Daelis's first attempt failed. "Damn it. Must be the other way. Unless the whole damned thing is backward. Or unless he was lying."
I watched him tap out the combination with the numbers shifted to the left so the zero was at the end of the sequence. 25-11-3850. Tessen's attention was elsewhere. Good. The wall clicked and a gap appeared. The door was too heavy for Daelis to slide with one arm, so I moved it for him. I stood at the edge of the darkness and said, "You spent your birthday in the caves. You're forty-one now."
"Am I that old? Oh well." Daelis stared down the dark staircase. "Lanterns ready, Frald?"
"Ready," she replied. She distributed the four oil lanterns among us. "Did he tell you where this tunnel goes?"
"No, but I assume it leads to his office in the Citadel. That's the only logical place."
"Well, let's hope it doesn't fork. Let's go."
Frald descended the staircase first, followed by Daelis and Mara. The rest of the orcs filed into a line and disappeared one by one into the darkness.
Morrow took this last opportunity to grab Tessen's attention. "Hey, Tessen? Your name is Tessen, right? The laces on the back of your jerkin are loose and tangled up with your scabbard straps. Here, let me fix them before you go down there. Turn around."
Tessen spun so his back was to the passage. Morrow positioned himself between us and pretended to adjust the already-neat straps. I whispered, "Thank you," and stepped down into the tunnel. I yanked the wall shut behind me. The heavy click told me the lock had triggered.
"Mom? No, Mom! Don't leave me behind. Please. I want to help. I need to help." Tessen's cry reached me as a muffled whine.
I pressed my palms against the wall and tried unsuccessfully to restrain my tears. "Tessen. Go home, honey. I need you to be safe. Go home and wait for us."
"Mom. No. Please."
"Morrow will help you out. I'm bringing Shan home, but if something happens to us, I need you to stay alive. I need you to spend the next eighty years living and loving and embracing every bit of happiness you can find. I love you, and that's why I've locked you out. Go home, Tessen."
He pounded on the wall as I descended the stairs. I didn't look back, couldn't look back or I'd be overcome with the urge to open the wall and hold him close. I never intended for him to face the Jarrah with us, so I needed to let him go.
I held my lantern aloft and followed the orcs into the dark depths I'd hoped never to return to. One last venture into the underground. For my children, for all the children the Jarrah have taken, for all the families they've destroyed, for all the future lives that will be lost if we fail. Fly away fear, I don't need you twitching upon my heart. Leave me alone as I descend once more into the abyss.
Day 155, part 5
The stairs led to a sandstone tunnel wide enough that even the orcs could walk three across. Catacomb entrances appeared to the sides every dozen yards or so, but the tunnel itself was straight and flat.
Daelis and I stayed slightly ahead of the orcs. He held a lantern toward one of the catacomb passages and said, "The ancient leaders of the Jade Realm are supposedly interred down here. Conquerors and kings. At least they were kings until the High Kingdom of Bacra was forged. Dukes after that. Every realm has its duke, and now High King Nylian Lightborn sits above all of them in the Halls of Anthora. Anyway, I'm not sure when they started interring dead royalty above ground instead of here. The oldest tombs in the Jadeshire Cemetery are so worn they can't be read. I know there are dozens of Wintertides there. Wintertide was the ruling family for centuries before the line died out and my great-grandfather took over the Jade Duchy. He was the rightful heir to it via some distant kinship."
"And now you're the heir, despite the great efforts you went through to get yourself disowned," I said.
"Yeah... well, let's see if I survive long enough for that to matter."
Mara appeared next to me. Her polearm end tapped an irregular rhythm on the worn tunnel floor. She linked her arm through mine and said, "You have at least a hundred years left to worry about your survival, Daelis."
"I doubt it. I think she's going to kill me as soon as she sees me, which I hope isn't until after Rin and our children are safe," Daelis said.
Mara sighed and shook her head. "If she was going to kill you herself, she would have already done it. She is a coward of the worst sort, arrogantly assuming she can absolve herself of responsibility by avoiding the unpleasant. She has always relied on either other people or the caves to kill her victims for her. My dear boy, the only decent thing my daughter ever did was bring you into the world and immediately hand you off for someone else to raise."
Daelis slowed his pace and stared down the tunnel. The bottom steps of an upward staircase were coming into view. We were already under the citadel. "All I ever wanted was her approval and maybe a little affection, but now I'm grateful she wanted nothing to do with me. If she'd raised me herself, she would have turned me into one of her Jarrah."
"She couldn't have."
"Why not? Because I'm male?"
"No. Male Jarrah are not as common as female ones, but there are several currently in the family. She could not have made you into a Jarrah because it is against your nature. You are not shadow-skilled, but more than that, you have empathy, something Ranalae and most Jarrah are not capable of. I myself have great difficulty with the concept, which may be why it took me so many decades to come to my senses about what we were doing."
"Why does she want Shan, then?" I asked. We paused at the bottom of the stairs and waited for the orcs to catch up. "My son is one of the kindest, gentlest, most altruistic people I've ever known. He would never hurt anyone intentionally."
Mara squeezed my arm. "Rin, your son also has the potential to become the most powerful warlock in all of Bacra. Ranalae knows this, and that is why she wants to break him. She intends for him to inherit the Jarrah from her one day."
"He would never do that. He would never be like her," I said. The very notion of my sweet Shan becoming a version of Ranalae's sadistic Fathomless Mother horrified me.
Mara clicked her tongue against her teeth. "She has had him for a week. She has broken people in far less time than that. Far less. Her methods are... persuasive. Eilie only took two hours to transition from sweet, shadow-gifted adolescent to devout Jarrah, and that girl's spirit was strong."
"But she was also raised a Nightshadow of Mountain Home," Daelis said, his voice choked. "Shan was raised by Rin and the rest of the Sylleth family. Cruelty is not seen as normal in their family like it is in yours."
Frald was behind us. She looked up at the rising stairs and asked, "What now? Up into the citadel?"
"Shh." Daelis held up a hand and closed his eyes. He tilted his head to the side, toward one of the catacomb entrances. "Do you hear that?"
Mara took a step toward the tunnel. "Yes."
I stood still and listened. Nothing but our own breaths and unsteady hearts. And then, something different. Metal striking metal. It was distant and muffled, but it was real.
"I hear nothing. You elves and your wolf ears..." Frald sighed and passed her walking staff from hand to hand.
"Anvil," I said. "Sounds like an anvil strike. I hear it."
"Anvils... I had wondered where Ranalae moved the forge. She wouldn't tell me. It makes sense for her to keep it close, considering what she's doing with it," Mara said. She pressed the tiny lever on her polearm to release the blade. She nodded her head toward the catacombs. "Come on, this way."
"Wait. What is she doing with it?" Daelis asked.
Mara kept her back to us as she walked into the catacomb passage. "Wait five minutes and you will see for yourself."
Day 155, part 6
The air became warmer and drier as the clanging grew louder. We descended deeper into the catacombs. I tried not to look at the skulls lining the walls or the shinbones littering the floor. I'd been around the dead before, but never this many at once. There were leagues of catacomb tunnels in this necropoli
s. I'd bet there were at least ten times as many dead interred under Jadeshire than there were living souls residing above.
I caught Daelis staring at me more than once. "What?" I asked as I stepped over a gap in the path. "Afraid of being added to the bone pile?"
"Afraid you will be," Daelis said. He passed his lantern off to Mara so he could put his arm around me. "I wish you weren't here, but I'm not going to tell you to turn around and go home with Tessen. You'd refuse anyway. You need to be here for Shan and Yana, and we have a better chance with you than without. I'm just... I'm..."
"Scared of losing me, and our baby along with me," I said. I nudged him toward a skull-studded wall and allowed the orcs to pass us. I stroked his jaw and said, "We might die today, but an early death is better than a lifetime of regret. We're not going to die, though. We have to go home and face Tessen's wrath for locking him out."
"Just don't let him know I was in on it or he's going to spend years seething at his horrible stepfather," Daelis said. He pulled me into a desperate kiss, then released me and resumed walking toward the clanging. He adjusted the sling that kept his left arm from getting in the way, then ran his fingers over the knife hilts on his vest harness. "I'm going to try turning off everything that isn't related to our objective now."
"Good plan. Calm, fearless, focused. That method has kept me alive through impossible situations more than once."
"Let's try it one last time, then. Never again, okay?"
A warm glow touched my face but I couldn't yet see its source. Mara stood before us, mask on and hood up. Sister Chaos was leading us into the inferno.
"Careful now, they're here," Mara said, a gloved finger held over her masked lips. She stepped forward into the light.
The catacombs opened into a wide pit lined with descending staircases. An array of forges and workstations took up much of the floor, and at each toiled an Uldru slave. Varaku armed with whips wandered between the rows. At the center of the pit was a great glowing crucible filled with some manner of molten metal. Neat stacks of armor sat to the left of the crucible. Each piece was too large for a person, far too large.
"Dragon forge," Mara said. "The Jarrah are creating dragon battle armor. Ranalae intends to conquer the realms. The last thing she told me was that slaughtering the High King and burning the Halls of Anthora will be her masterpiece."
"How far away from initiating this war is she?" Frald asked.
"Less than a year," Mara replied. She nodded toward the right side of the pit. "Leave your lanterns. We'll go this way. Fewer Varaku, though I don't think they'll bother us once they see me. Jarrah are gods to them and they know not to interfere with our business."
We descended the stairs and found ourselves in an antechamber full of iron cages. Each cave held several sleeping Uldru. There were no Varaku here, and I was tempted to break the locks to free the Uldru, but I was afraid it would prematurely call attention to our presence. Those poor, mistreated people would need to wait until after our primary task was completed.
"I don't see Yana here," Daelis whispered. His eyes darted from one cage to the next. "They're all adults and older adolescents. Where is Yana?"
"Is she magic-skilled?" Mara asked.
"Very," I replied.
Mara continued into the main chamber without another word. We followed her along the wall. A pair of Varaku glared at us, but continued eating their blood-smothered meal and made no move to attack.
We saw the Jarrah as we reached the opposite side of the pit from the forge workshop. There were six, indistinguishable from each other aside from slightly different physical builds. They were bent over a stone table at the center of the quadrant.
The Jarrah closest to us stood upright and spun around to face us. "Sister Chaos has brought us treats," she said. Her voice was high-pitched and strident. "Fathomless Mother, what shall we do with them?"
A second Jarrah stepped away from the table and for the first time I saw what was on it. Yana. My daughter was on her back, arms and legs tied down. Her eyes were clenched shut and blood oozed from the dozens of cuts on her exposed skin. Two of the Jarrah held bloodied knives in their hands.
They were hurting her, hurting my Yana. Rage ignited my nerves but I forced myself to ignore it. I had to stay calm. They would likely kill her if I didn't control my emotions. I diverted my attention to scouting the rest of the area. Yana was here, but where was Shan?
"Is the slave child dead?" Mara asked. The voice behind the mask was impassive.
"It has been given a sleep draught," Ranalae replied. I recognized her voice immediately. "It would bleed out too quickly if it were awake and frightened. It will die eventually, but we can sustain it for months using this method. More magic-skilled blood for the pot, more magic in the armor."
"A wise method, Fathomless Mother, an efficient method," Mara said.
"Yes, it is." Ranalae took a step closer to us. "Now what have you brought me, Sister? Six orcs, two of whom are magic-skilled. Healers. Quite useful. They will repair our slaves. The other four will become our slaves. Good, strong slaves, and if they refuse, they will become food for our loyal friends. I see you have also recovered Daelis Goldtree and his whore. I would rather have seen them with their heads detached from their bodies, but I suppose that can still be arranged." She twisted toward the four Jarrah who still crouched around the table. "Brother Eclipse, would you mind feeding the bones of these two disappointments to the fire? I'd carry them there myself, but I suspect they are awfully heavy."
We drew our weapons and stood ready to strike.
Brother Eclipse set his knife on the edge of the table and straightened his back. A metallic flash caught my attention. The other Jarrah were unadorned, but this one wore a pendant around his neck. It was a glass and turquoise eye with a pair of horizontal pewter wings on one side and a looped snake emerging from the other side. I'd never seen such a design before, and it certainly didn't resemble the Nightshadow crest.
He offered Ranalae a deep bow of his head before striding to a nearby weapon rack and choosing a sword. Next to the rack was a table with a fabric-lined box placed on top. Two yellow and gold dragon eggs sat nestled within. So, there were Shan's eggs, but where was Shan? I couldn't see far. The Varaku had formed a circle around us. We couldn't move without either backing into them or charging the Jarrah.
"Whose head would you like me to bring you first, Fathomless Mother?" Brother Eclipse asked. No, not Brother Eclipse. Shan. I knew the pitch and rhythm of his voice, the subtle bounce and glide of his step, the nearly-human broadness of his shoulders. I knew my son, even when he was dressed as a monster.
No. No, no, couldn't be. It couldn't have been Shan who just a moment earlier was pressing a knife into Yana's arm. It had to be someone else within that vile crimson cloak, someone with a half-elven build and a height similar to my son's.
"Shannon..." I murmured. My hands threatened to drop my sword, but I fought them and won. What did Ranalae do to my boy? What level of brutality did she need to reach to shatter his benevolent soul? He was hurting his sister, the little girl he loved like she was his own blood. My Shan was gone. Ranalae killed him.
"Oh, Katrin... we do not use such informal names here," Ranalae said. I couldn't see the sneer behind her mask, but I certainly felt it. She held up her arms. "Loyal friends, I have changed my mind. You may feast on the orcs."
Dark blood misted the air as the orcs slashed at the charging Varaku. I wasn't yet worried about my friends. Their strength would keep them alive for quite some time. I hoped they wouldn't need my help for a while. I was too devastated to respond.
Ranalae gestured toward the monster who used to be my son. "Kill them, Brother Eclipse. The rest of you, prepare to fight."
Shan held up his sword and lunged at Daelis. Barely a handspan from Daelis's throat, Shan pivoted and planted his blade in Mara's heart. She released a surprised gasp and fell against him. He yanked his sword from her and tossed her to the side. She was dead before sh
e landed.
He pointed his sword toward Ranalae and screamed, "I won't let you take another piece of my soul away from me! Kill them yourself!"
Ranalae shook her head. "Child, all this means is you are not yet ready and need more time in the conditioning chamber. I will return you there now. Sister Umbrage, I am leaving you in command. Kill them all."
The four Jarrah chose weapons and joined the rush of Varaku.
Ranalae grabbed Shan's wrist and wrenched him toward her. The sword clattered to the ground as he fell to his knees. Ranalae rotated her free hand upward.
And nothing happened. I assumed she meant to teleport, but she remained as she was. Her shoulders twitched, first in confusion, then in anger.
Shan took off his mask and smiled up at her. His face was marred by six parallel, vertical gashes resembling claw marks. "Didn't work as you expected, Grandmother?"
"Arrogant child!" Ranalae struck his injured face twice. The impact reopened the wounds and blood trickled down his neck. "How dare you shadow me?" She twisted Shan's arm upward until the bones in his wrist snapped. He yelped and tears mingled with his blood.
"Don't teach me things if you don't want me to use them," Shan said. His voice was strong in spite of his obvious pain.
My body finally decided to obey the screams of my mind. I swung my sword at Ranalae. She held up her arm and my blade contacted metal. She wore maille beneath her robe. This complicated things, since there were fewer vulnerable points I could strike. She let go of Shan so she could retrieve his sword. She aimed it at his neck, but I knocked the blade out of her grip before she could strike. She retreated from me and grabbed another sword from the rack. I stepped around Shan so I could position myself between my injured son and our attacker.
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