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“I daresay you got the better end of the deal.”
“No doubt. Although, it might be dangerous to assume that fate has no tricks up its sleeve.”
She gestured to the summit overshadowing them. “I’m sure Polinth does, too. And yet, that doesn’t mean we won’t defeat him.”
They reached the base of the mountain as the sun slid past the horizon. The shadows deepened, the trees turning a uniform gray.
Jarin scanned the trees and rocky ground constantly as they climbed the steep ridge. Aside from their boots snapping twigs and disturbing leaves, nothing moved or made a sound. Nevertheless, his senses tingled with a sick premonition. The feeling only grew as they traveled higher, but no traps appeared.
Night fell in earnest. The scant light of the moon and stars offered little visibility, but Jarin hadn’t dared to bring a lantern, lest the glow alert Polinth of their presence.
Riella tripped, her boot stuck on something.
Jarin caught her before she fell into the leaf litter. “Are you alright?”
“Fine.” She regained her footing and peered at the ground. “I stood on a stick that wouldn’t give way.”
He crouched in the spot where she’d tripped. The dead leaves were crunchy and piled high, and he swept them away. Then, in the dim light, a stark white ribcage stood out against the murky brown ground.
Riella gripped his shoulder. “What is that? Some kind of animal?”
It looked small, like a dog or a hare. His heart thudding, he uncovered more of the bones. The distinct skull of a tiny human child stared blankly up at him.
Riella hissed. He stood and turned around to hold her, expecting her to be distraught. Instead, her face twisted with rage.
“You see?” she asked. “You see why we must kill him? He is putrid.”
Without waiting for Jarin’s input, she stepped around him and stomped onward.
As much as he supported her homicidal tendencies, he was concerned that her brashness would lead her right into a trap. She saw the world in black-and-white and, for better or worse, she still didn’t fathom the extent to which humans were capable of foulness and deceit. And Polinth was surely among the worst of all humans.
But Riella would not be slowed.
“We’re too close,” she said, pushing past him when he tried to make her stop. “I came here to retrieve Seraphine and kill Polinth, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
The siren reverberated with fury—it poured off her in waves. Despite knowing she wasn’t his combatant at this moment, the Dark Tide pirate in him instinctively reacted to proximity to an enraged siren. His pulse raced and his senses became hyper-sharp, as if preparing him for a fight. He was glad that, for once, he wouldn’t be on the receiving end of such potent ire.
Three more skeletons lay in their path to the summit—two humans and one delicate skull of an elf. The skull was too weathered to be Seraphine, but the carnage did make Jarin wonder how many other bodies were hidden on the mountain.
The most powerful energy source to a mage was living beings, his mother once told him. Tapping the life force of a person or creature or even a tree was not particularly difficult for a sorcerer, but it was considered abhorrent and crude. Like a vampire or parasite.
From what Riella said, Polinth leached the elf’s life force. He hadn’t stopped there, though. He’d harvested Riella’s gifts, too. Jarin wondered what the sorcerer planned to do with the amulet. To bolster his own waning life force? Or something else?
Artus wanted the treasure to eclipse Jarin and every other pirate. As dangerous as he would be with such power, at least his motives were simplistic. But the amulet in the hands of the wrong sorcerer could be disastrous. Look at what his mother had managed to do, with nothing more than grief and her innate ability.
The trees thinned near the mountain’s peak. Jarin and Riella slowed their pace, creeping between trees with hushed determination. The trees gave way to a steep rocky incline leading to the summit.
“Those are the caves,” murmured Riella. “They’re half open to the air.”
Firelight flickered through the gaps in the cave. Jarin’s stomach clenched. Why hadn’t they encountered any defenses yet? They’d climbed the entire mountainside unobstructed, except for the grim discovery of the bones.
“You don’t recall any fortifications?” asked Jarin as he crouched with Riella behind a fallen log where the tree line ended.
Riella shook her head, absentmindedly stroking the handle of the knife strapped to her leg. “None that I saw. But I was trying to get out of the place, not into it. And I was somewhat distracted at the time.” She gestured at the right side of the summit. “That’s where the stairs lead to his workshop.”
Bent low, he and Riella crossed to the shadowy gap containing the stairs. No gate or fence stood in their way. Would it really be this easy?
“Let me go first,” said Jarin from behind Riella, who blocked the entrance to the stairs.
