The weather above the basin wasn't helping. The sky had settled into a dark, oppressive gray that seemed to be building from the northwest, not a skarveld, but possible. The air had a certain quality, damp and electric, that made the hair on my arms stand up beneath my layers.
I looked up. Then at the basin. Then at the tunnel entrance in the far rock face.
We didn't have as long as Marson thought we had.
“Captain.” I crossed to him. “Whatever you're cataloging, do it quickly. The weather is turning.”
He followed my gaze to the sky. “How long?”
“Enough. If we're efficient.” I looked at his men. “They need to stop getting wet.”
He turned back to his soldiers and began redistributing them with a crisp efficiency I'd come to associate with him.
I stepped back and let him work.
Somewhere to my left, a soldier cursed as another spout caught him across the shoulders. Someone else laughed, briefly, their laughter cut short when they were the next one to be doused.
I stood at the edge of it, felt the pull in my chest, the weather building above, and the thing in the tunnel below, and thought that of all the places I had ever led a group, this one was the most insistent on being left alone.
“We’ll lead them from the mouth of the tunnel, far enough away from the basin to get dry, but not too far to get distracted,” Nicco said to my left. I turned my head and saw he was talking to Larana. “They can’t go any farther in,” he stressed.
“I’ll let them know.”
She slipped past him to talk to the others, and I watched him quietly as he stared out across the basin.
His eyes flicked to mine. “Anyone ever tell you staring was rude?”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a pain in the ass?”
I saw him smile briefly. “Every day, bunny. Stick to the front of the opening. I want to see you at all times.”
“I’m not interested in stealing ice rocks.”
Nicco walked closer. “Why? You don’t want money?”
I gave him a flat stare. “You’ve seen my kingdom and the people who employ me, right?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head. “Then why would I need a diamond? Who in the shades in my line of work could afford to buy it from me?” I shook my head as I looked at the gemstones in the rock. “I wouldn’t even be able to give them away. They’re worthless to me.”
He looked amused and confused. “You need to broaden your horizons, think bigger.”
“I like the way I think.”
He chuckled. “Stay where I can see you. Tonight, we may actually stay dry.”
Now see, staying dry,thatwas worth something.
The storm passed, and we stayed dry. It had been nearly impossible to sleep at first at the entrance without going farther down into the mine. Nicco and Baxley had slept awfully close to me, almost boxing me in. I hadn’t commented on their proximity, and neither had said a word in their defense.
In the morning, the soldiers resumed cataloging the rock faces, moving along the basin walls with the careful efficiency of men given a task and carrying it out without understanding its purpose. Captain Marson was directing them with a watchfuleye. They’d also learned to stay away from the basin. Instead, they crept along the edge, pressing against the walls to avoid the spouts.
I stood at the edge of the basin and looked at the column's location — or where I imagined it to be, beneath us in the dark — and felt the pulse still resonating in my chest, a rhythm that wasn't quite my heartbeat and wasn't quite not.
“Amarya.”
I turned to Baxley.
