should have never tried to save that traitor in the first place.” He turned away.

“You’re too hard on yourself,” Leera said quietly. “You’ve done so much. Let it go.”

He didn’t reply.

“Let’s just keep exploring,” Bridget said in a shaky voice, storming past him.

Leera sighed. She gave him an
everything will turn out fine
look before grabbing his sleeve. “Come on.”

They mutely climbed the steps one more level, coming upon another door. Bridget gave Leera a furtive look, cheeks red, patently avoiding Augum’s gaze.

“Fine, I’ll go first.” Leera pushed past Bridget and turned the handle. There was a click and then a strange gurgling sound. Lying on the ground just ahead was a scattering of bones that immediately began joining together.

Leera started backing away. “What in the—RUN!” and run they did, as fast as they could, right back down the steps, Augum fully expecting something to snap at his heels. They finally zoomed through the ground level door, slamming it shut behind them and bracing themselves against it.

The palfreys nickered, retreating a few steps.

“I don’t hear anything—” Leera whispered, only to be shushed by a frowning Bridget. Soon there was a distinctive creaking shuffle that stopped just on the other side of the door.

“It’s right there,” mouthed Leera, pointing at the door.

They held their breath.

“We can’t hold it forever,” Leera whispered finally.

“Maybe it’s only waiting until we let go,” Bridget said.

Augum glanced to Bridget. She averted her eyes.

“Why don’t we come up with a plan?” he asked.

She only shrugged.

Leera glanced between the two of them. “Look, why don’t we quietly back away from the door, one at a time? Maybe it doesn’t even know how to open it, or maybe it’s not allowed to go beyond the tower. Besides, we can arm ourselves with sticks—” she nodded toward the rubble pile by the barrels.

Bridget thought about it a moment. “All right, I’ll go first.” She detached herself from the door and picked up Blackbite.

Augum and Leera braced, listening.

Nothing.

He reached for his hip before realizing Burden’s Edge was with his father. Damn …

Leera edged away from the door next and picked up a barrel slat.

Still nothing.

At last, Augum stepped away. They waited expecting the door to blow open any moment. When it did not, he exchanged relieved looks with Leera. Bridget still wouldn’t make eye contact. Maybe it was what he had said about Sydo, how they should never have tried to save him.

Meanwhile, the walls creaked and groaned in the storm. The air was cooling rapidly, a sharp frost that burned their throats.

Leera tossed the slat aside. “It’s going to be a hard sleep tonight. We’ll need to set watch and start a fire somehow.”

Bridget dropped Blackbite onto the rucksack. “I’m going to look around and see if I can find some lamp oil or flint in one of those barrels. Maybe we can start a fire.”

Leera handed her a blue and red striped wool blanket. “Here, take one of these.”