He patted his gun, aware that, if the fleet arrived, a few bullets wouldn’t be enough to save them.
As if hearing his thoughts, or maybe uneasy himself, Verne walked faster, practically jogging down the street.
With a soft curse, Hera went after him and grabbed his arm. “Slow down!” The wind lifted her dark hair, sifting through the shiny strands. “You’ll get us all killed.”
Verne stopped, hands trembling at his sides. “Let me go.”
“He heard you.” Kalaes took three steps and pried Hera’s fingers off before they broke the man’s arm. He placed his tattooed hand on Verne’s shoulder and made himself into a barrier between them. “We all heard you; in fact, probably everyone in the neighborhood did. Calm down.”
“He’s making people suspicious.” Her voice carried on the still, cold air like a bell tolling.
“What’s up with you?” Kalaes ground out. “You know damn better than to advertise our presence like this.”
“He,” Hera jabbed a finger at Verne, “was the one running as if the dogs of the fifth hell were chasing—”
“Hera,” Sacmis said, just that one word, and Hera fell silent, then turned away, her shoulders stiff.
Verne looked from one to the other. Sweat stood in sparkling drops on his brow, despite the chill. “I can only point you in the right direction,” he said, his voice shaking as much as his hands, a sort of all-encompassing tremor.
“That’s fine.” Kalaes frowned. “Just don’t run. Hera’s right.”
As they started off again, Alendra’s gaze flicked toward a nearby building, and Elei turned to look. A man lounged against the dirty wall, chewing on an unlit cigarette, hands in his pockets. The posture was Kalaes’ favorite, and maybe it was seeing another person standing that way that made Elei’s hair stand on end.
Or maybe not. The man observed them from under his blond fringe, his gaze keen, and a shiver ran up Elei’s spine. He nodded at Alendra and they hurried to join the others. As they trudged past shuttered storehouses and dark buildings, Alendra mentioned the man.
“Maybe we’re the most interesting thing he’s seen in decades.” Kalaes grinned, but his heart didn’t seem to be in it.
Verne left them at the end of the street, practically the end of the little town, where the last houses curled like dogs in the dirt. He vanished behind a fence; there one second, the next gone.
The mountains rose like towers against the dark sky, lights peppering their slopes where villages nestled. The vertical mass of the range loomed over them. Salt marshes stretched south as far as the horizon where the narrow buildings of a town stabbed the clouds. Grasses tall as Elei clustered in groves and thickets, speckling the landscape.
The quiet was broken only by the rustling of grasses and the flutter of nightbirds nesting in the marshes. Hera, Sacmis and Kalaes led the way, Elei and Alendra following.
The clouds covered the moon as they walked, plunging the world into blackness. Alendra stumbled and Elei barely caught her before she fell. In the dark, she was as good as blind.
He kept his hand on her arm. “Walk with me,” he whispered, and she nodded.
Hera held Kalaes’ arm, probably for the same reason he held Alendra’s, while Sacmis walked a few steps ahead, scouting.
Something rustled behind them and Elei’s spine stiffened. He twisted to look but nothing was visible between them and the town. He continued walking, guiding Alendra’s steps, and he thought of the man who’d been observing them. An uneasy feeling settled on the back of his neck. Was someone following them? He looked again and small movements in the shrubs made him catch his breath. Yet he didn’t see anyone. They skirted a grove of cordgrass with stems of his height, the spiky tops shaking, sharp like blades.
The others were at least twenty feet ahead, and the distance was widening. With a curse, he pulled Alendra along faster.
Soon he found out that guiding a virtually blind person through a marsh wasn’t an easy job. Although the tide was low, and the ground pretty much dry, Alendra kept slipping in patches of slimy mud and tripping on clumps of stiff marsh grass.
Without warning, she wrapped a slender arm around his waist and held on, her whole body quivering.
Elei stopped so suddenly they almost fell over. “Alendra?” She’d always kept some distance before. He could feel the line of her smaller body against him, a seam of fire where the curve of her hip fit against his thigh, the softness of her breast against his ribs.
“What is it?” she asked, her scent rising again around him, tearing down his defenses.
“Nothing, just...” He turned his head, longing to bury his face in her hair, and saw something move behind them — low, in the grasses.
Shit. He pushed Alendra away, her yelp followed by a loud crunch as she fell in a thicket of giant glassworts, their green, fleshy leaves swallowing her. Acid grass scent rose.
Elei drew his Rasmus and took aim. Something moved in the undergrowth, careful and slow. Could a person move so silently?
Another thought stuck him. What if it wasn’t a person? What if it was a wild dog? On Ost they were a constant threat; they’d killed Albi, and others he’d known. The thought froze him.
He could hear Alendra behind him, extricating herself from the grass with puffs of annoyance, and then the low snick as she cocked her gun. He rather hoped the bullet wasn’t meant for him.
Another rustle in the grass. Rex pounded in the back of Elei’s eye and lights sprang up, though fainter than usual. That didn’t mean there was no danger, only that the medicine he took had weakened Rex.
The heads of the stems swayed. Setting his jaw, he squinted and aimed.
A small dark shadow burst out, and Elei jerked, stepping back. It was a cat. A black cat.
“Cat?” he whispered, not daring to believe it. How could Cat have followed him all the way from Dakru City?
The little cat trotted over to him, tail erect, ears perked, meowing, and he stared like a fool, gun still pointing.
“Is that a cat?” Alendra hissed. “Your cat? What the hells?”
Elei shook his head. Something burned in the back of his eyes as the cat wound itself between his legs, purring like a broken aircar engine. “Hey...” It couldn’t be his cat. It had to be some random stray from the town.
The cat looked up at him with bright blue eyes that glowed faintly. Rex. With a sigh, Elei holstered his gun and scooped up the little cat, placing him — it was definitely a he — on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Much to his relief, Alendra said nothing and made no sarcastic comment about Cat or parasites. She just clicked the gun safety back on, holstered her weapon, and took his hand. Her fingers were warm and tight around his own.
“Lead on, all-seeing one,” she said, and he grinned, even though he knew she couldn’t see it.
***
The marshes seemed endless. Alendra stumbled time and again, her breathing harsh. Her back was drenched in sweat. Elei wondered for a moment if Hera had lost the way. That map was sketchy; maybe she had misread something.
He could see Kalaes, his head of wild hair bent toward Hera’s, Sacmis on his other side.
“What can you see?” Alendra whispered, so close to his ear her breath tickled.
“They’re slowing down.”
“Maybe we’re close.” He could hear the hope in her voice.
“Maybe.” He was scratched from the bushes and hard grasses, covered in mud and weary.
Sacmis gestured for them to approach. She’d thrown back her hood and her blond hair gleamed like a silver helmet in the moonlight. Elei pulled Alendra along, Cat gripping his shoulder so hard the tiny claws scratched his skin.
Hera and Kalaes were scrambling up a small hillock that rose above the marshes. Sacmis grabbed Alendra’s other arm and they went up together, slipping in mud and loose rocks.
“Hoping to get an overview of the place?” Alendra panted. “Are we lost?”
“No.” Sacmis pulled her arou
nd a larger rock. “We’ve arrived.”
The entrance? Elei scrambled up after them. The top of the hillock was flat and even, a circular platform, and Kalaes and Hera crouched at its center.
Elei walked around them. His steps echoed. He tapped his heel and the ground underneath rang like a giant bell.
“What are you doing?” Hera asked, annoyance bleeding into her voice.
“It’s metal,” he said. “This whole hilltop is metal.” In the middle of the marshes, miles away from the nearest city. Somehow, until then, it had all seemed like a strange tale —the map, the tunnels, the vents. He realized he’d expected to find nothing and return to Dakru empty-handed.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Kalaes muttered, huddling next to Hera.
“You’re just a mortal. What did you expect?” Hera said.
Kalaes huffed. “Well, excuse me for existing. What do you see?”
“It’s a hatch,” Hera said.
The wheel was big like the round table in Pelia’s dining room. Its surface was covered in lichen and moss.
“Can you open it, Hera?” Sacmis asked.
“Let me try.” Kalaes gripped the wheel.
“I think it will take more than one person,” Hera said. “Elei, come here. Sacmis, you too. Between Regina and Rex, we should pack enough strength to turn the wheel.”
Elei approached the hatch and knelt next to Hera, with Sacmis on his other side. Around them were small, round holes, cut into the metal at irregular intervals, big enough for Cat to fit through. Ventilation?
Alendra sank to her knees next to Kalaes and put her hands on the wheel. It was so rusty Elei wondered if it’d fall apart the moment he grabbed it.
But it didn’t. He curled his fingers around its circumference. The metal was icy. “What’s it made of?”
“Must be ancient,” Hera breathed in awe, running her hands over it. “Who knows? Some secret alloy?”
“Let’s do this,” Kalaes said. Elei could see his crooked smile, his teeth flashing in the dark.
Elei tightened his grip and pulled. He didn’t feel strong; either Rex didn’t sense danger or was so weakened it couldn’t help him. Careful what you wish for...
Hera panted, straining. Muscles bulged on Kalaes’ arms. Elei gritted his teeth, his hands burning.
“Pull,” Sacmis grated. “Harder.”
The wheel lurched. It was a tiny shift, but Elei felt it in his bones. “It’s moving!”
He pulled, hearing the others curse. Sweat dripped into his eyes. Cat jumped off and stared at them from the sidelines.
Then, as if some brake gave, the wheel lurched and turned. Elei’s hands slipped and he fell sideways. Rolling over, he looked up at the gray clouds streaking against the black sky and tried to catch his breath.
“Back on your feet,” Kalaes grunted. “Let’s open this hatch before the fleet decides to do a fly-over.”
That got Elei moving. He took his place and helped to heave the great wheel around until, with a keening screech, it finally ground to a halt.
Kalaes met Elei’s gaze over it. “Ready to see what’s below?”
Placing his hands on the cold metal, Elei dug his heels in the soft layer of soil covering the metal of the hatch, lowered his head, and pushed together with the others. The hatch creaked, grass roots resisting where they’d grown inside the rim, the hatch door scraping on red lichen and pebbles as it finally shifted.
“It’s opening,” Alendra said.
Elei’s heart beat in his temples, and sweat ran in rivulets down his back and legs. “Good,” was all he managed before he felt the hatch give.
With a ponderous groan, it rose, raining soil, clumps of vegetation and dirt on them. Elei shielded his face with his forearm as the door swung higher, a round eye against the sky.
Underneath was a black hole with a ladder shimmering inside like a pearl inside an oyster.
Cat stood at the rim and peered down, tail whipping.
“Hey, that looks like your cat,” Kalaes said, panting.
Elei shrugged. Before he could say anything, Cat jumped into the hole.
“No.” Elei bent over the hole and stared into the darkness, his eyes adjusting enough to see the smooth, curved walls of a well. “Dammit, Cat.”
“They say cats have nine lives.” Alendra looked down. “It should be okay.”
Elei passed his sleeve over his sweaty face. She was trying to comfort him, and that made him feel warm inside. Well, maybe he didn’t have nine lives, but he’d chosen to come this far and he’d at least do what he could to protect his friends.
“Going in,” he said before Hera or Kalaes or anyone else had a chance to open their mouth. He slid his legs inside, found the first rung, and smiled. “Follow the black cat.”
***
The vertical vent was wide, its walls covered in slimy moss. The powdery smell of mold hung heavy on the still air.
It was the stillness that tightened Elei’s stomach. If the vent led to tunnels and underground chambers, shouldn’t the air be moving, circulating?
He descended, fingers tight around the rungs, placing foot after foot, the soles of his boots sometimes slipping on the cold metal. There was a soft vibration in the walls, as if a heartbeat passed through them, as if they were descending into the gullet of a beast.
Glancing up, he could see Hera’s boots and long legs, and farther up, a sliver of light. Dawn must’ve broken. They hadn’t closed the hatch door completely, wedging a couple of rocks in the rim, in case there was no way to reopen it from the inside. In case this was a dead end and they had to go back.
Where in the hells was Cat? Had the kitty fallen to his death? Weren’t animals supposed to have a strong feeling of self-preservation? He’d been really glad to see Cat again, dammit, as long as it’d lasted.
Insects crawled on the walls— spiders and cockroaches, flies and millipedes. They moved quickly, not sluggish with cold as he’d often seen them in the trashlands of Ost when winter came. Every living creature had been slow to move then, slow to breathe; everything suspended in the cold.
So maybe there was warmth farther down. He thought he heard a faint meow. “Cat!” he called, not loud, but his voice bounced off the walls of the well and amplified until his ears rang.
“Quiet,” Hera muttered above him and the word danced inside the vent like a butterfly.
After that, he didn’t dare call out again and climbed down as fast as he could. Somewhere, some time, the vent had to end, and either they’d be able to continue or go back up. He really hoped it wouldn’t be the latter. He thought of Alendra, thought of Kalaes who’d barely begun to get his strength back, and his stomach twisted in a knot. There had to be a tunnel waiting for them below. Please.
The line of light above had long been swallowed by the dimness. The thermos clanked in Elei’s backpack and he tried to remember when he’d last had the medicine. Well, it’d be hard to attempt to kill Hera as they clung onto a ladder, wouldn’t it? He forced his mind to other things.
How had Cat come to Ert? If there were tunnels under the straits between the islands, maybe Cat had used one. Then he remembered the holes he’d seen on the metal platform. Had Cat come through there?
Were the sewage tunnels on Dakru City connected to the larger network? What about the underground chamber Kalaes and Maera had taken him to when he’d first arrived in Dakru? He remembered the strange symbols he’d seen on the walls of the sewage tunnels, and he slowed enough to trail a hand next to the ladder. Under the moss and mold it was hard to tell, but he thought he felt relief shapes underneath.
Caught up in his endless loop of thoughts, he yelped in surprise when his foot met a ringing metal surface instead of the ladder.
“Elei?” Kalaes called from above, creating a deafening din.
“What is it?” Alendra and Hera asked at the same time.
Elei moved his foot around on the surface, trying to determine if it was stable. “I think... I’ve found a floor
.”
His tainted eye showed him the metal floor underneath him in a blue flash, with the yellow and red pinpricks of living insects. A meow made him twist around. Cat was a ball of red color, a warm presence, stalking toward him. If Cat stood on that floor, maybe he could as well.
Maybe. Of course, he had like a hundred and thirty pounds on Cat. Crap.
He licked dry lips and put his foot down. Nothing creaked alarmingly, so he lowered the other and stood. Waited.
“What’s happening?” Kalaes whispered.
“He’s standing,” Hera said. “The floor seems stable.”
Elei moved a few steps away from the ladder. Cat came to rub his small face on his pants. “Yeah, it seems okay.”
Hera grunted and climbed off, letting Kalaes and Sacmis follow. Meanwhile, Elei walked around carefully, testing, making sure the platform wouldn’t crumble.
Then suddenly there was no more floor.
He opened his mouth but no sound came out, and he pitched forward into a blackness not even he could fathom.
A hand grabbed the back of his hoodie and hauled him back. “Dammit, fe, don’t do this to me.” Kalaes shone a flashlight in Elei’s face. “If I die of a heart-attack, I’ll never forgive you.”
Elei snorted, too shaken to do anything but stand there, Kalaes’ hand still bunched behind his neck, the flashlight cutting a line of white in the dark.
When his breathing had calmed enough to speak, Elei said, “Platform.”
“Yeah, I gathered. No walls. Just a resting place.” Kalaes released him, but as an afterthought he caught Elei’s arm and led him back toward the center. The three girls huddled at the foot of the ladder.
“What are they doing?”
“There’s another hatch. The ladder continues down.”
Elei groaned. Of course they hadn’t found the bottom. Who knew how deep the vent was. As they approached, Hera lifted the lid and peered down.
“Let’s rest,” Sacmis said with a sigh. “This is even worse than training. At least then we could see the end of the ladder.”
Elei's Chronicles (Books 1-3) Page 63
