Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder Read Free Book Online Page A

“West.”
    Perhaps we would find a better way down into the jungle or, failing that, we
    would follow the plateau’s edge west toward the Cowan Clan’s lands. Once in
    Cowan land, we would turn south into the forest then loop east into the Illiais Jungle.
    And hope we weren’t too late.
    We mounted the horses. Tauno and Marrok once again led us. The point where
    the Daviians had turned around was obvious even to me. The hard-packed sand had
    been scuffed where they stopped, and only flat unblemished sand continued
    westward.
    Tauno halted the horses and waited for more instructions.
    “A ruse. I can smell deceit and smugness,” Leif said.
    “Why so smug?” I asked. “Laying a false trail is a basic strategy.”
    “It could be Cahil,” Marrok said. “He tends to think he is smarter than everyone.
    Perhaps he thought this would fool the Sandseeds into sending half their warriors in
    the wrong direction.”
    I projected my magical awareness over the smooth sand. A few mice skittered
    into the open, searching for food. A snake curled on a warm rock, basking in the
    afternoon sun. I encountered a strange dark mind.
    I withdrew my awareness and scanned the plateau. Sure enough there was a small
    area a few feet away where the sand looked pliant, as if it had been dug up and
    packed back down. I slid off Kiki and walked over to the patch. The sand felt
    spongy beneath my boots.
    “A Vermin must have buried something there,” Marrok said.

    Tauno snorted with disgust. “You have probably found one of their waste pits.”
    With Moon Man still on her back, Kiki came closer. Smell damp, she said.
    Bad damp or good damp? I asked.
    Just damp.
    Taking my grapple out of my pack, I started to dig. The others watched me with
    various expressions of amusement, distaste and curiosity.
    When I had dug down about a foot, my grapple struck something hard. “Help me
    clear the sand.”
    My reluctant audience joined me. But eventually we uncovered a flat piece of
    wood.
    Marrok rapped his knuckles on it and proclaimed it the top of a box. Working
    faster to remove the sand, we sought the edges. The round lid was about two feet in
    diameter.
    While Tauno and Moon Man discussed why the Vermin would bury a circle box,
    I found the lip and pried the top up. A gulp of air almost sucked the lid back down.
    Everyone was stunned into silence. The lid covered a hole in the ground. And,
    judging by the pull of air into its depths, a very deep hole.

5
    THE SUNLIGHT ILLUMINATED a few feet of the hole. Below the lip a couple
    rough steps had been cut into the sandstone.
    “Can you sense anyone in there?” Leif asked.
    Pulling a thread of power, I projected into the darkness. My awareness touched
    many of those dark minds, but no people.
    “Bats,” I said. “Lots of bats. You?”
    “Just smug satisfaction.”
    “Could this be another false trail?” Marrok asked.
    “Or a trap?” Tauno asked. He glanced around with quick furtive movements as if
    worried the sand would erupt with Vermin.
    “One of us needs to go inside and report back,” Moon Man said, looking at
    Tauno. “I knew we would need a scout.”
    Tauno jerked as if he had stepped on a hot coal. Sweat ran down his face. He
    swallowed. “I will need a light.”
    Leif retrieved his saddlebags and removed one of his cooking sticks. “This won’t
    burn long,” he said. He set the end on fire and handed the stick to Tauno.
    With the flaming stick to lead the way, the Sandseed scout crawled into the
    opening headfirst. Tempted to link my mind with his to see what he found, I forced
    myself to focus instead on the ground beneath my feet, trying to discover a sign of
    life that would indicate the end of the cave.
    The jungle’s pulse throbbed in my soul, but I couldn’t tell if it came from an
    opening below the ground or just from being so close to it on the plateau.
    Waiting proved difficult. I imagined all types of hazards in Tauno’s way and was
    convinced he had fallen and