“This may have been a bad idea.”
“Are you stuck?”
“No, just a little... claustrophobic. I made the mistake of remembering that rockslide last night. It’s dark and tight and—” She inhaled deeply, the sound of her breath audible from his spot. “I’m thinking about getting stuck.”
“I recommend against it.”
“Thanks,” she said, a hint of dryness replacing some of the concern.
“Do you want me to join you?” Vann doubted that was logical. If she was likely to get stuck, he would be even more likely to get stuck.
Still, she answered with a tentative, “Yes, please.”
Vann removed his sword, eyed all the knives, pistols, and ammo pouches on his waist, and wondered again at the odds of not getting stuck. He unclasped the utility belt and left it on the ground, in case that made a difference. Then he shimmied under the overhanging rock, keeping the sword scabbard in hand. His shoulders scraped the sides, and in the dim lighting, he bonked his head more than once. He worried less about claustrophobia and more that his ass was exposed if anyone came along behind them. It seemed unlikely—was some tunnel-loving wolf going to pick up his discarded pistols and shoot him?—but instincts honed over decades of risking his life in dangerous situations made him twitchy.
As he wriggled further, Lilah came into view, her outline just visible since she carried the lantern ahead of her. He sublimated an urge to catch up and pat—or squeeze—her butt to let her know he had arrived. That might alarm her more than the tightness of the passage.
“It’s getting a little wider,” she said, sounding relieved. “And I think I see some light.”
“Daylight or creepy magical light?”
“Daylight, I think.” She did not sound amused at what he had meant to be a joke, or at least irreverence.
He thought of those nervous glances she had been sending him. Was she angry because he hated magic? She had seemed surprised by his reaction when Bosmont had shared the history of the mountain. He couldn’t understand why, since most people hated and feared magic. And he had more reason to detest it than most. Maybe he ought to share that story with her. He grimaced at the idea. Being a boy and losing a battle to his grown father was not reason for embarrassment, but being a grown man, freshly out of the academy and trained to be a supreme warrior, and losing to some witch with potions? That was embarrassing. What was even more embarrassing was that he’d been too much of a coward to ever go back and face the bitch. He—
“Definitely daylight,” Lilah said. “Oh, Vann. Look at this view.”
He looked at her butt. That was all that was visible, though he could see light seeping around her. “It is a nice one,” he said.
“Oh, sorry, I’m corking it up, aren’t I? Here, there’s a ledge.” She moved as she spoke, and the daylight she had promised came into view.
Vann scooted up next to her until he knelt at the mouth of their little tunnel. It looked out over the goat trail. He grunted when he spotted the place that had fallen away.
“Not sure I needed a view of that,” he said.
“Not that. That.” She touched a finger to his chin and directed him to look outward, over the trees that had blocked the view from down on the trail. The sun was dipping toward the tops of the mountains across the way, glacier-laden peaks that gleamed orangish yellow under the late afternoon rays.
“It’s all right,” Vann said. “I was fond of my previous view.”
She looked puzzled.
“Of—” Vann waved at her lower half. “Never mind.”
“Oh.” The sun provided enough light for him to see the pinkish hue that blossomed on her cheeks.
“So, this is how they originally came in three hundred years ago, eh?” Vann leaned out over the edge to gauge the distance down to the trail. He had no idea if that trail would have been there all those centuries ago. It hadn’t been much when Bosmont had found it.
Lilah reached out and gripped his shoulder. “Careful. Some of it crumbled when I got close.” She waved at the ledge beneath his hands.
“I’ll be careful.” He glanced at her arm. “But you can keep holding me if you like.”
Her cheeks grew a brighter shade of pink, and she looked like she would let go of him, but instead, she moved her hand from gripping his shoulder to resting it on his back. Remembering that he had been looking for evidence that someone had climbed up, he returned his focus to the cliff that dropped away from the tunnel mouth. He definitely did not think about what it would feel like if she ran her hand from his shoulder down to cup his ass.
Looking down did not show him much, but when he turned his head, he spotted a rusty eyelet protruding from the rock.
“There’s some evidence,” he said. “Anchor for climbing. An old-style one.”
“They came up from below, crawled through this passage, and blew their way into one of the Referatu tunnels,” Lilah said.
“I agree with that. But what about the fossils?” He shifted his weight so that he could sit on his butt, since the rock was brutal on the knees. He was careful not to dislodge Lilah’s hand.
“Given the way nature has reclaimed the area near the camp, it seems likely the fossils were placed three hundred years ago rather than a few weeks ago. I still don’t know how or why.” She shifted, too, and sat cross-legged beside him. She lowered her hand, alas, but her shoulder came to touch his as they sat together, so he did not mind.
“Three hundred years ago,” Vann mused. “Suggesting this fossil plot was never about my mining outpost at all.”
“Feeling insignificant?”
“Egotistical, perhaps.” He massaged one of the fresh lumps on his head while he tried to figure out what the fossils could have accomplished back then. Some kind of distraction to allow a team of soldiers to sneak in?
“Vann?” Lilah said his name carefully while looking down at her lap. She gripped that book with both hands.
“Yes?”
“Is there a reason... I know everyone has been culturally indoctrinated to distrust magic, and that in less educated areas, it’s deemed normal, if not acceptable, to persecute people based on whether or not they might have the ability to use it, but—”
“Lilah. I’m a dumb soldier, remember? Use small words, please.”
“Vann, you said please.” She beamed a smile at him, which warmed him as much as thoughts of ass cupping. Maybe even more. “Also, you’re not dumb.”
“Nevertheless, I’m a simple man. I like simple words. And direct women.” He wriggled his eyebrows at her. That had seemed to fluster her in a good way, earlier.
“Oh.” She opened her mouth, then closed it again, appearing derailed rather than pleasantly flustered. “Vann, are you and Kaika—”
“No.”
“You didn’t let me finish the question.”
“It’s hard not to jump out of the pot as soon as you know the water is boiling.”
“But you said you like direct women and she... knows where all of your tattoos are.”
“I’m positive she was too drunk during our one night together to remember where all of the tattoos are, but I’ll gladly show them to you.” He lowered his eyelids in a manner that women often found sexy. “In case you want to map them. For a research project.”
She snorted. “What kind of research project would that be?”
“You’re the scientist. You tell me.” Vann rested his hand on her thigh, tempted to give her some non-verbal suggestions for research projects.
But she bit her lip, looking down instead of meeting his gaze, as he wished. It was hard to kiss a woman whose eyes were locked onto a book instead of him. He imagined he could distract her without too much effort and was debating on that when she took a determined breath and faced him again.
“Why do you have such a visceral reaction to the merest mention of magic or those with the ability to use it?”
Vann couldn’t sublimate a scowl. He wanted to kiss her, not talk about th
e past. Hadn’t they done enough of that? It had been all right in the dark, with the crackling of the flames making the moment private. Intimate. But there were things a man could speak of to a woman at night that he didn’t want to admit—or couldn’t admit—under the harsh light of the summer sun.
“Is that important now?” he asked. “I had other things on my mind.” Before he could try his eyebrow waggle again, she frowned down at her new book.
He tamped down the urge to take it and throw it to the trail below. A tantrum wouldn’t impress her, and he would instantly feel like an idiot.
“It might be important,” she said softly. “If you tell me... No, sorry. It’s not the kind of thing I should try to weasel out of you.” She shifted her weight to her hands. “We should get back to the others.”
He let her pull away from him, though a big part of him wanted to wrap an arm around her and keep her close.
“Thank you for following me in here,” she said before heading into the tight passage. “I probably couldn’t be an archaeologist, crawling around in ancient ruins. Tight spots, stale air, and darkness make me uncomfortable. I start to worry that the mountain or ruins or whatever’s above me will collapse and crush me. Silly, I know, especially when I’m in a site that’s been standing for millennia or more.”
“Given what’s been going on, it’s not that silly.” Vann looked in the direction of the camp, thinking of that tarp full of fossils. Had the trail been open, he might have gone back and ordered the men to drag them into the forest where he’d hung the first set, far enough away that whatever magic was about them couldn’t affect his team.
As Vann and Lilah crawled back through the uneven tunnel, another howl came from somewhere inside the mountain. The fossils might be the least of their problems.
• • • • •
She’d almost told him.
When Vann had been looking at her through lowered eyelashes, his expression one of warmth and promise, so different from the stony facade he usually wore, she had almost divulged everything in the journal, but nothing had changed. If he’d told her why he hated magic, and if it had been something understandable, maybe she would have shared the text, but if he learned that Major Therrik had led the attack on the Referatu facility and ended up being proud of that, as he was for being descended from a dragon-slaying ancestor, what would she do?
She couldn’t accept such heartlessness in a friend, much less in a lover. True, they hadn’t even kissed yet, but she had sensed on a number of occasions that he wanted to. If she wanted that, she could have it—and more. And damn it, she wanted it. He was handsome, had that sexy growl, and had the kind of physique that she had only touched in dreams. Even in his gruff, flinty moments, she found herself drawn to him rather than repelled. Maybe it was foolish, but she had the sense that if he had someone supportive in his life, he might mellow and find peace with himself. And he hadn’t been gruff or flinty with her, not since that initial meeting with Ridge. He seemed normal, even friendly, when he was away from his men, his responsibilities.
Lilah and Vann returned to the chamber to find that Captain Kaika and the two soldiers had collected eight of the energy sources, leaving the area noticeably dimmer.
“This enough for now, sir?” Kaika asked. “Whatever’s howling has been getting closer.”
“Worried about fighting off some animal?” Vann asked.
“Not at all, but I wouldn’t want to damage the crystals when I start hurling explosives at malevolent packs of predators.”
“We could just shoot them.”
“How would that be fun?” Kaika grinned and plopped the crystal she held onto a soldier’s stack, his eyes barely visible over the top. “Go take those to Bosmont.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the other soldier, similarly loaded up, said. Their arms full, they headed toward the main entrance. The crystals did not appear heavy, but carrying so many was awkward.
“That’s probably enough for one trip,” Vann said. “We’ll get the rest of the fossils cleared out, then put a team to work in here.”
“You’re not thinking of leaving, are you?” Lilah blurted, squeezing the journal in her hand.
“Why not?”
“We have a mystery here. Don’t you want to know more about what happened? Why the king’s soldiers, officers from the nobility, were part of the plot that destroyed a civilization?”
“A bunch of witches is hardly a civilization, and no, my orders are to extract crystals from the mountain, and that’s it. Nothing about extracting mysteries.”
“They had their own culture, customs, and government,” Lilah said. “They were most certainly a civilization, by any definition of the word. And those soldiers wiped them out. I’d sure like to know why.”
“They were witches,” Vann said.
“They were human beings.”
“They were part dragon. They used their power to control human beings.”
Lilah glared at him, anger flushing her face and momentarily stealing her ability to form arguments. “Well, your ancestor used his power and influence to destroy all of them.”
That was not the calm, rational argument she had wished to use, not at all, and she winced as soon as it came out. But what did it matter? He had already made his stance on “witches” clear.
Vann’s eyebrows drew together in anger or maybe angry puzzlement. “What are you talking about?”
She tossed the journal at him. “Last entry.”
Lilah took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, to still her anger. Her disappointment in him. She wouldn’t be angry, she admitted, if some other soldier had made the same arguments, the same decisions. She just wanted him to be... more.
She met Kaika’s eyes across the chamber. For once, the captain was staying out of the conversation, not interjecting any innuendos or jokes about blowing things up.
“Are you my bodyguard or his soldier, Captain?” Lilah asked. “I plan to remain here to continue my research, and I’d prefer that someone stay with me.”
“Your mission is to analyze the dragon fossils,” Vann said. He had turned to the last entry in the journal but hadn’t started reading yet. “Not some witch maze.”
“My mission as a scientist who studies the past is to foster a greater understanding of the present, of the evolutionary events that shaped the world we live in and the species we became.” Lilah turned away from him, since he was scowling at her and not reading. Maybe he wouldn’t bother reading at all.
“General Zirkander assigned me to you, ma’am,” Kaika said, frowning over at Vann. “Happy to stay with you.”
“Good. Let’s check out that tunnel first.” She pointed at the passage farthest from the one leading out, not because any evidence suggested she would find answers down there, but because it appeared most likely to lead into the heart of the mountain, perhaps the heart of the Referatu compound.
Unfortunately, it was also the tunnel from which the howling had originated. But she still had Vann’s rifle—she wasn’t going to hand it back to him, not if he was denying her his company and protection—and Kaika had a rifle, a pistol, and whatever explosives she carried on her person. Lilah doubted they would find any animals living down here that they couldn’t handle. As far as she knew, the Ice Blades didn’t possess anything more dangerous than bears, wolves, and mountain lions. Formidable creatures, but nothing she hadn’t faced down on safaris.
“I’ll lead, ma’am,” Kaika said and headed into the tunnel.
Lilah strode after her, only glancing back once, hoping she might catch Vann reading or, even better, chasing after them. Instead, he turned his back and walked toward the exit.
Chapter 10
Lilah had been walking for less than a minute before she started to doubt her choice to storm off. She did not worry much about the intermittent howls, but she felt foolish because she had thrown the journal at Vann, and it was the biggest piece of evidence they had. What if he chucked it in the creek? All of the answers sh
e sought might have been within its pages. What, if anything, did the dragon fossils have to do with that long-ago infiltration? Why had they been infused with magic? Why had someone high up in the Referatu government apparently plotted with Major Therrik, or someone who had commanded Major Therrik, to betray her own people?
Lilah halted, the image of Vann reading the journal—or not reading it—and throwing it into the creek flooding her mind. He wouldn’t be so petty, would he? He wouldn’t destroy history. He might if he read it, since, no matter what he thought of sorcerers, there would be some who would consider his ancestor’s actions vile. What if the king felt that way? What if Ridge’s Sardelle felt that way? Was she someone who would take revenge on him for hiding the past?
Kaika continued a few more steps before stopping and looking back. “We going the wrong way?”
“I’m afraid I made a mistake in giving Vann that journal, that he might do something to it. It’s an important historical document.”
“You want to go back?”
A howl drifted up from the depths of the mountain, sending a chill down her spine. Lilah checked the rifle for the third time, making sure it was, indeed, loaded.
“I don’t know. Vann may need time to... forget that I snapped at him.”
“Oh, just kiss him. He’ll forget.”
Lilah snorted. “So easily?”
“At least until after you have sex.”
“Let’s go a little farther,” Lilah said. “I’m not sure I can have sex with someone so...” She shrugged, not wanting to badmouth him. Besides, Kaika had known him a lot longer than Lilah had. She might be more likely to take his side in a disagreement.
“He’s a difficult man,” Kaika said. “Come on. We’ll explore a little more and go back this evening. He’s not going to do anything to damage the book. You have more power over him than you think. All you have to do is complain to Angulus or Zirkander that he was inhospitable or destroyed something of scientific significance, and he’ll get orders to stay out here, overseeing this outpost until he dies.”
“Complain to Angulus? I’ve never even met the king.”