others and Preter was forced to take his credit due.
They fell quiet at a screech and a battering of stone against blackwood.
Kelir sighed and rubbed his face. “The sooner we go again, the farther ahead of it we will be.”
Preter shook his head and swept his hand to indicate the darkness ahead. “If this is the wheel chamber, we do not want to hurry.”
Lizzan closed her eyes on a groan. “The wheel chamber? I can imagine what that is. Do we now have to dodge giant stone wheels that will crush us if we step off the right path? I must confess, Preter, I do not like the festivities that these monks have left for us on our moon night.”
He grinned, shaking his head. “It is a chamber that is the hub of all passageways. There should be a corridor that leads directly to the sun chamber—so we will want to take the time to find that one instead of rushing down another.”
“I will begin.” Seri bounced to her feet easily, as if they had not recently spent an endless time running for their lives. Grabbing up a torch, she looked to her brother. “Do you come with me?”
Kelir groaned and rolled over onto his back, arms widespread. “Not for the world will I move again.”
“I will come.” Tyzen pushed to his feet, tugging at the robes that had twisted around his legs at the quick movement.
“There will likely be a draft of fresh air coming from the sun chamber,” Preter told them.
Seri nodded and struck out away from the door, torchlight casting a glow onto an enormous stone column ahead. The light did not reach the ceiling.
“Seri.” The young monk stopped her with a word. “The chamber is a circle. So you will need to go in this direction or that”—he gestured along the walls where they rested—“for if you head straight forward, you will be walking for a very long time before you reach the other side.”
A circle . . . though the wall seemed near straight, and barely any curve could Lizzan detect as Seri and Tyzen walked its length. They paused at a corridor, peering down it before moving to another. Then another, and still barely a curve did there seem to be, and though she tried to extend that curve in her mind, Lizzan could not fathom the size of this chamber.
“Preter.” By the wary note in her voice, Ardyl must have been watching them, too. “How many passageways are there?”
“Hundreds. Perhaps even a thousand.”
Lizzan laughed before tilting her head back against Aerax’s shoulder again. “We should soon begin to help search,” she said against his neck.
“Soon,” he rumbled in agreement. “But first, take more rest.”
As he no doubt needed, too, as he’d not only been carrying his own weight for half of the night. She closed her eyes, with his scent filling her every breath.
Despite the muffled screeching, she must have slept. For she startled awake as Tyzen suddenly spoke into her ear.
“Do you still love him?”
“Who?” said Seri, as close to Lizzan as Aerax, whose body had stiffened against hers.
“Toric.” Again Tyzen sounded as if he sat beside Lizzan. “You said you would only ever marry him, for he was your tribe’s best warrior.”
Seri scoffed. “It was a jest.”
Yet Seri was not here. Nor was Tyzen. Ardyl and Kelir looked to each other, as baffled as Lizzan was.
Preter, with his head tilted back and his eyes closed, said with a slight grin, “They must have found the echo chamber. If there is something that all the monastery needs to hear, it is said there.”
“It sounded like truth,” said Tyzen. “And I imagine that you would only marry a warrior as skilled as yourself.”
A snort of laughter drew Lizzan’s gaze to Kelir, who was shaking on the floor.
“Then I will be always alone,” said Seri, “for when I am my brother’s age, never will there be a warrior as skilled as I will be. So when I marry, I only wish to be loved, as fiercely as our Ran loves his queen.”
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Ardyl shook with silent amusement that became a muffled howl behind her hands when Tyzen spoke next.
“There is something I have left unsaid.”
“Oh no,” came Seri’s dismayed response. “Do not—”
“I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”
Seri groaned. “You confess that as if we will die.” Irritation filled her voice. “We will not die here.”
“I would die for one kiss,” Tyzen said earnestly, and Kelir