The barmaid came and asked if I’d like a roasted chicken leg and rosemary bread. I said yes, though my appetite had deserted me. When she set the plate down, I simply stared at that too.
I’d spent the last few months combing over what I might say to Pheolix after I arrived here.
I hadn’t once considered what I’d do if he weren’t.
A dark shape slid into the booth across me, and my gaze lifted to meet theirs. But it was blocked.
By a black hood.
The lower half of the face was female, a jaw and mouth I couldn’t place. My heart skipped. I leaned forward, rooting my fingertips into the scratched and dented wood of the table.
She stared at me with her hidden eyes, a heavy message lurking under her silence.
Then she stood. Without a backwards glance, she walked through the tables. The tavern door swung on hinges as she pushed through. One moment there, then gone.
I hurried out of my booth, tossingfraggsnext to my untouched meal and dodging through the crowd of miners enjoying their drinks, blasting out of the door and into the night.
The hooded Naiad was there, waiting for me on the other side.
She turned on her heel, cloak snapping as she made her way across the street to a horse tethered to a post near mine. Without a word, I followed, climbing into the saddle and gathering my reins.
The Naiad struck off toward the northeast side of town.
She never glanced over her shoulder at me. Never called to ensure I was still behind her. But she seemed to know when to let me catch up, slowing around street corners and tall trees where I might have lagged. When she took the final turn toward the mines, I sped through the village outskirts to keep up.
We rode toward the mountains in silence, back to the man-made cave I’d visited just hours before. Winds shifted, the air cool and damp. I pulled my cloak tighter over my shoulders at the first drop of rain, a cold trickle down my cheek. The mountains didn’t care that it was summer. That to the south, Calder was thick with warmth. I thought of Cebrinne. She’d be in Leihani by now, toasty under the island sun.
But here, wind whisked my clothes and hair, snatching any heat my body might have offered. The leaves of nearby trees fluttered against the drizzle. Clouds blotted the light of the moon, rendering the rain invisible unless I passed ripples in puddles in the road.
Near the mouth of the mines, the Naiad dismounted. The hustle and motion of miners earlier that day had abated. A single guard stood at the cavern entrance, one of the King’s soldiers.
The Naiad pointed at him.
I studied the guard. The Naiad wore a hood like Pheolix. If she was a drone, she couldn’tincanthumans. “You want me to sing?”
She didn’t answer. But intuition nudged that meant yes. I stepped forward, opening my mouth, and she stopped me with a hand on my arm. Then held out her opposite palm expectantly, her chin tucked low.
Payment.
My stomach wrung itself through a nervous string of twine.
The possibility that this was a trap taunted me. I’d had every intention of entering town and covertly seeking out Pheolix, stealing him away into the night. But as the day wore on, my search grew more vocal, more public. Everyone in town knew I was a traveler searching for a man named Pheolix.
I squared my shoulders. “Where is he?”
The drone cocked her head toward the mines.
“Swear on your blood.”
She stared at me for a long moment. Rain fell onto her hood, planting wet dots in the fabric. Slowly, she drew a knife, laying the edge against her palm, and dragged it back an inch.
“The Naiad Pheolix is in the mines,” she said.
I didn’t recognize her voice, but it was enough to hear her words. Trap, no trap—this was my chance. There was little choice for me unless I never wanted to see him again. I leaned over my saddle, digging through my leather pouch until I found one of my two remaining purses.
“How much?” I asked.
The Naiad leaned over my shoulder, gazing inside my saddlebag. She lifted the purse. My jaw hardened as she tucked it into her cloak, then cocked her head toward the guard once more.
