Chapter 49: Mountain Secrets

We followed the cave deeper and deeper into the mountain. Hammer had called the place a tunnel, but it looked natural enough to me. I guess I wouldn’t have any idea what a Formid tunnel would look like. Maybe something else made this one?

We passed a few small offshoots. Some were dead-ends I could see down, and others curved off to who knows where. Long, pale centipedes and other smaller cave fauna skittered and shifted around in the darkness.

Years ago, human me would have been terrified to walk through a place like this. I could almost imagine Abby pretending to put a centipede in my hair. Now, though, I could see clearly through the dark. Although, without light, the colors had all faded like a threadbare shirt washed too many times. The only worry I had was scraping my horns along the ceiling when the tunnel constricted.

Next to me, Seyari was quiet. Her gently glowing eyes lit up enough of her face for me to see her anxiousness.

“You nervous?” My voice echoed down the tunnel ahead of us.

Seyari looked up at me. “A bit. Lost Era ruins have a reputation for some nasty lingering magic. Mostly, I’m worried about what we’ll find.”

The tunnel shrank suddenly and I barely ducked in time. “What do you mean?”

“I’m nervous about what we could learn. Between you and Lilly and what Aretan told me, I’m finding out that demons are a lot more complex than I thought I knew. They’re also much more present. I had no idea something like Ov, the Sovereign of Apathy, existed, if Lilly was telling the truth.” Seyari answered with a sigh.

“Ov scares me,” I admitted. “The Sovereign of Conceit—Utraxia or whatever her name was—does too. I don’t really want to get dragged into all this.”

“But you probably don’t have a choice.” Seyari finished my thought for me. “We’ll learn what we can. I want to know the Lost Era’s relationship with demons.”

“Yeah, same.” I thought back to where I got my Name and title. “I wonder if demons were different back then? At least a little.”

Seyari hummed in thought. “Maybe. I doubt many were like you. No offense.”

“None taken.” I smiled.

The tunnel wound on for what seemed like kilometers. I hadn’t noticed much of a change in elevation either. The cave creatures started to thin out was we went along.

Carefully, I reached a hand behind Seyari and flicked her hair. She shook her head.

“Hey Sey?” I tried to sound nervous.

“Yeah?”

“There’s a centipede in your hair.”

“No there isn’t.” Seyari deadpanned.

I pouted.

After only a few more minutes of walking, we saw light at the end of the tunnel. Oddly enough, it looked like daylight. We picked up the pace.

The light was daylight. The cave opened into the side of a small valley. Steep cliffs surrounded the vale on all sides. Stunted pines gathered around a small, placid tarn at the center. On the far side loomed an immense façade carved into the rock.

From the distance, my sharp eyes could pick out huge columns and statues that were vaguely humanoid, though their features eluded me.

Seyari and I shared a glance, then began to make our way downhill. The valley was cast in shade from the mountains, but we knew the time to be evening.

“We should make camp,” Seyari said as we walked between twisted trees that were barely twice my height.

“What’s wrong with going in at night?” I asked, looking toward the ruin that was mostly obscured by trees. “It’ll be just as dark in there during the day.”

“I want to know if the valley is dangerous beforewe’re exhausted from whatever we had to fight in there and need to make camp in a hurry.”

“Where’d all the excitement go?” I asked, but set my packs down in a flat place a dozen or so meters from the mirror-like surface of the alpine lake.

“Concern killed it.” Seyari began to clear away pine needles.

“I will mourn its memory,” I nodded solemnly, then looked again to the water. “Think there are any fish in that lake?”

Seyari got out the tent Lilly had given us. “Maybe?”

I walked to the tarn and looked down into the clear water. The gravel bottom was easily visible, as were a few small fish that darted into a patch of weeds. The water didn’t look deep, but the fish didn’t look big either. The pool was maybe twenty meters across. An empty streambed led into it.

The lake was surely a lot bigger in early spring with the snowmelt. Before I turned around, I caught a glimpse of a larger fish further in. I dipped a hand into the water. Cold!

The sight of the bigger fish had me excited. I helped Seyari set up camp, then took off my shoes and rolled up my trousers. I managed to find a branch and made a fire-hardened tip at the end. I hadn’t fished like this since I was back on the island. The water there had been a lot warmer.

My reflexes were even better than I remembered, even if my motions were rusty. By the time the shade across the valley had turned to dusk, I had managed to catch a fish big enough for a meal. Seyari’s wind magic and my fire magic helped me get dry and cozy soon after.

Seyari and I sat by our tent, and cooked the fish over a fire. The valley would be idyllic of not for what we both knew lay beyond the trees and across the tarn. The evening was peaceful and the valley was silent. We spoke more about the past, but also the future.

“I haven’t been to northeast Ordia. Is it really just across the mountains?” I asked, looking up at the stars.

“Yes and no,” Seyari replied easily. “The Empire considers the region to be its territory, but there are few roads and many of the towns have little or no Imperial presence. At least that’s the way it was a few decades ago, especially close to the mountains.”

I flicked my tail tip idly. “Didn’t you grow up in the region?”

“The northeastern forest is a big place. Where I grew up was in the southwest of the forest.”

“Oh. We’ll be heading that way to get to Lockmoth, won’t we?” I thought about Aretan and Nelys, then about Seyari’s goal. “Will we be close to Mordwell’s estate?”

“Mordwell’s estate isn’t too far out of the way. I want to finish my business there before we go to Lockmoth.” Seyari’s tone turned bitter.

“Do you think we can just walk there? If Lorelei and Markus have told him about us, won’t he be expecting you? I can’t change my height and that’s a dead giveaway if someone knows what they’re looking for.”

Seyari took a moment to think. “No one ever crosses these mountains. If we stay away from major towns and roads, we can get close without him knowing. The smaller towns are too isolated to need to worry about.”

“What then? Won’t he have guards? I don’t want to kill people who might be innocent.” I looked down at Seyari who was staring into the fire with a frown.

The half-angel let out a long sigh. “I think…I think I only want to kill him. Maybe that’ll be enough. We’ll find a way to get Mordwell alone.”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Not yet.”

I turned from looking at Seyari to stare into the fire. The flames held no answers. I worried for Seyari.

We put out the fire and Seyari went to bed shortly after our conversation died. I was first watch tonight, and alone with my thoughts. Seyari’s words rattled around in my head uncomfortably.

“Maybe that’ll be enough.”

What could I even say to that?

I didn’t want to dissuade her from killing Mordwell. Bastard deserved it from everything Seyari had told me. But the fixation on Mordwell had me worried for Seyari’s mental wellbeing. And I was the wrath demon here! She’d been carrying this burden for decades. I had to hope she knew she was loved no matter what.

I also worried over who else we would run into. Lorelei had said she and Markus would find us again. If they were waiting at the estate…

I thought back to the look Salvador had given me that night in Port Princely. He had a reason to let me go. Similarly, there had to be a way to get through to Lorelei and Markus. If Lorelei knew Mordwell’s past, she wouldn’t be working with him. For all of that woman’s duplicity, her zealotry was no lie.

I kept thinking about what I could say to Lorelei until I had to wake Seyari for her turn at watch. She looked more tired than I would have expected.

“Did you sleep okay?” I whispered.

Seyari yawned. “No. Nightmare.”

“What about?” I slipped past her into the tent.

“Demons. I don’t remember much.” Seyari took her place and poked the cooled embers with a stick.

“Want a second layer?” I asked into the chill of the night air.

Seyari nodded and I grabbed a cloak from the tent for her. She wrapped herself up and took a seat on a log by the fire. I returned to the tent and laid down in our bedroll. The fabric was warm and sleep took me quickly.

***

I dreamt I was back on the Swordfish with Lorelei’s expedition. I doubt I would have noticed the inconsistencies that mixed it with my time on the Lady of Liseu, and a river trip I took with my family when I was a child. I doubt I would have noticed except for the presence.

The presence dragged me into lucidity even though I was still very much dreaming. My sister Tania had been arguing with Lorelei over something Aarsh had said, when I came to the sudden realization I was in a dream.

I looked down and saw a familiar clothed bust and four red arms. No one on the ship had been panicking!

The presence pushed into my awareness again and ruined the mood. I looked for anything amiss in my dream. Now that I was lucid, a lot of what I saw didn’t make sense. I couldn’t find the presence immediately.

My gaze landed on Seyari. She was sitting at the prow, a gorgeous pair of massive off-white feathered wings folded neatly behind her.

The presence slammed into me angrily.

“How dare you!”

I didn’t hear words, but I could feel an intent. I could easily imagine a sneer on a face I couldn’t see.

“Remove that…that thing!”

The presence tried to nudge me toward Seyari. It was weak, but I nearly stumbled forward in surprise. I wheeled on it and saw a dark mass clouding my dreamscape.

Without hesitation, I tore into the mass. My claws ripped through it and my fire burned away the remaining wisps of dark fog.

Even as the fog dispersed, I could still feel its contempt. Around me, the dream fell away to nothing, and my mind returned to sleep.

***

I awoke to Seyari gently shaking a shoulder. I blinked the fog out of my eyes only to find the tent was full of fog as well. I followed my girlfriend outside. A thick fog covered the ground up to my waist. The lake in front of us was entirely obscured under the dark gray sheet. The surrounding mountains cast the valley in shade, creating an eerie atmosphere.

“This rolled in suddenly about an hour ago.” Seyari kept her voice defiantly loud into the still morning. The strange timbre of her angelic half resonated clearly. “It’s not natural, but the magic in it is faint.”

I looked at the fog with my aura sight. There was a faint, icy blue tinge to the edges of it that disappeared when I returned to my normal vision.

“That might be my fault,” I admitted. “I dreamt of a presence that wanted you gone.”

Seyari’s lips drew into a thin line. “That’d explain the nightmares. What happened in your dream?”

I tried to recall, but the dream was vague and fading. “I tore the presence apart. I don’t remember much else.”

“Good,” Seyari nodded, then groaned. “Shit. At least we know there’s something dangerous here, but damnit, I wish it wasn’t expecting us.”

I tried to see a bright side. “Neither of us wanted to go in last night.”

“Bullshit. You did and my caution kept us out here.” Seyari began to take the tent down.

I joined her. “I guess. I had a nice evening, so it was worth it. Whatever’s in there is probably all bark and no bite.”

The corner of Seyari’s mouth tweaked upward. “Thanks. Let’s hope for that. And if it isn’t, we’ll kick its ass anyway.”

I smiled broadly at Seyari, showing teeth. “That’s the spirit!”

We finished taking down our campsite, then secured the packs in a memorable-looking tree. I did keep a small bag containing food with me, just in case. After that, I steeled myself for what was to come. We walked carefully around where we knew the tarn to be, and up toward the ruins.