Heroes Return (9 page)

But were the tenants correct in their perceptions? That was the question. I didn’t want to think Fiona was actually failing in her duties. I liked her.

Not that it was any of my business. My sole job was to help Taro channel events. It was not my place to even think about politics.

Well, unless things got violent. Then it would become my business whether I liked it or not. I could just see the two of us running from a crowd of furious whalers. They’d all been big and strong and handy with their instruments.

“Sorry about that,” Dane said. “There were many in the community who made it clear they would be unhappy with any titleholder who wasn’t a Karish. There are those who believe there is magic in the bloodlines that protect them.”

“I thought we’d be getting away from the use of casting here,” I said.

He frowned. “Why would you think that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Spells have always worked here.”

That was an odd way to put it. “It only became well-known in High Scape over the past couple of years.” Though there was evidence casting had been practiced by some for years. Maybe generations.

“How odd,” said Dane. “But then, I heard High Scape is an odd place. Everyone so crowded together, it’s sure to make everyone strange.”

What an unusual opinion. “Do you believe spells actually work?”

He looked as though he thought that was a ridiculous question. “Of course.”

Of course. Sometimes I felt like the only person who hadn’t.

Chapter Six

I woke to the sensation of something stroking over my right eyebrow. I opened my eyes, a little befuddled, to see Taro leaning over me.

He smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

I didn’t mind. I felt loose and warm and utterly comfortable. The simple, light touch felt nice. And now that I was awake, his finger moved around more, down the slope of my nose, over my lips, along my jaw.

I smiled at him.

And Lila walked in, cutting short any possible further activity.

That was going to get annoying.

The maid curtsied. “Her Ladyship and His Lordship invite you to join them for breakfast in the sitting room.”

I guessed that meant we were supposed to get up.

“We’ll be there shortly,” Taro told her, and she curtsied again before leaving.

I wondered if that was hard on the knees.

“Are they really supposed to just walk in like that?” I asked as I scrambled out of bed.

“Aye. You’re supposed to ignore them unless you absolutely have to talk to them.”

“But that’s so rude.” All of it. The servants just walking in. Our ignoring them.

“It’s what everyone expects and feels comfortable with, I suppose.”

“I’m not comfortable with it,” I mumbled. And the other side of that coin, it looked like privacy was something else we were losing to this post. Really, was this woman going to be popping in on us all hours of the day?

We found Fiona in the sitting room, drinking coffee, while Dane sat on the floor tormenting his young son by tickling him. The boy was gasping as he laughed and I wondered if that was good for him. They both did seem to be enjoying themselves.

“I’m in the mood to celebrate,” Fiona announced.

“I always enjoy celebrations,” said Taro. “They do make life much less dreary.”

I glanced at him. There was something vapid about his tone. I wondered what, in particular, was bothering him now.

“May I know what you’re celebrating?” I asked.

Fiona grinned. “It appears that none of my tenants are in the habit of casting spells. Or, forgive me, are in the habit of pretending to cast spells.”

So the Guards hadn’t found anything. I was relieved. Flogging was reprehensible, and I would have hated knowing that any of the tenants had suffered it. I agreed that there were people who were trying to cast spells without knowing what they were doing, and that the results could be dangerous, but the way to deal with that, I thought, was to teach people how to do it and build sensible laws regulating the casting of spells. Trying to convince everyone that casting had no power at all seemed futile and foolish.

Fiona rubbed her hands together. “The weather is perfect for visiting the caves. They were opened up by the earthquakes. They’re fascinating.”

“They’re dangerous,” Dane countered.

She waved him off. “Only for idiots. We’ll take precautions.”

I couldn’t help frowning. “You go into caves for . . . entertainment.”

She laughed. “The look on your face! But there’s something astounding in this particular cave. So have some breakfast and change into something sturdy. You won’t regret going, I promise you.”

Crawling through caves would have never been anything I chose to do, but I could think of no polite way to get out of it. So Taro and I ate and changed our clothes and headed out with Fiona. Dane chose to stay behind and play with his son.

We hiked through the hill range and then scrambled up the other side. Fiona was carrying a rope and a lit lantern. I didn’t like the possibilities that leapt to mind concerning the rope. I was not going to be suspended into any hole by a rope. I was putting my foot down at that.

The entrance to the cave wasn’t the circular shape I’d envisioned. It was a strange, irregular shape, as though it had been torn open by the top and bottom of the cliff grinding in opposite directions. The floor wasn’t smooth, either, but full of jagged protrusions. We’d have to be careful about how we walked.

There was an iron peg pounded at the floor of the entrance. Fiona leaned down to tie an end of the rope securely around the peg. “So we can find our way back easily,” she explained.

She went in and I followed her. After a few steps, I realized Taro wasn’t following me, and I looked back. He was standing at the entrance of the cave, his hand against one wall, and his shoulders were slumped. “I can’t go in,” he said.

“Why not?” Fiona asked.

I studied him, or I tried to. I couldn’t really see his face with the sunlight coming in behind him. “Do you feel there is something dangerous about it?”

“There’s not enough air in there.”

“It’s perfectly safe, cousin,” Fiona assured him. “I’ve been here many times.”

“It probably is,” said Taro. “But I can’t go in there.” And he turned and headed back down the hill.

I strode to the mouth of the cave. “Taro,” I called, and he waved at me over his shoulder. It was a dismissive gesture. He didn’t want me following.

“Are you going to go after him?” Fiona asked.

“He wants to be alone.” Or, at least, not with me. I had no idea why he was so alarmed by the cave. Was it the darkness? Was it the weight of all the rock resting on top of us?

I was almost talking myself out of this. But Fiona was looking disappointed. There was something she wanted to show us. I’d feel churlish if I refused now. “He’ll be all right.”

“Maybe when you tell him all about it, he’ll change his mind. Come this way.”

I followed Fiona. Carefully. I tripped twice and had visions of falling face-first into the rocky floor. I might end up with an eye gouged out. It got worse once we took a couple of bends and the sunlight faded.

We definitely needed the rope Fiona was awkwardly unwinding as we walked. The cave, to my surprise, branched off and branched again and turned in on itself. We lost all sunlight and our voices echoed off the walls. Soon our entire world was nothing more than what lay within the glow of the lantern.

“I love it in here,” Fiona said with enthusiasm. “It’s like being in a different world.”

It was indeed. A dark, damp world, where the world I was used to was separated from us by miles of black rock. A world with no color, where our voices scattered into pieces and came back to us in distorted waves.

But really there was nothing to see. We took a few more twists and turns with nothing new happening and I was wondering why we were there.

“Here it is,” Fiona announced. She tucked the rope into a crevice in the floor and held the lantern up.

I gasped. I was looking at a huge cavern with walls covered in chunks of transparent white and blue stones. The chunks varied in size from the size of the tip of my finger to my clenched fist. The floor was covered with them, and so was the ceiling. The light of the lantern bounced off thousands of tiny surfaces. It was beautiful. It was breathtaking. “What kinds of stones are these?” I reached out and carefully touched a few clusters.

“I’m not sure. I’m tempted to think diamonds and sapphires, but I don’t think they develop together like that, and they need polishing to get that shine. But wouldn’t it be amazing if they were?”

“You’d be wealthier than the Emperor.” Or so I guessed. I had no idea how much money the Emperor had.

“Only if I chose to have them mined.”

“You might choose not to?”

“This cave is a wonder. It would be a shame to strip it bare just for the sake of money. I have enough money. That’s one reason I haven’t told any of the tenants or the servants about this place. They might be tempted to come in and take some of this, and end up getting lost in the process. These caves are dangerous if you don’t take care.”

I had to admire her willingness to consider leaving the cavern untouched. While on Flatwell, I had been forced to earn money, as the residents had refused to provide Taro and me with the services and goods that were our due. I had some experience with having no money when money was needed, or having some money and worrying about it running out before I could make some more. I imagined most people, upon finding such a cave, would order it stripped without a second thought.

Of course, Fiona had been wealthy her entire life. Perhaps that gave her a sense of security most other people lacked.

The cavern was not a perfect sphere, of course. There were jagged little alcoves here and there, and I noticed in some of the alcoves strips of solid green. It looked like jade. Really, how had all these different elements been brought together like this?

“I wonder if the Dowager Duchess knows about this. She’d be furious that it wasn’t discovered while under Karish control. She’d spit nails.”

Fiona chuckled. “She’s hilarious when she’s angry.”

Not what I would call it, but Fiona wasn’t as vulnerable to the Dowager as was Taro. “Maybe you should tell her just to torture her.” That would be something I would like to watch.

“Come over here,” said Fiona. She was standing in another of the alcoves, a deeper one, I thought, from the way the light of her lantern was reflected. I carefully made my way over to her and looked at where she was pointing.

The sound I made was not a shriek. Of course, I shouldn’t have made a sound at all, but I’d never seen a skeleton before. The fact that it was still dressed in odd-looking clothing made it all the more grotesque.

Fiona laughed at my nonshriek.

“Who is that?” I demanded.

“I imagine it was someone who was stuck here in an earthquake that shifted all the caves, but of course I can’t be sure.”

“Why hasn’t it been taken out and cremated?”

“It has some historic significance, don’t you think? I’m not sure I should move it.”

“It doesn’t seem right to just leave it there.”

“I’m going to ask Reid to take a look at it when he gets here. I’ll do whatever he suggests.”

There was something in the skeleton’s hand. It was thick and rectangular and made out of a slightly shiny black material that I had never seen before. “What is that, do you know?”

“No idea.”

A thought struck me. “How old do you think this skeleton is?”

“Have no idea about that, either.”

In my excitement, I couldn’t help touching her arm. “Do you think it could be one of the First Landed?”

Her eyebrows rose. “That doesn’t seem likely, does it? Surely the skeleton would have completely disintegrated by now.”

I knew nothing about that sort of thing. “The clothes are strange.” All black with pockets in weird places, like down the leg of the trousers. “That’s some kind of little machine.” That was one of the First Landed. I was sure of it. A professor at the Academy had had little machines that belonged to the First Landed that had been similar in size and shape.

I stared down at the skeleton. I wondered whether it was male or female. I wondered what his name was, and what he thought of our world. What had his occupation been? Did his language sound anything like what we spoke? Had he had family? Was he happy to be here?

I reached out to touch the machine. The skeleton’s finger fell off.

I shrieked then, I wouldn’t deny it, and I jumped. I fell against Fiona, who dropped the lantern as she grabbed onto the wall to keep her balance. The lantern smashed and we were drowned in darkness.

“Hell!” said Fiona, her voice sounding distant in the thick, pressing darkness.

I couldn’t see anything, no matter how hard I stared. I couldn’t remember how we’d gotten there or where the entrance back to the cave mouth was in relation to our position. How the hell were we going to find our way out?

“Stay right here,” said Fiona. “I’m going to find the rope.”

“It’s pitch-black in here,” I said unnecessarily.

“That’s why I want you to stay where you are. So I can find you again.”

Really, I couldn’t even see any shadows or traces of light anywhere. This was a nightmare. I’d known this was a bad idea.

Where was the skeleton’s finger?

I listened to Fiona. I heard her carefully leave the alcove. I heard her swear under her breath. I heard her slowly shifting along the floor of the cave. What if she left me? She might end up scuffing away, down one of the paths I’d seen running off in different directions. And then she would get lost and no one would find either of us.

I was so stupid. This was all my fault. It had been ridiculous of me to jump that way just because that skeleton’s finger fell off. I wasn’t a child. I was a Shield, damn it. I was supposed to stay calm at all times, especially in the face of the unexpected.