Alden Greenleaf's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

The buried cave lay behind them now. Alden walked the mountain's rocky base with Arglad at her side, watching for any crack that might be the second mouth. Every hour her mother slipped farther into the dark. Arglad tapped stones with his staff and muttered names of old spells he could no longer trust. "You said you'd only heard of it," Alden said. "Have you ever seen it?" "No." He prodded a boulder. "I once found a hidden door by accident. I was looking for my hat." He kept walking. A gray bunny hopped across the loose rock ahead. It stopped, sniffed the ground, and dug at a gap between two stones. It moved with purpose, not fear. Alden slowed and watched. The bunny circled a shadowed cleft, then squeezed through and vanished into the mountain. "There." Alden crossed the scree. Behind a jut of stone, a narrow opening cut into the cliff. Cold air breathed out of it. The passage ran deep and branched into darkness, a maze of tunnels and worn steps swallowed by black. The second entrance. She had found it. Before she could step inside, a woman rose from the rocks below the cleft. She was young, blonde, and her right sleeve hung empty at her side. With her one hand she pulled herself up the last ledge toward the same opening. She had been climbing for it the whole time. Alden's hand went to her bow. The stranger stopped. She looked at the bow, then at Alden's face, and did not flinch. "You found it first," the woman said. Her voice was flat and quiet. "I've searched three days." "Why do you want in?" Alden asked. "I'm hunting a man. My master. He went into these caves." She lifted her empty sleeve a little. "I've lost enough already. I won't lose him too." Arglad studied her. "A witch," he said. "Half-trained, by the smell of the air." He said it without judgment. The woman's jaw tightened. "Elara. And you're a magician who's forgotten more than he knows." "That's fair," Arglad said. Alden did not lower the bow. "My mother was taken through the other mouth. Two men. If your master is inside, he may know them." Elara went still. "Two men," she said. "One tall. One with a shield and marks on his skin." "You've seen them." "I've followed their tracks. They're deep now." Elara stepped toward the opening. "I go in either way. You can shoot me or walk with me." Alden weighed it. A witch who knew the tunnels and the captors was worth more than a stranger's trust was worth losing. She lowered the bow. "Walk," Alden said. The three of them entered the second mouth. The passage closed cold around them, and the branching dark ran on in every direction. Alden had her way in at last. Now she had to find her mother inside a maze, with a witch she did not trust and armed men somewhere ahead.