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I gasped when I felt it. And Malina’s eyebrows bunched together, looking around. “There’s nothing here.”
“Oh but there is,” I breathed.
Beneath the water, I could feel a vast system of tunnels underground. Deep below my feet, the rock had been carved out and I could sense that it went underneath the city. The tunnels led to various chambers where I assumed one held Vicria.
Hakoa manipulated the water in front of us, parting it and exposing an opening to the tunnels into Voltaryn. He held the water apart so that we could enter. Once he was inside, the sound of crashing water above us roared through the tunnel as he released its hold. It was pitch black. I had no issues seeing where I was going, using my terbis to guide me, but Malina and Hakoa needed light.
“Mal?” I pressed, my voice echoing against the rock.
“Yep.”
An orb of light appeared and floated above us, illuminating the rounded tunnel walls dripping with moisture.
“You can create light.” He marveled at my sister. I focused my attention elsewhere to give them some semblance of privacy.
“I can do so much more than that,” she saidteasingly.
Hakoa growled and the scent of arousal filled the tunnel. “This way,” he said in a low, quiet voice that still echoed.
We followed Hakoa farther and farther down underground, at a slight decline. I could feel us coming up to a large chamber, around a bend that connected to half a dozen tunnels, and footsteps filled the area. We came to a wall of fire that blocked our path, encircled in metal embedded in the tunnel walls and floor, with four Noavo guards stationed outside.
“The Gate of Elements,” Hakoa said to us as we inspected the wall. “The gate is composed of a layer of each of the elements and laced with lethal toxins so that no one may try to pass through. The gate is inside of these metal rings here.” He gestured to the dark metal lining the tunnel. “One of each of the elemental wielders is stationed on either side to allow passage and if anything were to happen to one of the guards, one element is pulled and causes the metal ring to collapse inwardly. Like tumblers to a lock, the entire thing would come down. It keeps anyone from entering or leaving that is not permitted. This is one of three gates into Voltaryn as well as the smallest.”
It was smart. Metal was the only form of terra that couldn’t be manipulated with wielding. And with each element present, it would take four different kinds of welders at once to open the gate.
“So why couldn’t a terbis wielder just tunnel their way around the metal?” Malina asked.
But I already knew. I could feel the metal extending out in all directions, surrounding the prison within the mountain.
“By the time anyone would be able to dig far enough around the metal within the mountain, we would stop them. The metal is embedded around the entire structure, just not the tunnels,” he said.
Hakoa nodded to the four guards in front of us, and they each manipulated their part of the gate simultaneously, pushing andcompressing the elements against the metal ring so that it didn’t collapse and allowing us to pass through. They closed the gate behind us with a wall of air at our backs.
Inside the chamber, guards were stationed at each of the tunnels and spaced down each of them as well as at the openings, where the prisoners were held. We continued to follow Hakoa as he headed down one of the tunnels on the right, the guards bowing their heads as he passed by.
“Where are you?”Ryker’s concerned voice rang down the bond.
“I’m fine. I will be back soon.”I planned on telling him of my whereabouts when I returned, not wanting to worry him before I had the chance to talk with the sage.
“Kya,”he growled in warning.
“It’s okay, Ryker. I know what I’m doing.”I caressed soothingly down the tether.“I love you beyond the bond.”
There was a pause.
“Beyond the bond.”His tone was far from happy, but he returned the caress.
Deep down the tunnel, we stopped in front of a small opening with two guards stationed outside the metal door. They moved aside for their chief, and we stepped inside.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Kya
Vicria sat on the thin pad with her back pressed against the wall and her hands flat against the pad at her sides. The diamond was still embedded at the top of her sternum. She still wore her robes, which were filthy with dirt and blood and other things I didn’t want to guess at. There was a stench to her as well from lack of bathing, mixed with that of the bucket. Hakoa nodded to one of the guards who unlocked the cell door for us, creaking with the sound of metal against metal as it swung open.
Malina and I shared a knowing glance before I looked at Hakoa. Malina stepped inside the cell as I spoke to him.
“Would you wait out here please?”
