The Valley of Lies (Lightkeepers #1)

Chapter THIRTY-SEVEN: Liss

"Elvsie."

Liss was lying in tall summer grass that grew damp and sandy at her feet. The quiet babble of the stream tickling her toes was a balm on her nerves, a pleasant memory to carry in her heart. She couldn't recall the last time she and Dev had done this. It might have been years ago.

"Elvsie, wake up!" The nasally voice was distant, a whisper in the wind, but its urgency made Liss sit up and look around.

Dev wasn't here. She was alone. When had she made it back to the valley?

Where was–?

"Elvsie, wake up! Please." A second voice. Smaller, sweeter. "Our friend is in trouble!"

Liss bolted awake to a black, starry night. Usually, she awoke groggy and disoriented, but it was like she'd only just closed her eyes. She turned toward the brownie's voice. Pan–and Thimble, hanging on her father's arm–was standing on the moss carpet separating her blanket from Zan's. Except Zan was gone.

Glancing around the camp, so was everyone else.

"He's in trouble–? Where?" Liss clutched the locket through her tunic, suppressing frantic oaths. Had Noa tricked them? Her instinct was to throw the necklace into the fire, but Pan's eyes grew round, as if he'd read the intention on her face.

"No, keep it. The Stone of Understanding is precious."

The What? That's not what Zan had called it, but the sentiment was close enough.

"Come." Pan shuffled toward the forest, gently admonishing his clinging daughter. Thimble backed away from him sheepishly. "Don't waste time," her father said, gesturing for them both to hurry.

"Wait!" Thimble held up a finger. Her fuzzy eyebrows rose into her forehead, like she'd just remembered something. She scampered off behind a tree, which only made Pan's grumbles of impatience more frequent, and returned holding a... Well, it was something. A decent sized something. Liss couldn't make sense of what it was until Thimble let it unfold over the ground, holding it up to the firelight by its unassuming neckties.

"It's one of their cloaks!" Liss' breath caught in her throat. "How did you get it?"

Thimble grinned, showing off missing baby teeth. "By Sneaking and Finding, of course!" She held out the cloak to Liss. "It's for you and Zander. For saving me. Sorry, there's only one."

"No, thank you." Liss felt tears sting her eyes, but it was not the time to cry. She took the cloak and wrapped it around herself, drawing up the hood. "You won't be able to see me."

Pan snorted. "We don't need to see you. You're as loud as a toddling babe. Now, follow us and try to stay quiet."

There was no time to be offended, or wonder overmuch why Thimble and her father could suddenly speak Elvish fluently. If Pan was to be believed, it probably had something to do with her necklace. The Stone of Understanding. How had he known she had it?

The brownies led her through the forest, weaving around trees and roots and stumps on their quick little feet. Liss navigated a straight line to keep up, but it was difficult to balance swiftness with silence, neither of which she was very good at. It was all she could do not to mutter blasphemes every time her layers of cloaks snagged on another scratchy bramble. At least neither of her diminutive guides seemed concerned that they'd lost her. If the cloak was enchanted to grant its wearer total stealth, like Zan suspected, then Pan and Thimble were either too preoccupied to notice Liss' silence, or she was so loud even an enchanted cloak couldn't erase her heavy footfalls.

Eventually the forest sloped downward and thinned out, leading to a shallow entrance to the quarry Liss hadn't noticed before. Three figures–no, four–stood grouped near a lone pine tree facing the rising wall of piled stone. Zan was slumped against the tree, while the Fexes convened nearby. Luckily, they weren't wearing their hoods.