Cassa cleared a table for the documents. Linz dropped them without regard and unfolded the top one, revealing a map of the surrounding area with instructions about reaching a mine entrance to the northeast. The place had a thick red circle around it.
“Sherridan found these maps in one of those pocketed folders,” they said. “I looked at the rest of the documents there. Danaea didn’t make any of it; the writing isn’t her hand, and it doesn’t strike me as something she’d obsessively care about, like the blackmail stuff she held. Some of it is what she related to Thyden, so I’m guessing she thought this info accurate.” They slipped another map from the pile and spread it out on top of the first.
“These are the mines,” Kathandra breathed.
“Yeah.” Linz pointed at scribbles in the tunnels. “The blockades are marked, the tunnels are marked with notes about their stability and whether they’re still open, and the numbers? They’re associated with these sheets, and which describe all the areas in detail.”
“It’s my handwriting,” Dagby said.
Ah. That explained his presence. “That’s why you originally came to Ambercaast?” Lapis asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t remember, but mapping tunnels isn’t something I would have done for fun. It had to be a secondary thing associated with my stake. Granna Cup said I told her something about finding a Caastaway. I don’t know what or who that refers to.”
Faelan scanned the first sheet. “You were very thorough.”
“I knew my craft. Hunters don’t survive if they don’t document and study their stakes. I always took detailed notes, and that was before I needed them to remember anything.” He sighed. “Not everything is there. I referenced pages that aren’t included.”
“How did Danaea get these?” Lapis asked.
“I don’t know, but I didn’t work for her. I told you she wasn’t worth the trouble, and I meant it. I . . . don’t remember who paid my stake. I never kept records on things like that.” He rubbed his forehead. “Whoever hired me, it wasn’t Hoyt. Even in the sorry state I was in, I would never have worked for him.” He laughed. “He didn’t have enough money to afford me, anyway. Whatever I did, it was for someone wealthy.”
“Here’s the interesting part,” Linz said. They withdrew another map. It contained several layers of mine tunnels, all leading down to a large room with a lot of progressively smaller circles and wavy lines in the middle. “According to the pages, this room still has veins of aquatheerdaal.”
“I returned with a chunk of it,” Dagby said. “That’s probably where I picked it up.”
“But most of it is underwater. The edges go down like steps, to a center with unknown depth.”
Cassa frowned at the map. “I don’t remember seeing any of the old maps with these particular tunnels,” she said.
“Neither do I.” Kathandra glanced at the older, yellow documents. “The mines mostly stayed to the north of the river. The largest one, the Caast, had tunnels that went further northwest than the rest, but they ended long before the extended metro area petered out into rural outlying communities. I don’t know of a mine further west than that.”
“We need to ask the Depths,” Cassa said. She scurried away, apparently to do just that.
Lapis admired her. She never waited for approval, just leapt into what she felt was necessary to do. From Kathandra’s annoyance, she likely did it too often.
Brander studied the map, his fingers thrumming on his upper arm, deep enough in thought she did not think he had heard most of the conversation. “Brander?”
He blinked and looked up. “Chinder used to tell a story, about an old cave with a pool in the center, ringed by shallow steps. We all thought it was a ghost story to frighten us kids into behaving, but . . . maybe not.” He hissed through his teeth.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s like a dark fairy tale in street rat circles. A woman named Lizza met a little rat. She took him to a pool way away into the mountains, where sunlight did not reach, and ghosts with four legs danced. They watched the revelry from a niche high in the wall, only to be discovered by the largest of the ghosts. The ghost chased them down the hillsides and back to the streets of Jiy, then it receded, giving dire warnings about returning to the mountains. He always told it in the most solemn voice, as if he spoke sentiments at the Pit.”
The rats had told Lapis some tales, but not that particular one. Each city had different myths, and her familiarity lay with Coriy’s scary side.
“I know that story. I usually tell mine along with it,” Dagby said. He sat, his elbows on his thighs, hands dangling between his knees. “Something similar chased me. Mechanical, grey, fast, and their necks and torsos turned oddly around, like an owl’s head. I studied the one left in camp. I don’t recall the sphere in the chest, but everything else matches.” He cocked his head. “That story stars Vali, doesn’t it? She lives in Jiy, walks around there, then travels up this way. Lizza could be short for lizard. The older Underville shanks refer to the woman as Terron, too, and I think that’s too much of a coincidence. I bet she knows how to get there.”
And the knowledge was useless because when Faelan contacted Gera for an update, she said the terron vacated her position at the camp and disappeared. Cassa assumed she went after Rin and Tovi, and Lapis bet the same.
Linz tapped at the table. “If you look at the other maps Dagby drew, and the one for above ground, it looks like there are a series of tunnels that run from one of the destroyed buildings in the northeast to that pool, and all of them seem to be major routes. They’re large enough, they should show up on other maps.”
Faelan nodded. “Let’s check.” He practically drilled a hole into Lapis’s head. “Don’t even think it.”
Tearlach smiled, the ass.
She decided sitting next to Dagby would be more productive than staring at lines and scribbles with the rest of them, glaring annoyed fire out of the corner of her eye at her brother. Of course, if she bided her time, waited for a lax moment, and peeked at the large sheets, she would know where the tunnel entrance sat, giving her and Cassa a convenient starting point.
Dagby looked at her, a small but very amused smile lighting his face. “I’ll go with you.”
Three!
“Oh oh oh! I’ll go too!”
Four!
“Linz,” Faelan said, a warning in his voice. They produced the saddest expression outside a stage drama and returned to the map. Her brother and his love exchanged a look, one Lapis remembered too well from her childhood—her parents had used it often enough before they tore into her for one of her misadventures.
How many should she take? She did not have access to the tech needed for a large infiltration, but if the people who offered to help were sneaky enough, it would work—
Cassa huffed in, annoyed. “Ghinka’s refusing to speak with me,” she gritted. “I even told her Badger and his kosee kidnapped Tovi.”
“They don’t care?” Lapis asked.
Cassa pressed her lips firmly together. “When stressed, terrons turn to superstition for religious relief. Normally the Depths residents aren’t so traditional because superstition, in one way or another, played a role in their being here, but with the merc and khentauree threat . . .” She deflated, her shoulders sinking low enough Lapis rose, concerned. “Tovi’s an outcast,” she said, her voice cracking. “He has two quarter moon marks above his thighs. His village saw it as an evil omen, and when the storm destroyed the community and killed his parents, they justified exiling him by blaming him for the destruction. They abandoned him on a hill and told him never to return. The terrons here never seemed to care about the omen, but now they’re doing the same thing.” Her hands clenched tight enough, her palms turned white. “Vali thinks the meanness and cruelty are excuses to keep the cowardly in line because no one wants that turned on them.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Nathala isn’t superstitious, either. She sees it as a waste of mental resources. I can ask her. She might remember the tunnels.”
Lapis’s anger rose at the terrons. Purposefully throwing a child into the streets to satisfy some myth pricked her hate. She helped rats overcome the pain of abandonment, and her experiences with Rin proved how deep those scars ran.
“You can’t visit the Depths right now,” Kathandra warned. “We don’t know where the khentauree are.”
“What am I supposed to do, Kathandra?” Cassa snarled. “Sit here while my son’s in danger?”
“You don’t have a choice.”
There were always choices. Maybe not smart ones, but always choices. By the way both Cassa and Dagby looked at her, they agreed.
