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By now, Sabium would know I was gone. Every guard in Eprotha would be searching for me. My stomach clenched with a new, unwelcome feeling.
It wasn’t fear. No, I knew the feeling of terror intimately. I was used to it choking my throat and burrowing deep into my bones.
No. This was something else. Something that might have been regret. This plan had seemed so simple, so…necessary from the safety of the castle. Now, I was entirely alone.
At least, I would be. As soon as Nelia removed herself from the vicinity.
Nelia’s mouth went slack. “And leave you here?” Her gaze flicked to the yawning mouth of Lyrishade, waiting below us.
It stretched wide, an imposing abyss cut into the base of the mountain like a gaping black wound. The guards had changed shifts since we arrived, and they strolled the perimeter of the mine, expressions bored.
If I hadn’t already known that Lyrishade was where the final amulet was hidden, the glaring lack of workers coming and going from this mine would have roused my suspicions.
“Listen to me,” I said. “My power is weak. I must be fiercely focused in order to use it, and I have only ever been able to hide my own presence.”
That was more explanation than I would have given most people, but Nelia had greatly sacrificed for me.
Her face drained of color. “Then I will wait for you,” she said.
“You will not. Go, Nelia.” I handed her a purse, filled with enough coin to make her a rich woman in any kingdom.
Her hand shook as she took it. “Please, Your Majesty.”
“I won’t tell you again.”
Her eyes flickered with pain and what looked like betrayal. But she firmed her lips and nodded. “May the gods be with you.”
She turned her horse, her head held high. And I returned my attention to the mine entrance.
That same feeling burned through me. This decision was stupid. Reckless. Pelysian had been right.
And yet, I couldn’t stop myself. Sabium would never expect me to come here. This was perhaps the one possibility he hadn’t prepared for.
Tying my horse’s lead rope to a low branch, I slipped back through the forest and down the bank. It took several long minutes before I could even risk using my power. The more guards I had to keep track of, the more eyes I needed to turn from my presence, the quicker my power would drain.
I couldn’t risk being trapped inside the mine.
Finally, as the sun began its slow descent, it was time. My power came to me quickly for once, and the location of each guard appeared in my mind.
Now.
I kept my pace purposeful without running. Running drew attention that would cost me more power to hide. And I would need to sprint from the edge of the forest into the entrance of the mine. Slipping between trees, I waited until the guard closest to the entrance turned his back.
Another guard was approaching, but my gut told me it had to be now.
I sprinted, stumbling over the uneven ground. I hadn’t run since I was a child, and my form was poor.
I was footspans from the entrance when the guard began to turn.
I leaped, crashing through the open entrance and into the darkness beyond.
Hitting the ground with my entire body, I stifled a groan, attempting to catch my breath.
It was cold within the mine, the chill sliding beneath my clothes, stroking along my skin. Light orbs flickered soft illumination against the imposing dark, casting feeble glows every few footspans. The ground beneath me was a mosaic of fragmented stone and compressed dirt, and I dragged myself to my feet, forcing myself to continue.
Scaffolding lingered on the peripheries, once used to aid miners in their relentless excavation. Now, there was nothing but this strange emptiness.
Ahead, dimly lit passageways forked. I turned right, then left, carefully memorizing my choices. The rock ceiling turned jagged, pressing down as if to entomb me here.
