“Yeah. And, darkness falls? It’s always dark here, except for the phosphorescence in the water that lights the place up a bit.”
“Are you sure you got the translation right?”
She punched him on the arm. “Yeah. It wasn’t like I had to work at it. I just knew it. That’s definitely what it says. Is we more soulceresses?”
“Or more letters. Another message.”
“There’s no way we’ll find them, especially if they’re high up.” She craned her neck back to search the ceiling and higher walls. “Is that what the light is for?”
Warren shrugged. “Give one of those fireballs you like so much a try.”
They were her signature, after all. He rubbed his cheek, recalling the wound she’d given him a few weeks ago by flinging a fireball in his direction when he’d snuck up on her in the underground.
Esha held out her right hand, palm up, and a small ball of fire ignited from thin air. She flung it up into the cavern and it flew slowly about the room, illuminating the walls and ceiling where the light of the glowing pond didn’t reach. For the first few minutes, he only saw more pillars. Esha’s scowl confirmed that she was having as little luck.
“There,” he said, pointing to a far corner of the room, about halfway up the wall. It was still a good dozen meters off the ground, however.
“I see it,” Esha said. “But I can’t read it. Even if I got below it, I think it would be too small.” A sound of frustration escaped her as she smashed the fireball into the wall.
“Hey! Doona hurt the image.”
But the letters briefly glowed, their lines distinct from the dark wall into which they were carved.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Whoa,” Esha said, her eyes riveted to the glowing letters. But before she could make out what they said, the light disappeared. She frowned, then conjured a second, larger fireball and immediately threw it into the wall. She wa
tched, her breath caught in her lungs.
“Damn it,” Warren said when the light faded from the letters again.
“It glowed longer that time, though.”
“Is it the wrong kind of light?”
Esha heaved out a sigh and leaned against the wall. “You could be right. The riddle talks about darkness falling. Maybe it means night. Has it gotten dark outside?”
Warren looked at his watch. “It’s past four, so yes.”
Sunlight. The opposite of night. Energized by the new tactic, Esha pushed herself off the wall and turned to face the letters closest to her. They were just at her eye level.
“Come here, Chairman,” she said, gesturing to the cat, who still splashed in the pond, searching for fish or crabs or whatever lived in there. Apparently he only disliked water that didn’t contain snacks.
When she felt the cat twine his body about her legs, she closed her eyes and focused on the connection with him that would enhance her power. She pressed all ten fingers against the engraved letters, focusing on the sharp feel of them beneath her fingertips.
“What are you—” Warren broke off when she shushed him.
Vivid images of a summer day played through her mind as she imagined the heat and warmth of the sun. Channeling that thought from her mind and out through her fingers, she pushed sunlight into the letters etched on the cave wall. When she felt like she’d forced enough light into the wall, she opened her eyes.
Nothing. Just a vague glow.
“Damn it! That’s all the magical light I’ve got,” she said.
When she turned to face Warren, she caught sight of a trail of glowing paw prints that led from the pond. She glanced down at the Chairman. His front paws glowed from the phosphorescent water. “Look at that….”
She met Warren’s eyes, startled to see a grin stretch across his face. “Clever,” he said.
Esha leaned down and swiped a finger across the Chairman’s front paw. When she raised her finger, the water clinging to the tip made it glow. With a deep breath, she pressed the tip of her finger to the first letter of the riddle, the T. When she removed it, a small spot glittered with the enchanted water. Suddenly, the glittering light streaked along the letters, from the T to the h of the first word There all the way through to the end of the phrase.