Page 94 of Shield of Fire

I raised a hand until my fingers brushed his body, then stopped and drew a knife. Light flickered down her blade, and both the song of the dead and the utter blackness faded. Not by much, but enough to at least see what lay ahead, and that meant this darkness was being enhanced by magic.

And what lay ahead was a jagged crack in the ground not three feet away.

If I hadn’t called for a halt, he would have fallen into it, and possibly dragged me in before Mathi or Lugh could react.

Cynwrig glanced at me, his silvery eyes glimmering in the knife’s flickering light. “The earth makes no mention of that chasm. I didn’t even sense the magic concealing it.”

“Neither did I,” I admitted. “I just felt the wrongness.”

“Well, thank gods for instinct.” He took a cautious step forward and peered over the edge. “Impossible to see how far it drops, but it feels a long way down.”

“A final trap before we reached the shield?” Mathi said. “Or merely the first?”

“I’m hoping for the former, but betting on the latter.” I raised the knife higher. Its light brightened, a beacon that washed the darkness from the chasm’s other edge. “It appears an easy enough jump now that we know it’s there.”

“Indeed,” Cynwrig agreed. “But perhaps you should take the lead once we’re on the other side, just to be safe.”

I nodded, and one by one, we leapt over the void. The voices of the dead sharpened after each successful jump, as if in disappointment that no new souls would be joining them in darkness today.

We rearranged the rope and continued on with me in the lead. Thankfully, the blanket of darkness soon faded, and the headlamps once again shone brightly. A dozen steps later, we came out on a wide stone platform that overlooked the dark, still lake I’d seen in my vision.

In the heart of the lake, a fiery light gleamed.

I shivered. There was no reason for that gleam. No reason other than godly luminance, perhaps.

Once we’d undone the rope tying us all together, Cynwrig bent and pressed a hand against the stone. “The lake doesn’t weigh heavily, so it’s not that deep. I’m still getting no sense of what else lies in that water, though.”

“There’s usually only one way to uncover that,” Lugh said, “and that’s to spring whatever trap the gods have left.”

I swung my pack off. “And seeing I’m the one with the magic knives, I’d better be the one doing the springing.”

“Does the exit tunnel lie off this cavern?” Mathi asked. “Because we should probably secure that as a matter of priority.”

“Agreed,” Cynwrig said. “It’s at the far end of the lake. I’ll head left, you head right.”

“And in the meantime,” I said. “Lugh and I will head into the middle of the lake and see what awaits.”

Mathi unzipped his coat, then undid the retention clip on his gun holster. “Give us a few minutes to ensure the area is secure.”

“Is that thing really loaded with silver bullets?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow, his expression somewhat amused. “You’ve known me for how long? When, in all that time, have I ever joked about something like that?”

“Well, never, but you’ve also never revealed the fact that you owned and used guns until recently, and you certainly never mentioned the fact you possessed silver bullets for them.”

“Mathi works on a need-to-know basis,” Lugh said. “You didn’t need to know about the gun, just as you didn’t need to know about the other lovers.”

“I’ve admitted it was wrong to conceal the latter.” It was mildly said, but his annoyance was nevertheless clear. “And this sort of discussion gets us no closer to our goal.”

With that, he turned and walked down the slope to the right shoreline.

If a backbone could glower, his definitely did. He really didn’t like being called to task for past actions, however lightly.

Cynwrig picked up my pack, motioned for Lugh’s, and then said, “If anything attacks, I’ll try to fence it within stone, but given we have no idea what lies underneath the water, that may or may not be successful. Just... be careful.”

I nodded. He slung the packs over his shoulders and strode down the left ramp. I returned my gaze to the water. Despite the fact it was as black as hell, I could see the stones dotting its bottom. Could see the remnants of wooden beams lying in crisscrossed bits and pieces, suggesting structures of some kind had once dotted this lake. No wood song rose from those beams; it would have been drowned under the weight of the water long ago. The lake was mirror-still; despite the stalactites that dotted the cavern’s roof, nothing dripped to disturb its surface.

Perhaps it feared to wake whatever lay in wait.

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