The Mountain Dancer

Chapter 50: Rekness & Sila

Rekness followed Stoneworth down one of the sidestairs. She had told him that the recruiter would see him now… and he didn’t need to ask who that was. He was glad to be out the conversation minefield that he had been trapped in, though a little disappointed that had not had the chance to go up into the Dance Hall to check out the Tether Stone. He hoped this wouldn’t take long.

Ever since Sila had cut his hand on the book, the MoonLunarFire had stopped hurting him. In fact, he found that it came as naturally to him as Icevein ever had. He had spent the past few days privately practicing some new and exciting Artwork blends. He had even rediscovered the one that made the whole room cold, though he forgot its name. When blended with MoonLunarFire, he could flash freeze objects like apples or his desk. When blended with probes and Sluicestep, he was able to actually get some thin ones into the Communal Stone. They fizzed pretty quick, but when they were in he could feel a lot of mindtether, and even could read a few private shards if he concentrated hard enough.

The only downside is that it made him extremely tired to practice. There had been a lot of downcycling. The upside was that he probably wouldn’t need Shay’s help to get into the Tether Stone. It also helped him to keep his mind off what her and Zak were probably up to. Every time his mind wandered there, he wanted to break something. So he practiced the blends instead, so he’d get too tired to be mad.

Rek and Stoneworth emerged from the sidestair into the Tutor’s Quarters, which was right below the High Feast Hall. He had never been in this area of the academy.

He looked around, curious. “Are we meeting her here? The Dance is starting you know.”

“We’re going to the boreway,” said Stoneworth. She stumbled a bit, and hiccupped.

“Oh. How far?”

“All the way.”

Rek groaned. That was like, almost thirty rooms. They were going to notice if the Crown Artyss didn’t show up. Old Minyel would be crazy mad.

The boreway was silent and abandoned when they reached it. Everyone was either up in the Muster Hall or had found a spot to watch the Dance Prisms in one of the many big rooms that would be featuring them.

“Sync up with me,” said Stoneworth. “We’re flashstepping down.”

“Whoah, hey, no. I’ll get in even more trouble.”

“Not if they can’t detect it. Our recruiter has many talents. Now sync.”

He felt a probe jabbing at him. He let it in reluctantly, and then felt a familiar presence in his mind as well as Stoneworth’s. Sila was smiling at him from somewhere deep below. He saw a dark, stony place.

Then just like that, he wasn’t just seeing it: he was there.

“Hey, what is – where are we?” They were still on steps, and it had to be the boreway unless his understanding of the flashstep was seriously messed up. But he had walked pretty much every inch of the stairs in his time at the academy and never remembered this place.

“Drainworks. Let’s go.” She burped.

Stoneworth started down, seeming a little off-balance. The stairs wrapped around a big stone column. He heard a swishing noise from within – it definitely sounded like the cisterns from the drainworks in the north part of town. It was a cold and pretty boring place, overall. Nowhere near as interesting as the complex that he liked to explore. At least it was free of chattering reporters and useless recruiters.

They came to the bottom, and Stoneworth kept going around the cistern. Eventually she stopped and tapped on the side of it. Rekness was starting to get confused. Where was Sila?