Analla Faestar's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

For three nights the hound slept sound in the den. On the fourth, it woke Analla with a low whine. She sat up on the moss bed. The glowing mushrooms cast blue and gold across the chamber. The hound stood at the far wall, pawing the same patch of stone. It scraped, stopped, and looked at her. Then it scraped again. She went to it and knelt. "What is it?" The hound did not growl. It did not fear the wall. It pressed its nose to a seam and dug harder. Its pale eyes found hers and held. She could not read it. Was this memory of its old life? A warning? Or did it want her to see something behind the stone? She placed her palm on the wall. The rock felt cool, but a faint draft touched her skin through the seam. Air moved behind it. That meant a hollow. She pushed. The stone held. She dug her fingers into the crack and pulled. A slab shifted, then slid free and thudded to the floor. Behind it opened a narrow passage. Its walls were carved with old marks she did not know. Symbols ran down both sides in worn rows. The draft came from below, cool and steady. The hound pushed past her and went in. It did not look back. Analla took a mushroom from the wall for light and followed. The tunnel sloped down. Her fingers traced the carved signs. Some looked like suns. Some looked like beasts. She did not read them, but she felt their weight. This place was made for something sacred. The hound trotted ahead, sure of the way, as if it had walked here before she was born. The passage ended at a small round chamber. In its center stood a low stone. The air smelled of cold earth and old smoke. The hound sat before the stone and went still. Its shoulders eased the way they had when it first lay down in the den. This was no threat. It had led her to a shrine. Analla understood then. The plant she had bound at the entrance guarded more than a den. It guarded a road to the spirits. The hound had not been afraid of the wall. It had wanted her to open it. She had thought she was giving her familiar a home. The hound had known there was more beneath it. She knelt beside the hound before the stone. "You brought me here," she said. It leaned its weight against her side. She rested a hand on its scarred shoulder. The bond between them pulled tight and warm. Whatever waited in this chamber, the hound wanted her to find it. And it meant to face it with her. She raised the mushroom higher and looked at the stone. The next step was clear. She would learn what the spirits kept here.