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“Laverna and I didn't go past this chamber,” Vesper said softly. “The place gave us the creeps.”
I thought of something. “Draven, how do you know where to go?” He seemed awfully familiar with the building already, right down to knowing the harpies wouldn’t enter the place.
He turned back with a frown, then patted the pocket of his trousers. “I have a map.”
“Oh. Yes, that makes sense,” I mumbled.
“A map of the location of a god-made treasure? Does it?” Vesper pursed his lips into a thin line.
I scowled. “On second thought, when you put it that way.”
He put a hand reassuringly on my shoulder. “Never mind. We'll follow where he leads. But if he leads you into danger, I swear..”
“He won't,” I said quickly. “I mean, besides the fenrirs and the harpies...” I gave a little hiccup as I tried to suppress a manic laugh, but Vesper said nothing.
I slipped my hand into his as we walked through the shadows, crossing a dusty stone floor and entering a hall wide enough to easily accommodate multiple steeds walking side-by-side.
Behind us, Lancelet let out a low whistle. “This place is... truly something.”
We were following Draven and the child down a sloping hallway that led towards another entranceway up ahead. Around us, the walls were covered with fae symbols. The floor was paved with a smooth gray stone. I could smell dust and the faint smell of damp earth. From far away came the sound of dripping water.
“Is this place underground?” I asked, suddenly uneasy about following Draven so far down into the darkness.
“Not truly,” he called back over his shoulder. “Well, not far under. There are lower levels that go much deeper beneath us, but those have been flooded for decades.” Had the map told him that, I wondered? “We're headed straight across the ruins. We should be able to skirt the entrances to the flooded parts.”
I had opened my mouth to ask why we needed to skirt them when Vesper whispered, “How does he know? How does he know any of that?” He met my eyes levelly and I felt a prick of trepidation.
I was trying to think of a response that would make sense to us both when Draven beat me to it. “I'm very well-read. Ears of an exmoor, remember?” He smirked snidely, and tapped a finger to his ear before turning back to lead the way through the next carved entrance.
We started down another long hall.
“If you’re going to eavesdrop so indiscreetly, then be prepared to answer more questions,” I said. “Tell us this. Why was this place abandoned? Did it happen before or after the fae left the rest of Valtain?”
Draven walked forward in silence and for a moment I wasn’t sure he’d heard me. Then, “It happened just before. They left this place first.”
“Why?” I demanded, letting go of Vesper’s hand and picking up my pace to walk beside him and the little girl. “What happened?”
He was silent, then, “They were at war, you know.”
“What?” My mind was already racing back to the pictures on the temple walls that Merlin had shown me. The two very different sides of the fae. “At war with who?”
“With themselves, in a sense. They had become divided. Two powerful factions had formed. Two territories as well. One group had already left Valtain.”
“When?” I asked. “Where did they go?”
He shrugged. “Does it matter?”
It mattered to my burning curiosity. “I suppose not, but what happened? What happened to cause the other fae to leave here?”
I could sense Lancelet and Vesper listening intently from behind us.
“There was an attack,” he said finally. “A brutal attack. It ended the war. After that, the fae of Valtain had no reason to stay. They fled this place first, then Numenos.”
“Fled?” I said sharply. “I thought you said no one knew why they’d left, but you make it sound as if they were running. What were they running from?”
I watched his profile as his lips curved into a frown. “Something bad happened here. After that, they didn’t want to stay. I’m not sure if they were fleeing the other group that had attacked them. Both were equal in power. Or if they were fleeing something worse.”
“What could be worse?” Lancelet asked from behind us.
