(Chapter Seventeen: The Eld Sword, cont.)

  He started up the stairs, Leo following behind him. Ean took the rear, mentally preparing to grab anyone if they slipped. The first fifty steps were no worse than climbing a castle turret, but then the stairs became steeper, and the wind screamed louder. The stairs double backed on themselves as they climbed, always keeping one side flush against the mountain, but the other side had no rail. There was nothing stopping them from falling off. Against Chadwick’s advice, Ean peeked over the edge and looked down. The ground seemed impossibly far away.

  About halfway up, the heat from the stone and their physical exertion became oppressive. Chadwick paused the climb to let them pull off their hats and gloves. Ean opened his coat. Midday came and went, but they didn’t stop for a meal. There was no good way to rest on the stairs.

  Ean’s legs started to burn. He looked down again, and this time the world seemed to shrink below him. His head spun and stomach flipped. He quickly turned his gaze back up to the others. Flora and Asali both hugged the mountain wall as they climbed. Further up, he could just glimpse Leo. Chadwick had already taken the turn to the next set.

  “Made it!” Chadwick called, his voice raised to be heard over the wind.

  Their pace quickened, all of them eager to get off the mountain. The stairs ended before the true summit, stopping at a tapered doorway that opened in a wider alcove, forming a small, oblong cave. The stone walls were as warm as the stairs, and in the back, another doorway tunneled deeper into the mountain.

  They took a moment to drop their packs into a pile. Ean tossed his coat on top of it and swiped the sweat off his brow. Asali slid down the wall to sit, hanging her head between her knees. Flora studiously ignored the visible sky from the front entrance, and gasped when Chadwick stuck his head out to look down the stairs.

  “We’ve got to be hundreds of feet up,” he said.

  Flora edged further into the cave, her face paler than usual. “Let’s not talk about that.”

  Leo unbuttoned his coat and turned to the tunnel. His look of trepidation returned. He swallowed hard.

  Chadwick clapped a hand on his shoulder and said, with forced cheer, “Onward! To claim the Eld sword!”

  Ean didn’t think the levity lessened Leo’s anxiety, or cured Asali and Flora’s vertigo, but it was a call to action. The group picked themselves up and followed Chadwick into the narrow passageway.

  Daylight dimmed as the tunnel sloped in a gentle spiral down the mountain. The air became stale, smelling of earth and must. They were in danger of losing the light completely when a soft glow shone from ahead, guiding them to a small atrium and a large stone door. Two torches were posted beside it, lit with eternal flame. They illuminated a bronze plaque on the door, inscribed with foreign characters. More Archaic.

  Chadwick shifted to the side to let Leo and Flora through. Flora’s nose scrunched up as she read. Leo’s face turned somber.

  “What does it say?” Chadwick asked.

  Leo stepped back. “It’s a curse.”

  “What sort of curse?” Ean asked. He turned to Flora, the only person with any magical expertise.

  Her eyes cut to Leo, then back to the group. She hesitated before saying, “I don’t think it’s really a curse.”

  “An omen, then,” Leo said, brushing off her contradiction. “It says that whoever seeks great power will ultimately find great bloodshed.”

  He shifted on his feet. His brow furrowed as his eyes scanned the plaque, reading and re-reading the inscription.

  Asali put a hand on his shoulder. “You aren’t seeking power. You’re seeking peace.”

  “Peace with a warring nation,” Leo said. “It would take great power to bring them to the negotiating table.”

  “Using it as a threat is different from using it as a weapon,” Chadwick countered.

  A wince flashed over Leo’s face, like he’d been stuck by a cloak pin.

  “And it’s better us than Westenvale,” Asali added, not catching Leo’s expression.

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  “One day that reasoning will wear thin,” Leo returned. But then he pulled in a breath, stepped forward, and opened the door.

  Light burst out, yellow and shimmering. Ean threw up a hand to shield his eyes from the glare. Leo didn’t pause. He strode through the doorway, and Ean chased after him, blinking to clear his vision.

  Inside was a perfectly circular cavern with smooth stone walls and a domed ceiling. Two dozen torches of eternal flame ringed the room. Silver plates behind the torches refracted the firelight, creating sparkling shadows of light that danced across the cavern walls. The room was empty, save for a stone altar in the center of the floor—a plain, undecorated slab of rock. A sword lay on its surface, the sheath set to the side.

  The others crowded into the room and gathered around the altar, exclaiming over the sword. Ean ignored them and circled the room, looking for anything that suggested a trap or self-destruct measure. He found none.

  “I thought it’d be bigger,” Chadwick said.

  Flora giggled; Asali elbowed him in the ribs.

  Ean budged in beside them and regarded the sword lying on the altar.

  It was a longsword, broad and study. The hilt was a hand-and-a-half and wrapped with braided gold. The pommel was set with an uncut diamond nearly the size of Ean’s fist. The blade itself was gleaming silver with a lightning bolt fuller carved down the middle. The edges were still sharp, even after hundreds of years. The sheath was of the same braided gold as the hilt, and like the sword, there was no signs of rust or decay, not even a speckle of dust.

  “We found it,” Flora said. Her lips parted in a triumphant smile. “We found the Eld sword!”

  “We did.” Chadwick laughed once in disbelief. “We completed the quest.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Asali cautioned.

  Ean agreed with her pragmaticism, and celebrating now seemed risky. He didn’t want to tempt the gods to throw more challenges their way.

  “We’re hardly finished,” he said, then listed on his fingers, “we still have to get back down this mountain, convince the Scholars to let us keep the sword, cross the moors filled with Wildmen, avoid Northpoint entirely, and walk all the way back to the capitol.”

  “Shut up and let us have this moment,” Chadwick said.

  “It’s beautiful.” Flora gazed down at the altar. “I didn’t think a sword could be so pretty.”

  “Don’t touch it,” Asali said, even though Ean was sure they all remembered the curse. Still, a part of him wanted to reach out and touch it, to wrap his hand around the hilt, maybe give it a swing to see how it felt in his grasp.

  Leo let out a slow breath. He was the only one who didn’t look elated or relieved. In fact, he looked almost disappointed. The others shuffled to the side to give him space. He reached out and carefully placed his hand on the hilt of the Eld sword. He paused for a moment, like he was waiting for something bad to happen. When nothing did, he wrapped his fingers around it and lifted the sword from the altar. A faint thrum filled the room, as if the sword was waking up from a deep slumber. Something crossed Leo’s face, a mixture of fear and wonder. He snatched the sheath and slammed the blade inside. The he stripped off his coat and wrapped it around the sword, hiding it from view.

  He looked up at the group. “We should leave.”

  “You alright?” Asali asked.

  “Fine,” said Leo. “But we shouldn’t waste any more time. Let’s head back.”

  “We should actually stay here tonight,” said Chadwick. “We won’t get far before night comes and I don’t want to camp on the stairs.”

  Leo grimaced. “In the cave then. Not here.”

  They followed him back up through the tunnel. Now that the exertion of the climb had worn off, the wind that swept through the stone doorway felt shockingly cold. Ean helped Chadwick stack the packs to partially seal off the entrance while Asali and Flora spread the bedrolls out on the floor. They hunkered below the wind shield for the evening. It was an awkward position, but far more comfortable than the nights spent on the mountain.

  Chadwick pulled out a deck of cards he must have snagged from the Scholars. They ate their evening meal while playing rounds of King’s Gambit. Flora won six of the ten matches. She was surprisingly good at misdirecting suspicion from herself when she had a winning hand. With the whole evening to rest, and the Eld sword in hand, the mood was lively and lighthearted. Even Leo seemed to forget some of his worries.

  At nightfall, they stretched out on the stone floor and conversation slowed to a trickle. Ean stared up at the ceiling, tension slowly draining from his body as he realized the truth. He’d succeeded on his mission. Leo had the sword, and now all that was left was the trip back to Eastmere. After that, he’d be free. The final trials still itched at the back of his mind, but more present was the sense of overwhelming relief. He was going to see Felix again. He was going to return to Haven, and sleep in his own bed at the Collegium. He was going to spar with his friends on the training fields and laugh in the dining hall over a shared meal. He was going to have time to himself again, time to play the lyre or read a book or sit and enjoy quiet. No more walking, no more riding, no more camping. He let out a breath that turned into a sigh. Relief turned into exhaustion. Sleep followed.

  Movement woke him a few hours later. Leo picked his way over to the open doorway and sat, hugging his knees, his head turned to peek out at the stars above the wall of packs. There was something in Leo’s posture that spoke of tension, maybe even fear. Ean scanned the cave for any threat even though he knew there wasn’t one. This was just Leo’s anxiety again.

  Ean rolled over, intent on going back to sleep. Leo was a grown adult and could manage his own emotions. And besides, he’d rejected Ean’s last attempt at a conversation. He’d done his duty. But no sooner had he closed his eyes, guilt pricked him back into full consciousness. Didn’t he still owe Leo for trying to kill him? Shouldn’t he be doing everything in his power to make amends? Ean silently cursed his nagging conscience and grudgingly got up. He wrapped his blanket tight around him and dropped down across from the Prince.

  “You should go back to bed,” Leo said.

  Ean waved him off. “What’s wrong?”