It was small, rough, and faintly warm. I didn’t know what it did. Twobble had simply pressed the pouch into my hand with the gravity of someone gifting a crown jewel. It was meant for when things got worse, and they hadn’t really. Right?
Instead, I closed my eyes and reached for the magic within. There was something behind these vines. I waved my hands in front of the vines, and they recoiled.
I blinked my eyes open and quickly slipped through the opening before the vines moved back.
The steps in front of me were narrow, spiraling into darkness around a central column of silver-veined stone. The charm glowed brighter now, and my shadow mark throbbed with every step.
Halfway down, I heard noises, and my entire body froze. I wanted to run away. I should have run away, but I was here for a reason. I’d made the trade for a reason.
The sounds again…metal, breathing, a low voice muttering.
My hand tightened around the charm as the memory of the lower level returned. The Priestess had sealed those sounds away too quickly, too completely.
The cruelest of the cruel of Shadowick.
Even shadow villages have their limits.
I still didn’t believe her.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, my heart sped up even more as it opened into a corridor lined with roots. Real roots. Thick and black, growing through the stone from somewhere deeper beneath the compound. They pulsed slowly, feeding into the walls, winding around doors, disappearing beneath the floor.
The east root.
A mark had been scratched into one of the stones beside the nearest root. It looked like a triangle among shadows. My fingers moved across the mark, and a jolt hit me. This mark was from my mom.
The charm warmed as if agreeing with me.
A whisper brushed my ear as I rested my hands on the mark.
Find what she feeds on.My mom’s voice.
Feeds?
The east root feeds on something?
I stood slowly, and the roots pulsed again as the shadow mark answered, tugging me closer until I pressed one hand against the largest root. A rush of images slammed into me before I could brace myself.
The pit.
The foundation chamber.
The lower cells.
Shadows curled around people’s ankles while the Priestess stood above them with both hands raised, as fear was being pulled from their bodies.
I saw tears caught in a glass, as the compound drank it all through the roots.
I stumbled back, gasping.
That was it.
The compound wasn’t merely holding prisoners.
It was feeding on them, and the Priestess had wanted my tears, my mother’s, and Celeste’s tears.
Because the roots carried it all down…down to whatever waited beneath.
It wasn’t just about the stone. It was about feeding the compound, Shadowick, and the Priestess.
