Vormalt’s brow furrowed as he seemed to consider the possibility. “Well, you’re too late to stop anything. If that’s what you care about. Is it? The gnomes are the villains. Youshouldbe on my side.”
“How are they villains?” Rylana asked, though his note about themass delusion of the new godfloated through her mind.
“They’ve been duping everyone in Tranquility for centuries. Not just Tranquility. Around theworld, people believe there’s really a new god, that the old gods stepped aside or went dormant for his creation. Didn’t you see my notes?”
“No, you interrupted my reading. And having cursed stones falling over left and right is distracting as well.” Rylana waved toward the freshly toppled slab.
Vormalt blinked and peered out of the tunnel and toward it. “Isthatwhat I heard? I thought the pyramid was coming down.”
“So, it wasn’t me calling your name that brought you out of hiding?”
“No, though I was perturbed to find you reading my notes.”
“You shouldn’t have left your diary out in the open in a public space if you didn’t want anyone reading it.”
“This is hardly apublic space, and my horse was supposed to keep an eye on it.” Vormalt frowned as he looked behind her. “Whereismy horse? You let him go?”
“He broke his lead because he was scared.”
“Of you? I know you said you were a mercenary in the war, but I assume you don’t molest friendly horses.”
“There are dragons in the area.”
Vormalt snorted and waved a dismissive hand.
“What are you trying to find in the pyramid?” Rylana asked. “More troll idols to tip over? Is that all you did under the castle, or did you unleash… something else?”
“The temple under your library is one of the two original troll-god shrines around the lake.”
“The room next to our root cellar was a troll-god shrine?”
“Yes. There used to be tombs down there too, from what my research suggested. Someone might have moved them before covering that area up, but they didn’t dare touch the idols, I assume.” Vormalt eyed her sword and also the bow staff and feathered arrows poking up over her shoulder. “I’ll be happy to tell you more if you’re on my side, but I’m not sure that you are. I can’t imagine why you’d want to defend the gnomes, but…”
“I don’t know if I do or not. This is all new to me, and I’msuspicious of you. How long have you been scheming to tear up the library floor and get down there?”
“It’s notthattorn up. The map I recently stumbled across by the architect who designed Avandar Castle eight hundred years ago helped me locate the spot. Before that, I wasn’t even sure if itwasunder the library. That just seemed about the right place based on my earlier research.”
“Howmuchearlier? Was it perhaps seventeen or eighteen years earlier?”
Vormalt smiled. “If you’re asking if my desire to wed you and be invited to move into your family’s castle was motivated by this…” He spread his hand vaguely.
“Was it? I’ve never been the most beautiful woman in the city, and I’m positive I never oozed infatuated adoration for you, even when I was a teenager.”
“You used to think I was pretty sexy, as I recall.” His smile turned into a smug smirk.
Rylana almost blurted that he was misremembering the past, but she had, perhaps for a time, been drawn by his handsome face. It wasn’t as if he’dforcedher into kissing him down by the lake or that she hadn’t gone willingly with him when he’d drawn her into the boathouse. Her cheeks heated, chagrin and embarrassment mingling at the memory of her naïveté.
“You’re all right,” Rylana relented in saying, mostly because she wanted Vormalt to keep talking and explain everything. He would be less likely to do that if she was hostile and made it clear she would oppose him. Thatwasher instinctive reaction toward whatever he was scheming, but if the new god really was a hoax—could that be true?—would opposing him be the right choice? She couldn’t get on board with crime and coercion, but had he unearthed something that people should know about? “Do you want your blackmail notes back?” she offered. “What’s in the pyramid?”
“Blackmail. Really. As if I’d be so crude. But, yes, I would like?—”
A large shadow passed over the knoll, and Vormalt broke off.
Rylana looked up and swore. It was a dragon, and it wasn’t Jildarin.
10
The black dragoncircled the top of the knoll, baleful amber eyes looking down on the ruins site with disdain. Vormalt scurried back into the tunnel of the pyramid. As Rylana searched the sky for Jildarin, thinking he wouldn’t let his aunt come molest her without stepping in, she traded the journal for her bow and eased an arrow out of her quiver.
