Lilliad 29

It was a hard two days’ march. At least the air along the coastline was cooler and less punishing than they’d suffered inside the desert. By morning on the second day, they were heading gradually uphill. Around noon, it was rocky steppes. Lilli had to work hard not to lose footing on the crumbly grey stone, oddly porous and light.

‘I don’t like this. It feels like it could all shatter.’

That impression didn’t make sense, so she kept it to herself.

They camped barely before the sun fell. It was impossible to keep going in the darkness. The campsite they made was not at all comfortable. They were actually separated across three levels of elevation. Lilli found herself on the highest level with Ser Alcuin, huddling into her knees for warmth against the cruel wind. Poor Igni was alone at the bottom, because everyone was a little afraid of the stone breaking under their weight.

She drank from her stored water, calculating for the thousandth time how many days the portion would last her if she was conservative.

Not that many.

Lilli felt her jaw tense. There was no point in complaining, so she carefully stored the flask away, religiously checking the hooks to be certain there was no chance she’d lose her water.

“Do you hear something?” Ser Alcuin said, so quietly that she took an extra moment to process it.

Lilli blinked and focused. She heard the wind howling. She heard stones clattering softly. She heard-

“Something is moving up there?” She said, just as quietly, feeling a chill move up her spine. “Are we being ambushed?”

“I’ll go tell the others,” Ser Alcuin said in her ear. The knight rose casually and gave a stretch, making a large target against the night sky. No one took the bait by filling that gleaming armor with arrows, so Ser Alcuin gave a jovial laugh and blathered something about “the boys passing up dinner.”

Lilli waited, stock still and silent, listening intently. Nothing. The sounds of rocks falling had stopped, at least temporarily.

‘That probably means that whoever this is is standing still and watching Ser Alcuin move. They’re wondering if they’ve been caught out.’

Ser Alcuin must have slipped the information into the conversation, but she couldn’t pick out when. The two guards managed to keep up a friendly chat, loud enough that it was hard for her to listen for movement above. Irritation rose sharply in her chest.

Her heart was pounding wildly. It was real work to keep her facial expression mostly clear. She was closest to whatever was making the sounds, and she was alone. She was also the most fragile person in the group by far. Her impulse was to curl up tighter, to make herself an even smaller target.

It took real willpower to resist the impulse. Stiff muscles would be the death of her, more than likely. She unclenched her fingers and gradually loosened her shoulders. 

‘Bandits?’ She thought. ‘Would it even make sense for them to be here? Is this place well-traveled enough? It could be where they retreat to and not where they prefer to ambush people.’

Her thoughts turned to the fact that pilgrims had been going missing and their bones discovered. It was certainly not the first time she had thought about that. Ser Alcuin’s voice ran through her mind every hour at least.

That didn’t sound like bandits. It was certainly possible for a group of outlaws to turn to something so taboo as cannibalism, but it didn’t seem likely. But the situation precluded any kind of unintelligent predator.

‘Just because there’s an ancient crypt over here doesn’t mean that dead people have anything to do with the missing people,’ Lilli told herself. ‘They’d be the ancestors of the people who live in the city. Why would they prey on their own descendants?’

She missed Elathor so sharply that it hurt. The wizard was… eccentric, but so knowledgeable. They would probably have a theory, if not an answer.

Lilli took a steadying breath. The night air was so cold it hurt in her lungs. She held onto that pain and steeled herself to rise. They were alert, but they should act before any trap closed in on them.

She turned to face up the mountain path where she’d heard the clatter coming from. “Good evening,” Lilli called into the night. Her voice was clear and strong, and she wondered where she got the nerve. “Will you join us at our fire?”