The Shadow Companion - Laura Anne Gilman [46]
“Thank you, Sir Tawny,” Ailis said, giving the creature’s feathers a final stroke. “If you can stay, that would be wonderful, but we understand if you cannot.”
“We do?” Gerard said, then took a step back when Sir Tawny swung that great head to look him directly in the eye. “Of course. Thank you, Sir Tawny. Your aid is most appreciated.” He made a shallow bow to the griffin, and turned away to examine the cave’s entrance.
The salamander, which had hidden at the bottom of Newt’s sack the entire trip, chose that moment to stick its green head out and extend its tongue at the griffin. The creature made a noise of indifference, and launched itself into the air, wings beating so heavily the gust almost knocked Ailis over.
“Right,” Newt said, looking around, and relishing the feel of solid stone under his feet. “Let’s get this done.”
ELEVEN
“That may be more difficult than we thought,” Gerard said, pointing. The arched entrance into the hill they had used the last time was now blocked by rubble. There were huge, heavy boulders and smaller rocks, the spaces between filled with smaller pebbles and stones.
“Rockslide,” he continued, looking up the mountain. “Recent, but not the past few days. All the dust has settled, and the grit’s wedged in…it’s rained since then.”
“So how are we supposed to get in?” Newt asked. He tried to move one of the moderate-sized rocks with his hands, and failed. “You’d need draft horses—a team of them—to get this cleared.”
“Or magic,” Ailis said, shouldering her way past them. Staring at the pile of rocks, she clenched and opened her hands a few times, thinking, then held her palms up facing the pile, fingers curled in slightly, and whispered something in a language neither boy understood.
A few pebbles shifted and fell, but otherwise there was no reaction.
Ailis repeated the spell, speaking louder, with more specific enunciation.
A rock shifted uneasily, but did not move from its wedged-in nook.
“That isn’t going to work,” Newt said finally, watching sweat break out on Ailis’s forehead. She wasn’t quite as strong as she thought she was. He wondered for a moment if there was something keeping those rocks in place.
“Is there any other way in?” was all he asked, out loud.
“Not according to this map, no,” Gerard said.
“I don’t remember any other way the last time, either,” Newt admitted.
“So either we get in through here, or we go home, having failed.” Ailis set her jaw in a stubborn line. “That’s not an option.”
She walked up to the rockslide, and traced an oval on the rocks with her fingertips, measuring in her mind. Then she stepped back, took a deep breath, and made a motion with her hands, as though she were pushing something, hard, with both hands.
The salamander poked its head out from under Newt’s collar and looked over his shoulder, seemingly fascinated with what Ailis was doing.
“Help me,” she whispered to it, and the creature crawled forward a bit more, its narrow tongue flicking out as though tasting the air—or the energy coming off Ailis.
“As I see it happening, let it happen. As I will it, so mote it be.”
There was a shimmer in the air, and then a ring of fire appeared, etching into the stones where Ailis had traced the oval. The flames burned white, then blue, then a deep, watery sea green, filling in the oval until the stones were a sheet of fire. All three humans had to turn away, or risk damaging their eyesight. When they looked back, a door had been forced in the rock, just large enough for them to step through.
“Nice,” Gerard said, and stepped forward without hesitation, his right hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword. Ailis was directly behind him. Newt followed a step more slowly, pausing to run a hand along the edge of the hole. The rocks were fused along the rim into a smooth whole, as though it had always been one piece.
“Very nice,” he said, impressed despite himself, as he dropped into the cool darkness of the cave itself.
Inside, he found Ailis on her