No Earthly Treason (The Necromancer's Daughter Book 2)

by Genevra Black

  She waited on the second landing as Sissel thumped down the stairs, finished with her own search. “Any luck?”

  “Nothing.” They descended the last two flights of stairs, ending up in the main hall again. “They’re all empty.”

  “Could his apartment be cloaked or something?”

  Sissel paused and considered this. “Some people do that, but it’s kind of hard to maintain. You can only hide so much from people, you know? If they know what to look for, they can just feel their way through.” Another pause. “I didn’t sense any of that stuff while I was searching. Maybe he’s hiding behind something non-magical.”

  Thoughtfully, she walked down the hall, and Edie followed close behind. “Like a secret door or something?”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  Edie looked at the wall closest to her. Every so often, there were cracks or gouges that exposed the horsehair plaster beneath. She reached out, running her hand over the walls and knocking softly on them. They had a particular denseness to them; once the noise went in, the walls absorbed it, and there was no echo.

  As Sissel led her back toward the laundry room, Edie kept knocking. The teen glanced back for a moment and gave her a look, but seemed to catch on quickly. She moved to the opposite wall and started to do it, too.

  Nothing changed as they came to the laundry room. It was a tiny, dirty, tiled room with flickering lights the color of pee. A washer and dryer stood haphazardly on one side of the room, but they weren’t actually hooked up to anything, and the dryer seemed to have an abandoned squirrel’s nest or something in the drum of it. A laundry cabinet in one of the corners had been reduced to a pile of timber, its wire hangers strewn all over the floor.

  Most notably, the far wall was made entirely of stone. Rough-hewn stone, like that of a medieval dungeon.

  “Oh, yeah.” Sissel came out from behind Edie and stared at the wall. “I didn’t really notice that when I came in.”

  Edie couldn’t help but gape at her.

  “Look, my dude, I either notice every small little detail, or I’m completely oblivious to everything. There’s no in-between.”

  “Fair enough. At least we’re here now.” Edie walked up to the stone wall and touched it. There were minute cracks between the stones, and when she ran her hand over them, she could feel a draft coming through. She’d have bet anything that there was a passageway on the other side. “I guess start looking for a button or something that can open this.”

  Sissel hummed, looking around the room. “I know where I hide stuff I don’t want my dad to find.” She walked along the right-hand wall and crouched in front of a ventilation duct with an ornate wrought-iron cover. Hooking her fingers through the cover, she dragged it out and reached in. Something clicked inside of the vent, echoing.

  Edie was surprised how silent the secret door was. With another faint click, it whispered open. It had only shifted slightly, so the entrance was small and cramped, and Edie had to turn sideways to edge her way in. Sissel followed close after.

  The passageway beyond was so pitch-black that even the yellowish light from the laundry room did little to illuminate what was beyond the doorway. Both Edie and Sissel took out their cell phones, swinging the flashlights around to try and find a switch to close the door. Edie found it first: a heavy-duty flip switch attached to an electrical box.

  She hugged her jacket tighter. It was freezing in here already. She kept her phone trained on the floor while Sissel kept hers focused straight ahead, but it was like the darkness down here had substance. The light could only cut through a few feet ahead of where they stood.

  Slowly, they made their way through the secret passage. It ended in a flight of switchback stairs, packed tightly together in a narrow shaft. No noises from the street reached them, though a small tremor came from the subway every now and again. They must have been several stories beneath street level.

  Finally, the stairs ended, and they found themselves in the middle of a long hallway. The ceilings were decently high, but the tunnel had become so narrow that both girls standing side by side nearly filled it.

  Edie looked to the left, then the right, and whispered, “Which way?”

  “I dunno. I’m also not a hundo that he’s going to be happy to see you, even if you brought him something he wants.”

  She cut Sissel a look. “That’s why I told you not to come.”

  The teen shrugged. She was trying to act cool, but she was clearly anxious, wiping her hands on her leggings. “To be honest, I didn’t think we’d get this far.”

  Edie sighed and picked left, starting down the hall. Left was as good as right. These passages couldn’t go on forever; she’d find Khenbu eventually. “You can still leave.”

  “I— I dunno,” Sissel mumbled, lingering a few paces behind Edie. “It’s getting dark out, and I guess my dad will want me to come home for dinner….”

  Just as Edie was about to turn around and send her back, she spotted a blue glow at the end of the corridor. Had that been there before?

  No, it was around a corner, coming closer. Quickly.

  Before Edie fully registered what was going on, the clink of armor echoing down the hall reached her ears. Heavy footsteps.

  She sprang into action, turning on her heel and hurrying Sissel down the hallway in front of her. “Go, go! Someone’s coming.”

  But before they could reach the stairwell and turn back, light washed over her shoulders, illuminating the hall on either side of them and casting long shadows. Fuck.

  They both turned to see what was waiting for them at the other end of the hallway.

  Chapter Seventeen

  There were three or four of them, and Edie could tell by their armor that they were guards. They were tall figures, almost big enough to touch the ceiling of the corridor, their forms vaguely humanoid. But instead of human features, the beaks and beady eyes of ravens stared back at her. They were big-headed, covered in black feathers that shimmered purple under the sky-blue lanterns floating around them. Their legs bent backwards at the knees like a bird’s, and instead of feet and hands, Edie could see talons—talons holding sharp glaives and halberds.

  “Fucking run!” Edie shouted, pushing Sissel harder, barely able to rip her eyes away from the unfamiliar beings. Her heart was beating hard, blood hissing in her ears as she sprinted toward the stairwell only a few feet away—

  Sissel, running toward the stairs ahead of her, careened into another one of the bird men. It seemed he had been in the shadows, waiting to flank them. He was standing still as a stone wall, sword at the ready.

  Sissel screamed and dove just in time to avoid the downward swing of his blade. Edie dodged the teen, then clutched her by the sleeve of her sweater and hauled her up off the floor. Together, they stumbled down the right-hand hall, their breath fast, loud and echoing in the corridor.

  Edie’s eyes had become more adjusted to the darkness, but she still staggered and almost fell over the uneven stone floor. The bird men were gaining on them, shouting in deep, croaking voices like something from a nightmare, ordering them to halt.

  There had to be another way out. This hall had to lead to something. Maybe they could find a patch of darkness to conceal themselves—but then the birds would investigate every inch of this place, and they had those lanterns.

  She and Sissel had to find Khenbu. God willing, he was down this hall and not the other one.

  The two quickly became accustomed to the pits and swells of the stone corridors. Fortunately, they were also much smaller than their pursuers, who had to squeeze themselves through the passages, brushing their feathers against rough walls in the process. It only took a minute or so of running to put distance between them, but it would still only buy them a handful of seconds if one of them fell or made a mistake.

  They came to another fork, and Edie paused for a half-second to consider. Though she couldn’t make out much in the darkness, she thought she saw a break in the stone wall on the left sid
e, and—yes! A tiny sliver of soft orange light glowed in the darkness. The gap of a doorway.

  She grabbed Sissel’s hand and sprinted in that direction, but when they reached the door—heavy, old, with an iron ring handle—they found it latched and locked with a large, modern padlock.

  “Fuck!” Edie banged on the door, shoving it back and forth, but neither the padlock nor the latch would give. She raised her head and saw sky-blue fill the corridor only fifty feet from them. Looking at Sissel, she asked, “Can you make them stop?”

  Sissel looked up at her with shining eyes, gulping hard. She shook from exhaustion. Edie could sense that the girl was running purely on adrenaline. “I could maybe control one for a second, but not all of them.” She turned to look at the wall next to the door and pounded on it with a fist, shouting in frustration, “I wanna break down this fucking wall! Let us in!”

  Break down this wall. Edie’s stomach was doing flips as she reached into her shoulder bag.

  The birds were at the end of the hall now. The echoes of Sissel’s shouting had disoriented them, but it would only take them a second to spot the two in the dark.

  Edie’s hand closed around Indriði’s piece of chalk. She trotted a few more feet down the hall and, with shaking hands, started to trace the outline of a doorway. The wall was so bumpy that she had to go painfully slowly so as not to break the chalk in half.

  Sissel screamed when the birds turned and spotted them. “Edie!”

  “I just need a second!” Sweat ran down her back, her palms, her forehead as she meticulously traced the doorway, making sure it touched the floor on both sides. A complete, connected, three-sided doorway. Before her eyes, the chalk lines began to hiss and sparkle with a dull light.

  The bird man leading the charge stumbled, nearly falling over. Whether it was by chance or Sissel’s doing, it bought Edie one more second. She pushed against the stone door with all her might, growling with effort as she did.

  It barely moved. She wasn’t strong enough.

  Before the misery of her failure even hit her, Sissel was beside her, pushing along with her. Grunting, their shoes slipping against the gritty floor, they managed to budge the wall.

  Then, without warning, it swung in easily and dumped them both into the room beyond.

  “Close it!” came a mangled cry. From her or Sissel? She was so panicked she couldn’t tell. They scrambled to their feet and positioned themselves on the other side of the stone. The blue of the lanterns became brighter and brighter as they pushed, trying to get the slab closed again.

  Finally, the glow filled the doorway. The bird men were here.

  One of them reached a clawed hand inside to grip the edge of the door.

  “Close it!” Sissel screamed.

  In a sudden blessed moment, the stone gave way under the girls’ weight. It slammed shut and took a few talons with it.

  Edie turned and slid down the stone wall, her entire body shaking. She scrubbed her face, wiping away hot tears of relief. Beside her, Sissel followed suit and buried her face in her knees.

  Quickly, the doorway sizzled out of existence behind them, and Edie focused on the room in front of them. She was surprised, to say the least.

  It was a stone room not unlike a dungeon, but it was well-lit by various ornate oil lamps and wall sconces. It was richly—if a bit haphazardly—furnished: Vibrant orange and gold tapestries hung from the ceiling alongside royal-blue curtains. A chaise supported by stout legs squatted in one corner, covered with red-and-white floral silk. Cherrywood chests, a wardrobe painted with yellow and burnt orange, and other intricately painted furniture were placed randomly around the room as if they had been strewn there.

  Most notably, sitting in front of a fireplace was an overstuffed sofa big enough to be a bed. It was surrounded by piles of glittering knickknacks: Ornaments of gold, silver serving dishes, platinum rings and cups. When Edie squinted closer, she noticed that the sofa wasn’t even on the ground. It looked like it had been thrown on top of the mound of precious metals as an afterthought.

  Distracted as she was by the glittering room before her, sudden pounding on the door made Edie jump. She whipped her head to look at the door—the proper door, not the one she and Sissel had come through. Deep-throated squawking was coming from the other side.

  Of course. They had managed to shake the bird men in the hallway, but they were still pursuing them. Now she and Sissel were trapped in here, and it was only a matter of time before someone cracked that padlock open. Dammit.

  Her body protested as she hauled herself up to her feet, then reached out a hand to help Sissel. If they were quick enough, they could use the chalk to slip back into the passageways while the bird men were distracted, then sneak back up the stairs and out. Screw Indriði’s paragon.

  Edie’s brilliant plan, however, was quickly foiled. Just as she helped Sissel up and turned, the door burst open and the raven guards piled in. It took half a second for them to get their bearings, and Edie watched, frozen in horror, as the one in front raised his sword.

  “At ease!” cried a voice.

  The guards turned their heads, and it took Edie a moment to realize that she hadn’t been cut in half. She blinked hard, then turned her head, too.

  A man had entered the room through a curtained doorway and was studying the scene before him with soft brown eyes. He had short-cropped raven hair, high cheekbones, and a strong chin that flushed pink against his tawny skin. Shoulders back, posture perfect, he was wrapped in a long smoking jacket with alternating black and white layers. The thick velvet sash around his waist looked black, too, but as he shifted, the light hit it and revealed dark blues and greens. He held a steaming mug featuring clip-art of a carrion crow and the words Ambulance Chaser.

  The man’s eyebrows shot up as he surveyed his guards. His lashes were thicker than Edie had ever seen on someone naturally. “If you could try not to break down the door, that would be great. And in the name of Odin, be careful with those stupid polearms!” He waved his hand around, gesturing to the various tapestries hanging from the ceiling. His guards shuffled and hastily lowered their weapons as he added, “Those are worth more than your year’s salary.”

  Once the guards—all significantly bigger than him—were thoroughly cowed, the man turned to observe the two intruders. His glare eased a bit, but he still looked wary. Uncertainly, he said, “Greetings,” before raising his mug to take a sip.

  The girls stood there, practically shaking from fear and fatigue. It was another moment before Edie managed, “Khenbu?”

  “Yes…?” He tilted his head. “Who are you? More importantly, what are you doing here?”

  Sissel huffed, brushing some hair behind her ear. “What are you doing here, man? We looked all over for you. What the hell is this place?”

  Khenbu tilted his head the other way. His upturned brows gave him a perpetual look of amusement, and Edie wasn’t sure if she trusted it. He clearly didn’t trust them. “There are hidden tunnels all over this city. I simply figured I’d make use of them.”

  Edie glanced around. “There’s a lot of furniture here … not enough to fill an apartment, but a lot. I’m guessing the moisture down here isn’t good for any of this stuff.” She looked at him. “Where’s the rest of it, in storage?”

  Khenbu raised a brow at her, tilting his chin up a bit. “It’s none of your business where I move my things and why. But if you must know, yes, my less valuable furniture is in storage.”

  “Birdfolk would never live underground unless they were forced to,” Sissel mumbled, crossing her arms.

  “Before I tell you anything,” the collector said, taking another sip and placing a hand on his hip, “you tell me who you are.”

  “I’m Sissel.” She gestured beside her. “This is Edie. We’re couriers, and we’ve got something for you.”

  “Couriers?” Khenbu crossed the room and waded through his mound of treasure before jumping up to perch on the edge of the sofa. The couch’s bead
ed tassels tinkled. He gave a bemused grin, holding his mug in both hands now. “Whatever it is, couldn’t you have just sent it to my P.O. box?”

  “Well,” Edie cut in, rolling the chalk around in her hand, “I’m not a courier. A mutual friend sent me to offer a trade to you.”

  “A mutual friend, eh?” Khenbu crossed his legs, looking more intrigued. Now that he wasn’t so angry, he was more animated, smiling. It put Edie more at ease. “Who?”

  “Indriði.”

  Khenbu raised a brow, eyes twinkling. His grin faded as he addressed his guards: “Go on, go!”

  The bird men seemed hesitant at best, but they followed orders. Once they were gone and Edie could finally relax without those beady eyes on her, Khenbu spoke again.

  “Sorry for that. I was forced down here because I was receiving death threats from the New Gloaming. Most of my collection is contained here. Where I can keep an eye on it.”

  “That?” Edie pointed at the piles of treasure under and around his sofa.

  He glanced down and chuckled. “No, this is just decoration. Baubles. The real collector’s items are hidden safely from view.”

  “New place, new nest,” Sissel said.

  “Exactly.” He twisted himself this way and that, running his eyes over the piles as though looking for something. “You might actually find some sticks and bottle caps among all the gold, somewhere. I prefer the finer things in life. But a bird is a bird.”

  Khenbu laughed, eyes crinkling, perfect teeth bared. It was the kind of genuine laughter that made Edie want to smile, too. She was becoming more comfortable the more she talked to him. It helped that he was easy on the eyes, if too old for her. Mercy would call him distinguished.

  “If you’re a fuglfolken”—Edie said the word slowly, followed by an apologetic grimace—“then why do you look … you know, like a human? Those guards really looked like giant ravens.”

  If the question offended him, he didn’t show it, but Edie sensed that he was surprised she didn’t know the answer. “Ah, I have a human form. They don’t.” He flashed a big amber ring on his right middle finger. “Being a giant bird is fine and all when you’re in flight, but I much prefer this. The ring is enchanted so that I can look and function like a human. And thank Odin for that,” he added. “Do you know what a cloaca is? Ugh. Just no.”