AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter nineteen
TORY
Wemadeourway through the tunnels, following the tiny form in front of us that weaved its way through the labyrinth with a certainty I prayed we were right to trust. It looked back a few times to make sure we were following, so I was pretty convinced it wasn’t a normal cat. We didn’t encounter any hatay, though there were several points where I could feel them close by. I thought the cat might sense them too, because there were a few moments when it paused and waited before carrying on. Maybe it was waiting until the coast was clear. Either way, I was relieved. We were down to a few rounds between us, and I hadn’t seen anything along the way that would serve as a weapon. I did see bloodstains though, several of them. I stepped around them, not wanting to walk over where someone had died.
The tunnels were a lot cruder now, simple passageways hewn into the rock, and there were places where the walls and ceilings were loose or had given way a little. At one point, we hit a partial cave in with huge chunks of rock in our path. Seeing them piled up reminded me uncomfortably of the three men trapped or probably dead below, and grief swept over me. We squeezed our way through the fallen stone and stumbled over rubble until we hit a relatively flat pathway once more. I moved forward then heard something crunch under my foot. Pausing, I looked down, just making out a whitish form poking out through the dirt floor—a weathered and bleached bone. I swallowed hard, hoping it was a small animal, or maybe even hatay, and not human.
My hand tightened around my pistol, but I remembered what West had told me, so I kept my finger as far from the trigger as I could. Rounds were precious, I didn’t want to risk wasting one.
The tunnel curved ahead, and as we rounded it, I hesitated, scanning the floor. The tunnel opened out into a room that was more like a cave. The ceiling and most of the walls were natural stone that hadn’t been shaped by human hands. Across the floor were scattered, narrow white shapes. I didn’t need anyone to tell me they were human bones—I could pick out the skulls well enough. It was not a room, more like a tomb.
Jack stepped up behind me. “More food for the hatay?” I asked quietly, the fury I felt before beginning to rise inside me. My fingertips and my teeth tingled, and I suddenly felt thirsty.
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. The hatay wouldn’t strip human bodies of flesh. It’s the souls and magic they feed from. I think these are the bodies of your priests.”
I stared at him in horror. “But that means... Didn’t West say that if they consumed your heart, you died for good? No more coming back? No chance of a life in the underworld? There must be dozens of bodies here.” I looked around at the floor, imagining all those people as the hatay fell upon them.
Jack’s arms slipped around my waist and pulled me back against him. He rested his chin on top of my head, and I leaned into his warmth. “If these were the bodies of some of your priests, their souls would have passed on to their new vessels. I think the hatay were just trying to feed off the last traces of magic that might have lingered in their bodies. These bones are old and grey. I think they have been here a long time, my queen. The people who once inhabited them would have moved on many times since then, so you don’t need to worry.”
I turned my head and tipped it back, looking up at him. He smiled and kissed me, his lips soft and warm, stirring a hunger of a different kind deep inside my body. It was over too soon, and he kissed the tip of my nose.
“Come on, let’s keep going.”
I nodded and looked for the cat. The room had multiple exits. The first was a natural archway, and the second was the same, though it was only a crevice, and whereas I might have squeezed through it, Jack’s broad shoulders would never have got through. The last is opposite us in a far corner. The kitty cat sat in the archway, waiting for us. We picked our way carefully across the room, trying not to stand on any of the bones. This was a natural archway, but columns and a lintel had been carved into the rock, and the gap had been made slightly wider in places.
I put my hand on the column as I stepped through. A cold, numb feeling drifted through me, making me shiver, and I froze. The tunnel beyond was narrow and plunged steeply downwards. At the bottom, though, I could see a faint gleam of pale light. I inched my way down, tension building in my neck and shoulders. Even the kitty cat had slowed, moving forward cautiously like it was stalking a bird or mouse. The cold grew, causing goosebumps to rise along my arms, and I could barely breathe for nerves. At the end of the tunnel, I stopped and peered around the corner.
There were dozens of them.
Tens upon tens of dark, mangle shapes drifted through the vast cavern that lay beyond. They didn’t seem to be hunting us like the others, and they just moved aimlessly about, almost like they were sleepwalking. Or ghosts. The thought didn’t help, and terror flooded through me, spiking my adrenaline again.
“What the...” Jack stepped up behind me and swore under his breath as he took in the sight. “Look, there! There’s the way out!” he murmured, pointing across the cavern beyond the hatay. I took a breath and stepped into the cavern, ready to run like hell. Nothing. The hatay didn’t move, didn’t seem to sense me. I wondered if they were asleep, if hatay even slept. The kitty cat leapt down and streaked through the swarm towards the light, disappearing from sight.
“That stupid cat!” I whispered in alarm. Stepping to my right, I climbed up onto a boulder that gave me a better view across the cavern to see where it had gone, and my eyes widened.
Jack was right, we had finally reached the way out. Beyond the nightmarish forms of the hatay lay a lake, its water dark except where it reflected the sky that showed through a large hole in the cavern ceiling. The gap must have been fifty metres across. The roof had collapsed into the cavern, leaving a great hole and a huge slope of boulders and rubble that led up into the fresh air. That must have been how the victims of the hatay had come in, maybe seeing the underground lake and wanting to explore, until they reached the bottom and realised what lay in wait for them down here. I shivered again, imagining their terror.
Jack climbed up next to me.
“What’s wrong with the hatay?” I whispered, my words barely more than a breath.
“No idea,” he replied, just as quietly. “But we are going to have to get past them to cross the lake. Look.” He pointed over to the far side, and I saw there were several large boulders that had crashed into the lake at various points, forming giant stepping stones. I looked back at Jack in horror.
“There’s no way I can get across them! The gaps are huge!”
At my words, one of the closer hatay stirred. It looked over to where we were standing, and Jack and I instantly dropped down behind a boulder.
“We’ve got to,” he whispered. “It’s the only way out.”
“Jack, we have three, maybe four rounds left between us. If they see us... How are we even going to get past them?”
Jack peered around the corner again for a moment then pulled back to face me. “Ever done any rock climbing?” he asked, his face perfectly straight.
“Oh yeah, all the time,” I scoffed. When he didn’t get the sarcasm, I groaned quietly. “What do you have in mind?”
Ten minutes later, I had decided that I wasn’t actually that keen on Jack and probably should have left him to die in the chamber.
“You. Are. Insane!” I hissed at him as I felt for another handhold on the uneven cave wall. He grinned at me, inching his way across the rock face, feeling for hand and foot holds. We weren’t high enough that a fall would kill us, though a bad landing might break a leg. We were, however, just above the eyeline of the hatay, who still seemed to be drifting around in that weird state that even Jack couldn’t explain. Jack had spotted a long outcrop of rock that reached out into the lake and would give us a big head start on leaping between the rocks that he seemed certain we could manage, and it was to this outcrop we were inching our way toward along the cave wall.
