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But I was already speaking to thin air. I hurried after him again. The knee-height wall dividing us from the edge of the forge gradually rose until it neared shoulder height. The lever was as thick as my arm and made of a metal I suspected had once been silver but was now tarnished black. Lugh gripped it with both hands and hauled it back.
Or tried to.
The thing didn’t budge.
He shifted his weight and tried again. Still nothing.
“Maybe it works the other way,” I said. “You generally pull something toward you to close it, don’t you?”
“Depends on the country,” he said but nevertheless changed his grip and shoved all his weight against the lever.
It shot forward so suddenly, it dragged Lugh with it. I lunged forward and grabbed his jacket—totally forgetting about the rope that bound the two of us—and hauled him back to safety before he could tumble over the furnace’s edge.
The stone under our feet began to vibrate, and a deep rumbling filled the air. Within the forge’s heart, the glow changed from orange to white, then spread out rapidly, until the entire base glowed white-hot. Then, with a fierce whoosh, fire exploded into being, the force so great it knocked us off our feet and sent us tumbling to the ground.
I landed on my back, knocking the air from my lungs. For several seconds, I simply remained there, staring up at the mirror-black ceiling, watching the flickering reflection of flames as I battled to breathe butnottoo deeply. I did not want to throw myself into another fit of coughing.
Behind us, the bellows moved independently of touch, the vague shadows they cast and the whooshing air they produced giving me vague visions of a dragon breathing.
“Well,” Lugh said, sounding a little breathy. “I guess that answers the question of how we start the thing.”
“It also explains the chest-height wall.” I accepted his hand and let him haul me up. “I’m guessing it’s meant to be some sort of fire shield.”
“It was built for midgets if it was,” Lugh said. “We’d better head up and shut it down again.”
I nodded and once again followed him up the steps. The closer we got to the rim, the fiercer the heat became. Sweat poured down my face and trickled down my spine, but in all truth, it wasn’t as bad as it could or should have been, given the sheer size of the firepit. That was no doubt due to the air that now stirred around the forge, creating a gentle vortex that swept the worst of the heat upward.
In the pit itself, the flames shimmied and danced in almost joyous delight, seeming to follow us as we walked carefully around the rim’s edge. Once we reached the lever, I remained behind the half wall while Lugh walked on. The rope that tied us together played through my gloved hands; this time, I was ready to react if something happened. He had to lean over the flames to grab the lever, and just for an instant, the circling air caught and lifted him. As I yanked him back, he grabbed the lever and then made a hasty retreat.
Once again, a shudder went through the stone underfoot, then the flames whooshed out, leaving only the softly glowing coals far below. The bellows wheezed to a stop, sounding somewhat like the last breaths of a dying animal.
“Well, at least we achievedsomethingtoday,” Lugh said. “Now we’ve just got to find the ring.”
“And somehow get it here without it being snatched away.”
The former might be easy enough thanks to the clues we’d gotten from the library, but the latter was definitely going to be problematic, given the storm mage could keep track of all my movements through the wind. Which in truth was a guess on my part, but how else could they be tracking us?
Maybe I needed to talk to Beira. She was the goddess of storms, after all, even if she was stuck in human form. Surely she could do something about the man.
Although given she was the one who’d warned me of his presence, maybe not.
“Let’s worry about one thing at a time,” he said. “I haven’t the brain space for anything more right now.”
“You’re a man, so that goes without saying.”
He snorted and nudged me lightly. “As penance for such a blatant lack of respect for your older and much wiser brother, you may lead us out, sister dearest.”
I smiled and took the lead. It didn’t take us long to reach the exit out of the cavern, but the tunnel was all uphill and as slippery as fuck, so it took us even longer to reach the outside world than it had to get in. I was hot, sweaty, and more than a little weary by that time.
I stopped several yards beyond the tunnel’s exit and breathed deep, trying to drive the lingering foulness from my lungs. The sky was full of clouds, though the storms that had threatened earlier had come and gone. The air was still, giving me no means to investigate the surroundings or to check whether anyone was about watching us.
And no means to check whether Cynwrig and Mathi were nearby.
I dragged out my phone and tried once again to make a call. I had no more success this time than I had the last. I shoved it back into my pocket with a little more force than necessary. “Perhaps we need to buy an emergency phone and keep it in the car for situations like this.”
“Good idea. I’ll grab one tomorrow.” Lugh paused and glanced at his watch. Surprise rippled through his expression.
“What?” I immediately said, my voice sharp.
