Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
I’m more than relieved to be free of the tunnels once we make our way back to the surface. We untie the rope at our waists, and Hemmen proudly presents our find to our teacher, who’s waiting nearby.
Instead of praising us, however, Master Jay stares at the artifact, and then back at us. “That…that’s not the one I buried. Where did you find that?”
Well, shit.
Thirty-Seven
Raptor
Hawk,
Things are a mess. We found an artifact that wasn’t even missing. If you have ideas, I’m open to suggestions. This is taking longer than anticipated.
—Raptor
PS—I’ve decided I want a bonus. Make sure Rooster knows.
Show me the location,” Jay insists to me. The other four fledglings are sent back to the nest, with Gwenna shooting worried looks over her shoulder as I remain behind at the drop site with our teacher.
“I told you where it was,” I remind him even as we head back to the training drop we just emerged from.
“I know, but it doesn’t make sense.” Jay shakes his head as we climb into the basket. He nods at the repeater at the ropes, and the boy lowers us down with jerking motions. Jay holds on to the lip of the basket and looks over at me. “You know as well as I do that those tunnels are the most well-traveled of any in the Everbelow. Dozens of students are in and out of them each month. They were cleaned of every bit of artifactual and magical value long before you and I were ever born. And you’re telling me that some artifact was just lying there? No one dug for it at all?”
“Seems like.” I’m not happy about this situation, either. Those tunnels are hollowed out and useless for anything other than training students. Anything above the old fault line really is. The fact that a fresh, working artifact was just sitting out in the open bothers me.
The fact that Gwenna pointed out the spot bothers me, too. It feels like a setup of some kind, but I’m trying to figure out the reasoning behind it and drawing a blank. If Gwenna’s the thief—and after today, it seems bloody likely—then why point right to an artifact that’s been stolen? Wouldn’t it be smarter to keep your mouth shut?
Or is there something else going on and she’s trying to divert away from the real thief? She did run away in the tunnels earlier…and then distracted me with pleasuring her. And fool that I was, I fell for it.
I don’t like this. I don’t like any of this.
We head into the tunnel and stand in the spot our group had rested at. “There,” I say, pointing at the barely visible shelf of rock above our heads. “There’s a column there. Gwenna saw it from this spot.”
Jay holds up his lantern, squinting. “How did she find that in these shadows? I can’t see anything at all.”
“She’s got good eyes.” She’s also a hell of a liar, because she’s had me fooled this entire time.
Jay grunts, then strides across the cavern, toward the wall in question. “Help me up. I want to get a good look at the site.”
Lifting Jay up doesn’t work until he stands completely on my shoulder, and I brace my arms against the rock wall. He manages to climb up awkwardly, and then lights a candle, holding it out and examining the area. “There’s lichen everywhere, but there’s also some rotted fabric.” He kneels and disappears and I can hear him scraping. “Ah…five hells.”
“What?” I call out.
“There’s a body.”
“What do you mean, there’s a body?” I think of Gwenna, and how she knew there was something up there. She’s involved in some way, and it’s obvious she’s tricked me all this time. Yet…why? Why show her hand like this? “How did we not notice that before?”
“There’s lichen all over everything, but an experienced artificer knows that it doesn’t grow so thick on rock. It likes rotting things to grow on. I dug through the layer of lichen and there was an old blanket. When I pulled the blanket back, there were remains.”
Remains doesn’t sound like a new body. “Is it someone we know?”
He makes a vague sound. “No, no. This one is long dead. His uniform—what’s left of it—is very old. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say he’s the student who went missing in the caverns back before my time as a fledgling. My teacher knew of him. He’d snuck away from his fledgling class in the night and was never seen again. Never left the cave, but no one could ever find him, either. It’s been a mystery ever since I was a young boy. I guess now we know the truth.”
If that’s the case, it makes less sense than ever. If Gwenna is in league with the thieves who have been attacking the repeaters, what does that have to do with a decades-old missing student? Yet she knew something was there.