‘Are you bleeding from the ear?’ was the first thing the older of the two men said.

Wirrin dug in her ear and came away with blood and earwax. ‘I think something bit me in my sleep,’ she said, leaning down to wipe her finger on the grass. ‘I thought the insects would be asleep this time of year.’

‘What are you doing here?’ the younger of the two men asked.

There was something big and solid in the ground beneath Wirrin’s feet. She didn’t mention it. ‘That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?’ Wirrin said, straightening her back. ‘If you must know, when I looked at the survey map in the library, this seemed the likeliest place to set up camp.’

The older of the two relaxed slightly. ‘Forgive my cousin,’ he said. ‘It’s been quite a trek to get here. My name is Ayan, this is my cousin Veyoc.’

Wirrin nodded and didn’t offer her hands. ‘A pleasure, I’m sure. I’m Wirrin.’ She knew for certain that the siblings had never written home about her. They hadn’t so much as drafted a letter by the time she’d had to kill them.

Veyoc looked at Ayan for a moment and relaxed his shoulders slightly. ‘A pleasure, Wirrin,’ he said. ‘I apologise for my harsh tone. As my cousin said, it was quite a trek to reach this spot.’

Wirrin nodded. ‘Basavan va toc vitan, excuse my accent,’ Wirrin said. ‘If you don’t mind my asking, though, what are you two doing here?’

Ayan relaxed even further, losing a lot of his straight-backed posture and the sense that he was looking down his nose at Wirrin. ‘A fair question,’ he said.

Veyoc looked at him. ‘Va lin epoulvoc?’

‘I’ve no interesting business,’ Wirrin said. ‘Simply curiosity.’

Ayan gestured vaguely at Wirrin. ‘It won’t be a secret for very long,’ he said. ‘Is your curiosity urgent, Wirrin?’

Wirrin smiled. ‘I had meant to stay perhaps two weeks,’ she said. ‘Until the water starts to freeze. And then I’ll head further north.’

Ayan and Veyoc stared at each other for a second before Ayan spoke again. ‘You could say that we’re curious, too,’ he said. ‘Researchers, more than adventurers. A friend at the library thought this a likely place to find some old ruins.’

‘Oh that is interesting,’ Wirrin said. ‘It does seem as likely a place as any I’ve passed getting here. Solid ground so far into the wetland.’

Ayan looked away from his cousin and nodded. ‘Precisely,’ he said. ‘There was some other evidence our friend found, also.’

Wirrin nodded back. ‘I won’t pry,’ she said. As if it had just now caught her eye, Wirrin crouched by a stone near her feet. It was just as she remembered, cracked and smooth, with the barest remains of something carved into it.

‘Oh,’ Wirrin said. ‘That is quite interesting.’

Ayan’s eyes flicked to Veyoc. ‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘If you’re a curious sort, you wouldn’t mind helping us excavate?’

Both of them carried full-sized spades on their packs, along with brushes and trowels and other tools for excavating ruins. They were, all around, much better supplied than the siblings had been.

Veyoc was frowning, severely.

‘I wouldn’t want to intrude, if you wished for this to be a… family effort,’ Wirrin said. ‘But I certainly am curious. And I promise you I wouldn’t want any of the credit if you do find something.’

Ayan did that wave at Wirrin again, Veyoc didn’t stop frowning.

‘In that case, perhaps you’d join us for lunch,’ Ayan said. ‘I don’t mean to brag, but I’m quite the cook.’

Wirrin smiled wide, much more genuine than any of her polite smiles up to this point. ‘I would greatly appreciate it,’ she said. ‘Though I don’t have much more than rice and spices to contribute.’

Ayan smiled back. ‘That’s quite alright, though I hope you’ve not run out of food.’

Wirrin shrugged. ‘Only with breakfast,’ she said. ‘That’s why I’ve brought my hunting bow, you see. I thought it would be a nice experience to hunt in the wetland.’

Ayan and Wirrin chattered inanely as the three of them cleared some of the tall grass and built up a fire. She complained of the river that had added two days to her hike down here, he complained of the treacherous water that he still couldn’t get out of his boots. Veyoc was quiet, but for the odd nods and noises of agreement when Ayan tried to rope him into the conversation.

The two of them had brought a good deal more food than Wirrin had: dried fish and mutton, vegetables, rice, and even some fruit. They had brought herbs of their own, but Wirrin volunteered hers for the meal, to contribute.

As they sat and ate, Veyoc started to relax as Wirrin told some stories of her adventures in the mountains. It seemed like, of the two men, he was the one more used to travelling and exploring. Not thinking about it too much, Wirrin mentioned that she had been exploring the Ogesiv mountains recently.

‘You know,’ Ayan said. ‘My niece and two nephews recently travelled south to explore the mountains around Tellan.’

Stolen novel; please report.

‘Oh,’ Wirrin said, quite sure her amiable demeanour didn’t shift at all. ‘They’re very pleasant mountains, I’ve found. Though quite difficult this time of year.’

‘Perhaps you spotted them?’ Ayan said. ‘In your travels.’

Wirrin frowned. ‘I couldn’t say if I did,’ she said. ‘I’ve passed quite a lot of people on my way north. Perhaps if you gave me some more details, I could tell you for certain.’

‘What was it, three months ago?’ Ayan said, looking at Veyoc.

‘Closer to four,’ Veyoc said. ‘Much younger than us two’ he gave Ayan a look ‘but wearing much the same clothes I suspect.’

Wirrin frowned some more. ‘I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone like that,’ she said. ‘I passed through Tellan about a month ago, now. I was coming from Ousolen, in the valley.’

‘Oh.’ Veyoc nodded a few times. ‘You were in the Sovet mountains?’

Wirrin wobbled her head at him. ‘Down there we still call them Ogesiv, from Ousolen up to Toravan.’

Veyoc quickly explained the confusion to Ayan.

‘Oh, so there’s very little chance you saw them,’ Ayan said. ‘A shame. Their father told them they should wait until spring to travel south, but they were very excited.’

Wirrin nodded along. ‘Were they looking for some likely ruins as well? I don’t recall any place in the Ogesiv that I would call likely, myself.’

‘Their father had found some old maps with a travelling bookseller,’ Veyoc said. ‘They were all quite certain they’d found a likely spot.’

Wirrin pulled her tea skin from her pack and sipped it. ‘Sounds like you were less convinced, Veyoc.’

Veyoc shrugged. ‘It was worth investigating,’ he said. ‘But we all agreed with their father, that they should wait until spring.’

Wirrin nodded a few times. ‘As I said, the mountains are very hard this time of year. But we’re all excitable when we’re young, I suppose.’ She touched the scar under her right eye. ‘I was nearly trapped in an avalanche in my youth, being too excitable in the mountains.’

Ayan and Veyoc frowned. ‘I do hope they’re alright,’ Ayan said. ‘They’re not as experienced at this sort of thing as even I am.’

Wirrin nodded. ‘Unfortunately I have no plans to go back south until at least spring, or I’d offer to keep an eye out for them.’

‘I appreciate the thought, Wirrin,’ Ayan said. ‘Not much else that can be done, unfortunately.’

They were all quiet for a few moments. Wirrin looked at her crossed legs and concentrated on the ground. It was easy to feel that there was something solid below, something solid in the middle of the fractured remains of walls and arches.

She had to concentrate to be able to get any detailed information, though. And the little pause to ponder the possible situation of the siblings gave her enough time to concentrate.

What she suspected was another statue, though quite a different shape to Mkaer’s, was at least fifteen metres down. None of the surrounding structure had held back the dirt in such a way as to make the digging easier.

‘You could simply raise it, as you raised the bridge,’ Mkaer rumbled.

‘And then get immediately killed by these two,’ Wirrin thought.

‘Perhaps you could stab them first, not quite enough to kill, and then raise Naertral,’ Mkaer rumbled. ‘It seems you prioritise speed over safety, after all.’

‘Va toc vitan,’ Wirrin thought back.

‘Va lin vitan?’ Mkaer hummed.

Ayan huffed. ‘Well, yes,’ he said. ‘Not much we can do now, is there?’

Veyoc sighed. ‘Quite right.’

After another moment of thought, Ayan huffed again. ‘Wirrin, I don’t suppose you brought a spade with you? We don’t have a spare.’

Wirrin shook her head, but opened her pack to dig out her folding snow shovel. ‘The closest I have is this, I’m afraid.’ Folded open, it was longer than the spades, but Wirrin knew from experience that it was quite flimsy compared to anything with a solid handle.

Veyoc pressed his lips together, but shrugged. ‘Certainly better than nothing,’ he said.

‘Perhaps if the two of us dig,’ Ayan suggested. ‘You can heave the dirt away?’

Wirrin nodded. ‘That’s agreeable,’ she said. ‘And I’m sure I wouldn’t mind switching the roles from time to time.’

‘It’s a shame you don’t seem to have brought any mountaineering equipment,’ Vayok said. ‘A pick might come in handy.’

‘They’re not very good for digging, I assure you,’ Wirrin said.

The three of them spent a little while deciding where best to start digging. They settled on the widest space between two of the stones, starting toward the edge of the little clearing so that they could dig diagonally down.

It would still need to be fairly steep angle, Wirrin knew, to actually arrive at the base of the statue, but she obviously wasn’t going to say anything.

They started with digging out the long grass, Ayan and Veyoc breaking up the ground with the spades and Wirrin shovelling it out onto the wetter, lower ground to the side of the clearing.

Unlike when the siblings had been clearing the room at the top of the mountain Wirrin had called Telposs, Ayan and Veyoc weren’t in any particular hurry. They worked slowly and gently, chatting away all the while about other ruins they had seen, other interests of theirs.

Ayan ended up explaining that the siblings’ father, whose name turned out to be Heran, was pretty much the head of the whole extended family. He and his parents had managed to make quite a lot of money in barging goods up the Boclas river. Most of the cousins, siblings, nieces, and nephews relied on his money.

Heran was no miser, Veyoc hurried to assure Wirrin. And most of the family had the same sorts of interests. And at least none of them were lazy, Ayan said.

Wirrin and Veyoc talked more about their various explorations around Nesalan. Both of them had, at various points, found ruins of their own. Though Veyoc said that if they found one here, it would be the first he could be a proper discoverer of.

They took a few breaks, trading the shovel between them, before they stopped in late afternoon to rest and eat and relax. Wirrin, politely insisting that she ought to bring something to the meal, meandered away from the little camp in the clearing to shoot a goose for dinner.

‘It’s hard work,’ Ayan smiled, rubbing at his shoulders. ‘I don’t think I’ve worked this hard in years.’

‘Quite a number of years,’ Veyoc smiled.

‘I’m not ten years older than you two whipper-snappers,’ Ayan complained. ‘I’m still in the prime of my youth.’

Wirrin chuckled as she plucked the goose. ‘It’s nice to be exploring with actual adults,’ she ruminated. ‘Everyone was so young on my way up here.’

Veyoc nodded. ‘All the kids want to see the world,’ he said. ‘Travel on boats and barges and caravans. They’re not really explorers, though, are they?’

‘I was never much of a traveller, when I was young,’ Ayan said. ‘I liked the library far too much. It’s only now that I’m older and a little wiser than I feel any need to see the world.’

‘That’s the trouble,’ Veyoc said. ‘All these travellers and traders. They don’t want to explore. They may as well read picture books.’

‘It’s better exercise, at least,’ Wirrin said.

‘Says the only one not completely exhausted by a half day of digging,’ Veyoc grinned. ‘You must never stop exercising, Wirrin.’

Wirrin shook her head, smiling. ‘That’s the difference between an explorer and a traveller, I think,’ she said. ‘I walk all day and work on barges and farms and such, certainly, but I’m in no hurry. I can stop to swim in rivers and watch the birds if I like.’

‘The difference between a real explorer and a researcher, I expect,’ Ayan said. ‘I spend weeks or months reading books and maps before my outings, it seems like you simply walk into the wilderness and see if something eventuates.’

Wirrin smiled. ‘That’d be it, I expect.’