It has made you smarter, Leif said. Then he added, not much smarter, but we can still hope for improvement.
“Where to?” Tauno asked as he joined our group.
I looked at Moon Man.
He shrugged. “He is better at scouting than fighting. We will need him,” he said with certainty.
I sighed at the implication. “West.”
Perhaps we would find a better way down into the jungle or, failing that, we would follow the plateau’s edge west toward the Cowan Clan’s lands. Once in Cowan land, we would turn south into the forest then loop east into the Illiais Jungle. And hope we weren’t too late.
We mounted the horses. Tauno and Marrok once again led us. The point where the Daviians had turned around was obvious even to me. The hard-packed sand had been scuffed where they stopped, and only flat unblemished sand continued westward.
Tauno halted the horses and waited for more instructions.
“A ruse. I can smell deceit and smugness,” Leif said.
“Why so smug?” I asked. “Laying a false trail is a basic strategy.”
“It could be Cahil,” Marrok said. “He tends to think he is smarter than everyone. Perhaps he thought this would fool the Sandseeds into sending half their warriors in the wrong direction.”
I projected my magical awareness over the smooth sand. A few mice skittered into the open, searching for food. A snake curled on a warm rock, basking in the afternoon sun. I encountered a strange dark mind.
I withdrew my awareness and scanned the plateau. Sure enough there was a small area a few feet away where the sand looked pliant, as if it had been dug up and packed back down. I slid off Kiki and walked over to the patch. The sand felt spongy beneath my boots.
“A Vermin must have buried something there,” Marrok said.
Tauno snorted with disgust. “You have probably found one of their waste pits.”
With Moon Man still on her back, Kiki came closer. Smell damp, she said.
Bad damp or good damp? I asked.
Just damp.
Taking my grapple out of my pack, I started to dig. The others watched me with various expressions of amusement, distaste and curiosity.
When I had dug down about a foot, my grapple struck something hard. “Help me clear the sand.”
My reluctant audience joined me. But eventually we uncovered a flat piece of wood.
Marrok rapped his knuckles on it and proclaimed it the top of a box. Working faster to remove the sand, we sought the edges. The round lid was about two feet in diameter.
While Tauno and Moon Man discussed why the Vermin would bury a circle box, I found the lip and pried the top up. A gulp of air almost sucked the lid back down.
Everyone was stunned into silence. The lid covered a hole in the ground. And, judging by the pull of air into its depths, a very deep hole.
THE SUNLIGHT ILLUMINATED a few feet of the hole. Below the lip a couple rough steps had been cut into the sandstone.
“Can you sense anyone in there?” Leif asked.
Pulling a thread of power, I projected into the darkness. My awareness touched many of those dark minds, but no people.
“Bats,” I said. “Lots of bats. You?”
“Just smug satisfaction.”
“Could this be another false trail?” Marrok asked.
“Or a trap?” Tauno asked. He glanced around with quick furtive movements as if worried the sand would erupt with Vermin.
“One of us needs to go inside and report back,” Moon Man said, looking at Tauno. “I knew we would need a scout.”
Tauno jerked as if he had stepped on a hot coal. Sweat ran down his face. He swallowed. “I will need a light.”
Leif retrieved his saddlebags and removed one of his cooking sticks. “This won’t burn long,” he said. He set the end on fire and handed the stick to Tauno.
With the flaming stick to lead the way, the Sandseed scout crawled into the opening headfirst. Tempted to link my mind with his to see what he found, I forced myself to focus instead on the ground beneath my feet, trying to discover a sign of life that would indicate the end of the cave.
The jungle’s pulse throbbed in my soul, but I couldn’t tell if it came from an opening below the ground or just from being so close to it on the plateau.
Waiting proved difficult. I imagined all types of hazards in Tauno s way and was convinced he had fallen and broken a leg or worse when he appeared at the hole’s opening.
“The steps lead to a big cavern with many tunnels and ledges. I spotted a few footprints in the dirt, but had to come back before my light died,” Tauno said. “I also heard water gurgling nearby.”
Now we knew. Vermin had gone through the cave.
“Leif, what do you need to make a light last longer?” I asked him.
“You’re not thinking about going in there, are you?” Marrok asked, sounding horrified.
“Of course. You want to find Cahil, don’t you?”
“What makes you so certain he went that way?”
I looked at Leif. Together we said, “Smug satisfaction.”
While Leif and Tauno returned to the Daviian camp for firewood, Moon Man and I discussed what to do with the horses. We would need Marrok’s tracking skills and Tauno s keen sense of direction to find our way through the cavern. Leif and I needed to take Cahil back to the Council, so that left Moon Man.
“I am not staying behind,” Moon Man said.
“Someone needs to feed and water the horses,” I said.
Kiki snorted at me. I opened my mind to her.
Don’t need, she said. We wait then go.
Go where?
Market. An image of the Illiais Market formed in my mind. As the main southern trading post for Sitia, the market was tucked between the western edge of the Illiais Jungle and Cowan Clan lands.
How do you know about the market? I asked.
Know land like know grass.
I smiled. Kiki’s concise view of life kept surprising me with its many layers of emotion. If I could view the world the same way, I knew it would make my life easier.
Moon Man had been watching me. “Perhaps Kiki should mentor you.”
“On what? How to become a Soulfinder?”
“No. You are a Soulfinder. She can help you be a Soulfinder.”
“More cryptic Story Weaver advice?”
“No. Clear as air.” Moon Man drew a deep breath and grinned at me. “Let us get the horses ready.”
We removed their bridles and reins and packed the tack into their saddlebags. When Leif and Tauno returned, we sorted our supplies, distributing them among our packs and repacking the rest into the saddlebags. The horses would keep their saddles on, but we made sure nothing would hang down or impede their motion.
My pack weighed heavier than usual, but I had an uneasy intuition we might need a few of the items inside.
When we were ready, Leif lit the firewood torches dipped in the plant oil he had stored in Rusalka’s saddlebags. He left most of his odd concoctions and medicines behind, boasting he could find anything we needed in the jungle.
“If we find a way out,” Marrok muttered. “What will we do if we become lost in the caves?”
“That will not happen,” Moon Man said. “I will mark our way with paint. If we can not find our way through, we will return to the plateau. The horses will wait until Yelena tells them to go.”
Moon Man wrapped his muscular arm around Marrok’s shoulders. Marrok tensed as if he expected a blow.
“Trust yourself, Tracker. You have never been lost,” Moon Man said.
“I have never been inside a cave.”
“Then it will be a new experience for both of us.” Moon Man’s eyes glinted with anticipation, but Marrok hunched his back.
I wasn’t a stranger to small dark places. Before becoming the Commander’s food taster, I had spent a year in the Commander’s dungeon awaiting execution. While I wasn’t anxious to return to a confined space, I would push past my nerves to recapture Ferde.
“There are a few caves in the jungle,” Leif said. “Most of them are used as dens by the tree leopards and are avoided, but I’ve explored some.” His gaze met mine and, by the sad smile, I knew he had searched those caves looking for me.
Tauno and Marrok each held a torch. With Tauno leading the way, I followed, crawling headfirst through the small opening. Leif was close behind, then Marrok and finally Moon Man.
The torchlight illuminated the three-foot-wide tunnel. Shovel marks scraped the rough walls, indicating the space had been dug. The steps turned into bumps that helped slow our progress as we slid down the sloped passageway. I coughed as the dust of our passing mixed with the steady flow of cool damp air.
When we reached the cavern, the tightness around my ribs eased. Tauno’s light reflected off stones resembling teeth. A few of these hung from the ceiling and others rose from the ground as if we stood inside the mouth of a giant beast.
“Don’t move,” Marrok ordered as he examined the floor.
Shadows danced on the pockmarked walls as Marrok searched for signs. Deep wells of blackness indicated other tunnels, and small puddles of water peppered the floor. Dripping and running water filled the air with a pleasant hum that countered the unpleasant wet mineral smell mixed with a sharp animal musk.
Moon Man hunched his shoulders and short breaths punctuated his breathing.
“Is something wrong?” I asked him.
“The walls press on me. I feel squeezed. No doubt my imagination.” He went to mark the tunnel to the surface with red paint.
“This way,” Marrok said. Amplified by either the stone walls or by fear, his voice sounded louder than usual. He showed us a series of ledges descending down a chute.
The smell rising from the chute turned sharp and rank. I gagged. Tauno climbed down. The ledges turned out to be large chucks of rocks stacked crookedly on top of one another. In certain places he hung over the side and dropped down. We followed and with some mumbling and cursing we caught up to Tauno.
He waited on the last visible ledge. Beyond him, the chute ended in a pit of blackness. Tauno dropped his torch. It landed on a rock floor far below.
“Too far to jump,” Tauno said.
I pulled the grapple from my pack and wedged the metal hooks into a crack, glad I had decided to bring it along. Tying the rope onto the hook, I tested the grapple’s grip. Secure for now, but Moon Man braced himself and gripped the rope when Tauno swung over the edge and descended.
Moon Man’s forehead dripped with sweat despite the cool air. His uneven breathing echoed off the walls. When Tauno reached near the bottom, Moon Man released the rope. The grapple held Tauno’s weight. He jumped the last bit and picked up the torch, exploring the area before giving us the all-clear signal. One by one we joined him at the bottom of the chute. We left the grapple in place in case we needed to return.
“I have some good news and some bad,” Tauno said.
“Just tell us,” Marrok barked.
“There is a way out of this chamber, but I doubt Moon Man or Leif will fit.” Tauno showed us a small opening. The torch’s flame flickered in the breeze coming from the channel.
I looked at Leif. Even though Marrok was taller than him, Leif had wide shoulders. How had Cahil and Ferde fit through? Or had they traveled a different way? It was hard to judge size based on a memory. Perhaps they hadn’t encountered any trouble.
