Page 80 of Dark's Savior

"It’s nice," Ryziel said. He looked at her and nodded. "You should have it, then."

"Oh, I don't know if I should take anything," she said, even though she clutched the book to her. She caught Ryziel giving her a sly grin.

"Take it. Better for it to be appreciated than sitting collecting dust."

Aly stared down at the cover, her hands tracing circles over its leatherbound surface. "I guess...all right." She placed it in her own side pack next to her sketchbook. Someday, she would show the others and tell them of this place.

With a satisfied nod, Ryziel led her back to the center of the room. With the tap of his foot on an inlaid star, the ground beneath them began to descend. As they slowly dropped down, Aly looked up one last time to see the light from above disappear as the ceiling closed back into itself, returning to the shape of the moon.

***

"How did you know to look for a place like that anyway?" Aly asked as they sloshed their way up a set of stairs, the water cascading down the steps in a foaming torrent. The water under the bridge they crossed earlier had already risen considerably since they left. The Keep would be under soon, nothing more than an unreachable ruin until the waters eventually fell away, deeper into the earth.

"I had the map leading to that secret part of the Keep for some time," Ryziel explained. "I acquired it by mistake when looking for the ship. The tracer somehow made its way into there, and Nar had an incomplete map given to him long ago by a deceased relative, claiming it was where Yurza hid her most coveted possessions. It wasn't hard to put the two maps together and see where it led. I told myself once the ship was close to being finished that I would go there and let Nar know what I found." He peered down at her with an amused expression as they made their way through a murky tunnel. "He'll probably be peeved to know I didn't bring anything back for him, but I will give him the map so he at least knows where it is if he wishes to go there himself someday."

"It's too bad," Aly said as Ryziel pulled her up over a fallen rock and set her on the other side. "If he tells his people, they will probably ransack the place when they get a chance and try to sell every little bit off to the miners."

"Perhaps. But maybe he won't tell them. And it may be a long time before the water recedes and it opens again. By then, who knows. We won't be here to learn of its fate either way."

He was right about that, she was sure. The ship would be long gone, and Lethe Maws would be a shadow in the blackness of space. They would be on their way home before they knew of anything that happened within the Keep.

Home.

Aly looked up at Ryziel, and a small sort of ache welled up in her chest. As they walked up another set of stairs, she knew if she didn't say something, the ache would swell till it burst. "Ryziel...when we get off Lethe Maws, um...I know you will return to Nihl."

He grunted but didn't turn to look at her as they walked.

"Will...do you think..." She had a hard time forming words until she finally just came out with it. "Will I go home with you?"

Ryziel slowed and looked back at her. "Yes."

Aly stared up at him. "Oh."

He looked away and continued, "It is what I wish...do you not want to?"

Aly took his hand in hers. "I want to."

He pulled her to him and quickly kissed the top of her head. The ache left her, and she had to force herself not to scream for joy.

Home. With him.

They came out to the bottom of the mine, and Aly had a sudden urge to run. To leap and bound like some crazy, high sprung deer.

"So, when we go to Nihl, I will stay with you, in your home?"

He gave her a funny look. "That's the general idea."

Aly laughed. "Right."

"I will request my brother allow you to be tied to our House and bound to me as my woman."

'That's a weird way of putting it,' she thought. Clearly, he must mean...

Aly halted after she began to jog down a familiar path. She looked back at him. "What do you mean bound? Do you mean...married?"

"In Nihl's way. Yes."

Aly went still as he came up beside her. She opened her mouth but wasn't sure how to answer. "What is Nihl's way?" she asked finally.

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