Morgan’s eyes are hard. ‘There is a way. It’s against the rules, but it hardly matters if we can get to her. Pack some supplies for the Dark and meet me outside in a few.’
He leaves the cottage and I do as he says, throwing some healing potions, bandages, and anything else I can think of that Bryn might need into a small pack.
I leave the cottage, closing the door securely as soon as I’m ready and I find Morgan already there, lurking in the shadows.
‘Well?’ I ask.
He nods and lets something drop from his hand. It’s on a piece of leather twine or a string. I can only just see it in the light. It looks like an amulet of amethyst.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ I ask, knowing that he’ll say yes, though as I stare at it, I can see that it’s a bit larger than the usual ones the Council Five allow us to use during our missions. It has more intricate metalwork around the edges, too.
‘I thought the Underhill keeps them all under lock and key,’ I say. ‘Where did you get that?’
His eyes don’t move from it. ‘It may look similar, but this isn’t one of the ones that belonged to Varrik’s Elites, my friend.’
‘What do you mean?’ I ask, glancing around to make sure we’re not being observed. ‘I thought all the Breach tethers were in the hands of the Council Five.Safein the Underhill, changed so they only go between here and Merediea. How did you get one?’
He raises a brow. ‘Not everyone avoids me. I have a friend here and there. One of them confided to me months ago that they had this. It turned up in a market in the Third Circle. They bought it in case they ever had need of it. Lucky for us. This one can do short journeys anywhere, so long as it’s within a circle or two. The Council Five doesn't know it exists.’
He swings it back into his palm and pockets it. ‘And why should they care? It’s not as if it can open a Breach to the Underhill. They have wards to stop that sort of thing, and their Ring is locked down most of the time.’
‘They’ll care, and you know it.’
‘All the more reason to keep it secret, then,’ he snorts softly.
‘Do you know how to use it?’ I mutter.
‘It’s simple enough,’ Morgan shrugs. ‘You find a place where the veil is thin and the tide strong enough to breach, and it opens the doorway close to the tether.’
‘How do we know we’ll end up in the right place?’ I ask.
‘You think of the right place. If it’s close enough, you get there.’
‘And if it’s not?’
He chuckles. ‘Then you don’t.’
‘Simple enough,’ I echo.
He nods.
‘Where is best?’
Morgan’s eyes stray to the hill. ‘Up there is where we usually come out when we journey from Merediea. It’s where the stone Ring once stood, so it makes sense.’
Without a word, we walk behind our cottage and leave the village, trudging up the bank to where the forest begins. We make it to the summit within minutes and look over the next valley that’s lit by the bright moon.
Morgan puts the amulet on and holds it, closing his eyes and thinking, hopefully, of Merediea, where we’ll begin the search for our female. I think of the same place, just to be safe.
The Breach opens almost in an instant, but it’s not in front of us.
I look around for it, but can’t see its glimmer.
‘Where the fuck is it?’
Morgan steps to the edge of the cliff and lets out a world-weary noise. ‘It’s over the edge here.’
He looks back at me. ‘Don’t miss or you’re dead.’
