“Ducot?” Eira glanced back, even though no one could see in the darkness.
“On it.” A shift in the air around him. A pulse of magic. And the sense of his presence behind her was gone.
The sound of squeaking faded to the right. They waited with bated breath until he returned.
“Right’s the way,” Ducot reported. “Alyss, mind if I take the lead?”
“By all means.”
Nearly three hours of slow going later, the first sign of light nearly blinded her. It was a streak of orange that bled through a crack in the wall ahead. The crack ran diagonally from the ceiling to their hip.
They each paused as they passed, peering through to get a tiny sliver of the room beyond. Crimson stained the walls, lined with chains, telling stories of horrors that none of them whispered a word of as they passed. Another room followed, a workshop of sorts with armor and flashfires laid out. Less bloody, but it still held hints that the laborers hadn’t performed their work entirely willingly. Eira’s stomach churned over, growing more ill with each glimpse they got of the mines of Carsovia.
Her thoughts lingered with the people cramped in a bunk room. They hung on the distant shouts and commands—unintelligible, but meaning still perfectly clear. She imagined a young man growing up in this brutal place, being born into it. Knowing nothing but these cramped tunnels and the horrors they held…yet wanting to help anyway.
Slip.
She’d been hoping they’d run into the man. But the tunnels were void of his presence. Perhaps he was so good at staying hidden, he could do it from them as well. Maybe at that fork in the road, the other path led to his personal home.
Maybe he’d finally left this place, claiming the freedom he’d helped so many others gain for himself.
Or…misfortune had finally caught up to him.
Yet, the thought of him and his resistance in these tunnels filled her with an odd reassurance. If the tenacity of hope could persist here, even among these people who—by Varren’s accounts—were jailed and condemned to forced labor for little more than allegedly upsetting the wrong people at the wrong time…then hope could persist anywhere. Resistance against corrupt powers would always be lurking in the shadows, waiting for a spark.
After two more forks and much more arbitrary decision making, they reached an exit, at long last. They slipped through a crack into what seemed like a dead end of another tunnel, the entrance hidden in shadow. Alyss pulled her hand from where it had sunk into the stone, ceasing making her line right on the edge. Barely visible. But they knew it was there.
“If we need to get back in a hurry, find this spot and follow the line,” Alyss whispered. They all nodded.
“What next?” Ducot asked.
“What do you think?” Alyss looked to Eira.
“For the time being, I think we should split up,” Eira said.
“What?” The word was pure shock falling from Cullen’s lips.
“I know, it’s risky. There’s strength in numbers. But there’s also more of a chance for us to stand out. One or two of us can slip in with the rest of them.” Eira had been debating with herself over and over what the best course was. “We just need to find the man in charge, kill him, and take his right foot back to Adela.”
“Gruesome.” Alyss grimaced.
“She always has had a thing for theatrics,” Ducot said dryly.
“I do not care if I’m the one to kill him. This is all our task. If any of you have the opportunity, do it,” Eira said plainly, continuing to glance up the tunnel to see if there were any signs of movement. “We all do what we must to survive and meet back here by dawn.”
“And what if we haven’t killed him by then?” Ducot asked.
“We should head back. I’d rather face Adela’s judgment than Carsovia’s, and the longer we stay here, the more at risk we are for it.” Eira wasn’t sure if she could convince Adela to help them if they failed in her task. But it was still the preferable option, given all they’d seen.
“You have a point,” Ducot muttered. “All right. I’ll go on ahead. Good luck.” Ducot stepped and shifted into his mole form, scampering up the tunnel.
“We should probably stagger ourselves…I’ll go next.” Alyss went to leave.
Eira caught her hand. Alyss’s bright green eyes swung back to her and Eira didn’t want to let her friend go. She wanted to tell her to stay here and stay safe. But instead she said, “Please be careful. I want to read that story you have to tell.”
Alyss nodded and put on a brave smile. “Trust me, I’m not letting it go unfinished.”
With that, she was off.
