“Didn’t Jayden tell you where I was going?” she asked him.
“No. Only that you’d be back soon. I woke him up when you failed to return by darkness.” He crossed his massive arms.
Boys. To say the two of them didn’t get along was being kind. Jayden considered Rendor to be a low man in the Invisible Sword’s hierarchy. Rendor was used to giving orders, not taking them.
There was nothing she could do about it at the moment. The three of them stopped in the empty dining cavern for a meal. Since they were alone, she asked Hanif about the water. “Do you have your own well, too?”
“No.” He squirmed then sighed. “We exaggerate our numbers to the Water Prince so he sends us more water than we need. We stockpile the rest just in case. If he cut us off, we have enough to last until we can get word to the King of Koraha.”
That explained why he could spare a few jugs when the Invisible Sword moved to their new location. “Smart.”
“Not if the prince figures it out,” Hanif said, glancing at Rendor.
“The prince doesn’t keep track of things like that,” Rendor said. “The water accountant does. As long as you’re not being greedy, he probably won’t pick up on it.”
“That’s good to know.”
“I wonder if the Heliacal Priestess does it as well,” Shyla said. “She can’t be happy relying on the prince for water.” The two of them were supposed to share equal power in the ruling of Zirdai, but the prince held a slight advantage since people couldn’t last more than three sun jumps without water. He also lived one level deeper than the priestess—another sticking point.
“I suspect the priestess has tapped into the aquifer,” Rendor said.
“Can we tap into it as well?” she asked. Being able to access the underground cavern filled with water would solve one of their many problems.
“No, we can not.” Amused, he leaned back as if waiting.
Had he been expecting her to ask about the prince’s water supply by now? Why wouldn’t he volunteer the information when she mentioned they were running out? She suspected it was due to his pride. If they treated him like a grunt only capable of shoveling sand, then he would act the part. “The aquifer is not within the city,” she guessed.
“It’s kilometers away, and the exact location and depth is kept secret.”
Of course. “But the location of the pipes that transport the water to Zirdai are not.”
“Correct. There are the ones that go into the prince’s rooms, but there are others that are used to fill the jugs and skins.”
“And they’re guarded.”
“All sun jump, three-hundred and sixty jumps a circuit.”
“That means the water dealers must bribe the guards.”
“Some do. Although the guards are only assigned the duty for short periods of time to limit that. Some dealers find other sources.”
Shyla resisted asking the obvious question—what other sources. Instead, she asked, “How would you obtain water for us?”
Rendor smiled and, damn, the man had a melt-your-insides smile. She almost forgot what they’d been discussing.
“I’d tap into the outflow pipes,” he said.
A strange word. “Outflow?”
“There’s plenty of water that flows through the prince’s level. A prime example is the fountains. You’ve seen those.”
More like gawked at them—a very decadent waste of precious resources. “Yes.”
“That water is collected and piped out of the city to eventually flow into another city’s aquifer,” Rendor continued. “There’s an entire network of aquifers and underground rivers throughout Koraha. But the key thing is that outflow water is still drinkable and, as far as I can tell, no one knows about it.”
“How do you know about it?” Hanif asked.
Rendor gazed at Hanif for a moment as if deciding whether the question was accusatory or asked out of mere curiosity. Back when he’d stayed in the monastery, Hanif had clearly disliked and distrusted him. Shyla laid her hand on Rendor’s forearm and squeezed, reassuring him. Then she clamped down on her mental shield again. Even after sleeping so long, her energy was already flagging.
“When I was working my way up the ranks in the prince’s guard, I had some free time,” Rendor said. “I used that time to explore and learn everything I could about the prince’s organization so I would become an invaluable resource.”
“Can you tell us where the outflow pipes are?” she asked.
“No, but I can show you.”
Ah, tricky, but understandable. Rendor was part of the Invisible Sword. It was time for everyone to accept it. “All right.”
Another smile, this one equally dangerous to her insides.
Hanif cleared his throat. “Well then, let’s keep moving.” He led them to the Second Room of Knowledge on level eleven.
Shyla ducked inside and retrieved the torque she’d hidden, then rejoined Hanif and Rendor. In case of a cave-in, each room was in a different section of the monastery. The Fourth Room had been built in the southeast corner on level seventeen!
“How deep does the monastery go?” she asked Hanif. She’d explored as much as possible when she was a child, but had always been stopped from going further than level twelve.
“I can’t tell you all our secrets, Shyla.”
“At least twenty-five levels,” Rendor said.
Hanif skidded to a stop and rounded on him. “How… When… There are guards.”
“Yes, there are. And I may have led you to believe it took longer for me to heal than it did.”
“I should have put a tail on you sooner,” Hanif muttered.
“Do you think it would have made a difference?”
“Let’s keep going,” Shyla said before Hanif could respond. “I’ll feel safer once the torques are secure.”
Hanif didn’t take long to hide the torques in the Fourth Room and soon they were climbing up to level six. The cool air disappeared, replaced by dry hotness. Level six was deep enough to be safe during the killing heat and, unlike the upper levels, which cooled quickly, it held the warmth during the darkness. With mirror pipes installed in the ceiling, level six was the perfect level for growing plants.
Like Hanif had said, the cavern was small compared to the ones in Zirdai. Rows of green plants lined the long narrow space. The ceiling arched high overhead with the ends of at least a dozen mirror pipes poking through, piping sunlight down from the surface. As they followed the caretaker’s path through the greenery, Shyla noted there was quite a variety of vegetables, with short bushy plants growing next to ones with tall stalks and thin leaves. Moisture thickened the air. It smelled unlike anything she’d encountered before—a heavy vibrant odor.
The amount of work needed to build and maintain something on this scale was beyond their small organization. Plus they’d need someone who was knowledgeable. “I don’t suppose any of your caretakers want to become an Invisible Sword?” she asked Hanif.
“They’re all sworn monks, but if you decide to build a growing cavern, let me know and we can work something out.”
“Work something out? As in…?”