Lilith Thornveil's Arc

Chapter 6 of 11

The false trail east would burn out by dawn. When the hunter found it, he would sniff out the trick and comb the ravine stone by stone. Lilith knew no fruit pulp could hide the cavern from that kind of search. She knelt by the pale pool and pressed her hands flat to the wet rock, thinking hard. Shade stirred on the ledge. The poison had loosened its grip, but her face stayed gray. She watched Lilith with one eye. "You're stuck," she said. "I can smell it on you." "He'll find this place." Lilith looked at the thorn arch, at the glowing water, at the two women she had sworn to protect. "I can't make a cavern disappear." Shade's hand moved to her collar. She drew out a charm on a cord, an oval of dark stone ringed with small sigils. Tiny beads hung from its base. "Then don't move the cavern," she said. "Move the eyes off it." She held it out. "Veilmark. It softens what's near it. Makes a nose slide past. A hunter looks right at the door and sees rock." Lilith took it. The stone felt cold and strangely quiet in her palm, as if sound bent around it. "Why carry this and still get shot?" "It hides a place. Not a person out walking." Shade almost smiled. "I gave up my cover to reach your water. Fair trade." Selene came from the shadows, arms crossed. She had fled her master's nose all this way, and her violet eyes narrowed at the charm. "If that thing fails, we're all in the open." "It won't fail if we place it right," Shade said. "Bury it at the arch. Wake it with blood. Vampire blood works best. It's louder to the dark than mine." Selene went still. Lilith saw the fear cross her face, the old bargain of blood and ownership. Then Selene pushed up her sleeve. "For the door," she said. "Not for anyone else. Ever." Lilith dug a small hole at the base of the twisted thorn arch. She set the charm inside. Selene drew a thin line across her own wrist and let three drops fall on the dark stone. The sigils warmed. A gray hush spread out from the arch, thin as fog, and settled over the mouth of the cavern. Before dawn, boots came down the ravine. Lilith crouched inside with her knife ready. She watched a broad shape pause at the fold of rock, right where the false trail died. He turned. He walked straight toward the cavern mouth. His eyes passed over the arch. Over the pool's glow behind it. Over her. He frowned at bare stone. Then he moved on, up the far slope, hunting. Lilith let her breath out slow. The cavern was hidden now, truly hidden. Her refuge could stand. But the charm ran on blood, and Selene had just tied her own veins to the door.