She had to wonder if Casper and Minne expected them to immediately start working together. This was, after all, the group that could have an argument over everything. At least they were making what Lydia assured them was good time, though Fauna assumed most credit for that could be given to the horses.
“So, do we know where in Pagetri we’re going?” Samone asked. “Because I don’t think I have to remind you how big it is. It’s going to take months if we don’t have an exact location.”
“Not months,” was the first thing Lydia thought to respond to.
“That doesn’t answer the question,” Domenique pointed out. “You know you’re the only one enjoying this. Can you at least try not to make it worse?”
“How am I making it worse? Maybe the rest of you need to stop treating this like it’s a punishment!” Lydia defended. “It’s supposed to be fun! You all look like you’re riding to your death.”
“Enn, stop avoiding it,” Imre sighed. “Just be honest if you don’t know.”
At that, she let out a bit of nervous laughter. “Alright, I’ll admit, I don’t know exactly where it is. But! I know it’s closer to the southern side of Pagetri. And it’s in a cave. So that kinda narrows things down, right?”
“Oh, yeah, and it’s also surrounded by trees,” Kiah said sarcastically. “That’s definitely not the description of basically every cave in the mountains.”
Dimas approached it a bit more carefully. “You’ve got to have something you’re going off of, right? A legend or something? The Commandments can apparently be surprisingly specific, so…”
“Oh, no, Dad and I figured out that it was in Pagetri all on our own,” Lydia responded in such a casual tone that meant she didn’t really understand why he was asking. “There’s not a lot of details in the story itself, but the stories are shared the most in Pagetri. Plus they’ve got a few other manticore-related stories.”
“And because Palus has endless stories about phoenixes, that’s where all of them are,” Samone grumbled.
“It’s part of that weird migration thing they do, isn’t it?”
“That’s not the point.”
Fauna decided this might be a good time to figuratively step in. “What Samone’s trying to say is that your theory alone isn’t enough to be confident in. Phoenixes are probably most obvious in the Plains but that’s not to say that nowhere else has or tells stories about them…”
“Dad helped me figure it out, though,” Lydia pointed out. “He’s found all kinds of otherwise long-lost stuff! He definitely knows how to piece things together from different legends. I’m sure he got it right.”
Kiah must not have been able to stop herself from saying, “And gods forbid Andrew’s ever wrong about something…”
“Let’s assume for a moment that this is all true,” Imre began before anyone could say anything else. “We found the cave without any difficulty. Is there something else we need to do? Something specific that’s waiting for us?”
Lydia shook her head, but she looked pretty excited about the uncertainty. “I don’t know! That’s what makes it fun. We could just walk up there and not encounter a single thing, or there could be tons of puzzles or trials or something. I hope there’s something, though. Feels like a bit of a waste not to, right?”
“Why do I have a feeling that we’re not all going to make it to our forties..?” Samone grumbled.
“I’ve never heard of a story where all they had to do was walk up to a manticore…” Dimas remarked, partly to bring them back on topic. “There shouldn’t be any at all, but if there are… I don’t think they’d be very happy to see us. They might let Kiah in, and possibly me, since even in Qizar they don’t show themselves to everyone. If we’re especially lucky, they might count Domenique and Fauna as children of Fleyw Bresh. Imre, Samone, and Lydia would be out of luck, though… and honestly I don’t want to know what that would call for in this situation…”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Well, we’re bound to come across more information by the time we get there,” Lydia said. “We’ll know for sure then! Worst comes to worst, we send Kiah in there, she befriends the manticore, and it lets the rest of us in.”
It must’ve been a record—how quickly Kiah shot it down with a blunt, “Hell no.” Quieter, she admitted, “I don’t think they’d talk to me anyway.”
Lydia tilted her head. “Why? Oh, is it because you were a mercenary? It might not let you because you’ve killed people or something?”
“Let’s go with that,” was Kiah’s answer after a moment.
There was a minute of silence before Imre announced, “Let’s stop here for the night. When we’re all settled we can try to figure out where the legend will take us—without arguing about it.”
None of them could disagree—it was getting dark and they’d traveled a while. They stopped at the nearest suitable spot for a camp, each doing something to help… to a degree. Imre tended to the horses and Fauna, Domenique, Kiah, and Lydia were setting up the tents and starting the campfire. Samone was honestly just sulking, though Dimas had the excuse of writing to his family. When they all gathered back at the camp, it was clear not everyone was happy with that, though no one said anything.
“You’ve got to have heard the full legend,” Imre said, glancing at Lydia. “Just tell us what you and Andrew found. Maybe we’ll be able to work together to get something more specific.”
Lydia nodded and was about to open her mouth before Domenique interjected, “And keep the showmanship out of it.”
Lydia pouted. “Come on, why not? You’re gonna get bored to death without it!”
“Rather be bored than having to sit here for an hour,” Samone mumbled.
Kiah shrugged. She hadn’t sat down yet but the reason became apparent soon enough. “I don’t care what you end up doing. I’ll keep watch around here while the rest of you are busy. I’d probably be able to hear you no matter what anyway.” She stalked off to the corner of the camp.
“Alright, go ahead,” Imre prompted. “I think we’re ready for it.”
Lydia nodded. “So, after the super interesting process of figuring it out, Dad and I finally got what we think is all the information we could get. After a lot of the dragons and manticores had either been killed or moved to Fleyw Bresh, one of the manticores got trapped. Or, at least, we assumed it got trapped. The legend specifically stated that it went in and wouldn’t or couldn’t go out. A group of hunters tried to enter it once, but they heard a voice warning them that their ‘evil intentions wouldn’t allow them further.’ Several tried anyway but they died somehow, so the rest of them took the warning and headed back. The people who’d turned back never gave an exact location, to keep others from getting killed, but did tell their family about some of the details. Wherever it is, there’s a lot of evergreens, and a kinda-big river. One of the accounts said that it twisted around the cave pretty closely but we couldn’t find any spot like that.”
Samone didn’t spare a moment in sarcastically remarking, “Well, that certainly clears things up. We definitely know where we’re going now!”
“It sounds familiar, almost,” Fauna mused, choosing to ignore her. “Something we would’ve heard in Ryobel…”
“Well, yeah,” Domenique began with a shrug. “Stories about that kind of stuff were everywhere. It was something to make them believe that they were working towards something—pleasing someone.”
“I mean more specifically.” Fauna’s confidence in the matter shrank, however, the longer she thought about it. “Not just that they’re hiding somewhere, waiting to grant their powers to people. But that one in particular was hidden away, and as much as people tried, no one could find them…”
Her mistake was looking up at the others. They didn’t believe her, at least not any more than they would’ve believed any other speculation.
Well, everyone except for Imre, that is. He gave her a kind look, as if to tell her I believe that you’re right, but he said nothing about it to her. Instead, he looked at Lydia. “What maps have you gone through?”
“Practically everything we had that had Pagetri on it,” she answered. “There wasn’t a single spot like that on any of them.”
“There wouldn’t have been, if they were that intent on keeping others from finding it. Things are bound to change over time, but were there any spots that weren’t changed at all?”
Lydia seemed to get where he was going and pulled out a map from her satchel. “Mhm. Near this little southern part of the territory. We might not be too far from it, actually.”
“Then let’s check around that area. It’s as good of a place as any to start, without any clearer idea.”