Chapter 240: Kept

Rishin looked at the girl standing in front of him with the bark strip held up in both hands.

He did not tell her no. Logan saw him start to, and he saw the old man stop himself. Rishin’s eyes went to the crooked charcoal letters, and then to her face, and stayed there.

"You will meet her," he said at last. "Yes, little one."

Vina folded the strip and pushed it back into his pocket. Then she sat down at his feet again, as if that settled it.

Logan got up.

He did not decide to. He was on his feet before he knew it, and Alice was on hers beside him with her hand still locked in his.

"Then we are all coming down with you," he said. "That was never a question."

"I know it was not." Rishin looked up at him. "That is why I told you. I wanted you to choose it knowing."

"We chose it," said Alice.

Behind them, Garen heaved himself up off the shingle and dusted his knees.

"Well," he said. "I was always going to the bottom. It seems I have better company than I thought."

Isolde stood up next, and then Helen and Daniel together.

Bram rose last. He kept one arm round Edda, and she came up with him, wiping her face on her sleeve.

"If she is down there," Edda said, "I want to know."

"Then we will look," said Bram. "Together."

The units had not moved at all. Billy was so close behind Logan that his rim touched the back of his legs, and he was humming low.

"Boss," he said. "We were always coming too. I want that on the record."

"It is on the record."

Rishin got to his feet.

He did it without Link’s hand this time. He stood straight in front of them with the stones closed in his fist and the white Mere at his back.

"Then hear the last layer before you cross it," he said. "I said I would not let you walk into this one blind."

The family went still.

"The Abyss longs for love," said the old man. "On every layer above, it has tested it. On this one, it takes it. Whatever you give there in love, it keeps. It does not give it back."

"Give," said Daniel slowly. "Give what?"

"Anything. Everything." Rishin’s voice did not change. "On the way down, the Eleventh Layer will ask you for things. It will ask for a hand, or a voice, or your days. It will ask for a person. And someone who loves that person will always be standing beside them, ready to offer themselves instead."

Logan felt Alice’s grip tighten on his hand until it hurt.

"Saya offered," said Rishin. "And then Nell. I was standing right there, and I let them, because I thought I had to reach the bottom."

He looked at each of them in turn. "Do not offer. Whatever it shows you. Whoever it threatens. You do not give yourselves. That is the only thing I have to teach you about this place."

The family took that in.

Logan looked at his mother and father, standing shoulder to shoulder. He looked at Alice beside him. He looked at Vina, sitting at the old man’s feet with her chin up, and he knew exactly what each of them would do if the Abyss asked for one of the others.

’He knows it too,’ he thought. ’That is why he is telling us. He already watched it happen once.’

"We hear you, Senior," said Helen. Her voice was steady. "We will not offer."

Rishin held her gaze. He did not say that he believed her.

They packed the camp.

Martha emptied the pot onto the shingle. Synthia checked the straps on Terry’s chest plate. Hob heaved himself up beside Daniel and shook the dust out of his plates. Wren settled her yoke across her shoulders, its one lantern swaying.

Link took his place in front of Vina. The red flame in the iron cage at the head of his staff burned up bright again.

"In front of her," said Rishin. "And then in front of me."

"I know, Grandfather."

The old man fell in behind Vina. The family formed up behind him, and the units after them, and they walked along the shingle to the mouth of the cave.

Billy went first.

He rolled over the line cut in the stone without slowing, and Halden followed him, and Terry. Logan let the rest of the units go past him. Then he turned to Alice, and they stepped over it together.

[ You have entered the Eleventh Layer. ] [ Blessing of the Eleventh Layer: Kept ] [ Curse of the Eleventh Layer: Kept ] [ What is given in love, the Abyss keeps. ]

Logan read it once. Beside him, Alice read it, and her mouth went tight.

Neither of them said anything. They had already heard it from the old man.

The cave went down.

It was a long tunnel, wide enough for Hob, and it sloped steeply through the black rock in a straight line. There were no carvings on its walls and no stairs cut in its floor. The rock was smooth, as if a great many feet had worn it down before them.

Link’s flame went ahead of them. Behind it there was only the scrape of boots and the hum of Billy’s rim, and the old man’s slow footsteps behind Vina’s quick ones.

Rishin did not stop once.

Logan watched his back. On every layer so far, the old man had walked as though he carried a load. Here he walked as though a rope were pulling him.

The tunnel ended at a ledge.

Billy stopped on it so sharply that Halden had to plant his halberd to keep from walking into him. Then the rest of them came out behind him one by one, and they stood on the lip of the rock and looked down.

There was no floor below them that Logan could see.

There was only darkness, vast and open, going down and down and away on every side. And far below in that darkness, there were lights.

There were thousands of them. There were more than he could count.

They were not like the small memory lights that had fallen on the Mere. These were larger and steadier, and each one burned alone, scattered across the dark like stars seen in the bottom of a well. Some were bright. Some were so faint he could barely make them out. None of them moved.

"Are those," said Alice. She stopped.

"Kept," said Rishin.

He was standing at the very edge of the ledge, with Vina’s hand in his free one.

He was looking down at the lights, and for the first time since Logan had known him, the old man’s face was naked. Everything he had kept off it on the mountain, and all the way down, was there.

Vina leaned out a little, holding tight to his hand.

"Is Nell one of those?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"Which one?"

Rishin gave no answer. He opened his fist instead and held it out over the drop, palm up, with the two small grey stones lying on it.

The stones were glowing.

It was faint. It was the soft pale light of the leaves in the forest above. But it was there, and as Logan watched, it brightened a little and then a little more.

"They know," said Rishin. His voice cracked on it. "They know I am here."