They brought the survivors inside.
There were only five.
Four adults and one child.
Their clothes were torn.
Their faces were pale.
Captain Darius questioned them carefully.
They had been part of a merchant caravan traveling north.
Something had attacked them.
Not on the road.
From beneath it.
The ground opened.
People disappeared.
Those who escaped had hidden among the rocks until morning.
"And the others?" Darius asked.
The woman shook her head.
"Taken."
"How many?"
"Twenty."
Silence.
Maera looked at Rowan.
"The quarry."
Rowan nodded.
"I know it."
"It was abandoned after the mine collapsed."
"How long ago?"
"Thirty years."
"Then why are people there?"
Rowan's expression hardened.
"They shouldn't be."
Uriel walked toward the child.
The boy watched him carefully.
"What is your name?"
"Tomas."
"Did you see what took them?"
Tomas shook his head.
"But I heard it."
"What did it sound like?"
The boy looked at the mask.
His expression changed.
"It sounded like you."
Uriel froze.
"What?"
Tomas swallowed.
"The voice."
"It said a word."
"What word?"
The boy whispered:
"Keeper."
The mask suddenly heated.
Uriel turned away.
Someone is calling you.
He clenched his fist.
"Who?"
Nox remained silent.
That silence told him enough.
Someone—or something—beneath the quarry knew exactly who he was.That night, nobody slept.
Near midnight, a stone struck the tower window.
Darius immediately woke.
Another stone.
Then another.
Rowan approached the window.
"There's someone outside."
Uriel looked down.
A figure stood in the darkness.
Motionless.
Too far away to identify.
Then it raised one arm.
Pointing toward the quarry.
The figure vanished.
Veyra drew her sword.
"Did anyone else see that?"
Uriel nodded.
"We go at first light."
Darius looked at him.
"Agreed."
No one objected.