Page 21 of A Door in the Dark

Ren knew he wasn’t asking her for an answer, but she’d considered all the details. There were some inevitable conclusions that needed to be drawn. “We’re all in the same place, right?”

Nods from the others.

“That means our destinations merged. Instead of porting to our assigned locations…” She gestured to Clyde’s body and her stomach threatened to turn again. “Something went wrong. We got ported to the same spot. If our destinations merged, it’s possible that our distances merged. I’m pretty sure the magic took our individual bearings and combined them into a single route. One straight line. We’re lucky that it wasn’t aimed out to sea. We all would have drowned.”

Theo shook his head. “That doesn’t explain what happened to Clyde.”

“Magic,” Ren answered. “He performed a spell. And he was in the middle of performing another one. You were aiming your wand, but did you actually cast anything?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Avy?” Ren asked. “You swear you didn’t cast anything?”

He shook his head. “I was too angry to think of a spell to use.”

Ren gestured to the body. “Look at those burn marks. He got boiled from the inside. The only identifiable difference is that he was using magic when the portal malfunctioned. The waxways aren’t predictable. We’re basically using a system that the dragons left behind. There’s so much we don’t know about how they work or who created them in the first place. It’s possible that the active magic Clyde was using was seen as a threat. Which means…”

“The waxways eliminated the threat,” Theo said, arriving at the same dark conclusion.

Cora ran a finger over Clyde’s blackened nails. It almost looked like he’d been electrocuted.

“Cut that out,” Theo said. “Don’t touch him.”

Avy’s voice rumbled out in warning. “Hey. Don’t talk to her like that. It’s your fault we’re out here.”

“My fault?” Theo shot back. “You’re the one who pitched a fit about a wax-model building. What kind of child—”

“Hey!” Ren shouted. “Calm down. Can we just focus for a second? We need to get our bearings. We have no idea how far we went. Where’s the nearest overlook?”

For a heated moment Theo and Avy continued staring at each other. The massive wrestler broke off first, obediently turning to search. Cora was absently scratching at her eyebrow piercing. She stood up and joined them, but Theo turned his back on the rest of the group. Ren couldn’t tell if he was refusing to take orders or still reeling from Clyde’s death. She kept her nose covered as Avy pointed through a gap in the tree line.

“There. There’s a rise right there. Might take ten minutes to climb.”

“I’ll go with you,” Ren said. “I’ve got most of the map of Kathor’s surrounding regions memorized. We might be able to figure out exactly where we are if I can see the landmarks.”

Theo glanced back now. She knew he’d spent his entire time at Balmerick calling the shots and leading a dedicated crew. Friends had likely sat around waiting to agree with his plans. The idea of watching someone else take the lead of their search party clearly dug under his skin.

“I’ll come too. I’ve spent a lot of time at our home in the foothills. I might recognize the location.”

Timmons looked up. “I’m not staying here with… with the body.”

All eyes went to Cora. She was still hovering near Clyde, eyeing the corpse every few seconds. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was thinking. She answered in a quiet voice.

“I can stay behind. It would be sensible to perform even a cursory autopsy.”

“No way,” Theo shot back. “Clyde’s family is religious. There are certain rites they’d want performed. No one touches him. Not yet. Let’s all go. Up to the rise and back. Avy said it won’t take long. We get our bearings and then we come back for Clyde. All of us.”

Ren nodded. “Fine. Let’s get moving.”

Theo leaned down, tugging the edges of his cardigan to better cover Clyde. Ren knew he would want to transport the body. Especially after the comment about Clyde’s family. She was trying not to scoff internally at that. Most of the major houses only worshipped themselves and their own power. There were nods in wedding ceremonies or prayers to the Old Delvean god, but she highly doubted the Winters family put any true stock in the faith they sold to the masses.

Besides, transporting a body would be difficult. They could use levitation magic, but it relied on relatively small changes in undulation. If the path became too treacherous, it would be very difficult to maintain the integrity of the spell. They could always make the body lighter, but too light and they’d risk letting him float up into the clouds like a balloon. Their best bet would be a featherweight spell with some kind of tethering magic.…

Ren was so lost in her mental calculations that she didn’t realize Timmons was sobbing, walking a few steps behind her. She paused long enough to hook an arm through her friend’s. The two of them trekked up the hill together. Avy marched well ahead. She could see that he was still fuming a little after his second showdown with Theo. His prime physical condition made the uphill climb look easy. The others struggled through the trees, skirting undergrowth. Sunlight guided their ascent. Cora lagged behind, muttering under her breath about wasted opportunities.

“Almost there,” Avy called.

Ren was starting to sweat by the time she and Timmons plunged through a final curtain of branches, out onto a barren hillside. A few more strides brought them to the top of the same perch where Avy and Theo stood. It offered a decent view. Valleys swept from multiple directions toward a peak they all recognized. Ren’s eyes found the Watcher. Fog draped its passes and foothills. The mountain was one of the highest and most recognizable landmarks outside Kathor, and the second-tallest mountain on the entire continent. Ren was still eyeing the distant peaks when Avy spoke.

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