“Yes. There are metal bars on the wall which you can use as a ladder, but you need my magic first.”
“Of course.”
“The magic will protect you, but not only that, it’ll leave a trail as you walk. You’ll see it like a luminescence. Like fireflies at night, only more like a snail trail. Understand?”
She nodded. “I think so. I’m going to be like a magical slug.”
He gave a small laugh, but they both knew she was trying to make light of a serious situation. “You need to start back before my magic wears off. Once it wears off, the trail you’ll leave will vanish. The catacombs are full of twists and turns, and if you lose the trail, you might never make it back again.”
“How will I know how much time I have left?”
“I’ll include it in the magic. You’ll see something on the inside of your wrist that will look like an hourglass. Watch it carefully, and as the magic starts to wear off, so will the amount left in the hourglass. Are you ready?”
Dela nodded and took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. Of everything she’d done since all this had started, this was the most terrifying.
It’s because you’re going to be alone, a little voice that sounded like her dead best friend, Layla, said in her head. You wouldn’t be so frightened if the others were with you.
But this was something she was going to have to face alone. Warsgra and Orergon would never let her go, and even if they did say they’d go with her, she would never ask them to put themselves in that kind of danger for her brother.
In front of her, Vehel’s eyes slipped shut, and the look of concentration she’d come to recognize took over his features. She held her breath, waiting. His lips moved, though she couldn’t understand what he was saying, and then he lifted his hand to her. The same blue light that had surrounded them on the dragon’s back glowed from his fingertips. Vehel opened his eyes and lifted his hand to her face. His fingers met with her cheek, and she let out a gasp.
The magic ran in tendrils across her skin, racing down her neck and arms, and then the rest of her body. The hairs on her arms rose to attention, as did the hair on the back of her neck. Her skin pimpled in goose bumps, and she could feel the magic spreading across her like a million tiny insect wings batting her skin.
“Look at the inside of your wrist,” Vehel told her, holding her gaze.
She did. A small rectangle of the same blue light was marked onto her skin, like one of Orergon’s tattoos.
“It will start to empty as the magic wears down,” he told her. “Get back before it does.”
She nodded. “I will.”
“Go now. I can already feel my hold on it slipping away.”
Not thinking about it too deeply, knowing if she stood there and questioned things she’d lose her nerve, she quickly turned from Vehel and Iros and got to her hands and knees on the edge of the hole. The illumination from the magic was enough to light the way, and she was able to make out the iron bars embedded into the rock, which she would be able to use as a ladder.
“I love you, Dela,” Vehel called after her. “Be careful.”
“I love you, too. And the others. If I don’t come back, tell them—”
But he silenced her with a raise of his hand. “Just go, and make sure you come back.”
She gave a final nod and started to climb, the sight of Vehel and the baby dragon slipping from view, replaced by the dark, dank wall of the hole she was descending into. How many people had been forced to climb this way before her? Her brother’s hands had once held these same rungs as the stone circle overhead had been pushed back over, trapping him down here. Had he tried to climb back up? Had he beat on the underneath of the stone with his bare hands, yelling to be freed? Had he eventually given up and descended, just as she was descending now? She couldn’t help but play all these events over in her head, wondering if Vehten had told her brother what lay in his fate. Had Vehel’s brother mocked Ridley, perhaps taken pleasure in his fear? She doubted Vehten would ever admit to doing such a thing, and it was unlikely she would ever find out unless she found Ridley and asked for herself.
She reached for the next rung with her foot and discovered solid stone instead. She was inside the catacombs.
Chapter 20
Dela
Dela dropped fully off the ladder and took a moment to get her bearings. The blue light from the magic surrounding her cast enough of a glow to allow her to see. She was in a tunnel much like the one she’d left Vehel and Iros in. It ran in two directions—to her left and to her right. She looked both ways. They were identical, and gave no clue as to which way she should head.
It was no good standing there, indecisive. She only had a limited amount of time, and the seconds were ticking away.
“Let’s try this way, shall we?” she said, speaking to herself. Strangely, she found the sound of her voice comforting.
Dela turned to her right and started walking. Some of the stone walls grew wet, and she heard running water nearby. An underground river, maybe? Where it was damp, black fungi grew over the stone, and she was careful where she put her feet, certain it would be slippery. The last thing she needed was to fall and break a leg down here.
She kept going until she reached a junction. Hesitating, looking left and right again, she chose right once more. How many twists and turns would there be? She glanced over her shoulder. Just as Vehel had promised, a faint trail of blue light covered the stone floor behind her. Her heart thumped hard, but she allowed herself a small breath of relief. At least she’d be able to find her way back again.
Ahead, the stone walls had changed in color, becoming paler, so the blue light she emitted bounced off them. They seemed to have changed shape as well, though it was hard to tell in the pale light and still a distance away. Dela flicked her tongue out, licking dry lips and trying to put moisture back in her mouth. Her pulse picked up pace again, the blood whooshing through her ears. She didn’t know why yet, but her body understood something wasn’t quite right before her mind did.
Should she turn and go in the opposite direction? She’d known there would be dangers down here. It wasn’t as though she’d just find her brother hanging out. It didn’t matter which direction she went; she would have to face them eventually.
Dela forced her feet onward. As she got closer, the reason for the change in color of the stonework grew apparent. She gasped in horror.
The walls were no longer made of stone. Each of what should have been a piece of stone was now a skull, the empty black eye sockets staring back sightlessly. Some skulls still had teeth clinging to the jawbone, and their noses were flat, empty holes.
“By the Gods,” she breathed.
How many were there? They seemed to stretch on endlessly, stacked on top of each other from the floor to the ceiling. They were all different sizes—men’s, women’s, children’s … Who would put children down here?
It’s only bone, she tried to reassure herself. They can’t hurt you.
And yet she couldn’t help but feel as though they were watching her every step as she moved deeper into the catacombs. Though the eye sockets were empty, she felt sure the skulls themselves twisted to follow her path as she walked. How many were down here? Thousands, at least. Had all these people died down here, or had their skulls simply been brought down after they died? She prayed it was the latter.
Suddenly, something rushed past her, a flurry of movement hitting her from behind and throwing her to the ground. Dela let out a cry of fear and shock, instinctively drawing her knees into her body and her hands over her head, expecting to be attacked, but whatever it was was ahead of her now, and she just caught a wisp of movement, like black smoke had been sucked down the tunnel ahead.
Dela lay on the ground, gasping for breath, her eyes wide. She’d been knocked down, but hadn’t been hurt any further. Had Vehel’s magic protected her? If she wasn’t surrounded by it, would those things—because she was somehow sure there had been two of them—have st
opped to make a meal out of her?
The reality of what she was trying to achieve swept over her, filling her with despair. How was she ever supposed to find Ridley down here? It wasn’t as though there was anyone she could stop and ask if they’d seen him, show them the picture and hope they recognized him. But then she remembered what Vehel had said about the catacombs filling people with despair and claiming them as their own. Perhaps she was protected by magic, but she could still feel it. She needed to fight the emotion and not allow the hopelessness to take over.
Still trembling, Dela forced herself back to her feet. She had to keep going.
She pressed on, reaching another junction, and choosing to turn right again, and then another. Still the walls continued to be made of skulls, and she tried not to think about their sheer numbers and how many lives they represented.
The tunnel curved, and she followed it around, cautious of what she would find.
Turning the bend, she caught her breath, slamming herself back against the wall so as not to be noticed, and trying not to think about how her back was now pressed up against a wall made up of skulls.
A creature sat in a hollow. No, not one creature, but two that had been joined together. Two heads, four legs, four arms, but only one torso. Its face—faces—didn’t appear human, with most of it made up of its mouth, which stretched right back to the ears on either side of his heads. The creature sat on the floor, but one side of it tried to pull one way, while the other pulled the other, both trying to drag itself in opposite directions and neither getting anywhere. The two heads snapped and hissed at each other like two angry dogs, revealing mouthfuls of sharp teeth and long, thick black tongues covered in a clear mucus which flung to the stone floor as the creatures tried to take angry, frustrated bites out of each other, while never quite making contact. It was as though it knew that by hurting the other it would only hurt itself.
Dela clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent a scream bursting from her lungs. Had this thing—or these things, she didn’t even know how to think of them—once been human?
Her hand went to her dagger. She needed to get past the creature, though she didn’t think she’d do well in a fight against something with two heads when all she had was her dagger. Would Vehel’s magic protect her?
She glanced down to the rectangle on her wrist. It was already a quarter empty, and she felt as though she’d barely made any progress at all. Plus, she still needed to get back the way she had come.
She was wasting time standing here. She at least needed to try.
Staying close to the wall, Dela edged out. The creature was still fighting with itself and not paying any attention to her. She could barely hear its snarls over the pounding of her heartbeat in her head. Biting down on her terror, she kept going. She was almost halfway there now, and then she would have to pass by right in front of it. The glow from Vehel’s magic made the creature even more horrifying, and she knew when she was directly in front of it, she’d see the thing in all its terrifying detail.
With her breath trapped in her lungs, she kept going. She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut so she didn’t have to see it, but she had to be ready to defend herself if it attacked. Her fingers were tight around the hilt of her dagger, her knuckles white.
The creature stopped fighting itself and pointed its noses in the air, lips drawn back from their teeth as they sniffed. Dela froze, her entire body rigid. They’d sensed her there, perhaps smelled her, but from the way they hadn’t immediately launched at her, she thought the magic was protecting her.
Thank you, Vehel. If he hadn’t helped her, she’d be dead already.
She couldn’t just stand there. On legs that felt insubstantial, she kept going. She was almost past the creature now, and she thought she would make it, but then they got to their feet, awkward and uncoordinated, both heads pointed toward her. If she stopped, they’d come after her, and she didn’t want to even think about what they’d do when they found her. Though the head looked like an animal, the hands and feet most definitely looked human.
Vehel’s magic might be protecting her, but it wouldn’t last forever. Though terror tried to glue her feet to the ground, she forced herself onward. The creature sensed her there, could perhaps smell her even, but it didn’t appear to be able to see her. Was that what Vehel’s magic had done? Protect her from what was down here? And if that was the case, would Ridley be able to see her, even if she found him?
She hurried her pace and managed to make it past the hideous creature. With her farther down the tunnel, the two heads turned their attention back to each other, and their snarls and yelps grew faint as she put more distance between them.
The catacombs continued to wind and turn. She reached more junctions, taking turns at random and hoping she wasn’t going in circles. She glanced behind her to make sure the thin trail of light she was leaving behind her was still there. If it vanished for any reason, she’d never make it back to the entrance. She understood why people were put down here to get rid of them. The tunnels seemed to go on forever, and once a person got lost down here, they’d be lost for good. She imagined that despair, how it would take over until you lost all hope.
Her thoughts went to Ridley as she kept moving forward. Three years had passed since he’d been forced down here. Could he really have survived with his mind intact, living the terror she was now, but with no protection and no chance of making it out again? She didn’t think she could survive three days, never mind three years.
Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them away. There would be time for crying later, but right now she still needed to focus.
She glanced down at the mark on her arm again. It was already almost down to halfway, and she still needed to get back. She couldn’t turn back yet, though. Just a little farther, a little longer. The journey back would be faster, she told herself. The indecision about which way to turn would have been taken away, and things wouldn’t take her by surprise on the way back.
Left and right, and left and right again. She reached a dead end and had to turn around and retrace her steps.
Dela moved deeper and deeper into the catacombs. Every now and then she caught glimpses of movement from down one of the tunnels, but whoever or whatever was responsible for the movement didn’t stop long enough for her to get a good look at them. After what she’d seen before, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to see them.
How far did the tunnels run? She felt as though she’d already walked for miles. But there was no focus point, nothing to aim toward. If she knew a way to find its center, then perhaps she’d also find Ridley and all the others who’d been left down here.
Something moved beneath her feet, rippling the solid stone floor. With a shriek, Dela jumped to the side, trying to stay out of the way. The wall of skulls had lost its horror to her now, after seeing them over and over again. How was it even possible for something to move like that? The ground wasn’t capable of moving, was it? Certainly not in the way it was now, leaving a trailing mound filled with cracks.
She saw was what causing the cracks in the ground. Its long, cylindrical body appeared from one of the cracks in an arch. Pale and segmented, the body as thick as one of Warsgra’s thighs, it rippled through the hole it had created before disappearing from view again.
The giant worm vanished from view, leaving only the damage it had caused. Dela stayed where she was, staring at the tunnel ahead, waiting to see if it rematerialized. She didn’t want to be standing in the wrong place if it came back up, looking for a snack. She hoped the magic would protect her, but even so, she didn’t want to take the risk.
She kept going.
Her legs were aching now, and she glanced down at the mark Vehel had given her. It was at the halfway point now, and she still had to make her way back. The trail of light glowed behind her, showing her the route back. She couldn’t risk losing it, but she couldn’t turn back just yet.
Another junction lay up ahead.
Something ran
across it—a dark shape, no more than a shadow. Dark upon dark.
“Hello? Is someone there?”
Maybe it was madness letting anything down here know she was there, but there was something about the movement that had made her heart lift in hope.
She hurried forward.
At the junction, she paused, her heart in her throat. She had no reason to think what she’d seen was any less horrifying than anything else she’d witnessed down here, and yet something about it had caused her to react.
“Hello?” she called again.
Cautiously, she peered out and looked in the direction she’d seen the thing run. It was another dead end, and there, huddled against the skull wall, was Ridley.
At least, it had been Ridley when he’d been thrown down here.
He still had a head, but it was sunken now, becoming a part of his body, like a piece of wax that had been left in the sun too long. And his body no longer appeared human, but was instead a large mass from which four tentacles, which Dela assumed had once been his arms and legs, protruded across the floor.
But he didn’t look scary. No, if anything, he only looked sad, as though he knew what he’d become.
“Ridley?” Her eyes filled with tears. If it wasn’t for the clothes that hung off his misshapen frame in rags, she wouldn’t have even recognized him. But no, maybe she would have. Something about the eyes was still him, even if the rest of him had deformed into this … this … thing.
“Oh, Ridley.”
He let out a squeal, his tentacles writhing around his body, as though he wanted to get away, but couldn’t.
Dela’s heart broke. She couldn’t leave him like this, to spend however many years he had left stuck down in the dark as a monster, but there was no possibility of her getting him out of here either. Everything down here was dangerous, and that wouldn’t change simply because he used to be her brother. There was distance between them now, but she didn’t doubt that he would hurt her if he thought he needed to.
Into a Dragon's Soul: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Chronicles of the Four Book 3) Page 17