Finding the Suun

by J. A. Culican

  Erik side-eyed Aysche, who was unusually quiet. "We need to find Luthair."

  "No, you want to find Luthair. I want to follow this stone to the heir and then get out of here."

  "Luthair knows everything there is to know about what happens in Barepost," Erik argued. "If Savarah is here, he'll know. And then we'll know how to avoid her."

  The commotion around us grew louder. Someone stumbled out of the door beside us, nose bloody.

  "I think it's too late for that." I dragged my siblings down the nearest alleyway, and we pressed ourselves against the wall, Erik tucking Aysche out of sight behind him. Then the three of us peered around the corner.

  There she was, unmistakable in the same white dress she'd been wearing when I'd last seen her falling from the airship. But that was the only thing about her that was the same. She was openly manipulating people around her, laying her hands on arms and shoulders, creating skirmishes with a touch or a look. I guessed she was done with the good girl act.

  Beside her was an elf in a fine pink gown, gold wire twisting around the points of her ears. It was Tsarra Trisfina, and she was laughing right along with her friend at the chaos around them.

  "If this doesn't draw that rat-faced governor out of hiding," Savarah was saying as they passed our hiding place, "I don't know what will."

  Chapter 5

  We waited until they were out of sight to run to the opposite end of the alley, where we emerged on a familiar street that was empty and free of fighting humans. We turned left and ducked inside the first door, leaving Stiarna to watch the entrance.

  The inside of the Gold Mine Inn and Pub was mostly empty this time of day. Gerves, the innkeeper, was sweeping the hearth and looked up when we blew inside. There was only one patron at the bar, and he got up and left at the sight of us, slamming the door behind him.

  Gerves's eyes went and he searched our faces. I knew he was looking for his daughter, Grissall, who had left Barepost with us after the ur’gel attack.

  "She's not here," I told him quickly, trying to head off any panic attacks, "but she's safe." I'd left her with Lunla at the temple at the priest's instructions, but I would have to fill him in later.

  He slumped in obvious relief. "What are you doing here?" Crossing to the door, he peeked out and then shut it again, dropping the latch into place. "If Luthair sees you, he'll imprison you all. Maybe even execute you, depending on his mood."

  I grabbed Aysche's arm and tugged her forward. She stumbled a bit but righted herself, glaring at me. "He won't. We have insurance."

  Erik started to protest but I cut him off with a look.

  Gerves stared at Aysche for a long moment. "Is that … is that his niece?"

  Aysche squared her shoulders and raised her chin. "Yes."

  "Hm," Gerves grunted. "We thought you'd died in the valley after the ur’gel attack. Your uncle sent search parties, but no one had seen you since you left the gates."

  She slumped a little, dropping her superior demeanor that somehow didn't seem to fit her anymore. "I went beyond the gates? Willingly?"

  "I believe so, yes."

  I turned to her. "We saw you after the battle. You were not captured, if that's what you were thinking. In fact, you were hurling curses at me, very much yourself."

  But there was something else, someone who had been there with us, in fact. Savarah. Could she have been influencing Aysche? Sent her out into the valley just for her own amusement, even when she wasn't there to watch it? Just because she could? Knowing what I did about her now, I had no doubt that she would. Just like the heir, anyone's power could be used for either good or evil, depending on what the wielder decided. And Savarah was decidedly evil.

  And I couldn't leave even Luthair to her mercy. Besides, Erik was probably right about Luthair knowing more about Barepost than anyone. If there was something here to do with the heir, he would likely know about it. Now we just had to find him, which wasn't too easy if Savarah's earlier comment had been any indication.

  "We have to find him," Erik said, putting voice to my own reluctant thoughts. "His life is in danger. The whole town is in danger. Do you know where he is?"

  Gerves shook his head. "He's laid low since the ur’gel attack."

  Erik looked at me and then at Aysche. "Any idea where he might go?"

  I shook my head, but Aysche looked thoughtful. "There is somewhere. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone."

  Estrid rolled her eyes. She looked ready to back Aysche against the wall. "What are you not supposed to tell us?"

  "If he's where I think he is, we need to get to the house on the ridge."

  I shrugged, not wanting to fight with her, not anymore. It didn't hold the same joy for me as when she was at her best. "At least it's a start."

  "Let's go then." Erik began to corral us out the door.

  I slipped away from him and let the rest of the group leave before turning back to Gerves. "When Harbin comes back next, will you tell him … will you tell him that we made it out? Will you tell him about what happened?"

  Gerves nodded. "Of course. When you next see Grissall, will you give her my love?"

  "She doesn't need me to." I smiled, and then lifted a hand in farewell.

  But before I could follow the rest of them out the door, they were barreling back inside. I stumbled back against the bar. Gerves was already pulling out a metal rod from below the counter, having given his galestone pistol to us before we left.

  I righted myself. "What is it?"

  Erik spun me by the shoulders and pushed me to the back. We all piled behind the counter. "We can't go out the front door. The fighting…"

  He didn't need to finish. A body crashed through the door and landed sprawled on the floor. It was a young man. Another young man came through after him and leapt on him, pummeling his already bloody face.

  Stiarna was right behind them, hissing as she slinked over the counter and crouched there, her hackles raised. I put an apologetic hand on her neck.

  The noise drifting in through the now-open door told me there was more of the same on the street. If it was this bad, that meant Savarah had to be close.

  I turned to Gerves. "Is there a back door?"

  "This way." He motioned for us to follow him through the kitchen. There was a woman I'd never seen before standing at a wash basin, her sleeves rolled up. "Barricade the door," Gerves told her. "Whatever you do, don't go out there."

  She nodded, wiping her hands on her apron.

  Gerves opened a rickety wooden door that led to a back alley. The small street was filthy, dishwater and who knew what else running down the ditch in the middle. We didn't care. The important thing was that it was empty.

  We spilled out into the alley, thanking Gerves for his help.

  Erik clapped a hand on the innkeeper's shoulder. "Will you be okay? Should we stay and help defend the Gold Mine?"

  "No. It will be even worse for us all if you're discovered here. Go. Be smart. Be safe."

  The door shut and the four of us were on our own.

  Aysche whirled on me with a glare and her arms lashed out, pushing me back. Only because she caught me off guard, I slammed against the stone wall of the inn, my teeth clattering together. I heard Stiarna growl from somewhere close by.

  "Don't think you can use me as some kind of bargaining tool with my uncle," she growled.

  A familiar anger rose inside of me. Before she knew what had happened, I grabbed her and turned, knocking her against the wall and keeping her there with an arm across her throat. My other hand searched for the small knife I knew she carried.

  She croaked and gagged, fingers scraping against my arm.

  "Don't think you can put your hands on me and get away with it. Ever." I bared my teeth at her.

  It was Erik who pulled me off, tossing me to the side. My boot landed in a brown puddle of something gross that I didn't really want to think about.

  "Glad to see you're feeling more like yourself, though," I said to Aysche as
I scraped my boot against a fairly clean cobblestone.

  Erik huffed. "It's not her. It's Savarah."

  I thought in this case, it was probably a little bit of both. But I didn't get a chance to say so because Erik was herding us down the alley and then we turned into another. It spit us out on the main road a few blocks ahead of the fighting, so we made a break for it, running down the path that would eventually lead to the house on the ridge.

  Luthair's enormous house sat on a ridge above Barepost, on the edge of the mountain that also housed his mine, the mine that supported the entire town. It had glass windows and gas lamps, luxuries that almost no one else could afford. But he saw himself as the savior of Barepost and deserving of the finer things.

  We followed the path to the front door. After several knocks, Missus, Luthair's housemaid, opened the door, blinking out at us.

  "Aysche? Is that you?"

  Aysche lifted her chin a bit in what I was beginning to recognize as a defensive gesture. "Yes. I need to speak to my uncle."

  "He's not here. I already told the golden-haired lass."

  "I expect I know where he is." Aysche narrowed her eyes at the older woman.

  "He is not to be disturbed," Missus hissed, lowering her voice.

  Erik shouldered his way to the front, never one to leave the talking to anyone else. "He'll want to be disturbed for this."

  Without waiting for permission, we filed inside the grand foyer, even the griffin. Estrid, the only one of us who had never been inside, gaped at the winding staircase and the tall ceilings. I tugged her forward, following Aysche down the hall on the left. I'd been down this hall before, and knew it led to the kitchens and then down a narrow staircase to a bathing room.

  If Luthair was in the bathing room, I could wait. There weren't enough emergencies in the world—

  But Aysche barreled right in. I peeked around the threshold and was glad to find the room empty, though still as magnificent as it had been last time I'd seen it. The bath in the middle of the room sat empty, but the room was still warm, likely due to its proximity to the hot springs. Thinking about the hot springs, and being there with Arun, made me grin stupidly. I tried to get myself under control. I had no business thinking about him, not when he was so clearly interested in Captain Wynleth.

  We followed Aysche to the back of the room, where she pushed on the corner of the wooden plank wall and it slid open, revealing the mouth of a stone tunnel. After taking an already lit lamp off the wall, Aysche ducked inside without hesitation, followed by Estrid, but Erik and I—both having been in the mines before—hesitated. We knew what could wait for us in these tunnels, what kinds of monsters and dangers waited for us.

  "After you." Erik waved a hand at me.

  Sighing, I stepped through. I was glad to find that the ceiling was at least tall enough to accommodate me, even if Erik had to duck slightly as he entered behind me. The tunnel had several off-shooting corridors, but Aysche kept us going straight until we came to a heavy stone door. She heaved it open and light poured out of the room beyond.

  We gathered in the doorway and took in the sight before us. It was an office, with stone walls and a red rug on the polished stone floor. There was a desk and a bookshelf laden with leather-bound books, and a cot against one wall. Two chairs were set before a hearth, where a fire burned.

  From behind the heavy desk, Luthair stood, his mouth dropping open at the sight of us. It felt nice to finally leave him speechless.

  I took a step inside the room. "Your life is in danger," I said, my voice bouncing off of the walls. "You need to leave. Now."

  Chapter 6

  "Well, I wasn't in danger until the lot of you barged in." He bustled past us and closed the door. "How do you know you weren't followed?"

  Aysche rolled her eyes at her uncle. "Because we used the passageway through the house."

  As if seeing his niece for the first time, Luthair grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "And how are you alive? What happened to you?"

  She freed herself from his arms. "Apparently I wandered into the valley to get eaten by monsters at the whim of some mind-controlling freak."

  "Not mind—" Erik started to interrupt but snapped his mouth shut at a glare from Aysche.

  "Instead, I was captured by your dragon friends and sold into slavery."

  Luthair turned his gaze on me. "I assume you played some part in this."

  I smirked at him. "The part where I rescued her when you couldn't."

  "We," Erik interrupted again. "We rescued her."

  Luthair looked unimpressed. To his niece, he said, "Well done, bringing them back here, at least. Now I can lock them up like I should have done three years ago."

  That was all I needed to hear. I hooked my arm around Aysche's shoulders and with my other hand, held her own knife to her throat. I'd taken it from where it had been strapped to her belt when we'd been scuffling in the alley, just in case. It had been so she couldn't pull it on me, but it would serve another purpose now.

  To my surprise, though, Luthair didn't step back and hold his hands up in surrender, scared for his niece's life. No. He laughed. I should have known to expect such a nonsensical reaction from a man like him, but it still caught me off guard.

  "Onen help me, but I've missed you."

  I ground my teeth together and tightened my grip on Aysche. She grunted in protest.

  Luthair remained unaffected. He walked back to his desk and began shuffling through papers. "My earlier offer still stands. Barepost could use a woman like you. I could use a woman like you."

  I shoved Aysche away from me. Erik caught her, dusting her off and looking her over for puncture wounds. I hadn't given her any. I took two long strides across the room and slammed my hands down on his desk.

  "If you stay hidden down here like a coward, it's only a matter of time before Barepost is destroyed. Then, you'll be discovered and killed or captured. Is that what you want to happen, after all your hard work?" Talking to him was a lot like talking to the elven king, but I knew Luthair. When Luthair had conquered Barepost, it had been a lawless free-for-all. He took pride in the city, even if he had to rule it with an iron fist. "And the longer I'm here," I added, "the worse it will be."

  That got his attention at least. "What are you talking about?"

  "I can show you better than I can tell you. But we need to go up."

  He scrutinized me for a long moment before nodding. "Follow me."

  Aysche and Erik stayed behind, Aysche to get cleaned up and changed, and Erik to stand guard over her. The Aysche of a few weeks ago never would have allowed him to even be close to her, but this Aysche blushed and allowed him to follow her back through the tunnel toward the house. I wasn't sure I liked where that was going but I didn't get a chance to object.

  Luthair led us in the opposite direction, deeper into the tunnels beneath the mine. He fell into step beside me, Estrid and Stiarna several paces behind us.

  "I could …" He cleared his throat. "I could protect you, you know? If you are in some kind of trouble."

  I very nearly laughed before realizing that he was trying to show me kindness. It was my turn to study him. He wasn't terrible to look at, even if he was at least a decade my senior. He was tall and lean, with sharp features and a serious face. One that had spent so much time sneering at me for the last three years that I wasn't sure what to make of the vulnerability I saw on it as we walked through the tunnel. Now that I wasn't under his thumb and he couldn't control me through my brother, it was like he was trying another tactic, one that had never occurred to him before. A small part of me wished he'd been this way from the start, that he'd saved my brother out of goodness instead of an ulterior motive. That he'd kept us in Barepost because it was what was best for us, not what was best for him.

  But a few kind words and my own broken heart couldn't erase the cruelties he'd shown us the last few years.

  "I don't need protection," I told him finally.

  We cam
e upon a metal gate set in the stone wall. It slid aside at Luthair's touch and revealed a small wooden room no bigger than a few square feet. We peered inside.

  "What is this?" I asked.

  "A pulley-elevator," he answered. "Like at the wharf."

  "But we're inside the mountain."

  He beamed at us. "Yes, we are. We've carved a shaft through the mountain that reaches the very top of the plateau. Where we did battle last."

  I smirked. "You mean where I kicked your—"

  "Shall we?" Luthair held an arm out and we stepped onto the platform. He slid the door shut and took hold of the rope dangling from the overhead pulley. We took turns hauling ourselves up, and while it was arduous work, it was certainly easier than scaling the side of the mountain and fighting off cliff monsters while doing it.

  The top of the pulley elevator was just beyond the guardhouse we'd burned, in a small building that looked more like an outhouse. The four of us stumbled out, Stiarna bounding away into the trees. Estrid perched on a nearby log to wait for us.

  Smoothing down his robes, Luthair looked over at me. "Now, show me what's going on."

  We trampled through the trees and emerged on the easternmost edge of the plateau that looked down over Barepost. The clouds were thin. The city was visible. So was the unrest. Even if I couldn't make out Savarah from up here, her influence was obvious. Crowds of people yelling and shoving. Broken stalls in the market and grown men rolling in the dusty streets, hands wrapped around each other's throats. Shouts of anger reached us even up here.

  I watched Luthair for a reaction.

  He leaned back from the edge. "Yes, the lawlessness has gotten worse since the ur’gel attack. I'll get it back under control. Is that all?"

  I shook my head. "It's not just that. It's Savarah, Dag'draath's general. She's the one causing this unrest, and she's looking for you."

  "Savarah? The great temptress? Impossible. She's imprisoned."

  I raised my eyebrows at him. "With the ur’gels?"

  He grunted, his eyes still on Barepost below us. "If what you're saying is true, then this is worse than I thought."