Doom, doom, doom.
Connell showed fear for the very first time. “What are you saying?”
Dally’s second sweep of her arm was swifter, more frantic. “I hear Joelle’s voice from a dozen different places. More.”
“You hear her.”
“Hear, smell, taste—none of these are the right words and yet they all are. That’s not the point.” She tried to stifle the shrill fear. “The echo resonates from a dozen different items. More. What do we do?”
Connell looked around, not at the treasure, but for an answer. “Is it a ruse?”
“I don’t . . .”
“Camouflage? A masquerade?”
“I know what ‘ruse’ means. And no, that’s not what I think. They all sound too real.”
Connell’s strength of resolve shone through his fear. “There’s only one answer, in that case. We take it all. Everything that resonates with you comes with us.”
Water rushed down the stairs, so much that the floor was awash to ankle depth. Connell dumped over a barrel, scooped out the swords, and extracted a red leather sack that had been used as lining. “Here, take this.” He moved to a tall, narrow crate holding six identical ceremonial staffs. “Symbols of a royal council at public gatherings,” he explained, then dumped them on the floor and extracted a second leather sack.
“Wait. Take that sword with the big jewel in the pommel,” Dally said, pointing to the staff by his feet. She rushed away, twenty paces on, to where a crown called to her. She stuffed it in the sack without pausing.
Each magnetic attraction was a light she could not see, a flame she didn’t feel. She explained this to Connell as she directed him down to a mock wand of woven gold wire. She picked up two necklaces and a diadem from the next lane.
“Where to now?”
She pushed through the rising water. “Three shelves to your left, eye level, a scepter all by itself.”
Connell hurried over, his footsteps splashing loudly. “What if the vial isn’t here?”
“It’s here.” Of that she was certain. “Joelle is still singing to me.”
Edlyn descended the stairs far enough to see them. “Can we withdraw?”
“Not yet!” Connell called back.
“They’re coming!”
Edlyn hesitated, clearly ready to argue. Then she scampered back out of sight.
Doom, doom, doom.
No matter where they went, how fast they struggled through the rising water, or how many treasures they dumped into their sacks, Joelle’s voice continued to echo through the vast chamber, calling Dally on and on and on . . .
The first two sacks became so heavy they could not be lifted free of the rising water. So Connell hauled them back to the opening in the side wall, found two more, and returned. In the meantime Dally had scooped up three diadems, a ceremonial dagger, and a bird with four wings carved from a single ruby bigger than her two fists.
Connell took the prizes, handed her the empty sack, and gasped, “Do you see it yet?”
“No, no, no!” She was already running, or trying to, pointing two rows over as she did. “The sword with the violet jewel in the hilt! Take it!”
The sound of wizards doing battle echoed from the staircase. Sparks of power drifted over the ceiling and fell like electric snow to hiss and die in the water. But she did not hear the dogs, which Dally took as a good sign. Clearly Edlyn was holding them back as a final last-ditch surprise.
Dally was called to another goblet, this one golden and crystal, with a dragon carved into its side. Two more crowns, another necklace, then a dozen royal seals. She rounded the next corner . . .
And met Joelle.
Connell rushed over. He gasped, “Are you sure?”
“I am certain.”
“What’s the matter now?”
“Nothing,” she replied. “Everything is beautiful.”
Of course, all Connell could see was an unadorned golden vial, two fingers in width and a bit longer than her hand. It was held within a stand of golden wire encrusted with some of the cavern’s smallest jewels.
Dally picked it up and fought the urge to weep. She whispered, “Hello, dear friend.”
Connell patted her shoulder, took the half-filled sack from her hands, and rushed away. “I’ll go fetch Edlyn. Start moving the other sacks through the portal. We take the treasures, yes?”
“We take them all!” But Dally did not move. She felt immensely privileged. She stood there staring at the vial and knew with utter certainty that meeting Joelle like this had already enriched her life.