The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(65)

Ranami led me to a cliff covered in vines and vegetation. Birds and monkeys called in the trees above, their voices layering on top of one another. The skies had cleared, though I knew that wouldn’t last. There were no roads out here, no villages, not even the hint of rooftops in the distance. That would help with the spies, I supposed. And then Ranami drew aside some vines to reveal a crack in the cliff’s face. A crack barely large enough for a person to shove themselves through. She looked to me, her gaze cool.

I balked. “You can’t be—”

She lifted her arms, sucked in a breath and disappeared into the rock.

Mephi chittered excitedly. I lifted a finger to my lips. “Don’t,” I said. He quieted and only headbutted my knee. I scratched his ears and approached the crack. I lifted the vines like a curtain and peered into the darkness. I thought, when I looked at it, I could see some faint glow from within.

“Will you follow?” Ranami’s voice emanated from the darkness as though she’d become only shadows.

Mephi sat on his haunches, black eyes staring up at me.

“You don’t have to come,” I said to him. “You can wait for me back on the ship.”

He shook his head, chirruped and slid through the crack as if his bones were liquid.

I clenched my fingers, unclenched them, feeling sweat gather on my palms. I’d never been fond of enclosed spaces – which was perhaps another reason I didn’t like the wet season. So much waiting around indoors for the storms to pass. I couldn’t see how far this crack went, how long I’d have to squeeze for. What if there were spiders?

Emahla would do it if our positions were reversed.

With a quick breath, I stepped sideways into the crack, my head facing the light of day. One step. Two. The stone on either side pressed on my chest and on my back. I felt caught between two mountains, with another mountain bearing down on top of me. Was this how an insect felt right before it was crushed underfoot? Three steps. Four. My shirt caught on an outcropping. It wouldn’t tear away when I tugged. I was trapped.

I stopped, trying to quell the panic. One step back, and then forward again. My shirt fell free.

One more step, and I felt the crack widen. A warm body brushed against my legs. Mephi. Just the feel of him relaxed me, knowing he was there and he wasn’t scared. He was much smaller than I was. If he wasn’t scared, I shouldn’t be either.

Finally, I was able to turn my head. A few more steps and I couldn’t feel either wall against me anymore. A lamp flashed in front of my face. When it was lowered and my eyes adjusted, I could see Ranami’s face, grim but satisfied. “We’re farther in.”

The cavern was barely wide enough to accommodate my shoulders, but now it was merely an uncomfortably small hallway and not what felt like a death-trap. If this was where the Shardless were hiding, I understood how they hadn’t been found yet. I had to watch my footing – the floor of the cavern was uneven, though someone had made an effort to clear the jagged rocks away.

Ranami and the lamp disappeared around a corner, and I hurried to keep the light in view. I almost stumbled when I rounded the corner.

The floor here was smooth, the walls widening into a proper hallway. Lamps hung at regular intervals on hooks from the walls, illuminating symbols carved into the rock. I had to look both left and right before I saw Ranami again, walking down the hall.

“What is this place?” I said when I’d caught up.

“We’re not sure,” she said, “but we’re almost certain they made it. That they might have lived here.”

They. One of the Alanga. I’d known that Nephilanu had been the place where Dione, the last of the Alanga, had made his stand against the Empire. It made sense they would have had a hideout here.

“They must have had a lot of oil,” I said.

“Yes,” she said, her voice dry. “It’s quite dark. I see you’ve noticed.”

Lovely. I was glad we were getting along so well already. As long as what they wanted me to do didn’t involve working closely with this woman. “Or they might have lit the place with magic.”

Her shoulders stiffened. The idea hadn’t occurred to her. It was odd to me – that there was evidence of magic all around us in the form of the Emperor’s constructs, yet no one seemed to think any other sort of magic existed. It clearly had in the form of the Alanga. And if folklore was to be believed, cloud junipers had some magic as well, though it was zealously guarded by the monasteries.

When I concentrated, I could feel the thrumming in my bones, the power waiting to be unleashed. The ground beneath me seemed to hold its breath, waiting for me to send that thrumming through the soles of my feet and into the rock. There was something of magic living in me too, either put there or awakened by Mephi. Where he’d gotten it, I didn’t know. I found myself tapping the end of my staff against the wall. When I tightened my grip, sweat made my fingers slip. Sometimes I wondered if magic was like a parasite, a thing that lived in me, but wasn’t a part of me. The thought had kept me awake on more than one night. But I trusted Mephi, and the bond we’d formed hadn’t harmed me. When I was using the magic, when I felt the strength in my limbs and the thrumming in my eardrums, I couldn’t feel fear. All I could feel was a fierce joy. Was it good or not good? I wasn’t sure.

The hallway ended in a room large enough to be a palace’s dining hall. Lamps lined the walls, and though they made the place almost bright, I still felt as if I’d already forgotten what the sky looked like. A group of people sat at the far end of the room at a table of stone. One of the tallest women I’d ever seen stood leaning against the wall, though there was room enough for her at the table. She was dressed in a leather jerkin, a sword strapped to her side. Not quite the bearing of a soldier – no uniform, no brass pins – but she had her hand on the hilt of her weapon and I didn’t doubt she knew how to use it. Black hair fell to her shoulders in waves, framing a chin that was stronger than mine.