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I managed to look away, but not before I saw what page Cavan was looking at. I'd like to try that, whether it was him or someone else.
"Anyway, the maps." Ryze drawled. "If you don't mind." He stepped in front of us. "They're precious and brittle. You're welcome to watch over my shoulder."
That was exactly what Cavan did. I stood on the other side, Tavian and Vayne behind me.
Ryze carefully turned page after page, saying what each one was as he went. "Map of Lysarial. Map of the land surrounding Lysarial. Map of the Winter Court. Map of our border with the Autumn Court. Map of our border with the Spring Court. Map of…"
He tilted his head, and lowered his face for a better look. "Something so faded I can't make it out." He handed it over his shoulder to Cavan.
"That might be the swamp you were talking about." Cavan shrugged and handed it back.
Ryze looked again. "Ahhh, you might be right." He placed it with the others.
He kept turning over pages. They crackled under his touch and some of the corners started to split. He winced a couple of times.
After about ten maps, Cavan put a hand on his arm. "Wait. There. Right where you put it whenever you put it there. One day you might appreciate the fact I wasn't born yesterday either."
"I don't trust you," Ryze said simply. "Of course I'm not going to tell you everything straight away."
"One of these days, people will die because of that," Cavan says scathingly. He shook his head and turned his attention to the map.
"You were right about one thing, it is vague." He ran his finger down the centre of the piece of parchment. "Those mountains look familiar."
"They do?" For once, Ryze was sincere. "They don't appear on any map I've ever found. I've spent decades comparing them."
Cavan responded with a grunt of annoyance. "If you listened to me sooner, we might have found what we were looking for by now." He turned back to the map, tapped on it absently with a fingertip. "If I could just remember where I've seen a mountain formation like that."
"Somewhere there's griffins?" Tavian asked casually.
Cavan's finger stopped tapping. "What did you say?"
Tavian glanced at Ryze, who shrugged.
"I said somewhere there might be griffins," Tavian repeated.
Cavan mouthed the words.Somewhere there might be griffins.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I think I know where this is," Cavan said.
18
Tavian
"Are you going to force us to guess?" Ryze asked. "Like I said, I've spent decades looking for where this is. I'm somewhat out of guesses."
He looked pissed Cavan might have the answers to questions he'd had for such a long time. We'd spent a good many nights drinking, talking and speculating about this.
Like with most things, Vayne thought it was a waste of time. I wasn't sure I disagreed with him, but it was important to Ryze. That meant it was important to me.
On those occasions he got it into his head to go searching for lost courts, I went with him. All we ever found were local legends from all over Jorius. When we weren't ducking Autumn Court border patrols and the like.
No one ever said life with Ryze wasn't fun.
"I'm only guessing myself," Cavan told him. "Obviously it's not in Jorius."
"I concluded as much," Ryze said. "I've never seen a formation of mountains like that in Fraxius either. I haven't spent much time in the lands beyond that."
