Barb Hendee - Through Stone and Sea

Wynn's strength of will faltered and vertigo overwhelmed her. She shut her eyes and crumpled as strong arms wrapped around her. Shade began to growl.

"Get back!" Chane hissed.

At a clack of jaws, Wynn jerked sideways in Chane's hold. She lifted her head, just barely opening her eyes.

There was Shade, a glistening dark form haloed in blue-white. Her irises burned with so much light they made Wynn's head spin even worse. But the dog ceased snarling.

Shade wasn't looking at Chane; she looked straight into Wynn's eyes.

A sudden memory rose in Wynn's head—not an image, but a sensation. A warm, wet tongue dragging repeatedly over her face, as if her eyes were still closed. They had been closed—at another time—when she'd used mantic sight to track Chap in the elven forest of the an'Cróan.

"Put me down," she whispered.

She tried sinking to her knees, and Chane lowered her.

Shade lunged in so quickly that Wynn grabbed the dog's neck in panic. Shade lashed her tongue over Wynn's face, and Wynn shut her eyes tight, feeling a wet warmth drag over her lids.

Nausea faded as she clutched Shade's neck.

She didn't know how Shade had learned Chap's trick for smothering mantic sight, but when the vertigo finally subsided, despair remained.

"Are you well?" Chane asked. "What was she doing?"

Wynn quietly hugged Shade.

"Wynn?" Chane urged. "Your sight?"

"It's gone," she whispered.

But the iron doors were still closed. There was no other way into that chamber.

"After all this," she went on, "going to Sea-Side, Hammer-Stag's death, seeing the Stonewalkers … we've lost again."

She had hoped Shade's lead might play out and keep her from a crueler plan. Wynn slumped against Shade.

Chane crouched beside her.

"It is not over," he whispered. "I wager Welstiel and I breached as many doors as … Leesil. But we used a mix of intimidation and manipulation. You and I simply have to find another… ."

He never finished, and Wynn sat up, still holding Shade. "What?"

"Ore-Locks!" he rasped. "What a fool I am!"

"What about him?"

His eyes narrowed like those of a predator that had finally cornered its prey. Wynn didn't care for the expression at all.

"You said Sliver told you her brother used to come to the smithy," he went on. "The smithy is on the mountain's other side."

"Yes … and?"

"Stonewalkers came to the amphitheater in Old-Seatt … supposedly without being called. Yet as you pointed out, there is no lift up from Sea-Side to Old Seatt."

Wynn felt some connection emerging but wasn't certain to what. "The settlements are far apart," she returned in confusion. "Mallet says no one ever sees Stonewalkers."

"Do you not see it?" Chane urged. "How do they appear at such distant places without being spotted or using the trams? If they used an access point here, behind these doors, then how did Ore-Locks visit his family? There has to be—"

And they finished together—"another portal at Sea-Side."

"Perhaps one at each settlement," Chane added.

Wynn blinked slowly in self-spite. "I should've reasoned that myself."

"This is not our usual scholarly pursuit." Then he shook his head. "Even if we find another portal, it might be no different from what we have here. No guards, no visible locks or bars … and no way through."

Why did he always do that, make helpful suggestions and then cut them apart? Before Wynn said as much, he rocked back on his heels.

"There is nothing for us here," he said. "But Sliver's visitation gives us an invitation."

"I've already considered that."

She stood up under Chane's suspicious attention. Another failure tonight, and at another cost—this time Chane's sword. It might not be the last price to pay.

"To Seaside?" he asked.

"We'll need our gear from the temple first."

When she turned about, Shade was already waiting at the passage's first turn. Wynn was too obsessed to give this any thought.

Again, Sau'ilahk waited outside the amphitheater. He had followed Wynn from the temple and watched as the trio entered, but he went no farther. He did not know the interior's layout and feared being seen if he simply appeared in the open floor to get his bearings.

Conjuring even one servitor would cost him too much. His energies were so low that the effort might drive him straight into dormancy. He feared losing Wynn, if she found a way through the doors, but keeping his continued existence secret outweighed all other concerns.

If she did not emerge, he would have to wait until the late hours before dawn and attempt to search on his own. He might still track where she had gone. He also needed to feed, to eat life, and doing so here upon the open mountaintop was risky.

Waiting gnawed at him, but being so close to the end of suffering made it impossible to alter his state of mind. As the moon reached its zenith, muted voices grew inside the closest tunnel, and he pulled back between the buildings.

Wynn stepped out of the amphitheater with her companions.

What had she learned? Had she found a path to this "underworld," whatever or wherever it might be? If so, had she already taken the way and returned? It seemed unlikely.

Sau'ilahk saw no great defeat in Wynn's face as she paced purposefully down the street. He saw no triumph either. With no one else about this late, he easily shadowed the trio along parallel paths. Again, they took the lift back down, but when they reached Sea-Side's station, they paused before the mouth of the great market cavern.

Where was Wynn leading them?

After a brief exchange, Chane left, trotting up the street out of sight. Wynn remained with Shade at the far side of the cavern's entrance.

Sau'ilahk kept his distance beyond the way station. In a short while, Chane returned, bearing three packs. Sau'ilahk suffered a moment of panic.

She was leaving. Had she given up, after all of his efforts to steer her onward?

Wynn turned into the cavern with her companions, and Sau'ilahk's thoughts went blank for an instant. He drifted closer in a staggered glide between side streets. At this time of night, few people milled about the multitiered market. When he reached the edge of the cavern's mouth, Wynn was heading for the tunnel to the tram station.

But why?

He blinked through dormancy as he focused upon a memory of the dark tunnel beyond the tram. Awaking there, he waited nerve-racking moments before she reappeared. The trio headed directly for the platform to Sea-Side.

Sau'ilahk backed halfway into the tunnel wall, watching.

It was a while before a tram arrived. The dog held back, curling its lips, as Wynn attempted to drag it on board. Chane tried to assist, and did, if only because the dog wheeled away from him and, by doing so, ended up inside the car. All three were seated, and the lead car's massive crystal ignited amid belching clouds of steam.

Wynn was going back to Sea-Side.

All this sudden change filled Sau'ilahk with uncertainty. With no time to replenish himself, and too little energy to conjure a servitor to eavesdrop, he had but one choice.

Sau'ilahk followed blindly after the tram as it raced beyond him.

Near dusk the following day, Wynn stood clinging to the sun-crystal staff before the passage to the Iron-Braids' smithy. Shade sat expectantly nearby while Chane leaned against the wall with his eyes barely open.

They'd arrived in Sea-Side before dawn and procured two rooms at the same inn as their last visit. A decent place close to the station, it was the only one with which they were familiar. They'd slept much of the day, but before retiring, Chane had insisted that Wynn wake him by late afternoon. He believed Sliver would be less trouble if they approached during business hours, and with possible patrons about, she might be less confrontational.