"So," started Levi as he drove through the traffic. The buildings started high above Kit's head and they just kept getting taller and taller. "Where do you reckon this warehouse was? Do you have the details?"
Kit nodded and pulled out a slightly damp piece of paper from her bag that Headmistress had filled out and given her. It had the name of the warehouse but the whereabouts was smudged from the rain. "It says 'Smart Deal Warehouse' but it doesn't quite have the whereabouts."
"Okay, we'll just keep driving then, agreed?"
"Agreed."
"Left, or right?" he asked, looking between a left and right road that separated into two different roads. "Are you sure it says nothing?"
Kit shook her head before realizing that he couldn't see since his eyes were fixed on the road. "Whatever it says, it doesn't look human," she turned it around. All it was were symbols.
Levi shook his head and muttered something under his breath. "Take the wheel quickly and tell me when the lights go green."
Kit quickly grabbed the wheel as he took the paper from her hands. He spun it around and murmured some words that she didn't quite catch. When the light flashed green, she shouted at him to drive.
"You were only meant to say 'hey, it's green, you can drive now'."
She just looked at him with short sneer. "What did it say?"
"They weren't words, but they were acts of symbolism. Headmistress didn't exactly describe that to us. I saw a tree, a gate and a bridge but I couldn't catch the other three. Tell me whether you spot anything like that."
"Okay."
They each looked out for either of the three symbols and after about ten minutes of looking, Kit spotted something that seemed to relate to the three symbols. "I think that's the bridge," she pointed over the glittering river in the distance as Levi nodded his head. "That pretty much matches the indirect description, right?"
"I think it may be right. I'll drive over that way and we'll find out. Maybe we are going the right way." He turned around the corner and Kit gripped the side of the car as Levi drove the car across the bridge. "Now we have to look out for a group of trees and large gates."
She saw Levi smirk slightly from beside her, creating her eyes to shift from their surroundings to looking at him. "Could that be where the warehouse is? I think Headmistress is trying to tell us that the warehouse is hidden." She turned her attention away from his flawless face and back onto the river below them. "Wait!" She suddenly shouted.
"What?!" Levi asked, giving her an incredulous look as he slowed down the car, "first rules of driving in my car, don't yell or shout or distract me at any times!" He looked at her from the corner of his eye.
Kit looked down at the river and towards the large sewer gates as they emerged from the river. "Sorry," she quickly apologized before snapping her gaze towards the sewer gates. "Maybe they aren't gates for a fence, maybe they're gates for the entrance to the sewer. It could lead below the warehouse."
Levi stopped the car and pulled it over to the side of the road before looking towards the river. "I think you might be right," he shook his head, "but where are the trees-"He cut himself off as he looked at the large oak trees as they gently cascaded across the top of the sewer front, exposing large vines that lifted inside. "Never mind."
She laughed. "We should go look inside, it makes perfect sense. It's not quite a map directing us there, they're symbols that stand together."
"Right, I get that. I'll hide the car while you go down and check."
"Okay," she opened the car door and stepped outside into the wet muddied grass. She made a face as she felt her boots sludge through it. "Don't be seen," she quickly said.
"Right back at you," she heard him call before he drove into a small clearing in the trees.
The river bank was slightly damp as she stepped through it, fighting to let her cover be blown by her getting trapped in the river. She signed, noticing how the water was kind of full.
When she stepped over the banks, holding onto the emerged roots on the side, she made sure to check if anyone was looking before she stepped down. The sewer front was a large stone carved circle that was nearly twice her height. She climbed onto the side ledge and looked inside through the bars.
The sewer water had entirely cleared overnight exposing a large bricked tunnel inside. It was dark inside and the more Kit stared at it the more she felt hope that it could be a secret passageway inside the warehouse.
She didn't even hear Levi as he crept up beside her. "Hey," he said, sending her hand to clasp the dagger at the sheath at her waist. She was about to pull it out when he started laughing. "No need for that, it's just me. I didn't think I was annoying enough for you to want me dead."
She rolled her eyes and released her grip from the dagger. "Don't creep up on me," when she turned away she hid a small smile. "I think it's in there, it's still dry but I hope Headmistress was right about the hidden message.
"Yeah, it looks promising," he said sarcastically. "I brought the iron-bender." He held up a small object that Kit knew could bend the bars apart.
"Great, now all we need to do is get inside. Pass it here," she said as she stepped down off the ledge until she was hanging onto the bars of the front sewer. Levi handed her the iron bender as she wedged it between two bars. "You pull on that side and I'll pull on this side."
He nodded his head and stepped down onto the ledge beside her with a worried look on his face. "I hope no one can see us. Maybe whoever works at the warehouse always gets through using this way because they don't want to risk being detected."
"I agree, we should be careful, and I hope they don't have any watchers around." Kit took a cautious look into the darkness. Hardly any cars were driving by because this was more into the outskirts of the city and Levi had to take a left-hand turn down an old dusty road to get here.
"You do that, and I'll cover you," he said and pulled a throwing knife out of his boot as he turned away.
Kit blew a sharp sigh of relief as she pulled the right side of the bar. It began stretching a bit more and as she went to pull from the left side, she watched as it opened into a gap. She slipped inside.
"Coming? Or would you rather stay out here while I fight the bad guys alone?" she asked playfully as Levi turned around with a smirk.
"You should know by now that I'm not the type to sit on the side-lines and watch," he raised his eyebrows as he slipped between the bars until he stood in front of her. "I'll go in front," he insisted.
She smiled, "whatever floats your boat." She shrugged her shoulders and followed behind him. A moment later – as they went through the dark tunnel – she noticed that Levi had a bow slung across his side and a sheath of arrows. "When did you get that?"
Levi turned around and frowned before noticing the way her look pointed to the seven sets of wooden arrows that was slung around his shoulder.
"Oh, they're arrows. I thought it would come in handy at some stage. You can have your throwing knives and I can have my arrows," he grinned and continued to walk ahead which made Kit a tiny bit suspicious.
"Levi," she breathed and remembered that she still hadn't asked him what he'd seen that day when she couldn't find him. "What happened the other day when you went looking for something? You never fully told me."
Levi turned back towards her with an unreadable look on his face. He closed his eyes and shook his head before stepping forwards. "That's the thing, Kit, I don't even know what I saw. It was weird, but it wasn't human, and it definitely wasn't a Night Walker, so I don't know, I was really hoping we'd find out in here." He shrugged his shoulders and turned away.
Kit stood there a moment longer as she tried to understand his words. He didn't know what it was? Then what could it be?
Instead of saying anything more, she continued to walk through the tunnel behind Levi with her hand cautiously hovering over the knife at her side. She listened to the silence as the darkness kept unfolding before them, showing not many signs if life. The tunnel didn't s
mell all that nice, but it was weird because the more she looked in the tunnel, the more she spotted signs that someone else had been here not long before them.
Footprints were seen in the slightly muddied place in the tunnel and the more Kit stared at them the more she felt anxious as her steps brought her slowly towards a place where she didn't particularly feel comfortable going into.
It was one of her greatest fears...
Stepping into the unknown.
"Look at that," Levi said a moment later as she looked up from the shoe marks on the ground. Even though they'd both seen them, neither had said anything because it kind of spoke for itself. "Do you notice anything weird about that?"
She followed his gaze towards the side of the tunnel where a bunch of bricks had slightly crumpled on the sides. It looked slightly different from the rest of the tunnel which made Kit's eyes begin to sharpen as she stepped a bit closer. "I do."
As Night Walkers they'd been trained to identify any hidden doorways. Kit had been tested on whether she could spot them so many times and she got a lot better at picking them.
"Do you think it could be a doorway? They hide them everywhere around places like this, wanting to keep them hidden for some weird reason." He shrugged his shoulder and began to walk towards it.
Kit followed behind him but was still cautious. "I think it could be. What usually happens though it that there is something to trigger it like another rock, but they usually hide them somewhere." She looked around, "let me know if you spot anything that could be a k-"
"I think we just push against it," he offered before placing his hands on either side of the inner carvings that created what looked like a doorway.
"Seriously?" Kit asked as she stepped after him, "that's not going to work, it's too predictable."
Levi raised his eyebrows at her, "sometimes the most predictable things can turn into the most unpredictable," and with that, Levi pushed his muscular arms against the rock wall and sure enough something clicked into place. Kit stood back but Levi stood where he was and watched as the door began to slowly tremble around the rough edges as it spun around in a tight circle. Levi turned his head to look at her.
"Told you it would be easy," he said with a grin.
She narrowed her eyes at him, hating how he always had to be right even when he didn't mean to. "You never told me that," she said with an amused look in her eyes.
He smiled and held arm out, gesturing for her to go first. "Ladies first," he said with one of his crooked smile gently crafting his face into an instant gleam of perfection.
She turned her head towards the darkened room as she swallowed nervously. "Ah, sure." She stepped passed the door, hoping it wasn't filled with traps but of course she was watching out for any signs of trip-wires or basic snare traps or wires.
Kit felt a rush of relief wash through her as she stepped past the doorway with ease. She turned back to Levi with a quick thumbs-up to tell him that the cost was clear. She turned her head back to see a short tunnel unfold before her eyes, it wasn't long at all, but it didn't look too promising either.
Levi followed close behind her as they began walking through the tunnel with Kit looking out for traps and Levi watching for any signs of enemies. "I think it's empty," he observed as he turned his head from side to side to check the signs of anything else that was living.
It was dead silent, and the only sound Kit seemed to hear were her stifled breaths and her loud heartbeats. She was worried, and the deep sense of foreboding was not helping her in any way.
"Do you think we're going the right way?" she asked, breaking the silence like a shattering veil of thin glass. Levi looked at her with big blue eyes and shrugged his shoulders.
"We'll have to see. Remember Miss Labelle always told us in the Academy?"
Kit thought a moment. Miss Labelle had told her many things but not many things had to do with anything at the constant moment. She shook her head with a lost look on her face.
"She told us to always make risks, sometimes they'll end up not being risks at all. I guess I understand that now, we have to take risks because most people don't take risks and end up regretting it in the end."
Kit nodded her head slowly as she allowed his words to flood into her memory. The more she thought about the words, the more she noticed that Miss Labelle had never told her that and maybe it was because the woman had seen something in Levi that Kit had: he'd take any risk for anyone else and maybe that was because he was selfless and didn't often think about himself as long as everyone else was okay.
"She's never told me that, but I'm glad you did." She turned away, hiding a small smile that crept its way onto her face as she began walking down the tunnel again.
The further they stepped down the tunnel, the more Kit felt as though something was following her. All she wanted to do was turn around and head the opposite direction they were meant to be heading in just to make sure no one was following her. Finally, after at least ten minutes of walking, they came to a large door that stretched to the size of the round circular tunnel.
Kit turned to Levi. "Is this the entrance?"
"I don't know." He stepped forwards from the shadows to stare at the large stone door. It was unlike most doors but had weird carvings of pictures. Angels decorated the edges of the doors with small archangels bowing down. Between each angel were small symbols of all sorts and each was different.
"What does it mean?" Kit asked with bewilderment. She suddenly got the urge to run her fingers across the beautifully transcribed symbols because she'd never seen anything this strange.
Levi didn't answer straight away, he just stared at the symbols with a look that made Kit think he knew something that she didn't. He stepped a little closer but kept a cautious distance. "They're Latin alchemy symbols and runes. Some of them are too strange for me to work out though." He pointed to one with was a set of four triangles, the first and the last triangle both had a line going through the middle but the middle two didn't. "Those four triangles mean earth, water, fire and air. No idea why though."
Kit's eyes travelled towards the set of triangles and then she noticed that right in the middle of the large door was a massive set of the four triangles. "How did you know that?" she questioned.
"I read a book I found in an old building last year on one of my assignments. I can't say that I was expecting something like this." He shook his head and let out a sign, "it makes no sense."
He stepped forwards and tried pushing open the door.
"It probably won't move," she inquired simply.
He looked towards her and then back at the door and then spread his eyes around the small space in the tunnel. "Maybe it's a puzzle or something. Normally they only have these types of things when there's a puzzle or riddle involved."
She looked at him quizzically and then thought about it. It did make sense that the only way to get through a sealed door was through some sort of code. She thought back to the Luna Academy code. "Do you know anything that could have something to do with this, maybe a Latin verse?"
Levi thought about it. "Not sure, there's too many, I wouldn't know where to start." He stepped forwards towards the large door and ran his fingers across the triangles and shivered. "They're really cold, even in the climate of this place."
Kit looked around and shivered – not because it was cold but because it wasn't cold, and the door was freezing. It made no sense. She sighed and brushed her fingers through her thick hair. "I don't speak Latin all that well; there's only a few things I can actually say and understand."
"Like what?"
She thought a moment before saying, "nothing that would make any sense at all in this situation."
A sudden look of alarm spread across Levi's face as he pulled out the piece of paper Headmistress had given him. He inspected it and read through the code of where the location of the warehouse was. His eyes travelled towards the bottom and Kit noticed the way his eyes opened.
"What is it?"
&n
bsp; "I think I have the answer to our questions. It says at the bottom of the page, ‘In umbra Mundi’ which, in Latin, translates to..." he faced the door and in a softer voice said, "In the shadow of the world."
Suddenly the door opened with a large stretching sound that made Kit step back until her back was pressing up against Levi's muscled arms. She watched as it opened and with a bewildered expression turned towards Levi.
"I wish I could speak Latin."
CHAPTER FOUR
THE RECKONING
Kit was walking through the darkness and the further she stepped into it, the more she felt as though she were about to drown in the deep foreboding air that cast shadows across her face. Every now and then she'd hear Levi talking to himself, and whenever she turned around to look at him he would stop talking.
"Would you stop talking to yourself?" She shook her head and continued walking. Everywhere she walked she seemed to have absolutely no choice but to look for traps. They may, after all, be any-where she'd least expect it.
He sighed, "Fine, but just letting you know that that's what I do in serious cases of extreme danger. You know the times when you're about to die but don't know it yet?" Kit looked at him funny so he, of course, continued talking, "actually, never mind, no one really understands those particular times. Not really anyway and even though they aren't exactly common to experience them they do –"
"-Seriously Levi, shut up." She hissed under her breath. They'd been walking for the past five minutes since they'd stepped through the door and already Kit was worried someone was watching them. "See that ahead?"
Levi looked at the small clearing and nodded.
"Well, that's the warehouse and we are going in there to investigate." He made an O shape with his mouth and nodded again but this time seemed a bit calmer than he did seconds ago. "Are you okay?"
He suddenly straightened his back and cleared his throat. "I am a man and men don't get scared of confronting things like what we're about to see. The question I should be asking is whether you're okay?"
The Night Walkers Page 5