“It’s filthy in here,” Briony said.
“It isn’t supposed to be, according to Blair lore,” Finley said. “But Landmarks tailor themselves to their champion’s taste.”
Briony snorted. Lucky for Isobel that she wouldn’t have been able to see any of the magick while she stayed here, but she had to question Alistair’s judgment. Nothing like some decorative dead cockroaches to put someone in the mood.
Briony met Finley’s eyes, hoping he would also crack a smile. But he only stared grimly around the Cave. He’d been civil to her as they trekked here, but it was clear he hadn’t forgiven her.
“There’s a hallway in the back of the cavern that should lead to the lake … There!” Finley gestured with his blade toward a narrow passageway that led farther into the bowels of the mountain. “That must be it.”
Finley’s family lore was right. The passageway opened to reveal a lake with a craggy rock protruding from the water: the pillar.
Briony set the candelabra on the ground and cast her Flicker and Flare spell again, fully draining her ring to send orbs of light to hover around the edges of the cavern. Now that it was illuminated, she could see the pillar stood on a small island in the center of the lake.
She walked to the edge of the water and gazed down at both of their indistinct reflections. Finley’s form turned to stare at hers, expectant even in the muddled ripples at the shoreline. “Now what?”
This needed to work. She’d sacrificed too much for it to fail. But the truth was … Briony wasn’t sure what to do next. It clearly wasn’t enough to just have the Relic and the Landmark in the same place at the same time. If that were the case, the curse would’ve crumbled ages ago.
They had to do something to cancel out the magick that existed in both of them. Nullify the curse.
“If a Relic counts as an ingredient,” she began, “and the pillar counts as the point on a septogram—the very heart of the Landmark—then we need to get over to that island.” That, at least, she was sure of.
“And then do what?”
“I don’t know. But we can figure it out.”
“All right.” He frowned at the lake. “If the Lowe champion was living here, he must’ve had a way to access this pillar. Hang on.” He walked to the wall, where one of Briony’s lights glinted off something embedded in the rock. Briony realized it was a spellstone the moment before Finley touched it.
Crimson magick swirled from it, spiraling outward into a thin, rickety bridge leading straight to the island.
“I knew it,” he said, grinning with relief. “Let’s go.”
They moved across single file, the Sword slung across Finley’s back. Briony let him go first because he’d insisted, chivalrous fool that he was. The moment she set foot on the island, the bridge shimmered once, as if taunting them, then disappeared.
Beside her, Finley stared at the pillar with an odd expression on his face.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He shook his head, as if trying to clear away a fog. “I just … It’s strange to feel so close to my family’s story.”
Briony understood the feeling. She’d felt it when she’d visited the Tower, even if it had merely been in ruins at the time.
“Okay,” she said. “In your family’s story, the champion is on this island, right? And then … a hand emerges from the water and gives them the Sword?”
“Yeah.” Finley pulled the Sword from his scabbard and knelt at the edge of the lake, the flat of it balanced perfectly in his palms. “Seems to me like the thing that would make the most sense would be to … give it back?”
“But what about the pillar? It’s the anchor of all of this, right? Putting the Sword in the water won’t do anything to hurt it.”
“I don’t know. We came all this way. We have to try something—” Finley broke off and turned appraisingly toward the pillar. He raised the Sword and touched the tip of the blade to the rock. The air around them seemed to shift, sending a gust of wind outward from where the metal met stone—and then a spell erupted from the pillar, throwing him back. The Sword clattered out of his grasp and slid to the edge of the lake.
“Finley!” Briony rushed over to where he lay halfway in the water, dazed. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, chest heaving as he rose into a sitting position. Above them, the ceiling shuddered.
“The pillar is defending itself,” he said. “That must mean we can destroy it with the Relic, right?”