Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (48 page)

A slight breeze moved over my damp forehead.

Keep going
, it said.
The way is safe for you
.

I noticed a small, arched doorway on the opposite side of the round chamber. I took a deep breath, and with a death-like grip on my torch and dagger, I tiptoed forward. Slow and steady, not wanting to make a sound lest it wake this horde of demons. My eyes flickered everywhere as I moved, lithe and catlike, and before I knew it, I was on the other side and through the doorway.

Another pulse of energy moved through my body and faded. Another ward. I finally exhaled and glanced back. Nothing had stirred. With another deep breath, I looked ahead. The tunnel descended farther.

If I even made it out of this alive, I was going to have nightmares for years
.

Maybe not. Alex will probably kill you when he finds out you came down here.

True.

My boots padded softly on the stone floor, and the cobwebs grew thicker. A couple of times, I paused to make sure I'd cleared them all away and almost had a heart attack when I encountered a black spider the side of my hand. I hated bugs.

The tunnel eventually ended in a small antechamber that branched into three tunnels.

Well, now which way?

I held the torch before each, though it didn't make a difference. They were all identical in the small sphere of light cast by my torch. Back and forth I walked, trying to decide which tunnel to take. Arioch had said I would know the way, but I couldn't tell which one I should…

My necklace warmed before the one on the far right. Just to make sure I wasn't imagining things, I walked back before the other two. No, the stone had definitely responded to the one on the right. So, with another deep breath, I headed down that one.

I almost turned back. I'd gone no farther than about ten feet when the tunnel widened and the walls hollowed out, forming more stone beds with hundreds of more corpses. I was walking down a hall lined with dead bodies, and even though I kept to the very center, they were still close enough to reach out and grab me. The stone burned hot at my neck. I walked fast, trying hard to keep myself from running because I didn't want to make a single noise, and after what felt like forever, the tunnel of bodies ended at a pair of bronze doors with yet another giant Draconi symbol engraved upon them. The bronze metal looked wet and shiny beneath the light of my torch. I pushed one open. The metal felt cold beneath my fingertips, and it opened without sound. I stepped inside.

I stood at the edge of a high ledge, looking over a deep pit. It was perfectly round, like a great turret that had somehow sunken deep into the earth, and there was a wooden ramp that spiraled down along the inside, deeper into the earth. I sighed.

Seriously?

Down and down I walked, hugging the wall close, trailing my hand with the dagger along the wall while I held the torch outward with my other hand. Water drip-drip-dripped in the distance, plunking in a nearby pool, but the pit was otherwise silent.

I really had to be insane to keep going.

No comment.

Conscience, you can start helping or you can shut up.

The ramp finally leveled out into a shallow pool, and there was a narrow doorway in the wall. My boots splashed through the water, and I walked through the doorway and into a new tunnel, only to run into an iron gate blocking my further passage. My heartbeat skipped. Had I gone the wrong way? Had my necklace only warmed because of the corpses?

I held the torch against the gate, trying to see beyond, but there was only more tunnel, then nothing but darkness. I glanced behind at the shallow pool reflecting some of the torchlight.

Well, now what?

Just as I was turning to look back at the gate, the light from my torch reflected upon something on the wall. I moved the torch to try to catch the gleam again, and I saw it—a rusted, metal ring dangling from a chain that was threaded through a small hole in the ceiling. Very slowly, I walked toward it, and when my fingers brushed the cool metal of the ring, the stone warmed on my skin.

A moment's hesitation, and then I tugged the chain. Metal squealed and gears ground, and the iron gate rose into the ceiling, leaving only little daggers of iron poking through. I exhaled and continued, praying that the gate didn't close behind me. The narrow corridor descended deeper, and then the path ended in a stone wall. It was a dead end.

I moved my torch over it, looking for an indentation, a marking—anything—but the rock was one giant slab of smooth granite. Trying not to panic, I took a slow, deep breath.

"It's okay," I said to myself. "All you have to do is just turn around and go back the way you came."

The little stone warmed at my neck, and I wrapped my fingers around it and held it up so that I could glare at it.

"Well, make up your mind! You're the one that warmed up when I came this way." And then realizing I was talking to a stone, I let go of it, pressed my forehead to the wall, and sighed.

The wall moved.

It only moved in an inch before it stopped, but it was enough to scare me half to death, and I jumped back. The wall didn't look like it had moved, and there were no new markings on it. I put my hand on it and tried pushing. Nothing. I put my forehead on it again. Still, nothing. I kicked it, but that only resulted in an aching foot. Had I imagined it?

The stone at my neck pulsed with warmth again, and then I had a sudden idea. I leaned forward so that my mouth was inches from the wall and released a long exhale upon the surface. A large Draconi symbol glittered to life in the rock, and when I reached out to touch it, my hand slipped through as if the stone were an illusion. I stuck my hand in a little farther, and it disappeared completely from sight. I shut my eyes and stepped through. There was a rush of cold air and the sound of sharp, layered whispers, and when I opened my eyes, I was on the other side.

I was standing inside a small chamber no larger than a bedroom. Torches sprang to life all around the room, and right in the center was a solid iron pedestal. Seated on top of that pedestal was a small black box.

My heart sped as I approached it, feeling a strange pull to the object in the center of the room. It had a hold on me, guiding me forward, beckoning me closer. There was a Draconi symbol embedded on the lid of the coffer in large rubies, which had been set in shining gold prongs. Runes and other symbols had been etched all over the box, sliding over the surface like they were living things.

For a moment, I just stood there staring down at it. I found it strange that I should have had so many dreams about this box, but none of my dreams had ever shown me something so extraordinary and opulent and magical. The rubies seemed to glow in the firelight, and the runes shimmered with faint light as they slid over the surface—enchantments long since put in place by the wizard in the world up above. And I could feel the power. Great, immeasurable power bursting from beneath the lid. Centuries of waiting, like a genie trapped in its bottle. I reached out to touch the box, but the moment my fingertips grazed the surface, my necklace burned hot.

There was something different about this burning, and I thought it felt more like a warning. But what would it be warning me about? I looked all around the room, but it was empty, save me and the torches and the pedestal. I studied the pedestal a little more closely. The top of the pedestal was perfectly flat, except for a slight, square platform upon which the box was seated. Ah. It was weighted.

I would need something to replace the box with, but how could I do that having no idea how much the box actually weighed? Arioch had said it stored a breath, which meant I'd only have to account for the weight of the box. But then I remembered he had also said something about ancestry records. Considering the size of the box, either the records weren't very long, or the font would require use of a magnifying glass.

Either way, I hadn't brought anything with me, other than my dagger and necklace—neither of which I was about to leave behind. There had to be something around this room…

Sure enough, I noticed a small piece of ironwork hanging from the back of the pedestal. It was shaped in the Draconi "D." I lifted it from its small hook, shoved my dagger in my belt and carefully set down my torch. After a slight pause and a silent pep-talk, I made the swap and held my breath.

Nothing happened.

I exhaled slowly and turned my attention to the box in my hands. The box itself couldn't have weighed more than a few pounds, and the runes shimmered more brightly now, moving faster as they slid beneath my fingers. Did I open it? Or did I wait for Arioch? He had said I would need a spell to reestablish the connection. But couldn't I at least look inside? I thought that I should probably wait for Arioch, but my hands seemed to have a different idea. My thumb lifted the small latch, as if someone else were guiding it there, and my fingers raised the lid.

A burst of air exploded in my face so strongly it threw me back against the wall. My insides churned while my head and heart pounded. The stone burned so hot against my skin I thought it might melt right through me, and there were voices. So many voices, as if I'd suddenly been thrown into a crowd where everyone was talking at me, images blurring like I was spinning in circles, and then I couldn't breathe. I wheezed and coughed, staggering on all fours, trying to inhale. Trying to blot out the visions and commotion. Trying to gather myself. After what felt like forever, the stone cooled, the chaos disappeared, and I could breathe again. But I felt strange, shaky and lightheaded as if I hadn't eaten and my body was feeding on adrenaline. I remembered the box and looked around for it. It lay on the ground in front of me, open, and I peered inside.

It was empty, save a small, tightly wound scroll resting innocently at the bottom.

Magnifying glass, then.

I quickly shut the lid, but the runes no longer shimmered or slid over the surface. Well, I couldn't worry about that. I still had an entire crypt to traipse right back through. So I shoved the box vertically into my cloak pocket, grabbed my dagger, and headed back. Through the tunnels and up the ramp, up the corridor of corpses, my footfalls faster and faster the closer I was to the exit. I couldn't believe it. I'd gotten what I'd come for. It hadn't been so bad, considering, save the thousands of sleeping kytharii. I reached the large chamber of kytharii, basking in my success; I could almost see the opened sarcophagus and the iron doors and the green landscape beyond where Thad would be waiting. I started across the floor of the chamber, my excitement and adrenaline flowing at full speed, and that's when I tripped.

I'd been so focused on my exit and showing off my find that I hadn't noticed the rock jutting out of the floor. I fell forward, bracing myself for impact with my hands while also trying not to skewer myself with my dagger or burn my face with my torch. The force of the impact shot through my arms and I toppled over, holding my knife and torch out in front of me as my shoulder collided with the ground, crunching on something.

My eyes widened in horror. The necklace.

I scrambled to my feet and little pieces of stone slid down my leathers.

Oh, no.

I held my breath, my heart thumping, but the dome was quiet as a tomb should be. Relieved, I tiptoed forward, and then I heard movement.

Soft stirs rustled throughout the hollow dome, echoing all around me. Overcome with cold terror, I sprinted. My boots pounded on the stone floor, through the pathway and up the narrow corridor, praying my torch didn't burn out. Yips and eerie calls echoed from deeper in the darkness, as death and malevolence swelled behind me. I would never survive so many, and Thad…

I pounded up the steps, sending silent praises that the sarcophagus was still open, and I smacked right into one of Arioch's wards. I fell back a few steps, cursing to myself. The stone had allowed me to pass through last time, but I no longer had the stone. Arioch's wards would hold me inside like invisible walls, just as they had held the kytharii in for centuries. And the sounds were getting closer.

I had to get out of here. Panicking, I pressed my hands forward, feeling the edges of Arioch's invisible ward. It was hard as rock, though I could see right through it. There had to be a way to break it down. I glanced back down the dark cave. I could hear the light footfalls of the kytharii padding down the stone, scraping and clawing the rock as they neared, sounding like a horde of rats. My lungs heaved as I frantically pushed against the surface of the ward like I might physically press it back. My teeth grit as I strained, then in a moment of desperation I reached down inside of me, touching the warmth that sizzled there. Heat flooded my lungs and burned down my arms, and in a flash of blue light, the air before me convulsed. A blast of heat blew over my skin, and the ward was gone.

I gasped my relief, but the snarls behind me pushed me ahead. I sprinted up the stairs, skipping two and three at a time, hearing yips and growls right behind me. Once I reached the sarcophagus's opening, I spun, searching for the button on the lid. Glowing blue eyes flickered at the base of the stair right as I found it and pushed it in. Teeth gnashed and deep gurgling growls filled the stairwell as the kytharii bounded up the stairs on all fours. The sarcophagus rumbled, sliding back over the hole. I wanted it to move faster; the kytharii were almost at the opening.

The sarcophagus closed right as the first of them reached the opening, stone sliding shut, cutting off cadaverous hands and arms. Angry screams and growls echoed beneath the stone and I could hear them clawing and raking at the rock. Something gripped my ankle, and I looked down.

One of the dismembered hands of the kytharii had clawed its way to me and wrapped around my ankle, trying to pull me back to the sarcophagus. I screamed and hacked at it with Nightshade. The hand finally released my ankle, but then the other pieces of arms and hands came after me, too, crawling and writhing their way like worms. I used Nightshade to cut them down, and then I exploded out of the cave entrance.

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