Ryker’s and my lightning bounced around the tunnel as I examined the tunnels large enough for the gargoyles to fly through.Had those stone creatures come alive and swept toward us with their claws outstretched and fangs on full display as their mouths hung ajar?
I glanced behind me.No beat of wings came from the darkness, and no screeches of bloodlust filled the air as death barreled toward us.
Like the last time we were here, the tunnel remained silent except for our steps and the shifting roots… when we encountered them.Despite this, I kept glancing behind us as I waited for something to attack.
The tunnel toward the gargoyles was clear last time, but something could be hiding in this section.It could have moved toward the gargoyles without us knowing and now be stalking us.
I wanted to feel safe here; I didn’t.
When we rounded another bend, a dim red glow emerged from the shadows ahead.We stopped as that glow pulsed like a heartbeat, growing brighter with every beat until it exploded with light and faded to a softer, pink hue.
“What is that?”Callan whispered.
“I don’t know; we’ve never encountered this before,” Ryker said.
He glanced at me as the dimmer glow continued to pulse.That uneasy feeling creeping through me deepened.I didn’t know what lay ahead, but I felt its power in every one of its pulses.
“We have to see what it is.”My voice came out as more of a croak than I would have liked.
When Ryker came to stand beside me, I clasped his hand and took a deep breath before continuing toward that throbbing light.
CHAPTERFORTY-SIX
Ryker
“What the fuck?”Tucker breathed.
I had no idea how to answer that, as I didn’t know what to make of the massive cavern below.From somewhere within, the pulsing beat of the increasingly red light revealed the sprawling village tucked beneath the earth.
Then it burst into a vivid red color and again faded to a more pinkish hue.Its pulse continued illuminating the land as it steadily deepened toward red again.It was the only source of light.
What the fuck?was the most appropriate way to describe whatever was happening below.
In between each pulse, the light never dimmed enough to hide the town in shadows, but it faded until dusk settled over the land.The next pulse brought another flux of light to the land.At the center of the village, high on a hill, sat a castle; the light came from one of its towers, but I couldn’t see what created it.
Four roads twisted through the town and up the hill.They converged at the castle.
“What is this?”Scarlet whispered.
“I have no idea,” I said.
It was a town; we could all see that, but why it was here or who it belonged to was a mystery I didn’t know how to unravel.Trapped beneath the earth, the village seemed frozen in time as nothing moved below, but when that time was, I didn’t know.
The design of the town and homes was older, but I was far from an architecture or history expert and didn’t know when orifamsirah had ever designed homes like these.And it wasn’t so much the styles that were different, but the vibrant colors of the homes.
Vivid oranges, reds, yellows, blues, and other shades decorated the land.Those colors had withstood the time they’d spent beneath the earth, and the homes created a striking rainbow beneath it.
The homes in Tempest were far duller earth tones with a lot of beige and brown.None of the homes above had colors like these.
But there are lightning rods on the roofs; the homes must have belonged to amsirah.
Some of the buildings had shifted to lean against their neighbors.Others had fallen into a crumpled heap of wood with chimneys, roofs, or lightning rods still poking up from the pile.
Most of the collapsed homes were at the edge of the town.There were a few leaning ones in the center, but overall, the damage lessened as they got closer to the castle.
The castle was only two or three floors and didn’t take up a lot of space.Its location in the town, parapets, and larger size indicated its position of power in this lost village.
Despite an air of abandonment surrounding the place, I waited for someone to emerge from one of the homes and stroll down the street.Nothing moved.
