Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,116

snow, how the flurries would dance with the wind, and how those winds sang a different song. They’d never seen anything like it, and Samiel and Elmwood both apologised profusely for laughing at Crow’s low tolerance of their heat and humidity as they sat by the open fires, defrosting fingers and toes.

He took them hunting in the snow, and they had huge feasts by roaring fires in the castle. He took them to his sword master’s forge and gifted a small blade of the finest Northlands’ steel to all of them. It filled Crow with such pride to be able to show them his home and to have Tancho at his side while he did it.

But it wasn’t all vacations and sport.

They also assisted in establishing the new groundwork for the Aequi Kentron. They’d sent diving scouts to search the seabed near Tancho’s castle for the underwater doorway; though they hadn’t found it yet, they kept searching. The doorway at the bottom of the water pool underneath the catacombs had been found and dismantled, and so the search began for any more in all the four kingdoms. The catacombs, they had discovered, were vaster than first thought. They’d found more blades and more books and more bones, all, of course, taken for further study.

Though Crow had to wonder if they’d ever know the true histories. What they’d learned and all they’d been taught seemed more fiction now, and the truth lay out like a puzzle with more pieces than they could count.

They had all arrived back at Aequi Kentron and were discussing the options for structural maintenance. Since Maghdlm’s glamour spell was dissolved, gone was the façade of pristine tiles and clean walls, and in its place was the old grey stone building, worn by time and neglect. It was true, it did need some work. Well, a lot of work, Crow allowed, but there was a beauty in its age and history. And perhaps keeping the not-pristine façade would serve as a reminder of the lies they’d been fed for hundreds of years.

“Well, I’d like to request tubs next to the open fires in our quarters,” Tancho said, not even remotely embarrassed. “The one in Crow’s bedroom is my favourite thing.”

Everyone laughed, though their humour could have been aimed at Crow’s expression. “Perhaps not everyone wanted to know that,” Crow had added, horrified.

“Nor did we want the mental imagery,” Samiel said with a grin.

“It’s not your favourite thing in his bedroom, surely,” Elmwood said, nudging Tancho with his elbow.

Crow bit back his flare of anger at Elmwood’s innocent touch, though his glare must have said enough. Elmwood only laughed, much the same way Soko and Kohaku did. Crow and Tancho’s bond hadn’t lessened a great deal, though whether if it was declining or if they were becoming attuned to dealing with it, it was difficult to tell.

But they still had the ability to slow time down with just a touch, and that made up for any misgivings in Crow’s ledger of give and take. It gave them hours upon hours of a night to spend as they wished, and oh how they used them well.

Erelis, Asagi, Oaken, and Sirocco joined them, carrying the four books they’d brought with them from their homelands. Crow recognised them easily by the coloured leather bindings, and the Northlands’ black book with a raven made him smile.

“We bring news,” Erelis said. “The maps we discovered in these books, the ones we had of each kingdom in which we said the roads and rivers were incorrect? Well, they may not have been as wrong as we first suspected.”

Crow frowned at him, because those maps of Northlands in the three other books didn’t match any map he’d ever seen. “How so?”

“They are maps,” Asagi said. “Just not the maps that we are accustomed to. Not of roads and rivers, at any rate.”

“Then what do they chart?” Samiel asked.

Sirocco laid the red leather book down on the table, then Oaken added the green leather book, Asagi the white, and lastly, Erelis put the black book down. All open to the same page and configured in a way that all four maps made one larger map. “We believe these points,” Sirocco said, pointing to certain points over the combined maps, “could be a map of more doorways.”

Crow stared, everyone stared. “More doorways?”

Erelis nodded. “Each site is an old town, abandoned a thousand years ago. I don’t think much remains of any of them, lost to the wilds. But