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Draven shrugged. “Memories.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That’s bullshit, Draven. What exactly happened here?”
He glowered from under heavy dark brows. “You’ve already asked that.”
“And you haven’t given us a straight answer. Yet I can tell you have it. I can see it there, lurking in the edges of your...” I stopped. I had almost said “mind.” “Eyes.”
A look of disbelief crossed his face, then he smirked. “Really? I doubt that very much.” He looked down at Odelna who walked by his side. “Besides, it’s not a story for children.”
“Yet you lead her by the hand into this place of death,” I accused.
This time the anger in his face was palpable. So was the shock.
I understood. I had never pressed him like this before. I had been content before now to simply follow, to accept his word as the law, never questioning. But now that we were here... Everything felt different. Everything about this place felt wrong to me and I wanted to know why.
I wasn’t going to let it go and I think he sensed that.
“Why do you say that?” he demanded, his voice sharp.
“I can feel it. All around us. Can’t you?” I looked back at Lancelet and Vesper. Vesper nodded his head. “Even before we entered. Something lurks in this land. It’s in the air. I can almost smell it. Something terrible happened here. I want to know what it was. And you’re going to tell us what you know. Now.”
Draven shot me a look that was almost thoughtful, then ignoring me, he stepped forward through the next entranceway.
I followed and together we walked into a massive chamber. High ceiling soared above us, opening into cut stone skylights that let in the fading daylight. I tilted my head up, reveling in the last light of the sun as orange and purple beams of sunset trickled down onto the gray slabs of stone.
High pillars stood all around us, supporting the massive ceiling, while banners and tapestries, torn and shredded, covered the walls, placed too high up for any human to have reached without a ladder. Along the walls were many openings leading into numerous passageways.
I saw Draven hesitating. Then he halted. “This was a crossroads, of a sort, for the city. We’ll camp here for the night. We can enjoy the last of the light and then make a fire.”
“The last of the light?” I said.
He nodded. “Tomorrow we go deeper in. Underground. Towards the center of the city. It will be...”
“Dark?” I suggested. “Yes, I think we’d guessed that.”
“We should reach the sword tomorrow,” he said quietly, his eyes fixed on mine. “We’re nearly there.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the words as encouragement to me or to himself. They sounded so final.
Draven started to turn away, pulling a saddlebag off the horse.
“Not so fast,” I said irritably, ignoring the warning look Lancelet was giving me. Draven might have been acting like a boorish, well, exmoor, but I knew him too well to actually be intimidated by him. “You haven’t finished telling us what happened.”
He must have known from the look on my face that I was not going to let this go, because after a sharp exhale of breath and another look of annoyance, he started talking again.
“Look around. This was a meeting place. The fae would hold celebrations here. They were having one the day they were attacked. Everyone was gathered together.”
“So they were ambushed,” I said quietly.
“They slaughtered everyone? I see no signs of a battle,” Lancelet commented from where she stood listening.
Vesper stood near me, his arms crossed over his chest. He said nothing.
Draven shook his head. “It wasn’t that sort of attack. This was... something more insidious.”
“What do you mean?” I asked sharply.
“A plague,” he said simply. “They unleashed a plague.”
