Finding Heathcliff

Twenty-Three

"Do you trust him, Astrid?" Rigel asked, his eyes still following Orion.

Once again, his words surprised her. She had never questioned Orion's loyalty, and she didn't know why Rigel should; his distrust made her want to defend Orion.

Forcing herself to ignore her confusion, made worse by the images of her fiancé's recent, changed behaviour which her mind produced, followed by the picture of the gun, gleaming dimly, dangerously in the candlelight, Astrid replied, "I've been promised to marry him ever since I remember, Rigel. I do trust him. I have no doubts that he wants me to succeed in this mission-- I won't be crowned unless I make a new treaty and stop the Black Nights before the world declares another war on the angels."

Rigel sighed, not entirely satisfied with her answer. "No one wants a new war. I'll tell you what I know, but I want to continue on this journey with you once we reach Vesper. I won't return to Starling with the guards, I'll take you and Lord Orion to Vega to meet someone who I think knows more than I do."

Astrid nodded. She had nothing to object to. Rigel was offering her more help than she was asking for.

"Thank you, Rigel," she agreed, and he finally looked into her eyes as he asked, "What do you know about Land's End, Astrid?"

She took a few moments to reign in her thoughts and recall the memories of her geography lessons.

"Land's End is one of Eurovea's many promontories. Surprisingly, it wasn't touched by any major earthquake and remains, more or less, as it had always been," she recited the well-remembered lines.

Rigel nodded, a bemused smile turning the corners of his lips upwards. "And you have never asked yourself why that part of our country was never really touched by an earthquake? Or rather, why the rest of it was, seeing that the northwest of Eurovea lies far from any tectonic plate boundaries?"

Astrid shook her head in answer, feeling a hot blush flooding her cheeks as she realised that she had never questioned or doubted her tutors' words. Or Orion's.

"Are you suggesting," she said carefully after a while when Rigel simply observed her, giving her time to draw her own conclusions, "that the place is protected by magic? Or that the earthquakes were not natural?"

"Both. The earthquakes might have been caused by angel magic. They all happened close to or during the wars. And Land's End may be protected in the same manner."

Astrid frowned, trying to follow the lines of thoughts growing quickly in her mind, forming a complicated spider web of information. The promontory was a tiny, insignificant thing, a few kilometres of bare, rocky land running into the sea.

"The angels can't be hiding at Land's End..." she muttered, her words making Rigel's smile widen.

"Has no one told you of the Land End's Pit, Astrid?"

"No," she replied, frown deepening. The promontory wasn't in a mining region.

"A seemingly bottomless pit was discovered centuries ago at the very tip of Land's End. After the use of technology was forbidden, people started to use it to dispose of devices they could no longer use, things whose keeping became illegal. Some adventurers tried to reach its end, and many desperate people jumped..." His last words came out on a sigh, making Astrid shiver. "But the pit remains a mystery. No one knows how deep it is and what hides at its bottom."

"The angels?" Astrid whispered, mesmerised by the mystery underlying Rigel's words.

"Yes, that's where they might be. But before I'll take you there, I'll make you talk to someone who might know better. It would be a useless waste of time to go all the way to Land's End if I was wrong..." Rigel trailed off, getting lost in his thoughts, letting his horse fall back to leave his place to Orion when he reached them around midday.