I turned away, reaching into the darkness at the very top of the pile, in the corner of the tunnel itself where no light at all reached. I had to blink a few times, even with my enhanced vision, to adjust to the complete darkness there. I reached for a larger stone, pulling it away so the smaller ones trickled down to the ground below, causing Tiberius to curse and jump out of the way. But I hardly noticed. My gaze was planted firmly onthe stone wall behind the boulder I'd just removed. It wasn’t just cracked here, it was shattered.
Thick, spider webbed cracks ran from the center outward, stretching far out into the corridor around us. I knew, without a doubt, this was what had created the cave in. But it wasn’t just a crack that naturally appeared in a stone hall after centuries of disuse and ill repair. Thespider webbedcracks all met in the center where the stone was shattered and flaking away. This wasn’t natural decay. This was an impact. And there was something off about it.
“Did you hear me, Adrian?” Tiberius shouted up at me.
I blinked, looking down to find him staring up at me, face practically red with fury. The miners behind him were looking my way as well. EvenMosiandRoibenhad stopped their work to see what the commotion was about.
“What?” I asked.
“I said be careful up there,” he snapped. “You nearly crushed me with that last slide.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
Then I handed the stone in my hands, the one I'd removed and was still holding, down to him. But when he turned away to set it down, I turned back to the shattered rock and realized why it seemed so strange. The center wasn’t a crater. It was shattered stone, falling away inward. Which meant that whatever had struck the rock hard enough to crack the walls and cause a cave in of this size hadn’t done so from within.
The impact had come from outside.
Chapter Eleven
Dante
“A ball of light to save us all, that’s what my father keeps muttering now. It’s been days since he last uttered a coherent word and I fear he’s broken beyond repair.”
– From The Official Record of House Avus, As Recorded by Atticus, Son of Eximius
“Five casualties and one deserter,” the glowing man in front of us said. His lips were curved downward in a deep frown, his eyes sparking with something worse than disappointment, as he crossed his office to stand behind his desk and glare at us. “That’s the worst result of a simple scouting mission I’ve ever seen, Valin.”
I fought my wince asValinraised his chin and met the rebuke with dignity.
“We lost aGeist, Captain,” the Commander snapped, eyes blazing as he turned.
His golden hair, shorter than the others but long enough to be tied back, shifted over his shoulders as he strode to his window and looked down at the training yard below.
I knew who drilled there, who he watched as they kicked up the sand rushing at one another. Castor and the rest of the squad would be near exhaustion by now, having been tasked with sparring until they reached their physical limits and then forcing themselves over the edge. Valin had barked that whoever survived training could remain on his squad. The rest he’d leave for their gods to sort out.Their gods.I hadn’t missed the choice of words. The ones Valin had spoken to me over the body of a dead deity still haunted me even now.
“Aigeuswas a great warrior and would have someday made a great Commander,” the Commander was saying now. I snapped back to attention as he continued. “His power was strong. We'll not see his like again.”
Valinsaid nothing, but I couldn’t help but shift on my feet in discomfort at the obvious grief in the Commander’s tone. Had they known each other? Had they been friends? How much of his mourning was for someone he cared for and how much was over the loss of one whom he deemed superior to the rest of us? Somehow, I doubted the Commander was in any way affected by the death of Erki, the human boy with a mentor that willed him to survive, a mother waiting for him to return, and an older brother who would forever feel guilty for surviving missions his brother had not.
“How shall I punish you, Captain?” the Commander asked, more quietly this time, but when he turned back to face us, that same fiery rage was still plain in his divine eyes.
“I trust your judgment in regards to my fate, Commander,”Valinsaid serenely, dipping his chin in respect to the man’s authority.
I couldn’t help but gape at my Captain. Punishment? We were ambushed. The riders had clearly been waiting for a scouting party from the City of the Gods to come sauntering by. I imagined they could hardly believe their luck when theydiscovered one lone godamongstour ranks as well. They had the element of surprise, the advantage of familiar terrain, and experience on their side. BesidesAigeusandValin, our party was made up of no more than boys, new recruits out on their first scouting, men who hadn’t yet had the time or opportunity to be made into soldiers at all. I hadn’t realized it before, how unprepared we truly were to face the enemy outside the walls. But the way my fellow soldiers had reacted, shaking in their boots, falling easily, fleeing even easier, showed me we were no warriors. And perhaps never would be. But was that the fault ofValin? Or was it the method of recruitment?
I turned my gaze back to the Commander and found him watching me, thoughtful expression on his face.
“You’re the Victor, aren’t you?” he asked, curiosity overshadowing his grief. “The Viper.”
“Yes sir,” I replied evenly, holding my head high in an approximation of Valin’s dignity.
“And you survived,” he said. “Because of your Blessings?”
I considered the battle and realized for the first time I’d hardly used the abilities I’d been given at all.
“I—no sir,” I confessed. “I’m still learning how to utilize my Blessings properly. I fought with my spear as my fellow men did and hardly more than that.”
“That’s disappointing,” he said with a frown, his gaze snapping toValin. “The boy should be trained to use every advantage he has.”
