The Rising Stones (Ihale Book 1)

that could have happened to her. Suddenly she wasn't defined as Bel, top of her class, breaker of hearts, granddaughter of the former leader of the Enforcers who would probably take that same position someday. She was defined as 'the one with the low for a brother.'
Heln didn't really seem to care, either, that they were siblings or that Bel tried to keep her distance from that idea. Maybe he didn't like to be defined as 'Bel's brother' and he was just a lot less outspoken about it.
Heln clearly hadn't been listening to Rhyss and Bel talking. "Look at these pillars."
Bel obliged. She hadn't even been aware that there were pillars, but there it was, a solid half cylinder of stone that held up a cross piece above them. Roots and moss hung like Festival streamers from it. When Heln touched the moss on the pillar it lit up a vivid orange, cutting through gaps in the green, shooting up and down the wall like lightning. "Um. I think that was just… moss stuff, not magic."
"Bioluminescence." Bel nodded. Honestly, she didn't need magic sensing abilities to know that. "Is that what you wanted to show me?"
"No." Heln pulled a loose streamer of moss back. "It's all carved. I'm not an expert, but they look like runes to me."
Bel frowned, moving her light a little closer. The blue glow cast the impressions in the rock into stark relief. "Those are runes. I couldn't tell you which ones. No one's used runic magic since… well, Eleti. These tunnels must be ancient."
"Or the person who carved them was a little behind the times," Rhyss said. "Right now I'm more concerned with getting us out of these tunnels than figuring out why they were built."
"But if we figure out what they are and why they're here then it could be easier to find a way out," Heln argued, but he let the moss drop. "Or at least, I don't know, a safe place."
"The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get out of here and are safe," Rhyss said. "Besides, none of us can read runes. Not even the nerd."
"I don't resent that remark at all." Bel gave her a bright smile, and Rhyss glared back. Exactly as she had expected. "I suppose you have both made your points and it's up to me to make the best course of action."
"No." Rhyss deadpanned, turned on her heel, and started walking again, stomping hard enough that each step rung clearly around her.
"Sorry, Heln, she made the more valid argument." Bel shrugged. "Alas, we'll just have to follow her. But I'm totally on your side. It's what half-sisters are for."
"Shut up." Heln tugged at the moss again and his eyes widened. "Bel. Bel look at this."
"I told you: I can't read… wow. That's. Uh. Vulgar."
The pillar had a deer skull in profile carved onto it, the horns rising in jagged lines and fangs protruding from the upper jaw. It was probably a trick of the light, but she swore something glowed deep in the socket facing them. "Drop it. Let's go."
"But—" Heln started.
"Drop it," Bel advised him. "It's just a carving, it doesn't mean anything."
Even with the moss covering the skull, Bel felt like cold fingers were being pressed one by one all the way up her spine. "I don't think there is a safe place here."
Heln was still staring at the moss. Bel wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tugged him down the tunnel and away from the moss that'd so captivated him.
The tunnel branched off a few times. Each time it did, Bel noted that Rhyss marked their way with the dagger. Heln didn't say anything more about the pillar, Bel didn't want to talk about it, and none of them wanted to think that they could have made a wrong turn, despite Rhyss's self-proclaimed incredible sense of direction. Everything looked the same to Bel and she honestly couldn't tell if it had been hours or days when she finally just sat down in protest.
"Look, Trainee, the rest of us didn't run up and down stairs with old men strapped to our backs."
"I think your ideas of what my training entails are a little skewed."
"The point is, it's cold, I'm tired, Heln is shaking, and maybe you can keep this up, but us defenseless civilians can't." Bel took off her bag and rolled her shoulder. "Ow. I am too young to lose my legs and my shoulder."
"Your legs are fine." Heln said, but his words didn't stop him from sitting next to Bel. He was pale in Bel's illumination bubble, which was starting to look more white than blue.
"You're wrong. They're about to fall off. And that would be a crime. A shame. A dark day in history." Bel leaned her head against Heln's shoulder. Her feet had hurt while she was standing and now they felt like they were on fire. It was the only warm point in the tunnels, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to appreciate it. "And then you'll have to carry me."
"I wouldn't, though, so you'd just have to crawl around down here by yourself."
And yet, Heln didn't shrug her off, so Bel doubted that, slightly. Still, she couldn't help another moment of bravado. "Rhyss would carry me."
"No, I'd leave you to die." Rhyss sat down, a little too hard for her to be as ready to go as she acted. "I need a short break. I was hoping to find an area where you could carve magic script into the floor, but I suppose this will do."
"Oh Rhyss, you trust me to create all of our barriers?"
"Oh Bel, I just want to conserve my own magic for more important things." The smile Rhyss gave was saccharine venom. "Like fighting off monsters when you won't move your butt."
"At the time it was a hypothetical monster, in my defense, but I won't question your insane instincts ever again."
"If you have enough energy to snipe at each other, then you