The darkness pressed on my eyes like an invisible weight. The smell of dirt and decay hit me with a hundred memories.
I staggered on a step, everything in my body screaming at me to stop.
Get out. Now. While you still can. Trapped. Trapped forever. You’ll never leave if you don’t run. Run. Run.
Sweat rolled down my neck and chest. My heartbeat galloped like a panicked horse. Gods, I’d forgotten how far down it was.
Maz jerked to a halt. His muffled breaths drummed against his metal mask. He must be feeling the same way I was.
I grit my teeth together. I clenched his arm where his tree tattoo lay hidden. Reminding him.
I felt more than saw him nod. We continued.
The stairs gradually leveled out until they met dirt. Metal lanterns on hooks lined the passages ahead and to the right. The tunnel to the right was new. At least as of the last seven years. I was sure of it.
The slow drag and rattle of chains sent another bolt of fear through my heart. A bald man in threadbare clothes with manacles around his ankles carried a bucket from the passage ahead. He didn’t even look up as he hobbled into the other tunnel. Chunks of sunstone winked at me from his bucket.
Either he didn’t see us or didn’t care. After all, when death was constantly looming, why care if it came from Shadow-Wolves, soldiers, or the very stone he had to mine every day?
I jerked my head, and we followed the prisoner. His shuffling gait made him slow, but I matched his pace.
The clang of hammers echoed toward us. Hope pricked my chest. The forge? Could it really be that easy?
The man stumbled into a large cave. The heat was intense, like Aquinon during Mynastra’s season.
I glanced around. No guards. No Korvin. Just a few sweaty men immersed in their work.
The prisoner dumped his sunstone into a large bin filled with other ancient chunks of the night sky and left. Never looking up. Never changing expression. Like we were ghosts. Or he was.
Did he have a family? Were they still waiting for him, or did they assume he was dead?
Focus. Forge first, rescue later.
Scowling, I put my hands behind my back and prowled the perimeter of the cave. Two large furnaces took up the center. A stone chimney rose from them and disappeared into the cave ceiling.
Fire bloomed over pools of molten black sunstone, each in a stone mold the shape of a weapon or a piece of armor. A worker pulled one out with sunstone tongs and rapidly sculpted it. Much like I’d seen a glass blower shape an ornate bowl.
The sunstone gauntlets and chest plate I wore seemed to tighten. This was where they’d been forged.
A tall man wearing a leather mask and apron poured sunstone chunks into a large dipper, then threw a handful of something into the fire beneath it.Fireseeds.The fire roared, engulfing the dipper. Cracks, sizzles, and an odd screaming sound came from the stone as it melted.
Maz nudged me and tipped his head to where two soldiers were rolling a cart of finished sunstone armor and weapons up a smooth passage. Another way out?
None of the workers looked up to question us. They acted as if we weren’t here. Perhaps they were used to Wolves coming to observe. Or they were too worried about hitting a quota to slow down, even for a moment. They probably assumed no one would be stupid enough or able to infiltrate this far.
Yet the first part of our mission had been shockingly easy. Kiera and the others had performed the harder task, hopefully making it out unscathed. Even if they had, they were still vulnerable, waiting for us.
Maz and I could leave right now. The soldiers were probably still distracted up on the ground. We had confirmation of why Renwell had stolen the fireseeds. We’d seen his forge churning out large quantities of weapons and armor.
But that didn’t solve the problem.
I needed to see the rest. I wanted to see thecost.
Like I’d told the others in Frieda’s lodge, I didn’t care what Renwell planned to use these abominations for. Terrible things, no doubt. Whether to keep the people of Rellmira in check or to bring the world to its knees, it didn’t matter.
I wanted to stop him long before that could happen. I wanted to map this gods-damned mine like I had the Den. So I could tear this whole place down. Bury the evil that he forged here.
This mine was a stain on Rellmira’s history, and I intended to remove it forever.
