Page 59 of Blightfall

Suki’s ears poked up over one of the benches until I could just make out her tiny snout. “There are two guards circling the levels above us,” she said, “so any noise would draw their attention.”

That matched what Alanik and I had observed. “Thanks, Suki,” I said. “Keep watching those guards while I check this out.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Alanik asked.

I shook my head. “Stay here and cover me if I’m spotted.”

I waited, watching the guard on the opposite side circle the second level, until I was fairly certain they were turned in the other direction. Then I jumped the wall and hugged it as I ascended the ramp to an ornate metal gate. Decorative iron layers overlapped to obscure whatever was beyond.

I grabbed the bars at the bottom, testing them. The gate was locked tight. It didn’t roll up when I pulled on it, and there was no mechanism to open it from this side. The bars were too close together for Suki to sneak through, and even if she could, I didn’t love the idea of sending her to scout an area where we couldn’t follow. I peered through the cracks, but all I could see inside was darkness.

“Naga,” I whispered, “can you hyperjump in to see what’s inside?”

“Naga!” Naga said, and my pack deflated a bit as she left.

Scud. I immediately regretted sending her. Taynix could hyperjump without alerting nearby cytonics to their presence, but if she ran into danger, she’d be alone.

She was gone less than ten seconds, but I felt every one before she reappeared on my shoulders.

“Gate!” Naga fluted.

“Yeah,” I said, “I know it’s a gate, but what’s on the other side?”

“Gate!” Naga said.

Alanik’s voice floated over the wall at my back. “Is that what she found in there? Another gate?”

“Gate!” Naga said.

“Okay,” I said. “Did you see what was on the other side of that gate?”

“No gate!” Naga said.

I sighed. This was not interspecies communication at its finest, and it reminded me why using hyperslugs for espionage was not on the first page of the DDF playbook. “Thanks, Naga. Any idea how we get inside?”

“We could try those stairs,” Alanik said, her hand appearing over the wall and pointing to the other side of the ramp. Sure enough, there was a dark stairwell positioned just beneath the opposite wall, leading down.

“Okay,” I said. “Suki, you stay here and alert us if anyone follows us.”

“Will do!” Suki said, steering her platform out into the arena and taking shelter beneath the branches of a fallen scion.

Alanik and I descended the stairs, which appeared to run directly under the stadium seats. At the bottom we came to a landing, and I squinted, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. I scanned the ceiling for cameras, but this hallway didn’t have any. Ivy and these humans obviously had the technology to install security cameras, so I didn’t understand why this area was so unguarded.

The lower floor was lit by window wells, casting eerie, twisted shadows across the stone floor. As we entered, the shadows moved, like branches shifting in the breeze.

Alanik and I both took a step back as we spotted a looming shape standing against the far wall—a scion, locked inside a cell. There must be another way out of here; no way did that scion fit through the staircase. The scion advanced toward the bars—a backlit, hulking shadow. Alanik turned on the light-line she was carrying, bathing it in red-orange light.

The scion waved its branches at us half-heartedly. A number of limbs were broken, a few swinging limply, barely attached to the trunk. It glared menacingly, as if it didn’t have the strength to fight us and wanted to drive us back by intimidation alone. Granted, the thing was intimidating, even in its weakened state.

I didn’t know what use it was down here. It didn’t look to be in good enough shape to fight, though maybe it had been in a battle already and come out like this. I wondered if the creatures ate food, or if they got their energy from the sun. If that was the case, the thing would slowly waste away down here, which seemed unnecessarily cruel.

To our right was a doorway leading to a second staircase going even farther belowground. “Let’s try this way,” Alanik said.

We retreated from the scion, slipping down the dark stairwell lined with pale footlights, which emitted a weak white glow. Alanik turned off her light-line so as not to attract attention from whatever was below.

When we reached the bottom, all we found was a locked door.

“Well,” I said, “I guess it was too much to ask that they leave the door open for us. You don’t happen to know how to pick locks?”