Latvala Royals: Bloodlines

by Danielle Bourdon

  “It’s a little creepy, but cool.” He winked and led the way inside.

  Inari followed after battling through a round of goose bumps. It took very little time in his presence before the telltale looks and quips started between them.

  “I like creepy.” In truth, she hadn’t liked it until her first subterranean tunnel crawl with Elias, and only up until the point when she’d had a mild bout of claustrophobia. She hoped the tunnels here were not as narrow as the others. Not as suffocating.

  Elias snorted but said nothing as he snapped on his light and flashed it around the enormous entrance and great hall.

  Inari got her first look at the towering ceilings and broad, empty space. She shone her light here and there, though the shadows were not too terribly dark thanks to daylight that filtered in through several high windows. One could almost imagine the medieval gatherings that had gone on in this room, with its stone floor and rough stone walls. There were tall archways leading deeper into the castle, and those were much darker, proving most did not have windows or other avenues to let the sunlight in.

  Elias withdrew a map from his backpack and led the way through one of the arches. “Remember, if there’s an emergency, the radio in my pack will connect with the guards outside. Bero also has a handset.”

  “Even when we’re down below, it’ll work?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s a relief. Not that I expect there to be an emergency.”

  “No one ever does.” He traversed several shorter hallways, bypassing closed doors that stirred Inari’s imagination.

  Were they libraries? Parlors? Studies? Bedrooms?

  Now wasn’t the time to ask for a thorough tour, but she decided to inquire another day. The more she learned about the Ahtissari lineage, the more she wanted to know.

  She stopped behind Elias when he came to a specific door with a carving in the stone above it. A hollow-eyed skull, she discovered, when she shone her light directly upon the engraving.

  “We won’t come across bones or dead people, right?” she asked. What else could the skull mean? This had to be the entrance to the dungeons.

  “To be honest, I’m not sure what we’re going to find,” he said, unlocking the door.

  “Did your ancestors imprison traitors and enemy combatants here?” she asked.

  “Of course they did. But I imagine they discarded any remains.”

  What could she say? Somero Palace had its own set of dungeons. They hadn’t been built for show.

  She followed Elias down a rather steep set of stone stairs, one hand on the wall for balance. The air had a stale, dank smell that was different than the one upstairs. She could not pinpoint the differences precisely, only that she knew they were there.

  “What do you see?” she asked as they descended.

  “Stairs.”

  She scoffed. “Not the bottom yet?”

  “Not yet.”

  “We’re going awfully deep. How deep is it?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been down here.”

  “Did you bring those marking things for the walls?” she asked.

  He chuckled, paused his descent, and glanced back. “You’re already showing signs of anxiety. Are you sure you want to do this? I can come back myself another day, Inari. It’s all right.”

  She detected no censure or judgment in his eyes or his words. Just kindness.

  “I’m all right. It’s a little more . . . narrow than I’d hoped.”

  “It is. Likely the tunnels will be the same.” He apparently took her at her word, however, because he continued down.

  Inari followed.

  Eventually the staircase spat them out into a small cavern. Her flashlight panned the walls and the entrance to several more corridors or rooms, she couldn’t be sure. The inky shadows crowded against the beam of light as if to suffocate it. She shook off a distinct sense of unease.

  “I think we start to the right and work our way through each room or tunnel,” Elias said. He put one map away for a blank sheet, a pen, and a piece of chalk that he marked the wall with.

  “That’s probably the most logical way to go about it.” Methodical. Inari was coming to understand it was how Elias preferred to work.

  He glanced over, met her eyes, then set off for the first doorway.

  Which wasn’t a doorway at all, but the entrance to a tunnel.

  Inari had hoped for another cavern before sliding herself straightaway into the snug confines of a rather narrow corridor. At least it wasn’t as narrow as the one beneath Ahtissari Castle.

  She set to work as they walked, taking it slow, shining her light all over the walls, ceiling, and floor. Looking not just for stray artifacts, but anything that might indicate a hidden door. She was Elias’s backup, and though she didn’t expect him to miss any detail whatsoever, it surely didn’t hurt to have the extra set of eyes.

  Periodically, he paused to mark the wall with the same color chalk.

  Inari guessed they’d gone perhaps twenty yards when Elias stopped and bent to pick something up off the ground.

  She crowded against his back, trying to peer around his shoulder. Suddenly, she didn’t mind the closeness of the walls or the sense of being entombed. Her curiosity won out over nerves for a moment.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Elias straightened and rolled a round piece of metal between his fingers. “Not sure. Doesn’t have any markings. Probably a piece of someone’s armory or something.”

  Inari watched him tuck the piece into his pack before continuing on.

  She suspected there were a lot of moments like this, when something appeared on the ground only to be a little bit of nothing. The swell of excitement remained with her for another half hour.

  They discovered three rooms off the tunnel before they hit a dead end. All the rooms had been barren. No scraps of material or old crates or pieces of metal turned up anywhere. Elias marked every detail on his map, even the spot he’d picked up the stray bit of armory.

  This time she took the lead on the way back.

  “I can better understand now how time-consuming this is,” she said. Despite the fact they’d already searched this section, she still looked for anything they might have missed.

  Different perspectives, and all that.

  “It’s very time-consuming,” he said. “But also fascinating. I’d love to know what went on in those rooms back there. It’s a shame we didn’t find any hints or clues.”

  “Like chains or shackles or desks for an office?”

  “Yes.”

  “There were no doors, even. I’d guess storage areas or guards’ quarters. The fact that we didn’t find the rooms closer to the main cavern up here is that they probably used this as a diversionary tactic, too. In case prisoners got loose or the castle was stormed by the enemy, who chased them all the way down. Make them waste time following a dead end,” she said. Finally, she emerged into the main cavern and pulled in a deep breath.

  “Very strategic guesses,” Elias said. He approached after tucking his map and pen away, and stroked his thumb gently across her forehead.

  Inari glanced at his eyes. “What?”

  “Little beads of sweat. You sure you want to continue?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  “Yes. I’m handling it all right so far. Let’s do the next.” Before he pulled his thumb away, Inari tilted her face into his touch. A small token of affection, which lit his blue eyes with an inner fire. He smiled, and it almost melted her heart.

  “Let’s go.” He took the lead again into the second tunnel after using a different colored chalk to mark the entrance.

  Here they discovered quite a few rooms, but more cobwebs than anything useful. This tunnel curved several times, but also ended in a dead end.

  By the time they finally emerged into the main cavern, two hours had passed. Inari had done well so far battling against an increasing level of discomfort. The narrower tunnels were the worst; once she steppe
d into any kind of open space, even a ten-by-ten room, some of the angst retreated. Some, but not all. She swiped at a band of sweat that had collected along her hairline, and accepted a bottle of water when Elias offered it over.

  “Thanks,” she said. After removing the cap, she took a long drink.

  “Welcome.”

  “Why are you looking at me with that contemplative expression?” she asked, arching a brow.

  “Wondering how long you’re going to subject yourself to this, just to prove a point.”

  “It’s mind over matter. Mostly. I’m doing okay with it.” She capped the bottle and glanced at the other, untried tunnels. “You think we’ll have time for maybe one more before we have to call it a day?”

  “Depends on how long it is. How far back it goes. We’ll make some decent progress, though.” He slid his and her water away into his pack.

  “You know, this castle doesn’t seem to be in that bad a shape. I’m surprised your family hasn’t tried to fix whatever’s wrong and use it as an extra holding,” she said as they picked up their search again.

  “The damage is at the back. Part of a wall and about eighteen hundred square feet of the interior were obliterated during a skirmish. I suspect my ancestor didn’t have enough time to rebuild before another assault or something. It could have been fixed, it just would have taken a while,” he said. “I think my father should open it to the public. Many people love old castles.”

  “That’s a good idea also. Plus, the property is protected and maintained at all times.”

  “We make sure any ruins in Latvala—castles, churches, buildings—are checked on regularly. My grandfather didn’t see the need to spend money on restoring any of the ruins, though my father has done so since taking the throne.”

  As Elias’s soothing baritone filled the tunnel, Inari caught herself becoming distracted and lulled by his voice. She paused and backtracked ten feet.

  He stopped, too, shining his light at her feet. “What? Find something?”

  “No. I just realized that I’d been walking along, not present in the moment. You know? So I thought I should go back and make sure I didn’t miss anything that you might have missed.”

  “Caught daydreaming,” he said, and it wasn’t a question.

  Heat crept from her throat to her hairline. Thank goodness it was dark and that his light was pointed down. “Caught thinking, you mean.”

  The silence that filled the tunnel next might as well have been filled with his knowing laughter. As if to say, we both know better.

  She finally scoffed, and his laughter became real.

  He knew very well what she’d been daydreaming about.

  “Should we test the theo—” Elias paused.

  Inari glanced up and over, then followed the beam of his light. He’d angled it up and to the side, just past her shoulder.

  “What is it?” She, too, aimed her light that way.

  “Something about the wall here doesn’t seem right.” He stepped forward, closer to her, and ran his bare hand across the stone.

  Inari’s senses were immediately suffused with his scent. Something undeniably masculine overlaid by the hint of his cologne.

  To her surprise, a loud hiss shattered the silence.

  And then a small section of wall began to move.

  Chapter 26

  Elias moved another step closer to Inari as the wall gave way. He didn’t want to lose momentum, didn’t want to risk some weird fail-safe that locked the hidden doorway into place if it fell shut by accident. He pushed with his hand, then with two hands after passing his light, map, and pen to Inari.

  A space appeared, just large enough to fit a body.

  “Light?” he asked, bracing the door open with his shoulder and hip. The door was built on some sort of leverage system, as far as he could tell, wedged into place by pressure on the tunnel at two strategic points.

  He shone the beam into the darkness, grunting as the door naturally attempted to close on its own.

  His light landed on crates. A whiskey barrel. A desk. Something covered in material at the opposite end. He couldn’t see every wall, every corner, without stepping inside. And if he did, if they did, and the stone door closed, would they be able to get out again? What if it only opened one way? He felt along the inside of the door for a handle.

  Nothing. Instinct told him they would be stuck in there if the door accidentally closed. He had his radio, though, and there were things within to jam in between the door and the frame.

  If the door didn’t crush the ancient crates, that is.

  “What do you see? What is it?” Inari asked.

  He could feel her trying to peer past his shoulder. “There are things in here. It’s a hidden room. I can’t see all of it without stepping inside, but this door only swings open one way, I think. A few of these protruding stones along the wall prevent it from opening outward, is my guess. Either I’ll have to go in alone, or we’ll have to brace something between the door and the wall. Or I can come back another time with my father and brother.”

  “We’re not leaving until we check it out. I can hold the door long enough for you to find something we can brace it with.” She put her weight against the door near his hand.

  “It’s heavy.”

  “I see that. But I can hold it.”

  “If the door closes and you can’t open it, just shout at me and I’ll radio the guards,” he said, and then stepped past into the room.

  His flashlight beam bounced off more crates in another corner, a large wooden box, and five carved wooden chairs. He went straight to a stack of crates and discovered they were heavy when he tried to lift one. That indicated there were things inside.

  Every crate he nudged or pushed at felt the same. The wood was so old and weatherworn that faint cracks and snaps reverberated through the room at the slightest provocation.

  No way would one of these hold the door, even full of paraphernalia. The pressure would snap the wood like brittle chicken bones and possibly crush whatever was inside.

  Dammit.

  “Well?” Inari asked.

  He could tell by her voice that the door was becoming heavier by the second.

  “Going to have to come back, Inari. These crates are all but falling apart and won’t hold up as a brace. There are chairs, too, but I think they’ll snap like twigs. The door is just too heavy.”

  “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but we should call down a guard or two. They can help you carry things out, or take turns holding the door. Right? All they have to do is follow the blue chalk arrows to where we are. It shouldn’t take them that long. I mean—we’re already here, Elias. And I know you’re dying to go through this stuff,” she said.

  Elias considered it. This was potentially a big find. Anything could be in those crates, from weapons to clothing to candelabra. Maybe books. Journals. Maps.

  He snagged the handset from his pocket and radioed up top, giving instruction to send three of his men down. In the meantime, while they waited for backup, he decided to pry the lid off the long rectangular box and take a look inside. The thicker, heavier quality wood did not seem as fragile as that of the crates.

  “You okay for a moment, Inari?” Elias asked.

  “I’m good for another ten minutes then I’ll need a break.”

  “I won’t need that long to get into this big box,” he replied. He used a tool from his pack to gently pry at a corner, loosening the old iron nails that gave way with a little persistent effort.

  Once he’d loosened no less than eight nails around the perimeter, he stowed the tool and grasped the edge of the lid.

  Swords and daggers. That’s what I’ll find in here, he thought. The box was long enough and wide enough to contain quite a few pieces of weaponry. Maybe armor or shields.

  The lid slid to the side.

  A hollow-eyed skull, mouth open, the flesh long decayed all the way to the bone, stared up from the depths. Not just the skull, he saw, but an
entire skeleton lay within. The disgusting, musty scent of ancient death assaulted his senses as he lunged back and covered his nose with the edge of his shirt.

  “Elias? What happened? What’s in there?” Inari asked. She’d poked her head past the door and had her body wedged halfway in.

  “It’s a skeleton. For God’s sake, this isn’t a weapons crate. It’s a coffin.”

  * * *

  It’s a coffin. Elias’s words echoed off the walls of the room. Inari might not have believed him if he hadn’t looked so shocked. Hadn’t suddenly straightened away from the box. Of course, a thousand questions crowded her mind. A few slipped free.

  “Why would someone leave a body down here? My God, is it one of your old kings? An ancestor? Is he—or she—clothed?”

  “I do not recall an ancestor that’s gone missing. They’re all accounted for, as far as I know, in the royal cemetery here on the mainland. I don’t know who this is. Whatever clothes they’d been wearing are mere scraps now and unidentifiable. I think—wait.”

  “Wait what? What is it?” Inari shone her flashlight onto Elias instead of the box. Not into his face but hip level so she didn’t blind him.

  He reached into the coffin and, a moment later, pulled something out.

  “I’ll be damned,” Elias said.

  “I’m gonna come in there and make the guards find us if you don’t tell me what it is.”

  “A dagger. Carved on the handle is the same crest I found on the last one. So that other dagger wasn’t just a one-off. The crest had been used a few times, probably more.” He turned the artifact over in his hand.

  “So this person used that dagger while the other crest was being used by your family,” she said, following his line of thought. “Could it be—”

  “Holy shit,” Elias said.

  Inari had never heard Elias curse. Granted, she’d spent limited time in his company until the last month and a half, but still. She instinctively knew he must have discovered something outrageous. Before she could start making demands again, he abruptly turned toward the door, the dagger laid out on his open palm.