“Aye.Suppose I did.”
Sheglanced at the cobwebbed loculi around the walls, and Isaac used theopportunity to move in front of her, blocking the exit across the room.“Weneed to follow the vertebrae.The base of the tomb is at the feet of thiscreature, and we’ve barely reached the neck.The bone is our path.”
She lookedup at the dirt-packed ceiling.“Don’t see no bones, now.”
“Weshould go find them, then, shouldn’t we?”
“Yourgenius is stunning, love.”She made to move past him.“Try not to hurt me withit.”
Hestepped in front of her.“Have you not noticed anything?”
“Youmean, besides the smell of us fuckin’?”
Hewaved around the empty room.“We have not seen a single skeleton in thosecombs.It’s just been empty walls and empty graves.”
“So?”
“Sowhat do you think happened to them?What do you think I’ve been trying to warnyou about?”
“Speakplain, then.Enlighten me of my peril.”
He heldup his wrists, the torch blazing overhead.“You need to untie me.We’re in thesorceress’ lair now.Her domain.You need my abilities.”
Shestepped forward, towering over him.“You had your chance to earn my trust.Yousquandered it, and it’s a testament to my good mercy that you still got yourlifeblood about you.”
“Zaria—”
“No,Isaac.You got destruction at your fingertip.You’d end my existence with aflick of your wrist.I ain’t risking that at my back.”She shoved him with the haft of her poleaxe.“You lead the way, you call out thethreats, and I decide whether they warrant your freedom, not you.”
Heexited the room with the torch held close to his chest, trying to wriggle outof his restraints.The torch would be capable of burning them off, but thatwould likely destroy his hands in the process, and he couldn’t risk losing hisspellcasting ability.He rubbed the well-worn cuts on his wrists and continuedthrough the darkened hall.
Theyventured through corridors and burial chambers, following a series of curvingpaths that seemed to twist and bend without any warning or reason.The ancientculture that built these catacombs deliberately made them like a maze, whichincluded dead-ends, looping hallways, and an endless series of turns.Isaac wasgrowing increasingly certain that they’d passed the same sepulchral chambermultiple times.Everything looked the same.It was impossible to develop alayout in the mind’s eye.There was only darkness and dust and vacant stone.
Hecould not get over the feeling of being watched.There seemed to be anunnatural stillness to the air.Every sound they made was swallowed in aninstant.
He kepthis eyes peeled for traps, remembering the necrotic hex on the surface.Hethought of sigils carved into dirt and stone, ready to unleash a raw bolt ofentropy.He imagined hexes on the walls, deadfalls in the floor, a lurch ofanimated machinery, a shunt of shooting spikes, a belt of swinging axes.Heeven thought, perhaps, that they would see the necromancer herself, a cocoon ofdarkness surrounding her, waiting patiently for the moment to strike.
“Stop,”Zaria hissed.
Isaacfroze, nearly fumbling the torch.“What?”
“Somethingup ahead.”
Shenudged him forward.Isaac raised the torch high, steeled himself, and continueddown the hall.
He sawthe blood first.Its redness was vibrant compared to the ancient stone aroundthem, pooling in the shallow grooves of the dirt.Next, the torchlight peeledopen the image of boots, tattered cloth, and the vague suggestion of legs andarms.It was another fresh body, half fallen into a loculus.It was verysimilar to the one Isaac had spied on the surface.
Zariastepped forward, maneuvering her bulk awkwardly through the tightened hall.Shepoked the foot of the body with her spear tip.It sank through the flesh.Whenshe pulled it out, there was not a single speck of blood.
“Drierthan straw,” she said.“Odd.”
Isaacpaced over, squatting down and balancing the torch on the edge of a loculus.Hegrabbed the shoulder of the corpse and found the flesh just as stiff anduncompliant as the body before it, which only suggested to him that they’d beenkilled at similar times.
Heflipped the corpse onto its back.A screaming skull stared back at him.
“Fuck!”he yelled, falling so far back in surprise that he ended up wrapping himselfaround the fur of Zaria’s knee.
“Now,now,” she said.“Mother’s here.”
