Stepping into the enormous fireplace, its fires extinguished and the hearth scraped out, Dusk pressed his fingertips to a wrought-iron panel embedded in the stone. The ornate panel depicted a Dragon deep inside the earth, with tunnels moving out from them in a complex Celtic basketweave. Layla had thought it was simply an iron placard to reflect the fire, but as Dusk closed his eyes, he gave a rippling growl. A flood of light passed through his body in a wave, and as the refracting light passed into the panel, the iron shivered – and disappeared.
The entire back wall of the fireplace disappeared with it, revealing a circular stone landing with a corkscrewing stairwell curving down into darkness. Ringed by fifteen dark arrow-slits cut into the wall, the stone room breathed with currents of chill air. Rather than take the stairwell, Dusk circumnavigated the landing and set his hand to one of the far slits, repeating his wave of vibration and light. As Layla watched, the two-inch slit flared, then widened – pushing the others aside in a ripple of light and narrowing them like a fan as the slit Dusk had selected widened into a full hall.
As Layla gaped to see a vaulted stone passage now burrowing into the darkness, Dusk sent a blast of power into the hall from his palm. All along the passage, enormous blue crystals tall as a person flared to life in curved wall-niches, lighting the catacombed hall with a rippling, eerie light. Glancing to Layla and Adrian, then Rhennic, Luke, and Rikyava, Dusk lifted a dark eyebrow. “Everyone ready?”
“Damn, that’s insane.” Rhennic’s soft swear put Dusk’s powers in perspective for Layla. Glancing to Rhennic and Justine, Layla saw them both admiring the passage.
The Storm Queen shook her head with a wry smile. Gesturing to the party, she said, “Farewell. You will not see us at Chartres right away, as it will take our cadres longer to fly than it will take you through the Ways. Proceed with the plan when you arrive, as we have no time to waste. Luck be with you all.”
“My Queen.” Giving her a solemn nod, then glancing around to make sure everyone was ready, Dusk stepped from the stone foyer into the hall he’d lit. Adrian gestured Layla ahead of him behind Dusk, Luke following with Rikyava, and Rhennic bringing up the rear. Gaining the blue hall after Dusk, Layla had a sensation like the entire world had been blotted out as she stepped beneath its vaulted, eerie catacombs. She had a feeling like nothing existed in the world but the endless passage and the deep, seeping cold all around her – even though as she glanced behind, she saw the Storm Queen in her apartment with white snow swirling beyond the windows.
But as Layla watched, the view into Chambord wavered like a mirage, becoming a curved wall of dark stone. As Layla blinked at the sudden magical closing-off of the foyer, Dusk stepped to her, curling her in his arms. She hadn’t realized she was deeply chill until his warmth comforted her, as if there existed a cold in this place that only a Crystal Dragon could weather. The silence in the stone hall and foyer was absolute as everyone gazed around, shivering in their parkas as they adjusted to a claustrophobic sensation. Layla had the feeling she was miles beneath the earth, buried in stone and darkness, even though her rational mind told her she was somewhere inside the walls of the Château.
“Where the fuck are we?” Luke’s soft breath echoed Layla’s thoughts, his voice strangely deadened in the space rather than echoing.
“These are the Thin Ways.” Dusk spoke quietly, still holding Layla close. Layla noticed Adrian had moved to her and Dusk also, as if even he wasn’t entirely comfortable wherever they were now. “They’re ancient passages built by Crystal Dragons, and are only accessible to my kind. Each slit at a node is actually a portal through the earth, taking us to a new node from which we can keep traveling. This one was built hundreds of years ago by Crystal Dragon King Lorenz DuVir, to protect Queen Justine.”
“Why did he build her an access to the Thin Ways? Was he in love with Justine?” Layla mused, glancing around at the haunting crystals in their niches, each one reminding her of the deep blue color of Justine’s eyes, though they lent a slightly brighter light through the darkness.
“Deeply in love, from all the stories.” Dusk gave a smile as he glanced to Rhennic, who confirmed the tale with a nod.
“Lorenz was a Dragon King of voracious appetites,” Rhennic took up the tale as he glanced around the vast hall, “and my mother was a strong power in France at the time. Like my father Huttr, King Lorenz loved sleeping with powerful women, but as the story goes, he also fell deeply in love with Justine. Though some passages were already here, King DuVir extended the Thin Ways all over France, even built a few into the Palace of Versailles as escape routes for himself and her, should trouble ever come for them.”
“Your apartment at the Hotel is one of those places, Layla,” Dusk continued as he corralled her closer in his arms. “It was the main reason I made sure you got that room, so I could have access to you in an emergency. My apartment on the fourth floor has an access, as does Adrian’s.”
“The Guardhall has an access too, doesn’t it?” Rikyava mused as she glanced around, then looked to Dusk. “Down in the Vault?”
“It does, theoretically.” Dusk looked at her soberly. “Though that passage is ancient, far older than King DuVir’s works, and even I’ve not been able to locate it. It will take a power far stronger than mine to discover it. It’s part of theHelkafnim Urdo, the original network of Ways that tunnel through the core of the earth, rather than along its surface. They were made long before my Crystal Clan in Egypt was established, maybe even a hundred thousand years ago. No Crystal Dragon in recent memory has been strong enough to access them.”
“Are you sure they’re real?” Layla asked curiously. “Not just a legend?”
“They’re real. I can feel them.” Dusk spoke as he gave a small shiver behind her. “Come on. We should get moving. It’ll take us a while to get to Chartres, even through the Ways.”
Tucking Layla in beside him, Dusk began to walk down the long passage with Adrian and the others. It was wide enough that they could walk three abreast, and as Layla gazed up, she saw the vaulted stone gables were so high they became lost to darkness far above. Down where the eerie light of the crystals illuminated the hall, she saw each branching blue crystal was inset into a niche in the walls, and sat in a strangely viscous pool of black water. As they passed one, Rhennic wandered over curiously and hunkered as if to touch the pool, but Dusk clamped a hand on his shoulder.
“Not unless you want to get blasted from here to Timbuktu.” Dusk spoke with a warning glance.
“You mean it’ll teleport me?” Rhennic’s eyes widened as he rose.
“No. Just vibrate you apart from your bones out.” Dusk spoke with a wry smile.
“Jesus.” Rhennic pulled back to a safe distance, with an uncertain glance to Rikyava. She gave her cousin a wry smile as she looked back to Dusk.
“We feel like we’re miles beneath the earth.” Rikyava spoke with a nod to the seemingly endless hall ahead. “Is that the case?”
“Yes.” Dusk spoke, with a deep respect as he glanced around. “The node I opened was actually a mile and a half down, though it seemed like it was embedded in the walls of Chambord. We’re deeper now – about two miles. The Thin Ways tunnel all over the earth. Through continents, beneath mountain ranges. Under oceans.”
“How do you navigate them?” Luke asked as they began walking again, occasionally passing slits leading off in other directions.
“I find my way by feel and vibration.” Dusk spoke as he proceeded, watching the hall ahead. “Crystal Dragons have an impeccable sense of direction underground. We also feel magnetic north like migrating birds. And we can sense stone structures if we focus on them. It’s how I can feel the ruins of Chartres where we’re headed. Justine needed a Crystal Dragon to get in because the White Chalice alarm-barrier around Chartres goes up in a dome over the ruins. But it doesn’t go underground. Hence, using the Thin Ways to get in.”
But Dusk went rigidly alert as they reached one narrow slit on the right, holding out a hand and stopping the party. Layla felt him manifest an invisible barrier of crystals in the air, then smooth his hand over that slit from top to bottom, as if sealing it up with his shimmering barrier. With a tense exhalation and a sharp nod, he hustled them quickly past. Layla felt something swirl far down that black passage as they passed – like a nightmare come to life. Adrian bristled behind them with a desert-wind energy as if he’d felt danger also, Rhennic crackling with a searing alertness and Rikyava tensing as a whirl of blood droplets surged out from her.
“The fuck was that?” Luke asked with a growl as they flanked the passage.
“Something we don’t want to tussle with.” Dusk spoke softly, as if afraid of disturbing the tunnels as he beckoned them on. “No Crystal Dragon uses the Thin Ways lightly, even if they are strong enough to access them. Mostly because there are far older things that haunt these passages than my kind.”
Dusk was still tense as he glanced back. Turning a corner, they took a winding way deeper into the earth. Arriving at another cul-de-sac with numerous slits, Dusk inhaled and closed his eyes, then sent a low rumble of his magics through the node like a subtle earthquake. Facing a direction to Layla’s left, he opened his eyes, then moved forward and placed his palm on a slit. Refracting light through it, Dusk widened it, then blasted the passage with a pulse to light the way.
