AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chatter shrugged. “Give me a moment.” He lay down on his stomach on the road and dangled one of his hands down through the entrance. A moment later, he pushed back to his knees. “A ladder, running down. I don’t know how far it goes—it’s impossible to tell from here, but there’s only one way to find out.”
“Where are Check and the other guards?” I glanced around, nervous that maybe they had gotten waylaid by Shadow Hunters. But I needn’t have worried.
“We’re here, Your Highness.” He stepped out from a nearby car on the other side of the fence. Within moments, all twenty guards were visible. “We just take care not to touch the cars and we’re fine. The fence is not iron.”
“We found an entrance, Check. I guess…we’d better go find out where it leads to.” I started for the grating, but within a blurry flash, Check was by my side, restraining me. He was gentle in his restraint, but it was definitely a don’t do that pressure.
“Allow Teral and me to go first, Your Highness. There can be no compromise on this. You cannot go in that dank hole without us checking that it’s safe enough for you. There could be anything down there.” The look on his face was firm, and I realized there would be no give on this.
I stood back, both frustrated and relieved. This was the way it would be, for the rest of my life. Rule and regulations, always having to consider that putting myself in danger put the Barrow in danger.
With a soft smile, I motioned to the grate. “Then go. You two, then Grieve and Chatter, then the rest of us will follow. Leave ten guards out here to keep watch, though. We can’t take a chance that somebody’s going to notice the open grating and come after us.”
“Now you are thinking like a queen.” Check smiled, saluted, and then motioned to his men. “You heard her. Race, take nine of the men and hide, keeping watch. If we need you…” He paused.
I broke in. “If we need you, I will send my Wind Elemental to fetch you.”
Ulean, you can do that, can’t you? If I need you to, you can make yourself heard to at least somebody in that group, can’t you?
Yes, there are two who have the ability to hear me if I so choose.
Good. Thank you.
“Okay, it’s decided then. Ulean will come warn you if we need help. Check, let’s get this show on the road. You’ve briefed your men on what we need to do?”
He nodded, then swung himself over the edge of the grating. “And it’s into the pit,” he said, as he disappeared from sight.
As I watched Teral, Grieve, and then Chatter vanish into the hole, I wondered what the hell we were going to find in there. And there was only one way to know. I steeled myself, then—with a deep breath—lowered myself onto the ladder and descended into the darkness.
Chapter 15
The tunnel into which we were climbing was dark and dank, and cold. I didn’t think it led to the sewers, even though it looked a lot like a sewer grating built for leaves and rainwater runoff. It wasn’t sloped down to encourage drainage, so it might be a decoy.
I was glad for the gloves I was wearing—the rungs were so icy that bare skin would stick to them, I was sure of it, like a tongue to a frozen pole. A showering of snow drifted down on our backs, but immediately after I was down far enough on the ladder, Ysandra was coming after me, so she took the brunt of the swirling flakes, and then Peyton, then Luna, and then the rest of the guards.
The tunnel seemed to go on forever, through the darkness with no lights. We didn’t dare use flashlights or any sort of illumination because of the chance we might warn those who were down below.
Sounds echoed through the passage, the sound of our climb soft against the clinks and distant clangs—all noises inherent to this place reverberated around us. I thought I heard the whoosh of heating units or air-conditioning, machines that were recognizable. But other noises, from farther below, struck me as odd. Soft squishes. A distant call that might be a scream, or a roar. Or maybe, maybe these echoes were in my imagination, spurred on by our surroundings.
One rung after another, I stared straight ahead at the wall behind the ladder. I could barely see anything and went on faith that the rungs below me would be there. They weren’t iron—iron rusts, and whoever had built this place had made it secure and solid. Maybe…bronze, or steel, or some other metal. Whatever it was, the guards seemed to be having no problems with it. Of course, they were cloaked and wore gloves, so the essence of the metal wouldn’t leach through, even if it was iron.
And then, from below, I heard Check whisper something into the slipstream. “I’m down,” he said.
Another few moments, and I found myself at the bottom of the ladder, and I stepped to the side, ready to steady Peyton and the others as they came off the rungs. Within moments, we were all safely gathered at the bottom. Looking up, I couldn’t see the top.
“How far did we come?” I turned to Check. “Do you know?”
His voice echoed in the darkness, even though he kept it low. The resonance down here was incredibly sensitive. “A distance. I’d say at least three stories down, if you want to use a house as a measurement. Maybe four.”
So at least sixty feet. Probably more like one hundred, I thought, glancing around. It was dark. Too dark. We’d never be able to see where we were going or what might be coming toward us.
“We have to risk a light. There’s no alternative.” I debated on whether to pull out my flashlight—it would help, but it was very bright and might be overkill, considering the situation into which we were headed. We wanted to see enough to find our way, not advertise ourselves like a blue-light special at Kmart.
Chatter solved that problem. He held out his hand and whispered something, and a tennis ball–sized orb of fire appeared, hovering in the air next to him. It was bright but not blinding, and it softly illuminated our immediate surroundings.
“That fire thing you’ve got going on there is handy,” Peyton said.
He gave her a faint smile. “It serves its purpose.”
