"What's the matter, Barnstack?" asked Zeeky. "Have you already spent Albekizan's gold?"
Barnstack turned pale. His lips twisted into an expression that bore little resemblance to a casual smile. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I was hiding in your kitchen when you took a bribe from an earth-dragon and agreed to tell the rest of your village to go to the Free City without fighting."
Barnstack's right eye twitched. He chuckled softly at Bitterwood. "Children have such imaginations."
Skitter had finished drinking the water in the pail. The long-wyrm looked toward Barnstack with a lazy eye. Bitterwood assumed that Zeeky wasn't angry at Barnstack; if she had been, Skitter would be showing signs of hostility. Bitterwood dropped the bucket back down the well.
"Go back inside, old man," he said. "We'll drink our fill and move on."
"Actually, we won't be moving on," said Zeeky. "Jeremiah didn't have that many places to run. He might turn up here. Right, Barnstack?"
"There's no place for you to stay here," said Barnstack.
Jandra interrupted. "We're only a few miles from Dead Skunk Hole. That's the entrance to the realm of the goddess. Perhaps we can return here after we go there?"
"You and Shay are going to have to go without us," said Zeeky. "We're not going to Dead Skunk Hole."
Jandra looked surprised by these words. "You won't take us the rest of the way?"
Zeeky shook her head. "Bitterwood and I don't have much time to save Jeremiah."
"Save him from what? How do you know he's in danger?"
Zeeky gave an inscrutable half smile.
"Fine," said Jandra, sliding down from the long-wyrm. Shay dismounted as well.
Zeeky reached into her saddle bag and pulled out a pair of silver visors like the ones she and Poocher wore. She tossed them to Jandra. "We took these from the guards Bitterwood killed in Dead Skunk Mine. They let you see in the dark."
"What about Lizard?" she asked.
"He won't need one," said Zeeky. "He can see in the dark just fine."
By now, Bitterwood had drawn up another bucket of water. Since the others were focused on Zeeky and Jandra, he paused to take a sip of the cold water.
Barnstack made a choked noise, glancing back at his quartet of guards. The girls looked sheepish, as if they were aware of their failings as intimidating muscle. Barnstack opened his mouth, looking as if he were about to yell, then snapped it shut again. He turned and stomped back into his cottage. The girls followed, slamming the door.
"What a pleasant man," said Shay.
Bitterwood nodded. "I look forward to talking to him further."
As Shay and Jandra walked away from the well, Lizard waved in a fashion that Shay found unnerving. It was slightly too human a gesture from a scaly green beast that currently had its foot long tail wrapped around Jandra's neck. Shay wondered about the wisdom of choosing to follow Jandra on her quest into the underground kingdom. There were certainly less dangerous paths available to him to gather books.
Yet, he didn't have to dig deep into his own thoughts to discover that he liked Jandra. It wasn't simply that she was smart and driven; he found himself admiring her for her compassion toward Lizard. Despite her own history of mistreatment at the hands of dragons, she didn't display the faintest sliver of hatred. This was a rare quality; it was difficult not to appreciate Jandra for it. Not that this changed his mind about Lizard. With luck, perhaps the little beast would run off as it got bigger and never bother them again.
They followed a well-trod path that wound near the creek up toward Big Lick. It was quite dark now, especially here in the shadow of the mountains. The sky above was gray with clouds.
"Once we get a little higher, there are caves everywhere. We can take shelter in one of them," said Jandra.
Shay stumbled on a tree root in the dark and nearly lost his grip on the shotgun as he reached out and grabbed a tree trunk for balance. Visions of bright red horse bone jutting from a hide flashed into his mind. "I wouldn't mind sleeping on the ground," he said.
"Take this. It should make travel at night much easier." She held out a circlet of silver metal identical to the ones Zeeky and Poocher wore. The visor was surprisingly light. For something that looked like solid metal, it weighed no more than a sheet of parchment. Curiously, despite the chill of the evening, the metal was warm to the touch.
Jandra slipped her visor over her own brow, letting it rest on her nose. The eyeless band looked more like a blindfold than an aid to sight. He slipped the band over his eyes. Instantly, the surrounding landscape was as bright as if it were noon. "Now this is magic!".
Jandra put her hands on her hips. "You can't go around calling everything you don't understand magic," she said sternly.
"Why can't I?" Shay asked. "Why should you care how I organize my experiences?"
Jandra sighed and shook her head. Lizard shook his head slowly, as if he, too, were in the presence of a frustrating child. The little beast rolled his eyes, a gesture he'd seen Jandra perform; perhaps her visor spared him this outlet of her judgment, at least.
"It's not fair arguing with you," Shay said. "Lizard sits on your shoulder like he's your second head. I feel outnumbered when I'm talking to you."
"I'm sorry," she said. "I know I must come across as short tempered and intolerant. I don't think I used to be like this." She sounded sad now, as she gazed up the rugged mountain pathway. "I don't know if it's stress that's making me so mean to you, or if Jazz's personality is bleeding into my own more and more. She wasn't the most patient person. I'll try not to bite your head off from now on."
"You really haven't been all that mean to me." Shay felt bad that she felt bad. "I was a slave. I'm used to being lashed when I displease others. It really isn't an unbearable burden to have you scold me from time to time."
"The world has enough conflict without me adding to the total. If you want to think the visors are magic, I don't see why that should bother me. It's not your fault you don't have the training to understand the science behind them."
Her apology slipped in the realm of insult. Was she dismissing his ability to learn?
Jandra tapped her visor. "These things are more than just fancy glasses," she said, sounding happy to change the conversation. "The long-wyrm riders could communicate with them over long distances. I wonder if I can figure out how to use them for that?"
"Actually," said an unseen voice, "you're already on an open channel. I can hear you fine."
Jandra startled, looking around for the source of the ghostly voice. Shay spun in a circle, trying to spot the speaker, his shotgun at the ready.
"Adam?" Jandra asked.
"Who's Adam?" whispered Shay.
"Adam Bitterwood. He's Bant's son. He was captain of the long-wyrm riders."
"Yes, it's Adam," said the disembodied voice. "Is this Jandra? Who's with you?"
"This is Lizard," she said, raising a hand to stroke the earth-dragon's paw. "Oh, do you mean the other voice you heard? That's my new friend Shay. Where are you?"
"I'm in the temple in Winding Rock. Look to your left."
Half a mile distant on the edge of Winding Rock sat a temple of the goddess. These places of worship were stone platforms ringed by trees planted closely together to form living walls.
Jandra motioned for Shay to follow. As they neared the temple, a tall, long-haired man appeared on the stone steps. He was dressed in a long robe woven from green thread. A braided honeysuckle vine sat upon his brow like a crown; even though it was mid-winter, the vine was fresh and green, studded with soft yellow flowers. Magic.
Shay caught himself. He needed to think critically about the wonders he encountered. The biologians at the College of Spires maintained greenhouses. It didn't require magic to keep a plant green in winter.