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And certainly not about the realization that had just hit her.
{ Chapter 15 }
Elle looked down the ladder as Rune landed on the ground in the lower bath for the third trip, the set of three unlit lanterns hanging on his right arm clinking together.
He’d foregone a jacket and waistcoat, his white lawn shirt glowing ethereal in the darkness below from the one lit lantern he’d already brought down.
It had taken her the rest of the previous day and a night—much of that time spent with her nude body on top of his—before Rune got past his annoyance at her for not telling him who the man was that choked her.
She’d blatantly used her naked body to make him move past his anger and she didn’t regret it in the slightest. Anything to take away the murder in his eyes.
Was he over it? No. Not in the slightest. He was placating her, at least for the time being, and she happily took that.
But when she’d woken in the morning to find him wide awake next to her, his forefinger tapping nonstop on his chest, she knew she had missed something. Something he wasn’t telling her. She’d come to recognize that the constant tapping of his forefinger meant he was excited, pondering hard on some mystery he held deep in his head.
That crazy energy in him wasn’t the need to murder the person that had choked her—that rage had shown up very clearly and had only abated late in the night after he’d exhausted every muscle she had, using his tongue to tease her to new heights and mark her very distinctly as his.
So it had taken some early morning cajoling to extract the answer of his tapping forefinger from him. Specifically, an exhausting round where she’d returned the favor of teasing to new heights and slid her tongue along every part of his body. Sated to limpness and no match for her, he’d finally told her of the planks of wood that he’d found in Captain Folback’s belongings and what they could mean—how the lines matched up.
A real clue.
She’d bounded out of bed, dragging him with her and they’d barely stopped for bacon, bread and marmalade in the kitchens before rushing out to the baths.
Along with their sketches and more paper and the wooden shards, they’d brought a slew of lanterns this time, determined to light the chamber and the mosaics with as much light as possible.
His boots thudded on the ground of the Bronze Chamber and she peered over the edge of the opening. “All set?”
He looked up at her. “Yes.”
He waited, his hands up and at the ready in case she misstepped on the ladder, then pressed his palm into the small of her back along the last few rungs. She’d been up and down the ladder in this bath too many times to count and wasn’t about to fall, but she held her tongue. It was foreign to have someone ready to catch her should she stumble, and she rather liked the feeling.
Her feet on solid ground, she turned to him, her cheeks brimming with anticipation. “Let’s light the lanterns.”
Within fifteen minutes, they had the chamber aglow like it never had been. After laying out the sketches they had made days ago, Rune arranged the rough wooden planks on the ground in front of the ring mosaic in the most logical way to connect the lines etched into the surfaces of the eight pieces.
Both of them stood several steps back from the wall, their arms crossed over their ribcages, their eyes darting in a triangle, from the ring mosaic to the wooden shards to the sketches, again and again. Both of them hoping that the puzzle pieces of the wood shards somehow reflected what was on the wall.
“Something isn’t right,” Elle finally mumbled.
Rune nodded, but didn’t say a word.
Elle stepped forward to stare down at the wooden shards. “This is extra hard because the edges of the wood are so ragged and cracked.” Her hand went along her jawline, rubbing it as she stared at the wooden planks. “What are we missing?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Rune. “Do you remember how you have them placed?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m going to mess with them.” She sank onto her knees, grabbing the top right shard and twisting it ninety degrees. Her fingers following the main line carved into the wood, she traced it to the edge. Onto the other planks, she felt for the boldest etched line until she found the one that felt very similar to one she started with. She moved it to the right edge of the first shard, setting in place the lines.
One by one, she tried by touch to find the similarities in each line, then reordered the shards three across until they were in a new jumble three across.
She glanced up, her head cocking sideways as she found one line that she recognized. The whole grouping needed to be spun for it to angle the same way and she shuffled the tiles.
When she sat back on her heels and looked up at the wall, the lines on the planks now looked eerily similar to the parts of the mosaic that still existed on the wall. Except for the few lines that extended into nothing in the lower right, where there was obviously a chunk of wood missing.
A low whistle echoed behind her. Rune stepped next to her, extending his hand down to her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet.
“Genius.” He pointed at the lower right part of the wall. “Look at what I’m seeing.”
