Page 71 of Asher

“Inthe bed, not under it,” Caolan corrects. “I’ll come with you.” His wink seems inappropriate for the situation, but I still find it sweet.

“No,” Brandt assures him, ignoring Caolan. “I don’t think so. It’s the syllables that got my attention. Languages changed a lot between the last time we visited here and when we migrated, but a lot of sounds are the same. And back then, we swapped words back and forth a lot. Some of your Earth languages are loosely based on ours.”

“Really?” I breathe. I no longer care that we’ve moved away from the point. This is fascinating. But then I realize what he’s saying. “I thought it was a German word I just didn’t understand.” My German is sketchy to begin with, and place names in any language can often not make sense, since so often they’re named after people or events.

“What?” Gideon asks.

“Hortplatz,” Brandt says. “It has its roots in some dragon slang from a long time ago.Hortis literally hoard. It’s very likely my friend is the one who named this area, way back when.”

As my mind both struggles to absorb that while also doing a happy dance over the history of it all, Asher says, “So this could be her hoard?”

Brandt makes a face. “It still seems unlikely. This door… she did love puzzles, but even if she knew every move off by heart, it would take days to get the door open. We dragons love our hoards, and I can’t imagine her being okay with that kind of delay. But, while I don’t think this was her personal hoard, I do think she was hoarding something here.”

“And that something would have the same preservation spells as the door and the crates?” I venture, remembering why I brought this up in the first place.

“I can’t guarantee it, but I don’t see why she’d protect them and not the contents they’re guarding,” Brandt agrees.

I nod. “Okay… so I propose this. The village of Hortplatz will coordinate the opening of the door and the cataloguing of whatever’s behind it. CSG and the dragon government will pay for the time of the puzzle expert and lend us a dragon who can explain anything dragonish we might find inside. Hortplatz will house, feed, arrange transport back and forth, and provide physical labor and guides where necessary. In return for everybody’s contributions, when the contents of the hoard have been catalogued, they will be divided equally according to their assigned value. Whatever’s in there has been around for anywhere between nine and fifteen thousand years, so even if it’s not diamonds, it’s treasure.” The historical value alone would be incredible—especially if the preservation spells kept the items from degrading.

“That sounds fair to me,” Brandt begins, but I hold up a hand.

“I’m not finished, sorry. Once the contents have been divided and rehomed, this cave, the door, and all the puzzle pieces will become the property of the village of Hortplatz.” I wanted a way to attract other species to the village… this is it. The number of community academics alone who’ll come to stay and study the door and the hoard items the village keeps will be in the hundreds, if not thousands. If we make it a kind of museum and bring in the general public too…

“Alistair,” David says, watching me, “you never told me your cousin was so intelligent.”

Alistair beams. “Almost as smart as me!”

“Keep telling yourself that. All right, Garrett,” he continues, “I’m not opposed to your suggestion. The lucifer will have to agree for CSG, of course, and I also want to add the stipulation that if we find anything of cultural significance to the dragons, it goes to them without being counted as part of their third.”

I nod. “Of course. I’m not the British Museum.”

A tiny smile teases his mouth. “And, if the village of Hortplatz presents its plans for the cave and they meet with CSG’s approval, we would potentially be interested in providing sponsorship for any public facility that may eventuate and loaning our share of the items to that facility.”

Yes!“That sounds good. Of course, I can’t make any final agreements, but I’ll present your offer to the village council.” I really hope Damaris loves Asher enough to overlook how presumptuous I’ve been.

“This is delightful!” Brandt proclaims. “Now we just have to get it open.”

We all turn to look at the massive metal-studded door. This is going to be so much fun.

CHAPTERTHIRTY

Asher

After a whisperedconversation with Micah and Zac, I teleport Garrett directly to Grandmother’s house while they direct Caolan to open a portal back to our place.

“Asher?” she says when we find her in the living room. Her tone is cool, and I know she’s still unhappy that we didn’t tell her about the cave right away. “Is there a problem?”

“No. The opposite. Garrett’s negotiated an amazing opportunity for us.” I lay it on a little thick as I nudge him forward, but itisa great opportunity. Even if the contents of the vault are useless—or if it’s empty—the door is an attraction itself. And Garrett fixed it so most of the work will be paid for by the government.

Garrett explains, his voice a bit shaky at first but growing in confidence when Grandmother doesn’t immediately rip his throat out. She interrupts at one point to turn her gaze on me. “Call Jesse. The council needs to vote on this now, and then meet with the other parties. Or did they leave already?”

“They’re waiting to meet with the council,” I assure her. We made sure of that.

My call to Jesse is done when I feel the tingle of a teleport. It’s Grandmother’s house, so I don’t call out to see who it is. She hates that.

“Grandmother?” a chorus of voices call, and her face softens slightly. Very slightly. Okay, if I hadn’t been looking directly at her, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. But thereisa difference, and it reminds me that she does love us all.

Chloe and Isaac burst into the room a second later, followed at a more sedate pace by Dad and Uncle Hal. “We’ve come for snacks,” Dad declares, slapping me on the back. “Hello.”

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