Page 57 of A Promise of Peridot
My eyes spied a phosphorescent insect scuttling into a crooked, skinny crevice. My heart picked up speed. “What? Travel? Sport?”
Fedrik shrugged as if to say,Does anything?
“I actually haven’t seen too much of the world. I’d love to scale a mountainside. I’d settle for just seeing a mountain range.”
“Well, I’ll take you sometime, if you find yourself available.”
This was the benefit of Fedrik not knowing that I was the Fae from the prophecy. With him, I had ample time to go on mountainous adventures. I grinned at him in the darkness, his blond hair backlit by illuminated crystals. “Where would we go?”
“The Kingdom of Amber has some spectacular mountain ridges. Most around the city of Rookvale.”
Rookvale was only three hours north of Abbington by carriage. Right at my doorstep. So much of that insulated life, self-imposed. I shook my head.
“Wait,” Mari said, stopping us and her path of luster in our tracks. “I think we have to go back two turns. This is a dead end.”
The words sent my stomach into a state that made nausea preferable.
“Lead the way, witch.” But Griffin’s eyes remained focused on something that had skittered into a crevice in the walls.
I reached for Mari’s hand, my chest feeling too tight, until a voice rang through the abyss.
In one graceful stride Griffin stood in front of us, his hulking form shielding both Mari and me from whoever else was down here.
“Could be the Garnet soldiers Crawford spoke of,” Kane said, suddenly beside his commander. I hadn’t even heard him behind me.
“Or regular folks hunting treasure,” Fedrik offered. “Shall we go ask before we rip heads off? Just a thought.”
Kane rolled his eyes. “Be my guest.”
To my surprise, Fedrik did as Kane said, and sauntered down the tunnel, torch outstretched, until I heard him exchange warm pleasantries with a shadowed form.
We trailed behind. Standing there with Fedrik, hands folded around a map of his own, was a rugged man, likely in his late twenties, skin leathery from some sun-drenched occupation and covered in nautical tattoos.
Fedrik gestured toward us. “This is the rest of my party.” Then, to us, “This is Niclas.”
“What brings your group to Reaper’s Cavern?” Niclas’s voice was as rough as his weather-beaten skin.
“Just looking for a little adventure.” Kane’s casual voice could have fooled even me. “Who were you talking to?”
“The caves,” Niclas answered, eyes pinned on Kane as if testing him. Goading him to mock. “Sometimes they talk back.”
“You sound in desperate need of traveling companions,” Mari said cheerily. “You’re welcome to stick with us. However, our map is from a desk leg I had to smother in mud, which we only got from this seedy nobleman whodied, which is a whole other story, but he traded all these stolen goods in Citrine, which is underwater, so who knows how much access he evenhadto the outside world, meaning I’m not sure if we can really trust this thing,” Mari said, wagging the map at Niclas before taking off down the corridor, luster following after her like the dust of a shooting star.
Niclas’s eyes flicked to us in confusion and a bit of concern, but Griffin only walked after Mari with a resigned sigh. “She just means our map is a little faulty. Don’t... don’t worry about the rest.”
“Where did you say you’re all from?” Niclas asked with suspicion. “Some place... underwater?”
“I grew up outside of Willowridge, in the Onyx Kingdom,” Mari called back to him as we walked. “And you?”
“Pitney.”
“That’s in the Quartz of Rose, right? In the south?”
It was no surprise that Mari knew where Pitney was, nor that she could make friends with a stranger such as Niclas with ease.
“Yeah. I’ve never met anyone from Onyx. You’re... more upbeat than I expected.”
“It’s not as bad as people think,” Mari said, distracted by the map she was turning around and around.
