Above the cave opening with a fifth sword. Its point faced the ground as well, but it appeared to be attached to the mountain itself. It reminded Adrian of the sword inside the Tabernacle's main chapel, the one where Absorption Day services were held. He had gone several times as a boy, but never as a man. He'd hated the way the sword dangled from the ceiling, as if the Hand of God were about to come down and release the sword, killing some hapless worshipper who didn't really believe.
"What is this place?" Coulter asked.
"I don't know," Adrian said. He hadn't even heard of it. Not that he was greatly religious, but he would have thought he'd known of a place like this.
"How did you find it?"
"It reflected darkness," Coulter said.
Adrian didn't ask any more. Obviously Coulter had seen it with the Vision that Adrian didn't have. The magick Vision.
"Is Gift inside?"
"If so, he has a lot more courage than I do," Coulter said.
A shiver ran down Adrian's back. "You don't think that going in killed him?"
"I don't know what to think," Coulter said. "This place has a presence. I've never felt anything like it before, at least not from a place. From a person, yes. But never from a place."
Adrian had learned long ago not to ignore Coulter when he made strange statements like that.
"What kind of people feel like this?"
"Most Fey," Coulter said. "That Rocaan — Matthias? — he feels like this. Only as if he were trying to bottle the feeling inside. This place, it spews the feeling out, as if the feeling were water and this were the mouth of the stream."
"Did the Tabernacle feel like this?"Adrian asked.
Coulter shook his head. "Shadowlands didn't either, although it had an echo of the feeling. But the echo came from Shadowlands' creation, not from its existence."
"So this is a magick place?"
Coulter smiled at Adrian, but the look was distracted, rather like a man who was participating in one conversation while listening to another. "It would seem so," Coulter said.
Adrian swallowed. Magick places made his skin crawl. Any thought of magick made him uncomfortable. It reminded him of his days in Shadowlands, when Luke had been Charmed by the Fey, Coulter had been attacked by them, and Ort had died because of them.
"Well," he said, knowing he could do little about this now, "perhaps I should go in first."
"No," Coulter said. "We'll go together."
Adrian put a hand on Coulter's arm. "Before we do, tell me. Can you see Gift's — trail? Are he and the others here?"
"They were," Coulter said. "I'm not sure what happened to them inside."
Adrian nodded. His light-headed feeling was growing. But he would go in. He would take the same risks that the others had. It was actually a lesser risk, because he wasn't Fey. If whatever had built this place had something to do with Rocaanism, it couldn't harm him.
It could kill Fey.
Suddenly Adrian couldn't wait any longer. He needed to know what had happened to his friends.
He crossed the ledge and walked past the swords. They were so perfectly formed he felt that if he touched them, he would set the blades to vibrating. The hilts were covered in dirt, but someone had scraped some of it away.
A small jewel was visible beneath.
That fact disturbed him somehow, but he wasn't certain how. He took a moment to analyze. He had to. He had to pay attention to all his feelings here.
It was the only way to be safe.
The jewel disturbed him the way that the Tabernacle used to disturb him; all the wealth inside wasted on men who had taken a vow to serve only the Lord.
He stepped past the swords to the cave's mouth.
And he stopped there.
Soft white light flooded him. It was as if he had stepped into the sun. For a moment, he saw nothing. He felt a chill at his back, and warmth before him, the dry warmth of a fire on a frosty night.
The warmth and the light were inviting. His feet moved of their own accord, but he noticed the compulsion and stopped.
Coulter stepped up beside him.
"Wow," Coulter said softly.
Adrian's eyes adjusted. The change was swift, sudden, and dizzying. One moment he saw only light, the next the interior of the cave itself.
Marble stairs were carved out of the cave's floor. They went down farther than he could see. The walls were covered in swords of varying shapes and sizes.
All were older than any he had seen before, and he had seen his family's sword from the Peasant Uprising. But unlike his family's sword, these gleamed in the strange light.
Water was running somewhere. He heard the flowing sound, as if he had stumbled onto a waterfall or a gurgling stream. He searched for the source, but couldn't see it.
Coulter grabbed his arm, and pointed. Beyond the swords were more ledges, these covered with bowls. Silver bowls. And beyond the bowls were tapestries that seemed to cover other openings.
He got the sense the cave went on forever.
Adrian took a step down and nearly slid on the marble. No dust, no fallen rocks here. The place almost seemed as if it had been kept up.
He had to go down several steps before he could see the end of the staircase. The last step slid into a marble floor. Pedestals rose off the floor, covered with carvings and other items that so reflected the light that he couldn't make them out from here.
Toward the back of the cave, if there was such a place, in a growing darkness, a table had been carved out of white stone.
The room split near that table, and a fountain spewed water at the juncture. The fountain was tall and beautiful, and the water smelled fresh, like a mountain stream.
"Gift," Coulter said beside Adrian, and Adrian heard relief in his voice.
Gift sat at the base of the stairs. Leen stood on the floor beside him, and Scavenger sat close to him. Adrian frowned, uncertain why he hadn't seen them right from the start.
Gift looked up. His expression was wary, almost hurt.
"Coulter!" Leen said, and bounded up the stairs toward them.
Gift's hurt expression shifted suddenly. His features softened, and Adrian recognized relief.
"It's about time," Scavenger said, but his voice, which Adrian was very familiar with, also registered relief. And it took a lot to worry the little Fey.
"It took me a while to get away from the quarry," Adrian said.
"And we ran into a problem on the mountainside," Coulter said. Then Leen rushed into his arms and hugged him. Coulter glanced over his shoulder, surprise in his face, eyebrows raised. Leen had never shown affection with him. She had been wary of him before, worried that he would do something to hurt Gift.
She stepped back as if she had the same thought at the same moment. "Sorry," she said, brushing off her uniform. "This place is terrifying."
It was awe-inspiring to Adrian, but he could imagine how it would seem to a Fey. Being surrounded by icons of another religion, a religion that had items that killed Fey.
And the water, the bubbling water, was it holy?
He hoped they had the sense to leave it alone.
"We weren't sure what had happened to you," Scavenger said. He hadn't moved.
Coulter was standing rigidly, watching Leen as if she had burned him. Adrian suppressed a smile. The boy didn't deal well with shocks.
"We ran into some old friends of yours," Adrian said. "They might be coming here."
"Of ours?" Gift asked. That wary expression had returned. Something had happened to them here. Something that had them all spooked.
Adrian took a breath. He wanted to tell this, not Coulter. If Coulter confessed to adding to Matthias's power, then Gift might never forgive him.
Coulter opened his mouth, but Adrian put a hand on his arm.
"We saw the Fifty-first Rocaan," he said. "Matthias."
The looks which greeted him were blank.
"The man," Adrian said softly and as gently as he could, "who killed your mo
ther, Gift."
Gift moaned and put his face in his hands.
"That's impossible," Leen said. "I killed him. I stabbed him two dozen times, and shoved him so deep in that river that he would drown if he didn't bleed to death."
"He's alive," Adrian said. "His face is bandaged. Obviously someone rescued him."
"Or he rescued himself." Coulter's voice sounded bitter. "He's not the average Islander."
"Thank the Powers for that," Scavenger said.
"No," Coulter said. Adrian tightened his grip on Coulter's arm, but Coulter didn't stop. "He's like me."
Gift raised his head out of his hands. "What do you mean he's like you?"
"He has the same powers," Adrian said. "He has magick. Coulter thinks the magick might have saved him, more than once."
"Stab me two dozen times and shove me in a bottomless well, and I could get out," Coulter said. "I could use several spells to get me out of that water. Eventually I would need help, but I could postpone death for hours, maybe days."
"And he clearly had help," Adrian said. "He had bandages on the side of his face, and he was traveling with several people."
Leen frowned and shook her head. "I can't believe this. I killed him."
"I wish you had," Scavenger said. "But you didn't. The question is, how did he get here?"
"That's not the question," Adrian said. "The question is how long will it take him to find this place?"
"Or maybe he already knows of it." Leen swept a hand toward the walls. The chalices gleamed. "You say he used to be the head of the Islander religion. This is their spot."
"Maybe," Gift said.
Adrian glanced at him. It was clearly a religious place. What would make Gift doubt it?
"He said he was following the trail of two Fey," Coulter said. "He knew Gift and Leen had been in the village. He followed them using Enchanter powers. Only he didn't know that's what he had—
"But Coulter figured it out," Adrian interrupted. He wasn't going to let Coulter tell Gift any more than necessary.
"Why would he track Fey?" Scavenger asked.
"To kill them," Gift said softly. "Like he killed my mother."
"I'm afraid so," Adrian said. "We have a couple of choices. It's dawn now. We might be able to make it down the mountain—
"Back into that town?" Gift said. "No thank you. They weren't really happy with us either."
"Or we can backtrack and get out of these mountains, avoiding the site where we saw the Fifty-first Rocaan—
"Possible," Scavenger said.
"Or we can defend this place." Adrian glanced around. The swords reassured him, while the chalices made him nervous. And the running water. If it were holy water, all Gift or Leen or Scavenger had to do was accidentally back into the fountain and they would die.
They might die if a drop splashed on them.
"We'll stay here," Gift said.
"We might not be safe here either," Adrian said. "All the symbols of Rocaanism here could be a warning to you. If any of them affect you the way holy water does, one mistake would kill you."
"And that Matthias might know how to use this place," Leen said. "It might have a religious magick we don't know about."
Adrian looked at her. Her eyes were narrow, her lips pulled back tight. She clenched her fists, and her right hand rested near her sword. She was frightened. He'd seen her angry, he'd seen her fight her own people, but he'd never seen her like this.
"I don't think the magick here is religious," Gift said.
"Then you're denying what's before your eyes, boy," Scavenger said.
"You didn't think so before," Gift snapped.
"I never said that," Scavenger said.
"What happened?" Coulter asked before Adrian could. Something had happened here, something that frightened Leen and set Gift and Scavenger into this verbal debate.
"Gift thinks he saw his mother," Scavenger said with a slight sneer.
"Niche?" Coulter asked.
Gift shook his head.
"Your real mother?" Coulter sounded breathless.
"She said she was a Mystery. Some Fey, when they die, don't pass on. They become spirits," Gift said.
"That's not it," Scavenger said. "And I don't think a Mystery would tell you she's one, do you? Then she's not a Mystery."
"You thought so before," Gift said.
"I was willing to listen before. I've been thinking about this. What better way to woo you deeper into the cave? Who knows what deadly stuff lurks beyond that fountain?"
Adrian had heard of the Mysteries. The Fey often discussed them in the same breath as something called the Powers. The Fey spoke of them with awe, and in the same way the Rocaanists spoke of God, the Roca, and the Holy One.
"Did she try to do that?" Adrian asked. "Try to lure you beyond that fountain?"
"No," Gift said.
"She wanted to talk to him alone," Leen said.
"Did you see her?" Coulter asked.
"No," Scavenger said. "She said only people with magick could see her."
"No," Gift said. "She said that she could appear to three people: the person she had loved the most, the person she had hated the most, and a third person of her choice. I was the one she chose."
"Why would she show up here?"Adrian asked. "She's been dead a long time. Why not show up before?"
"She said she had, only I couldn't see her. She's visible here. Not in other places."
"Is she here now?" Coulter asked.
"No," Gift said. He wouldn't meet their gaze, suddenly.
"Gift told her to go away, and she did."
"At least she listens," Adrian said.
"It's not funny," Gift said.
He sounded like a hurt child. If this Mystery was indeed Jewel, then she might be good for him. But it sounded to Adrian as if something in the cave knew where Gift was vulnerable and sought to touch him there.
But that wasn't part of Rocaanism. Rocaanism strove for self-sufficiency. It taught its followers to believe in the Roca, but not to call on the Holy One unless all other avenues had been thwarted. Yet there were parts of the religion he didn't know, and more parts he didn't understand. He had never understood why holy water was deadly to Fey, and why a just God would allow the tools of his religion to kill.
The very symbol of the religion was a sword, something that had seemed natural to Adrian as a boy, but had never made sense to him as an adult. Why glorify something designed only to kill or maim another? What kind of religion was this, anyway?
"I'd like to stay here," Gift said into the silence.
"It doesn't make sense, boy," Scavenger said.
"It makes the most sense," Gift said. "If we go to town, they'll try to kill me and Leen. If we backtrack, we run the risk of finding those villagers who seem to be searching for us in the mountains. If we stay here, we have only one door to defend and a lot of weaponry."
"We don't know if you can touch it," Adrian said.
"But you can. And so can Coulter."
"What if Scavenger's right?" Coulter said. "What if that woman isn't a Mystery? What if she's something put here, to lure you into part of the cave and kill you?"
"I won't let her," Gift said.
"You might not have a choice," Scavenger said. "Some magicks make you believe you're doing what's best for yourself when actually you're hurting yourself."
"I'll take the risk," Gift said.
"It's a risk we'd all take," Adrian said. "You are the heir to Blue Isle's throne. We can't lose you now."
"And to the Black Throne," Leen said.
"For whatever that's worth," Gift said. He sighed. "This might not even be important. We don't even know if this Rocaan is coming."
"Oh, he's coming," Coulter said. He turned toward the entrance. "He'll be here, sooner or later."
"We act like that man's all-powerful," Leen said. "He's not. I nearly killed him."
"And he doesn't have a very strong group with him," Adrian said. "I only counted five ot
hers, and I'm not sure that two were with him."
He thought for a moment. Gift hadn't moved from the step below. Leen had her arms crossed. Scavenger had turned on his step so that he could see them more clearly. Coulter had backed away from Leen until he was almost pressed against Adrian.
"Six against five, or maybe four against five," Leen said. "That's reasonable."
"Especially since you've defeated him before," Adrian said.
"He's got slop," Coulter said. It sounded like a warning.
"What does that mean?" Gift said.
"He didn't always know about his own powers. He tried to repress the magick. It slops over, it always does," Coulter said, "And he still has residue from that. It'll make him even more powerful."
"Are you afraid of him?" Gift asked. There was still a coolness about him when he dealt with Coulter, almost as if he were hoping to find Coulter in a misstep, in feeling something wrong.
"I'm cautious," Coulter said. "We can't balance odds like we would in a normal fight. Just because he has the same label I do doesn't mean we have the same abilities. He's older."
"And you're more practiced," Adrian said.
"But I'm not as desperate," Coulter said.
"He does hate Fey," Leen said. "That much was clear."
"It seems to be part of the culture here," Gift said.
"Not Fey," Adrian said. "Tall ones."
"Matthias is tall," Coulter said.
"Maybe the locals' fear comes from an understandable place then," Gift said.
"Maybe," Scavenger said, but he sounded unconvinced.
"We have more weapons," Adrian said, trying to get the conversation back on track. "We also have seasoned fighters. The Fey never made it this far north in the first Invasion, and I don't think this area was involved in the Peasant Uprising. There are no current soldiers and no history of war-making here. I think that too gives us an advantage."
"Are we prepared for a siege?" Scavenger asked.
"You can't lay a siege with only six people," Leen said.
"He hasn't come up here directly, has he?" Scavenger said. "Maybe he's getting help."
"Or maybe he's afraid of this place," Coulter said. "I could feel the magick pulsing out of here. If I could, he can. And he's not as accepting of it as I am."
Adrian felt himself grow cold. What was this place?
The Resistance: The Fourth Book of the Fey (Fey Series) Page 38
