Barb Hendee - Through Stone and Sea

"Keep that covered," Chane said. "We do not want to attract attention."

Wynn bit her tongue at his needless reprimand. With the crystal couched between her palms, she stepped farther into the chamber.

Stout wooden doors were set deep in the openings ahead and to the right. Both had iron bar handles but no locks. Even so, could Shade know how to open them, let alone close either? Impossible. But the arch on the left was doorless.

Wynn headed through it, finding herself at the bottom of a short flight of stairs. At the top, a narrow passage turned right. Overall, this path headed toward the stage, not away from it. She squeezed the crystal in one hand and spun away, slumping against the dark chamber's side wall.

"This is pointless," she said. "We should wait for Shade to reappear."

Chane hung by the room's entrance, watching outside. "What if Mallet misses us?"

"We'll tell him we were looking around and got lost."

Chane glanced at her in frustration. "This could be our only chance. How often does a thänæ die?"

How often indeed?

"I can't let the duchess see me!"

Losing track of Shade was her fault. Bit by bit, her continual failures were destroying their chances of ever getting a lead on the texts.

Chane returned to watching out of the chamber's entrance, leaving Wynn alone in turmoil. Then he snapped his fingers once. She straightened as he gestured outside. Shoving the crystal in her pocket, she drew closer.

"There," he whispered, "at the tunnel where we first came in."

Wynn leaned slightly against the arch's other side.

Shade's head peeked out of the tunnel as she swiveled it, looking around the amphitheater floor.

"Shade!" Wynn called as softly as she could. "Here!"

But the dog didn't seem to hear. All the bustle of setting up the wake made too much background noise.

A sharp, piercing tone made Wynn jump and turn.

Chane uttered another brief whistle. Wynn turned back in time to see Shade's ears stand up. As Shade looked over, Wynn crouched, waving to the dog around the entrance's side. Shade slunk along the side wall, all the way to the chamber's entrance, and Wynn dropped to her knees in relief.

"Where have you been?" she demanded, grasping the dog's face.

Shade's pink tongue flipped quickly out over her nose.

A barrage of images hit Wynn so suddenly she wavered on her knees. She saw clearly through Shade's eyes.

At first, she saw the Stonewalkers carrying Hammer-Stag's body through the exit off the stage. Then she saw herself standing on the amphitheater floor, talking to Chane. It was unsettling, as if she'd become disembodied, a spirit of herself watching herself. Then she was moving away, weaving through a forest of stout dwarven legs.

When she reached the wall, she began examining low drainage openings, but they were too small to crawl into. Even stranger than this experience through Shade's eyes was the strong feeling that accompanied these memories. She could feel Shade's desperation, her need to search.

Then the floor began to rush past beneath her charcoal-colored paws.

She headed back for the tunnel through which they'd first entered. Instead of continuing to the outside street, she turned at the first side passage. She trotted in the same direction that the Stonewalkers had traveled upon leaving the stage and suddenly slowed to listen.

Distant footfalls on stone echoed faintly from down the passage. She quickened her pace to track them.

She padded down corridors, turning at intersections and creeping down stairs, always listening for heavy booted feet, until finally, she peered around a corner. Wynn could smell earthy, musky sweat and leather, as if her nose were shoved right into it. But the closest people she saw were …

Halfway down the passage, on the left side, the duchess and her entourage stood near a wide arch in the side wall. Stonewalkers stood beside them, bearing Hammer-Stag's litter.

Wynn couldn't tell what they waited for, but then she heard metal grinding on stone. When it stopped, the Stonewalkers carried the litter through the arch, vanishing from sight. The duchess and her companions remained.

Wynn found herself watching the back of a tall, white-robed elf. When he turned around with a frown, his slanted almond-shaped eyes searching, she quickly backed around the corner and lost sight of everyone.

The grinding came again, echoing softly down the passage, but she remained in hiding. Suddenly everything blurred for an instant as she—as Shade—rushed around the corner and down the passage.

A pair of iron doors were closing deep inside the arch as they slid out from the sides. She caught only a glimpse of Cinder-Shard before the portal clanged shut.

A blur followed, as if the memory skipped quickly forward in time.

Wynn felt cold metal against her ear as she leaned her head, her muzzle flattened against the doors. From inside came another sound like metal on stone, but different—rhythmic, and softly pounding, like quick, even steps. It grew louder, closer, and then stopped altogether.

She heard voices beyond the doors.

One was higher in pitch than the others. It had to be the duchess. But why had she gone in with the Stonewalkers? She'd paid her respects and left with them, but Wynn assumed that was only to avoid being caught in the crowd. Hadn't she gone her own way?

Everything went dark.

The memory ended so quickly that Wynn tottered on her knees. She wrapped her arms around Shade's neck, her thoughts reeling with all that she'd seen and heard.

News of Hammer-Stag's death couldn't have reached the duchess so quickly in Calm Seatt. So why was a member of the royal family here among the dwarves? How had she known the thänæ, and had she gone with the Stonewalkers, or passed beyond those iron doors along some other route?

Wynn leaned back, holding Shade's face, and whispered, "Clever girl!"

"What?" Chane asked.

"She saw where they went," Wynn answered. "At least the doors they passed through somewhere beyond the stage. If we can get through them, perhaps we can follow their trail."

She hadn't seen how the iron doors functioned, but maybe Shade had missed something.

Chane was studying both of them.

"Can she lead us there?" he asked.

"Right now? Tonight?"

Though eager, Wynn wavered with doubt. The amphitheater's floor was filling with dwarves who would feast and drink late into the night.

"Wynn?" a deep voice called out.

She leaned around Shade's tall form and looked out of the chamber's entrance. Shirvêsh Mallet wandered among the tables, searching, and he didn't look happy about doing so.

"Do not call to him," Chane whispered. "We cannot pass up this opportunity."

Wynn was tempted to agree, but she couldn't.

"We can't alienate him anymore. We may need his aid. If we can't find a way to follow, he's our only link to learn what happened to Hammer-Stag … and maybe why the duchess is here. She seems favored among the religious castes of the seatt."

Wynn stood, about to leave. Chane opened his mouth to argue, but she shook her head. He closed his eyes in resignation, and she stepped out into plain sight.

"We're here," she called.

Chane stepped out as well as Mallet closed on them, his bushy white eyebrows raised.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked.

Wynn searched for a quick answer. "Giving you a little time with the others. I know Hammer-Stag was dear to you as well, and we didn't want to intrude."

Mallet's expression softened. "Never mind such things. I have said my farewells, and we should leave the family and friends to their feasting and telling."

"Of course," Wynn agreed, glancing at Chane.

Mouth tightly set, he followed as they headed out.