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Chapter18
My feet thudded to the ground and I rolled, clutching my good arm over my injured one as I quickly came to a halt.
The fall had been fast and I was uninjured, at least any further.
I let out the breath I’d been holding and my stomach resettled in its place from the daring launch into this black pit. I stood, a little disoriented in the complete darkness.
Being down here didn’t do much good. Everything was black. The dim torches that barely provided enough light up top were nonexistent here.
I couldn’t see anything, but at least I was standing on solid ground.
I spread my arms out to the side and hit a slick wall. More stone. That was something at least. I winced as I held out my injured arm on the other side, but I couldn’t feel anything there.
Next, I pushed my foot forward slowly to see if perhaps I was on a ledge of some kind. But I stayed on solid ground, no hiccups or lack of footing around me at all.
“I’m okay,” I yelled, arching my head back and booming out as loud as I could. My voice echoed more down here than it had up in the cell, but that gave me nothing more as to where I was.
“I can feel a wall. It’s pitch black still, but I’m on solid ground and the jump isn’t far at all.” I hollered up more commentary to keep the others informed.
Nicole’s voice was the first I heard. “Move away from where you landed a little bit. I’m coming down.”
I heard a scuffling noise and then Nicole landed next to me. On two feet. Solidly. Unlike me, whose body rolled a few paces.
“Impressive,” I said.
She snorted. “I was a cat in another life.”
“Hey,” I shouted up to the group. I saw a shadow come over where we’d jumped from. My eyes were adjusting to the dark, and since there was some light up there, I could start to see the hole. Once we moved away from that though, we’d be on our own with zero visibility.
“Move the stone back over the hole so that the guards don’t see anything. Leave it cracked if you can, and we’ll try to scout out where we are and report back.”
“Okay.” Aleita was the one in charge now it would seem, since she responded.
Hopefully everyone would remain calm. It was that, or they’d tell the guards what we’d done. I doubted the latter, but I didn’t know most people up there. Who knew what they’d do to buy their freedom.
“We need to move as quickly as we can,” I said, feeling Nicole’s presence close by instead of seeing her.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
My good arm was closest to the wall I’d felt, so I reached out with it again, connecting with the wall. “I’m going to stick to the wall, and let it guide us. Stay as close as you can.”
“Obviously,” Nicole chuckled.
We started moving forward with my fingertips tracing the wall beside us. The sensation of having to rely on hearing and touch with no way of seeing anything was unsettling. Extremely unsettling, and I struggled to let my other senses take over. I was grateful not to be alone doing this.
“We’d get some kick-ass kudos if this was training,” I said as we kept a steady pace.
Nicole laughed softly but didn’t respond.
“Wait,” I called out. There was an opening my fingertips had just found. I stood still, moving my hand up and down the wall. The wall arched upward, and I couldn’t keep my fingertips on it the whole way. I took a step closer and reached my hand out to the opening. My fingers scraped across a splintery material that felt like wood.
I jerked it back.
“There’s a door,” I said to Nicole.
“Can you open it?” she asked.
I fumbled around for a handle but instead found only a keyhole. There seemed to be no way to open the door beyond inserting the key. Unless I just hadn’t felt it.
