“They are here.” Rune’s voice sounded from behind her.
Aislinn’s Mage senses agreed. But where were they? She scanned the empty room, returning to a place in one corner that felt odd. “It’s illusion,” she muttered and strode across the attic toward the strange-feeling place. She stopped before she got there, having learned that Marta’s wards packed quite a punch.
She sent her magic forward, but it zapped right back at her. Aislinn tried again from a slightly different angle. Two hours later, she’d tried every spell and counter spell she’d ever learned, to no avail. Absolutely convinced that if she could only neutralize the binding, she’d find Marta’s parents in some sort of suspended animation, Aislinn hissed in frustration.
“She protected them well,” Rune observed.
Aislinn started to say something, but bit back the words and shielded her mind. No point in telling the wolf that Marta’s parents had scarcely been willing victims. For one thing, she didn’t know for sure. For another, if she couldn’t figure out how to get to them, it was a moot point anyway.
Curious about the chests, she lifted their lids. Two of the four were empty. The others held clothing and bedding. Some of the clothes were lovely, fine silks in bright colors and soft woolens, but Aislinn wasn’t in the mood. She turned toward the stairs. “I can’t do any more tonight.”
Once she wound down the staircase and made her way back to the kitchen, she was shocked to find that it was night again. There hadn’t been any way to judge the passage of time in the windowless attic. Where had the day gone? How long had she and Rune been in Taltos? It hadn’t seemed like even an hour had passed, but it must have been much more than that.
Stuffing one of the previous day’s biscuits into her mouth, she chewed automatically. Still no Fionn. What did that mean? She wondered if he’d be able to unearth Marta’s parents. “Doesn’t matter,” she muttered around a mouthful of biscuit. “He’s not here.”
“Where do you suppose he is?” Rune asked. “Bella is still checked out. I think she went with him.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I think the same. And I have no fucking idea where Fionn is. He was supposed to be back two days ago.”
“When are we going back to Taltos?”
Aislinn thought about it. Since I’m on my own again, I can make my own schedule. I suppose that’s one advantage. “How about as soon as I’m done eating?”
Back in the tunnel, she rebuilt her cairn and checked to make sure her magic-imbued marker was still intact. This time, she led them in the other direction. Were these tunnels here before the Old Ones built Taltos, or did they excavate them for some reason? Borrowing Rune’s senses, she listened for the harmonic. Even with his sensitive ears, she could barely hear it—and that was only because she knew it had to be there. It was a subtle hum, well below the range of human ears.
They headed deeper into the mountain. She’d just rounded a corner when something made her stop. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on, but the fine hairs at the back of her neck tingled. Magic. And not mine. Balancing on the balls of her feet, she debated whether to go back. She hadn’t learned a damned thing this trip, though. What was the point in risking discovery if it didn’t bring her closer to a solution?
Small rocks beneath her feet slid downhill. It became a struggle not to simply ride them down. What was happening? Was it an earthquake? One that had happened without perceptible shocks or sound? It felt as if she was on a conveyor belt. She grabbed at a large rock outcropping and held on. Rune swept by, all four paws grappling for purchase. She made a grab for him and missed.
Shit! Because she couldn’t let him face whatever was happening alone, she let go and slid down a slope that got steeper and steeper. Rocks bounced off other rocks. She dug her boots into the slide, hoping to stay on her feet. She didn’t know what would happen if she fell, but figured it wouldn’t be pretty. Just as soon as she found Rune, Old Ones be damned, she was going to jump them out of there. So what if they ended up near Mount Shasta. She knew the way back to Ely from there. It was better than being crushed to death by tons of rocks.
It felt like hours before the rock pile slowed and finally stopped, but she knew it probably hadn’t been more than ten minutes. Deploying her mage light, she peered hundreds of feet—maybe even a thousand—back up the slope. No way in hell they’d be able to climb back up it. The rocks would just keep sliding if either of them put any pressure on them. “Rune.”