She shook her head, and he gestured toward his friend. “This is Lieutenant Daris of House Kindan, my second in command. Daris, this is Rowan.”
Of course, he was a lordling. House Kindan. She’d heard of it even out in Toam.
Daris’s smile was quick and sharp. “A pleasure to see you again, Miss Yahl.”
Her gaze shot to Casrian. Betrayal twisted like a knife in her gut.
He had to have told them she was the girl from Jarn. They wouldn’t have recognized her otherwise. No wonder Kenet didn’t like her.
Casrian bent his head to the paper rolled out on the ground, a lantern holding down the far corner. She sat down on the ground to see what they were looking at. It was a map, probably from the king’s cartographers, that showed a rough outline of the land around them. The Catali Mountain Range. The Naistor River marking the border with Caetris. Sulen. Her village was represented by an “X” on the map that had been drawn in, along with the edge of the swamp and a dotted line that she thought indicated the reach of the witch’s influence. They were well within that influence now.
And right where she guessed the fort would be located was a circle. “We think this is where the nest is. Somewhere within this circle.”
“That’s where the fort is.” With her finger, she traced the river where it cut through the western edge of that circle. She moved to the east a bit and tapped the parchment. “Right about here.”
Casrian marked the spot and looked at her. “What is the terrain like?”
“The fort sits on a cliff above the river. When we were there, we thought there’d been a bridge there once. Or maybe a ferry. We followed that path from the river. It’s all uphill from there. The road curves up and around. About two miles. We followed the road, though I don’t if it will be as easy with horses. There were a lot of young trees growing in the path, and that was years ago.”
“And the fort itself?” Casrian prodded. “Anything you can tell us—the smallest detail—will be helpful.”
“The wall that once surrounded the place had mostly fallen. All black rock covered in moss. There was a tangle of blackberry bushes blocking the gate so we climbed through one of the gaps in the wall. The roof was gone, but some of the walls were still standing. There was what must have been a great hall that had the biggest fireplace I’ve ever seen.” She laughed. “A fox had made a den of it. Toby nearly peed his pants when it ran out.”
Neither man looked amused. Her smile faded. “The circular stairwell to the left of the hall leads nowhere. After the first landing, it’s blocked by rubble, but the one at the corner closest to the river was clear going down. We had a lantern and made it down to the bottom, but we didn’t stay long. It was damp. It smelled awful. And it was clear that there wasn’t anything down there worth seeing.”
Just endless darkness. Air that felt heavy in your lungs. A whispering like from the trees…but not.
Casrian’s blue eyes watched her intently. “What was down there, Rowan?”
She released a slow breath. It made her uneasy thinking about that place. They’d had such an adventure getting there, her and Toby, and they’d been so excited to find the open stairwell. They’d been joking about what they would do with all of the treasure they would surely find and speculating about whether there were skeletons still in the dungeon.
And then when they got down there…all of the taunts and laughter had ended.
“It was darker than it should have been. The lantern couldn’t cut through the gloom of the place. The darkness had a weight to it, you know? Like you could feel it pressing against that little circle of light. It was quiet. Everywhere else, you could hear the wind and animals, birds, but the walls blocked all of the sound down there. We didn’t stay. In fact, we left right after we climbed up the stairs even though there was more to explore. There was a full moon that night and we didn’t stop walking until we were miles away.”
Daris sighed. “If you’d have sent for a priest then, it would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure a priest would have come running because a couple of kids got spooked in the woods.”
Maybe if they’d been noble kids from House Kindan, but not two brats from Toam.
Daris straightened. “It’s part of their job to inform us of stories of strange happenings and dark places. We would have investigated. It wouldn’t have gone this far.”
At the time, she wouldn’t have wanted the witch hunters to come anywhere near her. She bit back the words and stared atDaris. She wasnotto blame for this mess. He stared right back at her.
Casrian ignored them and pointed at the map again. “We’re here.” He ran his finger from that spot to the fort. “Is it a straight shot to the fort? Do you know of any obstacles in our path?”
She shook her head. “I never came this way.”
She found the spot where they’d camped last night by the swamp. “We moved to higher ground from here, but basically followed the river south until we could see the fort at the top of the hill.”
Casrian looked at Daris. “It might be safer to backtrack.”
Daris grimaced. “It seems a waste of time. If Asher is still alive, every second counts. And the witch might not have lured him directly to the fort. We encountered the group of familiars here.” He indicated a spot halfway between them and the fort. “We can at least get that far. It’s hilly. Lots of brambles in the gullies. But it’s crossable. Sol will need a horse. If she walks and he rides, that still leaves us down two.”
Casrian started to respond to that but then looked at her and shook his head. “Go rest. We’ll figure this out.” He pointed to the tall, skinny man tending to the fire. “Lew will get you something to eat. Just let him know if you need anything else. An extra blanket or more water…anything we have is yours.”
“We’re going after the witch before the reinforcements get here?”
