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Before the army we’d left behind caught up with us. Before we drew the attention of whatever else was waiting here below for us. After all, if the Mother had known we’d be coming this way, if she’d found this tunnel and figured we’d use it …
Surely she’d done more than post an army in front of it and consider the matter taken care of?
There might be traps. I had to spell out the last word; I had no idea what the sign fortrapsmight be.Or ambushes.
He hesitated.They’ve only had a day to set things up.
Enough time for a blood mark around the city, I wryly signed.
Means she’ll have had less time for anything else.He lifted his glowing dagger a fraction, as if looking for something.And I think Alyra noticed the blood mark before any of us did.
A muffled squeal nearby confirmed that.
I held out my hand, and she hopped into the small halo of light and onto my forearm, looking dusty and smug. An impression of empty darkness washed over me, the low corridor seeming enormous from her perspective, and utterly devoid of life.
‘She says there’s no one near down here,’ I breathed.
Creon drew another spark of yellow from the dagger hilt in response, intensifying the blade’s luminescence. Finally I could see the buried corridor in which we’d ended up, dry earth floor and brick-covered walls, a tunnel made for nothing but cases of the direst emergency. The path sloped down before us, winding around the corner some twenty strides away. Behind us, an avalanche-like heap of fallen stones separated us from the world outside.
The muffled thuds and shouts behind that heap grew slowly but steadily louder.
‘Should we bring down a little more of the tunnel?’ I muttered, eyeing the ceiling beams. ‘If it delays them …’
Creon grimaced. ‘I have no idea how sturdy the construction is. You could just as easily bury us beneath a whole block of houses.’
Which would admittedly be unpleasant. I gave the collapsed entrance a last quick glance and said, ‘Time to move, then?’
‘Yes.’ He absently swatted a flicker of blue at my bleeding shoulder, then turned to Alyra on my arm and quirked up an eyebrow. ‘Want to go first?’
She proudly puffed out her chest and took off, fluttering deeper into the tunnel.
We followed as fast as we dared, shadows shifting ominously around the sturdy wooden beams as the dagger-light moved with us. The place smelled of mud and mould. Like a freshly opened grave, andthatwas a thought I shouldn’t have allowed into my mind, with the image of those staked corpses still vivid and the sound of our pursuers growing louder and louder behind us …
Alyra shrieked.
I froze mid-step, heart skipping a beat.
But there were no sudden armies to be seen, no hordes of fae storming into the tunnel to stop us … Just my familiar, landing cautiously on the trampled earth floor some five feet ahead of us, cocking her head from one wall to another. A messy impression of her thoughts flooded my mind. The sensation of recent magic use. Sharp edges and treacherous ground. Holes where holes shouldn’t be, and a faint association with hunters’ snares.
‘Alyra,’ I hissed.
Ignoring me entirely, she hopped forward.
A loudclangtore the silence to shreds, metal bursting into view with such force I jolted back. Dust erupted into the colourless corridor. Behind that swirling cloud of dirt and debris, rows and rows of iron spears had appeared out of nowhere, piercing the empty space of moments before, crossing from wall to wall … penetrating what would have been my chest, my throat, my face, if I’d unsuspectingly stood in Alyra’s place instead.
Even Creon breathed a curse beside me.
Alyra huffed beneath the spears, ruffling her feathers to flick the dirt off her head and wings, then glared at me as if to say,See how useful tiny friends can be?
‘Yes.’ The word came out breathless. It was too easy – far too easy – to imagine what would have happened if I’d stepped onto that trapped spot, jagged tips tearing through skin and bone before I could have raised a single shield. ‘Yes, thank you so much.’
With another huff, she tiptoed on into the dark.
I ducked below the spears, swallowing at the sight of their jagged edges. The corridor waiting beyond looked as empty as this one had done, and yet it took every bit of discipline to keep walking forward – step by step, wrestling the urge to inspect every single brick and pebble before moving past it. We didn’t havetimefor elaborate inspections, damn it. If it took me three hours to cross the distance to the White Hall, everyone outside might be dead – so I walked, even as every fibre and muscle revolted, around the first corner and then the next, winding deeper below the city …
‘Seems we’re following the street plan,’ Creon quietly said next to me, studying the ceiling. ‘They may have had to avoid the foundations of houses, if they built it more recently.’
‘Yes.’ I followed his gaze. ‘Would it be worth trying to dig our way out on that side? If we get closer and—'
