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There was a crackling sound, and then the ground gave way below her feet.
Suddenly, she was falling, her arms and legs pinwheeling. She twisted and hit hard stone, letting out a cry of pain as the air was knocked from her lungs. Agony shot through her ribs and down her hip, still bruised from her last night of training with Auberon. She had fallen into a sinkhole. Chunks of stone—some as large as her body—lay scattered around her.
Riona rolled onto her side and coughed, pulling her tunic over her nose and mouth so she wouldn’t breathe in the dust floating in the air. Gripping her sore ribs, she pushed to her feet and picked up Auberon’s dagger, which had fallen a few yards away. She walked over to the edge of the hole and stretched her arm as high as she could. The rim was still several feet above her, well out of reach.
She stumbled back as the strange man materialized through the haze and knelt at the edge of the sinkhole, peering down at her with his head cocked. Riona slowly placed the dagger in its sheath and raised her empty hands. If she had to choose between starving to death in a sinkhole and taking her chances with this stranger, she would gladly take the latter.
“Help me,” she whispered, her voice a hoarse rasp. Just speaking those two words sent daggers through her ribcage. “Please.”
Something flashed across the man’s face—a glimmer of recognition breaking through the madness. Then he stood and walked away.
“No!” Riona cried, not caring if any of the mine workers heard. Anything would be better than dying here, another soul lost in the Howling Mountains. “Come back! Please come back!”
His soft footfalls padded down the tunnel and faded into silence.
Riona whirled, searching for a way out. She scrambled over to one of the chunks of stone and dropped to her knees, trying to push it over to the side of the sinkhole. If she could stack them, build them up enough to climb out, she would be able to escape. She gathered all her strength and shoved, succeeding in flipping the boulder onto its side. She managed it another two times before she fell back, panting and aching. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. She sucked in several deep breaths, setting her bruised ribs on fire, and tried again, her arms quivering with the effort. It was still a good couple of yards to the edge of the hole. At this rate, it would take her an entire day to stack up enough stones to climb out—if she didn’t keel over from exhaustion first.
I will not die here. I will make it out.
Just as she thought it, the stranger reappeared in the tunnel above. He lay down at the edge and stretched an arm out, holding a pickaxe in one grimy, bloody hand. He stared at her expectantly.
Guessing at his intention, Riona stepped forward and hesitantly took the metal in her hands. Once she had a firm hold on it, he began to pull her up, his lean muscles straining. She grimaced at the pain that tore through her ribs. As soon as she’d reached the rim of the sinkhole, the stranger’s fingers knotted in the back of her tunic and pulled her onto solid ground. They fell back against opposite walls of the tunnel, breathing hard.
Riona set a hand on her heart, trying to calm her racing pulse. “Thank— Thank you,” she gasped. “Thank you for saving my life.”
Now that he was before her, no haze hanging in the air and masking his features, she could see that he wasn’t much older than she was. Under the grime, his skin was smooth, untouched by time. Beyond the curtain of hair over his face, his eyes were a bright, clear blue.
“Why did you chase me?” she asked softly, afraid of scaring him away.
Slowly, he lifted a shaky hand and pointed at her. She followed the line of his finger down to the pendant at her throat.
“You wanted the ore,” she breathed. “You worked in these mines, didn’t you? Is that why you were scratching at the wall?”
As soon as she said the wordmines, he clapped his hands to his ears and let out a screech, a strange mimic of the shrieking wind and her own terrified cries. “NO! No, please! Please don’t!Please—”
“Shhh… Shhhh, it’s okay.” Riona held up her hands as if calming a wild animal. “I won’t make you go back. I only need you to tell me how to get to the heart of the mine.”
He shook his head so vigorously his neck popped.
“Please. Whatever has happened to you, I want to help. I know that prisoners have been sent here to mine eudorite ore for the military. Can you lead me to where the others are?”
The stranger studied her for several long moments, then nodded once, a quick bob of his head.
Riona smiled and stood, offering him a hand up. He hesitantly took it, then started down the tunnel the way they had come, his shoulders hunched and steps shuffling.
“What is your name?” Riona asked as he led her through the tunnels.
“Dig! Dig! Dig!” he cried, the words reverberating against the stone. Riona flinched, then forced herself to relax. No one had come to investigate the sinkhole, so she doubted anyone was close enough to hear them. “Dig, filth! Dig!”
“…That’s what you want me to call you? Dig?”
He nodded again and scuttled down the tunnel. Riona hurried after him, pity making her heart heavy. Her uncle had condemned this man to a life in the mines. How many others were aimlessly wandering the tunnels, slowly starving? How many were too far gone to save?
Another wail rose, and Dig lifted his head to mimic the wind as he walked. Unease settled deep within Riona’s bones, and she wrapped her arms around herself as they descended into the heart of the Howling Mountains.
ChapterForty-Six
The Liar
