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I grinned at him. “Good thinking. You’re worth something after all.”
He snorted. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m a lazy bag of bones.” But he knew I was kidding.
We hunted along the wall for another ten minutes until I spotted a tunnel, about four feet off the ground. It was rough, about five feet high, and I hoisted myself up into it, reaching down for the lantern. As I inched my way forward, I realized there were dozens of catacomb-like holes in the wall here. The tunnel itself was only about four feet deep, and again—no creatures, no scary dangers in here. But the scroll would fit perfectly in one of the latticework holes.
Leaning out of the passage, I motioned to Roz. “Found the place. How do we work the magical trace on the scroll?”
He opened his duster—or should I say the walking arsenal he carried. His coat contained more weapons than a gun shop contained guns. He dug through the pockets. After a moment, he pulled out a small charm. I pulled out the tube containing the scroll and the charm fit neatly inside. After making sure it was carefully closed, I slid the tube inside a plastic bag and sealed it. No use chancing water getting in to ruin it, and we had no idea if—or how much—the river ever flooded.
Rozurial held out an amulet and closed his eyes. “Yep, the trace is working. Go ahead and hide it and we’ll check again.”>The barrow itself was a huge earthen mound that looked like a uniformly shaped—and good-sized—hill from the outside. To the outside world—and to us—it was lovely and pristine, a field that was incredibly beautiful. But beneath that glamour lay a charred and scorched area of the woodland. Smoky had done a number on it in his dragon shape, what with the let’s-breathe-fire habit he had.
A door led into the barrow on one side, but I knew that farther along the mound was the entrance to a cave. Camille and Morio had explored in there when they went searching for Tom Lane—or rather, Tam Lin. Yes, that Tam Lin, from the songs and stories. Tom, as he had been known to us, was Titania’s foggy-headed lover from eons past, before he had become one of the Keraastar Knights, and now—sadly—a victim of Telazhar and the sorcerers.
Roz jumped off the Ionyc Seas and blinked, steadying himself. The more we all traveled through the vast channels of energy, the more we adapted to the nuances and sluggish pull of the currents.
After a few minutes to situate ourselves, Smoky led us through his magical charms to enter the barrow. If we’d tried to breach the wards without him, we would have died in any number of horrible ways. Dragons were protective, and territorial, and they had exquisitely painful methods of preventing anybody from fucking with their stuff. Even so, as we crossed the threshold, a crackle of electricity sparked around us, and if we’d been unwelcome visitors, we would have been turned into crispy critters.
The outside might be rustic, but inside, Smoky’s barrow was a bizarre mix of stone and chasm and old world charm. The living room was laid out on tiled floor, and the walls were the stone of a deep cavern. The barrow on the outside was far smaller than the world into which we had stepped. Barrow mounds were magical; the entrances were portals into another dimension. So on the outside, the mound could be a small hillock, but once inside, the world grew larger.
As we entered the living area, the smell of cigar smoke and old leather surrounded us. Smoky was still allowed to smoke in his own barrow, provided Camille wasn’t coming out here for a while. Smoke bothered Delilah and Camille a lot—especially cigarette and cigar smoke. It had bothered me when I was still alive but no longer presented a problem. That didn’t mean I liked the smell, but it didn’t make me choke now.
The brown sofa and chair were old, luxurious—the leather buttery and supple. Heavy walnut tables buttressed the ends of the sofa, and a matching bookshelf spanned one cavern wall, filled with leather-bound books and scrolls. The tiled floor ended at what would have been the back wall, but the cavern opened up into a chasm at that point. A staircase led down into the pitch dark of the cavern below. Mists boiled from the bottom, and the sound of a stream echoed out from deep in the rocky ravine.
On either side of the living area, two doors led into what I knew were a bedchamber and bath, and Smoky’s kitchen. Eye catchers shimmered around the ceiling—Smoky had managed to snag them from Otherworld, or perhaps when Titania had lived in the caves connected to the barrow, she had enchanted them. Whatever the case, their illumination brought a soft, gentle glow to the cavern, and even though it was underground, even though it boasted dark depths that led to unknown haunts, there was a sense of comfort here, and safety. Smoky had definitely imprinted his presence on this place.
I was carrying the scroll. One of the reasons we’d left Venus at home was that, if he didn’t know where the scroll was hidden, he couldn’t leak the information in case he was caught. Because while we still weren’t sure of how important the Keraastar Knights were to the future, we didn’t dare chance losing the powers inherent in the parchment.
Smoky led us to the back edge of the living area. There, below, was the deep chasm into which he dove when he shifted into his dragon form in the barrow. I wasn’t sure how he got from there to the outside, but it was none of my business and I had never asked.
A narrow set of stairs led down on one side, steep and with no railing. They descended into the darkness, treacherous and foreboding. I wondered just how many feet had traversed the stones, how many people had attempted to venture into the gaping fracture that split the cavern.
Smoky stood up top. He paused for a moment. “I shouldn’t be witness to where the two of you hide the scroll. That way, the Wing Liege cannot command me to hand over information I do not have. While I doubt that my people would have any desire to administer the Keraastar Knights, it is best we take no chances. If you need me, call, and I will help you out, but unless it’s an emergency, probably best that I don’t know where you’re going.”
I glanced at Roz. It made sense. “I guess we’d better get a move on. I don’t want to miss saying good-bye to Luke and Amber before the dragons take them away.”
“Not to mention, it would be a really good idea if I were there when they arrive.” Smoky gave me a twinkling smile, but there was a worried sense lurking behind those frosty eyes.
“Right.” I motioned to Roz and headed toward the steps. “How will we be able to see in the darkness?”
“Here…” Smoky paused, holding out a silver lantern. He let out a low whistle and two of the eye catchers broke free from their place where they hovered near the ceiling and slowly floated into the metal cage. He shut the door on it, then handed it to me. “Take this with you—they will light the way.”
“Thanks. Now all I need is a stick to test the steps.”
Again Smoky came to the rescue and provided me with a staff. It was old, smooth from many centuries of handling, and the wood felt sturdy but not heavy. A tingle ran through my palm as I wrapped my hand around the hilt of it, and I knew there was magic within the staff, though there was no way I could know what kind it was.
“What is the wood?”
Smoky gave me a gentle nod. “Apple.”
Heading over to the edge of the chasm, I was grateful that I wasn’t acrophobic. Camille was to a degree, and it had caused some problems over the years.
I handed the lantern to Roz. “You take this. I’ll use the staff and go on ahead.” Making certain the scroll was firmly tucked in the bag I’d slung over my shoulder and neck, I stood on the top step. The scroll couldn’t fall out of my grasp this way. The Velcro keeping the flap closed was firmly shut. Unless I toppled over the edge, we wouldn’t lose the scroll on the way down.
“We’re ready.”
Roz took the lantern, and without another word, we headed down into the depths.
I leaned close to the wall as I began tapping the stairs in front of me. They were narrow and steep, at the most twenty inches wide by ten inches deep, by twelve inches high. In other words, they were hell on earth to get down and left us clinging to the wall.
