Llel cocked her head one way, then another, laid her cheek against the ground, then rose, pensive.
“Can see it,” she said softly. “Just a shimmer of spell, when you have the right angle.”
Janny lifted her upper lip. “That’s annoying.”
“Reminds me of those locked chests we found in the lakebed.”
Vantra looked from Llel to Janny, who half-smiled at her curiosity.
“We pirates like sticking our noses where they don’t belong,” she said. “There’s several forbidden sections of the dry lakebed in the Snake’s Den that have dryan treasures hidden inside. They’re trapped, though, like the owners expected to come back for them and either forgot or failed for some reason.”
“Those spells are dangerous,” Kenosera said. “Our elders caution against interacting with them. Too many Nevemere lose something when they try to loot them, be it a hand or their life. An uncle on my mother’s side attempted to enter dona Yavesi.” He tapped his head. “His friends returned him with a dented skull and no sense. They refused to tell the tale of his injury and remained haunted men who screamed in the night of monsters. He never recovered and died from shakes.”
“Sintove dona Yavesi?” Yut-ta asked.
“It means Underbelly of Death in the Voristi language.” He sighed. “Our tales say Levasa followers buried artifacts in the chambers, but now that I’ve met him, I don’t think he would endanger the Snake’s Den peoples over petty treasures. Whatever lies below, I believe a dryan placed it.”
“Aedefyn can cast some nasty spells,” Janny said. “Llel and I went with Dough and a few others to Sintove dona Yavesi. There’s something dark and dangerous within that cellar. Best to stay clear.”
“Ain’t stayin’ clear of this,” Llel muttered.
Vantra did as the elfine pirate, and finally rose, patting at her grungy knees. “I wish we had Lorgan with us,” she said. “He understands the intricacies of spells.” She pointed at the wooden supports. “I think the trap links to those. Trigger it, and the ceiling crashes down.”
“Can you disarm it?” Janny asked.
“I think this is a brush spell—you brush against a magickal strand, it triggers the trap. To set it, there is a lever or a button or something that an arming thread attaches to. If we find that, we should be able to turn it off.” She shuddered. “Either the Light-blessed didn’t trigger it, or someone armed it after they went through. I’m betting the latter.”
“Be a nasty surprise, coming back to a place you thought was safe,” Janny agreed.
Vantra looked at the shard, then handed it to Kenosera. “Hold onto this. I’m going to find the trigger.” If she could. She had as much experience with brush spells as she had with every other danger she encountered in the Evenacht—none, other than what a scholar wrote in a book. She did not like the ‘try something and hope it doesn’t discorporate her’ method.
“I’ll go with,” Janny said. “Llel, keep an eye out. Do the tap tap taptap if you notice anything strange.” She sheathed her swords and turned Ether.
Vantra followed suit, hating the feel of sludgy water dripping through her. She rose and thinned her essence, then floated over the first trip line and into the room proper.
Janny held onto her waist and wafted near inside her, which, she supposed, if the pirate could not see the strands, made sense. She carefully picked her way under and over crossed lines, slipped between two that ran parallel, and twisted around three or more that met in a knot. Whoever cast the spell enjoyed the intricate.
They reached the central wall, but Vantra noticed nothing odd about it; no chunks missing, no lever or hook.
“Which way?” she asked.
“Left,” Janny said. “It’s darker on that side, so more likely to hide a trigger.”
That made sense. Vantra cautiously continued, backing up and trying a different route if she felt the strands were too close to successfully evade. She needed to hurry, but if she bumped one, the urgency would fall apart with the ceiling.
She, again, did not see a trigger on the sandstone wall, but Janny nudged her and pointed to a grey stone niche opposite it.
“Think I see it,” the pirate whispered. “There’s a glint over there I think’s odd.”
She snaked around the strands, quivering as her feet almost struck one, and reached the niche, her essence throbbing with tense anticipation. Only one thread continued through the opening, and it wrapped around a crank. Vantra had never seen magic do that before, and extra caution kicked in.
Janny floated from her and pressed her face near the handle. “Do you know much about nature magic?”
“No. I read religious texts about Maed Enne, and many changelings visited the Spiral Sun so the priests could break their cult link, but I rarely spoke with them.”
“Any guesses what will happen if we loosen the strand?”
“Well, if it makes the others sag and they brush the ground, bad things will happen.” She studied the crank, but did not see a way to disarm it and make the spell disappear. “Maybe we can drain it.”
“How do we do that?”
“There’s a form of Clear Rays that absorbs magic rather than destroying it. It’s common in the Sun Temple healing quarters when assisting an ex-acolyte whose syimlin refuses to release them from their vows. The healer sucks out the magic powering the bond, and it breaks. I learned it because my mother insisted, but since I rarely helped with those issues, I’ve only cast it a few times, and never in the Evenacht.” She rubbed her hands on her tulip skirt while taking a quick survey of her essence. The time in Ethereal had let the gunky nastiness fall to the ground, so her Sun-leaning magic should work.
She cupped the strand where it left the crank, but did not touch.
“Ruvre on virche, ruvre on fouisom,
Ier a bege, ier que rier,
Zirt on abe leuque, zirt on euctom nerse.”
The energy slowly drew from the thread; she peeked at the room, but nothing untoward triggered. Janny had drawn her weapon and stood in the niche entrance, so she focused on the drain; the pirate would tell her if anything bad happened. If it did, what could she do? Shield them, shield the others, and hope the ceiling did not collapse because the roots would take advantage of them buried in the ground.
She stopped when she felt a twinge from the magic and waited until the energy stabilized. Repeating the intonation to focus her intent, she drifted into a silent state, attention solely on the power and sucking just enough, at a steady rate, to drain the spell but not trigger it.
The thread frayed, separated, and the ends crumbled into nothing. The dissolution sped through the rest of the spell, leaving nothing behind to brush against.
The rush of beings into the niche startled her. She looked up with a gasp, and Kenosera slapped his hand over her mouth and dragged her down.
“He said to get his boat ready.”
“I’m not going out in that shit!”
“The torches—”
“It’s raining. Gray made certain of it. Have you felt it?”
“You want to tell him you were too scared to get his boat ready? We can’t have that elfine getting away.”
“And if the Light-blessed find us? What then?”
They sounded like ghosts, and the echoes came from the other side of the divide. The voices faded, even if the heat in their argument did not.
“They must mean Kjaelle,” Vantra whispered.
“So we need to reach her fast,” Janny said. “Looks like we’ll be splitting up. Llel, take our mates to the right fork. I’ll stay with Vantra and the guys. Get in trouble, get back to this niche.”
Vantra set a shield across the opening, then tagged the pirates so they could get through it. “I put a shield up, and you can hide in here if you must. If you can’t reach this shield, try to phase through to the surface, but do it fast. The corrupted roots are still beneath the ground and they will attack. If you get into too much trouble, pray to Katta. There might be spells interfering with syimlin influence down here, but try anyway. If we have to chase Kjaelle and her captors to that boat, you can’t help if you’re discorporated.”
Llel laughed. “That’s quite the motivatin’ speech.” The other pirates joined in the amusement.
Kenosera hugged her shoulders, his grin not making her feel better about the teasing.
“We’re sneaky, for pirates,” Janny said, nudging her. “And we get underestimated all the time. It’s a handy advantage. Let’s go, mates. We need to find Kjaelle, and if you meet the Light-blessed on the way, tell them what’s up.”
Vantra did not think the plan was much of a plan, but what else were they to do? At least she traveled with Kenosera and Yut-ta and could shield them if anything went wrong. Maybe. She looked at the shard, hoping it recharged in time to help.
