I squinted against the white light from Archer's arrow. It seemed to be lasting a very long time. Archer didn't appear to have any trouble seeing, but my sight wasn't that great so I wouldn't really trust that little bit of knowledge.

The light started to fade, leaving colored spots in my vision. I blinked rapidly, trying to get them to go away. When they were finally gone I looked around. There was no sign that anyone but us had ever been there.

"Archer," Kharjo said. "Would you mind explaining your arrows to us?"

"I'd really rather not," Archer said. "It's actually kind of scary."

Shay shuddered. "Trust me. You don't want to know."

"Does it fry their brains and make them explode?" I asked. I couldn't hold the question in. I winced at my lack of thinking. "Sorry, that image is a little bizarre."

Archer laughed. "That's actually not as bad as what it does."

"Well then, Shay's right. I don't want to know what it actually does," I picked up a quiver of elven arrows and added them to my own quiver. "Let's go."

I led the way through a hallway to another room that had a five draugr. I mentally cursed myself for not sneaking as they all charged. I drew my silver sword of burning and took down the first three in one stroke. I swung again and killed the last two in a cloud of fire.

Shay whistled. "That's a nice sword."

"Yes it is. From here on, we sneak," I said. "It's a lot easier that way."

We moved much more cautiously after that. I continued to lead the way. Somehow I knew exactly where I was going, even though I'd never been here in my life.

A small pouch of gold sat next to a black door. I picked it up and threw it back to Kharjo before opening the door. We appeared to be underneath a large tree. There was a large hole in the wall that had either, A. really big vines, or B. tree roots.

I poked my head between what I decided were tree roots and looked down. We were really high. There was yet another giant room below us. I could just barely see the top of a semi-circle wall. There were several dead draugr and a large number of bones. I pulled back wondering how exactly there could be so many dead draugr.

"What is it Rapier?" Shay asked, coming to my side and looking down.

"I think somebody was here before us," I said. "There are too many dead draugr for it to be an accident, and even for a place this old there shouldn't be that many bones. There should be skeletons instead."

"We need to be extra cautious then," Shay said, pulling away from the edge.

"You're a genius, you know that Shay?" Kharjo asked. His tail was lashing back and forth, I wondered what his problem was.

"I know," Shay gave Kharjo a mock bow. "Archer has said that many times."

I started down the next hallway, not checking to see if the others were following me or not. Without knowing why, I instantly started for the wall that I had seen. There was something about it that was calling me.

I walked down a path and stood in front of the wall. It was covered with symbols that I didn't understand. A dragon head was carved into the top. One of the words was glowing blue and a corkscrew of the light seemed to be reaching for me.

"It must be one of the word walls that Arngeir told us about," Archer said, making me jump. He smiled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," I said automatically. I may be a thief and a murderer but I still have manners. "Should we see what it is?"

Archer grinned. "Of course!"

We both walked forward. My vision started to turn black, but the blue glowing word and the corkscrew of light still shone brightly. There was a whooshing sound in my ears, like the wind before a sandstorm, and I knew what the word meant but not what it could do.

"Feim," Archer murmured. "Fade. What is that supposed to do?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't Arngeir say we needed to get the knowledge from a dragon that we kill before we can use the shout?"

"Yes," Archer sighed. "I guess we go dragon hunting after this."

"It shouldn't be hard," I pointed out. "I'm willing to bet the dragons will find us."

"True that."

"Aren't you done down there yet?" Shay called. "It's rather boring up here. No sign of anything dangerous."

"That definitely makes it less interesting," I muttered. Then louder, "Almost. There's a chest that I want to check first."

I heard Shay grumbling as I walked to the chest. Archer started up the path as I opened the chest.

The chest held a pouch of gold (I didn't bother to count it), some armor (the armor Astrid had given me was much better), and an elven bow that very clearly had a fire enchantment on it. I lifted it carefully out of the chest. This was a big upgrade from my longbow. I shrugged off my old bow and slung the elven one over my shoulder, setting my longbow in the chest. Someone else could have it.

I stood and started back toward the others. Archer had a bright flickering ball of light above his head.

"Nice light," I said, indicating the light. "It's cute."

Shay doubled over laughing and Archer smiled. "Cute? I don't know about that, but alright."

I swatted Shay with my tail as I passed. "Stop laughing, we need to get that horn for the Graybeards."

Shay managed to mostly stop laughing. He snickered every time he looked at Archer's ball of light, but I ignored him, even though I was trying not to laugh as well.