The conversation with Carson had been a sobering reminder that traveling in the Dream Realm could never be taken for granted. Two caravans had left the same place days apart: one had made it without incident, and the other had disappeared without a word.
On the bright side, they had a lead on the path that Rukee's group had traveled. After getting all the information from Carson, Kai and Noble went on their way.
"Do we retrace their path knowing that Carson and his crew saw no sign of danger, or do we assume that Rukee might have taken a detour even though Carson said she wouldn't?" Noble had an opinion, but she wanted to hear the other Saint's thoughts.
"Carson believed he was telling the truth. He wasn't looking for Rukee, so it's possible that he missed signs of foul play. I think the best use of our time would be to search where we know she had been instead of guessing where she might have gone." Kai's gaze was already tracking into the distance.
"I agree. That's the most likely place to find anything."
Now that they had a direction, the pair traveled with greater urgency.
They couldn't make it all the way to the citadel before the sun went down, but they could cover quite a bit of distance.
"Do you do a lot of tracking?" Noble asked her companion.
"Only on occasion," Kai answered with a complicated expression. "I have friends that are much better at it than I am."
"Is there anything in particular you are looking for?" Noble herself had only been hunting a few times over the years, and others always led those expeditions.
'I really wish I had already gone out with Rain. I'm sure she has many tips and tricks.'
"I am searching for anything out of place. Disturbed ground, strange landforms, splashes of color. The land is mostly barren and grey. Anything that isn't grey would be worth investigating." Kai's feathery hair billowed in the wind as he sped along.
They traveled in silence for a long time after that. The world passed below them as the ash gave way to the creviced plains at the base of the mountains. Noble wondered if any of the valleys might connect to Ender's Deep and Crestfall.
Since most of them ran north to south, she doubted it, but there was always the possibility that one of them turned along its path toward the Stormsea.
Extending her second sight, Noble looked into the depths of the canyon closest to them. Noble wasn't sure how well Kai could see in the darkness, but she guessed that her second sight worked only marginally better. Her power was designed to find living things or things to levitate, and neither of those applied in the sheer rock face of the canyon.
Noble could feel all the way to the water washing through the lowest reaches. Carson had been right about the rain. The remnants of it were still rushing vigorously southward.
'What if they fell into the canyons during the storms?'
Noble's heart sank.
If anything had been down there, it was washed away by now or buried in the mud beneath the water.
It had already been unlikely that they would find a clue, and now it seemed impossible.
Still, she would have to try!
Noble was fairly certain that she hadn't come this way on her trip to the Stormsea either time that she had traveled across the domain. If she had, then the system of bridges had come a long way. The engineering of many of the structures was exceptionally brilliant.
"There is no evidence of sabotage along here," Kai noted.
"Did you expect to find some?" Noble watched as the man shook his head.
"I did not. But I'm still glad to see all the hard work hasn't gone to waste."
He was right. Blood and sweat were shed so that the pavement could be laid along the tresses and byways. It would be heartbreaking to know all that labor had been in vain.
Eventually the pair lowered themselves to the ground to examine a fire pit. Kai crumbled some of the charred pieces of wood in his hand.
"The wood and ashes are dry. There is still a touch of warmth in the middle. It can't be more than a day or two old. It probably belonged to Carson and his people." Kai frowned as his gaze suddenly became far off.
"What is it?" Noble saw as Kai turned to his left and surveyed the skyline.
"Ruins, I think," Kai answered after a moment.
"Like an ancient city?" Noble knew that many ancient civilizations had citadels or gateways attached to them, but she didn't think there were any quite so close to Ravenheart.
"Only one way to find out." Kai gave a small smile.
Noble thought for a moment. "If I were caught in a storm and I knew of a shelter nearby, I would certainly make use of it. Maybe we will find some clues there."
Leaving behind the firepit, the pair set their faces toward the lowering sun. They had a little time left before the shadows deepened, and so they would make full use of it.
Sure enough, the place Kai had spotted was once an ancient town. In this region, the ancient people had dug out caves from the stony hills and used the rocks to construct small structures. The combination of spaces looked like a tangled mess, but even in the ruins, Noble could see the highly ordered city planning that had occurred.
The floating woman peeked into one of the only still-standing manmade structures and admired the craftsmanship.
The contents had long been victims of time, but Noble could almost imagine how it would have looked with a family living inside.
"The stone is so smooth. It looks like a single boulder where they carved out the inside."
"I think that's exactly what they did," Kai pointed to the closest cave. "That home could fit almost exactly inside that hole."
Noble backed up to evaluate his statement.
"Fascinating!"
Had she more time, Noble would have been quite interested in writing a report on the creative method for homebuilding.
Did they have special tools to complete such a massive undertaking, or had they used the power of Awakened or enchantments to aid them in construction?
Noble mulled over all the possibilities as she and Kai split up to observe the ruins. Now that Noble was paying closer attention, even the broken homes seemed to have once been made out of a single rock. Time and erosion had taken their toll, but the homes must have lasted intact for centuries beyond their initial inhabitants.
'I wish Julius were here. He would love this…'
Noble made mental notes of all the things she saw so that she could tell him the next time they had lunch.
Walking barely a centimeter above the ground, Noble's toe nudged something.
Surprised that it didn't hurt, she looked down to find the only piece of metal in the whole settlement.
'A pan?'
Not just any pan. This one had a very particular shape. Noble's heartbeat quickened, and her eyes caught sight of a color in the cave ahead that did not belong.
Pink.