by Ryan Muree
“We have to go farther in,” Adalai said. “We need to follow these tracks down—”
“No!” Clove shook her head and handed the map back to her. “No way. These tracks go on for days. You stay in the tunnels that long, and you’ll come out the other side knowing—not thinking—but knowing you’re someone else. You’ll be insane.”
“I’m not saying we go all the way to your capital through the mines. There’s a point where shipments are probably stored, right? Before they’re sent into the city?”
She nodded. “Near the foreman’s office. But—”
“But we still don’t have who’s bringing them over from Revel or Stadhold.”
Grier nodded in agreement. “We have to go in to find a crate. We knew this was a possibility.”
“Those guys are coming this direction,” Sonora said, eying the mechanics.
Adalai continued even lower. “And your old boss is part of the deal. We either kidnap your boss on her way out and cause a shitstorm, or we stick to the plan and look for grimoire crates with shipping labels.”
The maintenance men from the landing zone came near the mouth of the cave just behind them.
Don’t move. Sonora’s hand was up. Her lips had barely moved.
Frozen. Silent. They waited until the men had grabbed a few crates and turned their backs on them. They’d be back for more.
“We do not want to do this,” Clove whispered loudly.
“You’ll do as you’re told or else.” Adalai grabbed Clove’s arm, peered around and out of the alcove, and slipped down into the cavern. Grier, Emeryss, and Sonora followed closely.
“I can’t do this,” Clove muttered. “I won’t do this. I can’t stay down here.”
“Calm down,” Adalai muttered. “We’ll hurry down, look at a box, and get out.”
The cave’s entrance shrank behind them as they walked deeper and deeper into the dark mine. The remaining light was being swallowed.
“Can you feel it?” Sonora asked, head up, observing the dark walls and pitted ceiling. “Can you feel it already?”
Clove had tears in her eyes. “You don’t understand—”
Adalai could feel it. A tug. A pull. A smell. It was… something. Her skin crawled. Her ears turned to new sounds from deeper within the mine. Her feet slid or moved or… glided?
It urged her deeper in.
Chapter 9
Gruskul Mines — Ingini
Grier smacked his lips.
The air in the mine even had a taste.
Like electricity or rain after a thunderstorm. Off-putting, but natural. And yet, every part of him wanted to find more of it.
Grier and Emeryss looked at each other.
“I don’t feel anything,” she said, “but it’s getting too dark to see.”
Adalai ran up to a small metal hat on the ground and put it on her head. She tapped the ether-lamp strapped to the front of it a few times, and it blinked on.
Slowly, they followed the silver tracks.
“Where is everyone?” Emeryss asked. “I thought mines were busier.”
“We’re too high up,” Clove said, voice trembling.
He knew she hated being down here, but it wasn’t that bad, yet. She acted like it was painful just to be around it.
For several minutes, they walked in silence, hearing nothing more than their own footsteps echoing between the clanks of miners deeper in. The ground was wet and shiny.
“Is there water down here?” he asked.
Clove shook her head. “It’s the ether. Look up.”
Adalai looked up, shining her lamp on the ceiling of the cave. Glittering spears of rock jutted down in their direction, and the walls and ceiling were slick as if the mine had once been filled with a running, underground river.
“Weird,” Emeryss murmured.
“Turn off the light,” Clove said. When they looked back at her, she shrugged. “It’s honestly the best part.”
Adalai did so, and his eyes strained to see anything until they adjusted.
One-by-one, tiny pieces of rock and stone sparkled like metal, like stars, like ink…
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sonora whispered.
“It’s the ether,” Clove said. “Ether seeps into the rocks, melds with it, and we have to extract the ether from it for fuel.”
The more his eyes adjusted, the more the mine glowed with a rainbow of lights. They spun, twisted, turned, and he felt weightless. He had to remind himself which way was down by where his feet were. They were touching something, right?
Adalai’s light flickered back on. “I’m going to throw up.”
Grier glanced at his feet, half-expecting to be floating. They weren’t. They were firmly on the ground.
“I don’t understand,” Emeryss said. “Ether is on another realm, on another plane. I know the Ingini use it, but I just don’t understand how things like this are possible.”
“How is it possible that you can travel to a different realm to get it?” Sonora asked. “Both sound pretty remarkable to me.”
“They’re contact points,” Clove said. “We were told that the ether is on another plane, too, but like two pieces of paper overlaying each other, like with the multi-layered map, its realm sometimes makes contact with ours. Where two points meet is where ether seeps in, and we can mine it.”
“Wouldn’t that mean that there have to be places like this underground in Revel, too?” Emeryss asked.
“Wouldn’t matter,” Adalai bit. “You saw what it does. Pollutes. Destroys. This is a bad thing. We’ve refined the use of ether. Ours is more civilized.” She shoved past Clove and headed deeper into the mine. “I want to find the crates and get out of here.”
But the deeper they went, the more haunting it became. The sound of machines and people chiseling away at the walls found them higher up the corridors. The damp air was still off, making his lungs feel sour and stale at the same time. There was no telling how deep they truly were.
“It tastes like blood,” Sonora mumbled to herself. She sniffled.
It did.
“It smells like a flame,” Adalai snapped.
It did that, too.
“Grier? Are you okay?” Emeryss’s hand was soft against his arm.
“Yeah, I’m fine, why?”
“Just making sure. Clove is starting to mumble to herself, and Sonora is crying. I think it’s the ether. I think if we don’t find anything around the next bend, we need to turn around.”
He heard the logic. His heart did. But there were crates of grimoires somewhere in Ingini, possibly somewhere down here. There were crates of grimoires being stolen and smuggled across… and that was unforgivable.
“Grier?”
“It’s not right they have these grimoires, Emeryss.”
“I know, but—”
“It’s unjust. They deserve to be stopped and punished.”
The whole thing was wrong. The Ingini were wrong, very wrong, and they should pay the consequence for their crime. Stealing from Revel. Shooting that laser at Marana. Why couldn’t they follow the rules? Why couldn’t they make a pact and an agreement?
If they weren’t going to follow the rules or be good neighbors, they deserved to be punished for their crimes.
Emeryss’s eyebrows pulled together in the middle of her forehead. “Grier—”
“They deserve to be punished. Justice must be served.”
Goddess help me, Emeryss mumbled.
“Grier, I think the ether is getting to you, too. You sound like a crazy person.”
“How do you know it’s not getting to you?” Adalai snarled. “Maybe you’re the one with the problem. Maybe you’re addicted to the ether, and that’s why you were so addicted to becoming a Caster. Maybe you should go back to the airship, so you don’t screw this up for us!”
Sonora sniffled, again and again, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “That’s not fair,” she sobbed. “Emeryss has tried so hard. So hard. Sh
e deserves so much more. She deserves to be happy. Everyone deserves to be happy…”
Shit.
Sonora was a sobbing mess. Grier had become determined to bring righteous justice to the world. Adalai had become, well, even angrier if that was possible. And Clove…
“Clove?” Emeryss slowed to walk beside her.
“No, don’t touch it. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch it. I don’t want it.”
“Don’t want what?”
“Plug your ears,” she whispered. “Cover your eyes. It’s the only way to keep them out.”
“Keep who out?”
“The voices. The whispers. They’re everywhere.”
Shit.
Why wasn’t it affecting her? Why wasn’t she feeling anything? And would she even know? Were they aware of how crazy they all sounded? Oh, Goddess, what if she was imagining all this right now, and she was the one who’d lost her mind?
No. No. It was different.
If she concentrated, she could hear whispers, too. But there was no telling if they were coming from the miners or… the rock? She looked at the walls before reaching for Adalai. “We need to turn around right now.”
But Adalai had pulled ahead and turned the bend, forcing them to follow.
The cavern here was larger than the mouth with glittering stalactites and rocks, and many carved tunnels leading out and down. In the center was a ram-shackle building lit with green ether-lamps. The foreman’s office.
Adalai turned off her hat. “Let’s go. I have a few words for these jelted hol-shits.” Adalai headed out in plain sight.
Emeryss grabbed her this time before she got too far ahead. “Stop, Adalai. We can’t just walk in there.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll kill us.”
“Let them try,” Grier said, chin up, swordstaff out.
“When did you pull that out?” She took it back from him and tossed it away. It dissolved into ether. “Stop this. You all are crazy.”
“We’re not crazy,” Sonora whimpered. “We’re just a little sad that this is so hard. Everything is so hard.”
“It’s the ether,” Clove muttered, hands clasped to her ears. “It’s the ether. Ether, ether, everywhere.”
Emeryss sighed. “This is like herding sand spines. Okay, look, all of you follow me. We’re going to go right past the foreman to check for any crates. Stick together. I’ll go first, Adalai is behind me, Clove behind her, then Sonora and Grier will be last. Got it? Follow the person directly in front of you. No going off on your own.”
“If I see an Ingini, I’ll straight up murder them,” Adalai said.
“No, you won’t, or I’ll put you all in a cage,” Emeryss countered.
“You can do that?” Sonora sniffled.
“Yes.” Maybe.
Sonora whined.
She needed to hurry.
Two heads were visible from the glow of the office’s windows, while two of Kimpert’s dark-suited bodyguards stood outside.
If they stuck to the walls, where the mine was still dark, they could pass by without being noticed.
“We need to resolve this, Emeryss. This is wrong,” Grier said from the back of their group.
“Keep it down, moron,” Adalai said, just as loud. “If they hear us and you get us caught, I’ll let them string you up.”
They made their way along the edges, their whispers drowned out from the clinking of metal on metal farther down the mine. They didn’t need to go too far in, or they’d have a harder time getting out.
With the wall of the cave at their backs and the foreman’s office in front of them, they rounded the cavern and headed for the nearest tunnel where the tracks continued. The clanking was exceptionally loud, and voices could be heard.
“I don’t think we should go down that one unless we want to get caught,” Emeryss said.
“I see crates, stupid.” Adalai hurried off into the darkness.
She didn’t see crates. She was being a pain. “Adalai—”
“I know what I’m doing,” she bit. Clicking the light on her hard hat, she disappeared around a corner.
Emeryss pulled the rest along with her around two more corners where the tracks had led to some crates.
“See?” Adalai gestured to them. “These are even the right stupid size.”
Clove nodded. “They’re empty. Empty. Empty. Like this mine. Just empty.”
Sonora lifted the lid and found them empty just like Clove had said. “Oh no… what are we going to do?” Her voice rose an octave.
“Not cry about it!” Adalai huffed.
“Clove, how did you know they were empty?” Emeryss asked.
She pointed to the locking mechanism dangling off on the lid. “It’d be locked if it was full. Mine were.”
“Are you sure?”
She shrugged. “What? No, I don’t know anything anymore. All I hear is voices. They need to stop.” She clawed at her ears.
As Adalai lifted the lids of the other crates nearby, Emeryss scanned the sides for any shipping labels. But they were bare. No identification numbers, no shipping forms. Nothing.
“Clove, we need another idea.”
Clove just shrugged.
Adalai groaned and shoved Clove up against the rock wall. “These are them! These are the crates! Where are the grimoires?”
Clove shook her head.
“Do you want to die in here? Right now?”
Clove didn’t fight it. She just winced and shrugged her shoulders up nearly to her ears like everything was too loud.
“Yes, punishment for justice.” Grier nodded.
“Just a good ass kicking would be nice,” Adalai mused.
Emeryss pushed Clove and Adalai apart by squeezing herself between them. “That’s enough. Clove, if these are the right crates, shouldn’t they have labels?”
Clove squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before nodding. “They’re empty. You need full ones or previously filled ones to have labels.” She crouched down and rocked on her feet, holding her hands over her ears.
“What’s wrong now?” Emeryss asked.
Clove’s hands trembled, eyebrows drawn together. “I can’t make them stop. Cayn could make them stop. Cayn would help me.”
Sonora bent over her and rubbed her back. “Even though we’re enemies and your people slaughtered my husband,”—she sniffled—”I’m so sorry your brother is gone somewhere, and you can’t find him. That’s so incredibly sad.”
Emeryss was going to lose her mind and not from the ether.
“Over here! I found more.” Adalai had trailed ahead down a side tunnel with tracks.
Emeryss pulled Clove to her feet, and they followed after Adalai.
The metal tracks went on forever, deeper and deeper into the mines.
“Where does this lead?” Emeryss asked.
Clove shrugged. “Anywhere. Sufford. Luckless. Ethrecity.”
Adalai was ripping through the pallets of crates, lifting each lid and checking each one. But each one was empty. Each one was missing a label. “Help me get justice, Grier!”
He joined in. “And then they’ll be punished!”
“They’ll be slaughtered, the stupid jelts!” Adalai cheered.
Clove covered her ears and pressed her forehead against the wall of the cave.
Sonora whimpered and tried to shush them. “You’re being really loud, guys, and honestly, I think I just need a moment to relax before I start crying again—”
Emeryss took a deep breath. “All of you need to shut your mouths—”
“What about those?” Grier asked, pointing behind Adalai with his javelin.
Emeryss ran up, took it from him, and threw it to the ground down the tunnel. “Stop making weapons.”
“We need them to defend ourselves and bring others to—”
“If you say justice one more time, I’m leaving you here.”
He snapped his mouth shut.
Adalai moved to the crates on t
he pallets behind her. They were stacked four to a set, unlike the rows and rows of the others. Their locks seemed to be aligned and a faint blue glow pulsed on them.
“Those are activated,” Clove said out of the corner of her eye. “Something’s locked inside.”
Adalai began prying the lid with her fingertips, grunting and groaning, even slapping and shouting at the crate. “That bitch was probably lying! They’re probably stealing them from Revel and Stadhold. They’re keeping them for themselves, making us starve and go without. Because they’re selfish, blood-sucking, pollution-creating tart-holes!”
“Quiet, Adalai!” Sonora cried.
But she beat at the crate relentlessly like an animal, trying to open any one of them.
Emeryss pushed her off and pointed to the shipping label on the side. “We don’t need to break into them. Clove was right.”
Grier snatched the label off the side. “Combs.”
Their eyes traveled back to the crates.
“Combs?” Adalai spat. “Gimme that.”
Sonora wiped her teary eyes and grabbed another label. “He’s right. It says C-O-M-B-S. Why would they bring combs here? To brush us to death? What is that? How does that work?”
Clove shook her head repeatedly. “No. Yes.”
“Clove?” Emeryss asked.
Clove kept shaking her head dramatically as if throwing off water. “We wouldn’t lock up combs. My crates had the same lock. The same kind of label.”
Emeryss looked to Grier. “We need to see—”
“Where’s Adalai?” Sonora had started crying again. “Oh no. What if we lost her, guys?”
Adalai wasn’t standing by the crates or even trying to break into them. Only a cloud of pink dust remained where she’d stood.
“She’s Dispersed.” Grier knelt beside the small thinning cloud. “She’s in the box.”
Shit. Clove had been right. This was too much. They couldn’t even manage to find a stupid box with a stupid shipping label without everyone risking their lives…
Sonora sobbed. “That’s so dangerous, guys. She could get stuck, and we wouldn’t be able to get her back out—”
Adalai popped back up, forming from her pink dust into her normal shape—face red and scouring. She was ready to kill. “It’s grimoires. Stacks and stacks of grimoires. Fire, energy, water…” She seethed. “They’re all in there, and I’m going to kill all the Ingini for it!”
