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Ellery was too slow to grab Nara as she slipped out of the crevice again. His senses were confused, and he wanted to run and hide. He longed for a chance to hold Nara’s stones and gain some clarity. Although the stones didn’t whisper to him in the same way they did to her. They only ever told him to run, and now they were gone. He had managed to find one of those he had lost by the tree, but as soon as Nara had given it back to him for safekeeping, he had lost it again. Perhaps he was not meant to hold on to them.
He glanced towards the stone figure now lost to the dark. When he focused again on Nara, one of the hooded men stood before them. He didn’t seem so imposing standing this close, and yet Nara held out her sword to keep a distance between them. Ellery closed his hand tighter around his own sword, but he left it by his side.
The man before him was hidden within the large white coat. Like those they had met on weaverback, his features were lost behind the shadows of the hood. Ellery was reminded of his own coat. He wondered when he had lost it, sure that he had wrapped it around Nara. He had last seen it at the tree. Might there be a connection between the tree and the sleek black statue now lost to the darkness? Both were made from stone, yet very different. The lack of ridges in the stone here seemed more unsettling than just different.
The man pulled his hood back to reveal an older face and silver beard. Nara let out a small cry of surprise. Ellery took her shoulder and pulled her back from the man who appeared to be her father.
“Why are you here?” the man demanded. He sounded just the same as he had in their first life, from the little time Ellery had interacted with Lord Millard, and he wondered why they had not recognised him when he spoke to the statue.
But this was not him, just a man who wore the same face. Nara remained perfectly still, her body rigid, her sword steadily reaching towards the man’s heart. She had mentioned her mother, and Ellery had guessed she was the woman at the second cavern, the one who appeared different to those around her. Perhaps they had reached the point where their pasts had found them again. He wondered what that could mean.
“We are offering gifts,” Nara said, her voice shaky.
“You are not from here,” the man said.
“We were called,” Ellery lied, although in some way it was true. He might not understand it, but they were here for a reason, and it was likely connected to this man.
He looked them over as though disbelieving, but there was something else, an understanding perhaps that they were more than they appeared to be. Ellery wondered again whether the man understood who they were and his connection to them.
“Who called you?” the man asked, his voice echoing around the walls.
Ellery realised the others had returned, for their torch light flickered over the stone. He didn’t want to take his eyes from the man before him, lest he steal Nara away. The golden edge of her sword reflected the light of the flames, but its own light had gone out.
“Who are you to ask?” she demanded, the earlier uncertainty gone from her voice. The sword remained unwavering. Ellery wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her in that moment.
“If you are what you say, you would know,” the man said, a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth that made Ellery nervous. He was in control here, and they had no real idea as to what was going on.
“We haven’t said what we are, only that we were called,” Nara continued. “It is not for you to understand what He knows,” she said, looking beyond him to the statue. The smugness slipped from the man’s face, and he turned to look at it as well.
He turned back, glanced over them, and then walked on. Ellery noticed a slight limp in his gait and wondered if this was the man with stick who had taken Shadow’s mother.
Nara leaned into Ellery, her arm dropping down, and the tip of her sword hit the smooth stone ground. The sound echoed through the cavern.
The group stopped and turned back as one.
Ellery nudged Nara forward, as though to walk towards the statue, but her feet refused to move. She leaned more heavily into him.
A strong hand closed around Ellery’s arm. He expected the reincarnation of Nara’s father, but it was another man, younger and stronger, his face lost beneath his hood despite the flames of the torches too close and too bright. Nara was prised from Ellery’s grip, and she staggered again.
“We gave you our all,” she shouted towards the statue. “You have my stones.”
“Your stones?” the old man said.
“He called us here for the stones,” Nara insisted.
“Release her,” echoed through the cavern.
“No,” the old man grunted.
The world around them shook and shuddered, and dust rained down on them. For a moment, Ellery was sure he could see the ridges pulsing across the floor as though leading somewhere, and then they were gone.
“Release her,” echoed again, although the voice was much softer, much calmer. The hands that were around them let go, and Nara fell into Ellery’s arms again.
Ellery struggled to work out where the sound had come from. The voice was not that of the group, or the older man he could only think of as Lord Millard, although he knew he couldn’t be. Dust still trickled down on them, and then several of the hooded figures in the group dropped to their knees.
“We have to go forward,” Nara murmured.
“No way,” he whispered, but his voice echoed in the space, louder than he intended.
“Come,” the voice whispered across the stone around them.
Ellery looked towards the statue. Although it had not moved, it appeared to look directly at him, the solid black stone shimmering in the torch light.
Holding Nara close, Ellery moved forward together with her and barely reached the ankles of the statue.
As she had done before, Nara put her hand to the large foot. She closed her eyes as though listening for the whispers of the stone, and then she sighed. Despite his trying to hold her up, she slumped to her knees. Her hand slid across the smooth stone, and her sword clattered away across the ground.
Ellery reached down quickly, Nara’s skin already hot to the touch. He wondered if she was still ill. He thought it had passed after they had travelled through the cold snow. Nara hadn’t been herself beneath the tree. Despite being surrounded by stone, it was the tree Ellery thought he should return her to, no matter what might be lurking in the shadows waiting for them.
“They are here,” she murmured.
The group took a step back as one and bowed their heads. Ellery did not know if it was to the statue behind them or to Nara. Either way, he was feeling very uncomfortable, and he worried that this truly was the end.
He did not sense anything coming. He felt no pull. Despite the weariness that dragged at him, he sheathed his sword and scooped Nara back into his arms.
The older man stepped forward and, before Ellery could consider whether it was a good idea to try and fight these men, he picked up Nara’s sword. He turned it slowly in his hand, looking over the smooth blade and warily touching his fingers to it.
“Not from here,” he mumbled, then held it out to Ellery.
Ellery looked down at the woman in his arms, unsure how he could handle both. The older man surprised him by walking around behind him and sliding it into the sheath across his back. For a heartbeat, Ellery was sure the man would use the opportunity to drive it through his back, but he felt the comfortable weight and heard the blade slide against his own.
“They are coming,” one of the other hooded figures whispered, and Ellery could not make out which one. Although it sounded more like awe than fear in his voice.
“Who are you?” Ellery finally managed. With so many thoughts going through his head, he couldn’t determine what he had to do first, and Nara was again heavy in his arms.
“Keeper of the Stone,” the man answered, although it sounded odd to be spoken aloud, as though it should already be known.
“The stone man?” Ellery asked.
The Keeper shook his head then, confusion creasing his brow, and looked up at the statue looming over them.
“He is not the stone man,” Ellery said, although why he was so sure of that, he had no idea. “I need to help her.”
“Come,” the Keeper said, striding ahead of him, and the group followed.
Ellery tried to keep up, his own energy slipping. It had been so long since they’d had the chance to fully rest, and he been carrying Nara since they had arrived.
“It is this place,” he whispered, holding her close and trying not to trip. One of the hooded figures paused and turned back, stretching out his arms, but Ellery shook his head. He could not hand her to anyone else.
“It called you here,” the man said.
The stone had called to them, and yet it was not the reason they were here. That worried Ellery as much as Nara’s illness. She had not been ill before, and they had not lived this long without some understanding of the danger.
“They are coming,” she repeated, her head against his chest, and he could feel her skin growing hotter and hotter.
“I know,” Ellery murmured, but he didn’t. He had no idea of what or who was coming or where they were coming to.
The cool air closed around him, and although they were still in the dark except for the light of the torches, they must be closer to the outside. The stone around them felt cooler, the space less overwhelming. The light was lost to the endless dark above them. Ellery glanced up at the nothingness and wondered what was there, what lurked in those shadows that he couldn’t see or sense.
As the air became cooler, he thought he saw the ridges on the floor of the cavern, but then they were gone. Was it a message or a trick of the light? The stone was the key here, not the snow, not the cold, and not the creatures that might be hiding from him. He stopped then, closing his eyes to the flickering light and the tricks it might be playing on him. Ellery held Nara close, concentrating on the hot weight of her body leaning against him, the weight of the swords at his back, and the cool air wrapping around them while he just breathed.
Something pressed on him, a greater weight but not a pull. There was something else out there, something beyond the senses and skills he had to hunt out such creatures. Yet the Fates had put them here, with a sword that lit up with lightning and stones that moved. The fire tree came to mind, along with the tree made of stone that was so familiar and yet so very different.
Ellery had already found two of them, and he knew he had to find the others to find the answer.
“Where is the tree?” he asked.
The group stopped as one and turned back to him.
“What tree?” the Keeper asked.
“I have seen two, as well as someone with a pail made of wood.” It was something he had thought seemed odd at the time.
“Trees?” asked another in the group.
“Of stone,” Ellery clarified. “But I know there is a tree.”
The Keeper laughed, an odd sound that echoed around them and made Nara flinch in her unnatural sleep.
“There is no such thing,” he said. “But tell me where you have seen the stone trees.” He appeared sceptical, as though Ellery had been making it up. “Two.”
“One above us somewhere here. The stone opened, and we found it when we were crossing the snow.”
“The other?” the Keeper prompted.
“In the mountain.”
“Mountain?” the Keeper asked. “The Stone?”
“I don’t understand,” Ellery admitted. “You haven’t seen the mountain? I assumed we were in something like it now, only beneath the ground.”
“Beneath?” someone asked, but they were looking at another hooded figure. “We are high above the ground.”
“Above?” Ellery asked, desperate now to find the edge of the darkness and see out across the snow. They had certainly dropped into the cavern onto a ridged stone surface and then fallen again to find the stone statue. “What is his name?”
There was a whispering through the group. They had not believed he and Nara were there to see the statue, and yet it had led them there. It had led Nara there to take her stones—or demand her stones. Ellery wondered what it had shown her in return.
“He gives you visions.”
“He gives guidance,” the Keeper corrected. Although how that was delivered, Ellery couldn’t guess.
“But he did not tell you they were coming.”
More whispers moved through the group.
“Stop,” the Keeper growled, and Ellery was reminded even more of Nara’s father—growling at him in her bedchamber, demanding he leave, assuming he had done more to her than he had. Assuming he had crossed a boundary he had wanted to but held back from.
“Did you see us coming?” Ellery asked. “Do you know what we are?”
“Who you are is of no importance to me,” the Keeper said, his voice still gravelly.
Nara murmured something Ellery could not understand.
“We are here for a reason,” Ellery continued, “and you will take us to the tree.”
The Keeper shook his head then, as though Ellery was of no consequence at all, and the group continued along the passageway that had become narrower and narrower. Several members of the group turned and took them in, unseen beneath their hoods. Ellery wondered if there were more faces he might recognise if he had the chance to look on them.
Somehow, he found himself in the middle of the group, with several walking ahead of him and several behind, as the pathway narrowed further. The black stone seemed brighter in the firelight, and he realised there was natural light from somewhere. Ahead of him, he could see a narrow crack in the stone that allowed the light to travel in.
Pausing, he shifted Nara’s weight in his arms and peered through the narrow slit into the too-bright light on the other side. He wasn’t just aboveground; he was high above it. He could see indents and hills and movement, although it was hard to make out what that movement was. Whether it was weavers or people. It was white moving over white, and he could make out nothing that would indicate a mountain in the limited range he had. He might be in that very same block of stone. He was pulled back from the light.
The world seemed darker and harder to focus on inside. The light of the torches hurt his eyes. He pulled Nara closer and tried to follow the footsteps of those ahead of him. There were stars in his eyes, as though he could still see the too-bright light of the world beyond and it was getting in the way of his finding his way in this one.
Ellery thought of the tree returning and the fire tree, a tree that was something else entirely. He leaned into the wall, focusing on the cool stone against his shoulder. It was here. It was all here, and he had to find it. He glanced back at the men behind him and the men before him. Then he straightened up and adjusted Nara again.
She murmured something that he couldn’t make out. It might have sounded like “tree,” but he was looking for just that. He wondered if he had in some way shared whatever vision or idea she had gotten from the statue.
“How much longer?” he asked.
“Where do you think we are taking you?” the Keeper asked from the front of the group, although he did not slow at all.
“I can take your load,” one of the men behind him offered, but Ellery shook his head.
No matter how much his shoulders were burning and his arms aching, Nara was his alone to carry. He had to keep her close; the ground might open at any moment, and the stone might try to steal her away. Which seemed both unreal and expected at the same time.
“You are taking me to the tree,” he said, although he doubted that to be the case. He did not think they were taking him to the tree at all.
“You will lead us to the stones,” the Keeper said, continuing along the path, and Ellery froze. Just what did they think he could give them?