The Last Falcon (The Cael Stone) by Colleen Ruttan

Author:Colleen Ruttan [Ruttan, Colleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Colleen Ruttan
Published: 2012-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

The passage beyond the gate wound to the right and opened into a large cave. Except for a narrow ledge, which ran along the left wall and disappeared behind two massive rocks at the mouth of the cave, the entire space was filled with lake water. Halfway along the ledge, sticking up out of the water and secured by only the tiniest thread of rope, was the wooden hull of an old rowboat—the rest of the boat submerged.

Adena went pale. “What if we need that to get across the lake?”

Erynn set her candle down and went to the boat. A large hole in the floorboards was just barely visible in the murky water. A hole that didn’t look like it had arrived there by accident. “Hopefully we don’t.”

“I guess it’s been a while since they sent anyone down here to check on it.”

Erynn turned to the rocks at the mouth of the cave, eager to get out of the darkness and into the sun. “Let’s go see what’s outside. See if there is another way out of here.”

The ledge narrowed as it passed around the rocks, but it lead them outside and from there wound sharply left and disappeared into the trees and bushes along the edge of the lake. High above, the outer walls of Caraden Castle rose up out of the dark and jagged cliffs. To the south, past the high cliffs and trees, lay the numerous cottages that marked the outskirts of the village. To the north, the lake continued on along the edge of the mountains, and on the far side, an open field stretched west at least a hundred yards to the trees.

“Looks like there might be a path around the lake,” Adena said, sounding a little relieved.

Erynn heard her, but her eyes were still on that field on the far side. “We need to get to those trees. They’ll give us some cover as we head south.”

“You don’t want to go through the village? Like we originally planned?”

Erynn shook her head. “It’s too open between here and the village. If Holden has figured out how we escaped, we might run into Marik on the way there. I think we should cut across the wood to the road down to Farglen, and make our way down to South Crossing from there. Maybe stop and buy horses. Food, too.”

“Cut across the wood? Do you think that’s safe?”

“What do you mean?”

“What about the elves?”

Erynn realized that she hadn’t thought about the elves, and for a moment it threw her off and she wondered if maybe going through the forest wasn’t the right choice. Like every child growing up in Valentia, she had heard the stories of people going missing in the deep forests where the elves were either known or rumored to live, or being attacked for merely stepping into their lands—as well as all the stories of man’s battles with them long-ago, before the uneasy silence of the last several hundred years. She had never

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