Secret Worlds (311 page)

It took some time for the pain to ebb, allowing me to sit and try to adjust to my surroundings. A dull ache filled my shoulder on the right, like I applied too much pressure to it for far too long, and now the joints, muscles, and nerves ached their complaints. A weight pulled on my ankle. The tips of my fingers searched for the item. An iron shackle with thick, heavy chains returned my touch.

That told me two things. One, whoever captured me did so aware of my strength. Two, there had to be a way in and out of here, even though I couldn’t tell where. Nothing was visible. Only black emptiness swirling with an inky resilience, despite the lack of light and surrounded me like liquid with the floor being a mix of stone and moist dirt.

That made me realize I wasn’t in my wolf form. If I was, everything would have an aura. Even when looking at my own self. I touched my face, and for the first time since changing into a werewolf, I was shocked by the difference, partially because I was still in wolf form and partially because I never thought to do so after the change.

I pulled myself into a sitting position with my knees against my chest and my arms, hugging them close to me. I rested my head in my legs, wondering what prevented me from seeing the aura. I thought I could use my thoughts to call out to Marren, since our private way of communication seemed to have an unlimited distance, but not seeing auras didn’t bode well. What could be the harm in trying, though?

Marren? Marren, where are you? What’s happened to me?

Nothing.

I crawled as far as I could to find a wall. My hand found a slimy substance with the consistency of a moist moss soaked and wet. When my hand squished it, a pouf of odor emitted from the substance, filling my nose with the sickening sweet of decaying rot. My other hand sunk down into something hard but gave in under my weight. Forcing back the bit of bile that came with a gag, I let my hands drift farther along the seeping substance until they found a deformed bulge. There were several holes my fingers could fit into and something smooth and jagged. Teeth.

My heart leapt into my throat as I jumped back.
This is a tomb!

That explained the decaying odor. My breaths came quickly, making me nauseated inhaling the fumes of death.

“Hello!” I called out to discern how far my voice would go. I needed an idea of what I was dealing with. My voice echoed around me and came back to me so quick there had to be a mistake. The room couldn’t be as small as the echo implied.

“Hello!” I called again, my voice falling around me repeatedly. I still couldn’t believe the room was so small. It had to be much larger.

My head became light, as though I floated on the surface of water. Consciousness threatened to slip away.

Marren…

My body seemed to drift downward. My heart beats, swishing in my ears, faded away into the silence, and an overwhelming peace came over me. I couldn’t help but think death came to claim me.

***

A sound floated to me from somewhere. Something scraped around me, starting a small distance from me and then became louder, as if it were going to come toward me, but faded back into the distance, only to start back up a few moments later. I didn’t start at the sound. It sort of moved around me, creating a ripple in the liquid black surrounding me then faded away.

I tried to move, but my body turned thick and heavy, ignoring my will. I had become like the corpse, shriveled and decaying, chained by some great weight keeping me submerged under the black waters.

Marren…

A bang filled my ears and, for the first time in what seemed like ages, I felt my heart jolt. I wanted to open my eyes, but they seemed sealed in permanent sleep. Not that I could tell, the air around me held a darkness so thick nothing could penetrate it. I waited for the sound to come again, though nothing but the echo of silence surrounded me.

A loud grinding noise sounded louder than anything I had heard before; so loud that, for the first time, my body responded, instinctively moving my hands to my ears and curling myself into a ball to ward off whatever came for me. A wave of fresh air encircled me, and my eyes searched beyond the blinding orange light dancing from side to side.
A fire?

“My Lady Relena,” a woman’s voice whispered.

I wanted to tell her I’m here and entombed by mistake, but the only thing I could force out was a groan of pain.

“Don’t speak. Don’t make a sound. There are people here who would rather let you rot in this cell than get out.” Her form shifted. My mind couldn’t fully process what race she belonged to, except for a black blur far too massive at the waist to be considered human. “My name is Neyr. I’m a friend of Marren’s. I brought you some food and water, this is all I can spare without notice.”

I reached the salted pork stuffed dumpling and the flask of water.

“Thank you,” I forced out. My throat scratched each word, like I had swallowed sand.

Her head lowered toward me then she slowly closed the stone wall, leaving me alone in the dark, decaying air. I forced down the dumpling, eating around the cloth Neyr gave me, trying not to breathe in while eating. I washed that down with the flask of water.

I laid my head down and waited for the next time she would show up, which came frequent enough to keep me from expiring from the lack of fresh air. She explained finding the right cell had taken her nearly the remainder of the night and through the next day. She ran messages to Marren, who waited for nightfall, when the guards would be asleep, to break me free from the prison.

I relished in the fresh air blowing around my body, making the moments when I didn’t have it a little easier to bear. The water helped to wash away the bitter decaying flavor from my mouth, but a few times I crawled to a corner to throw up what little contents I had in my stomach. I wished for night to hurry up and come.

***

The sound came again. I knew who it would be, though the length of time she stayed away seemed far too long. Bright light filtered into my eyes, stabbing them and making them water while I bathed in the swirling, cool, fresh air, chilling my skin that had formed beads of sweat. The stagnant air became too thick with the stench of decay and death. I struggled to breathe. Harsh voices filtered to me from out of sight, in a language I didn’t understand. They were like Marren’s in beauty, but the tones were rushed and cold.

My hands, raw and moistened from the damp earth, barely supported me with just enough strength to sit up. I tried to move my leg, still stuck in place with the iron shackle, though it dug through the first few layers of skin. Every time a sharpened point rubbed against the opened lesion, shooting pain stabbed at my legs. Someone poked their head into the light that wasn’t Neyr’s shape. Panic threw my heart into a race as the person used a key to unlock my bondage and then held a rough hand out to me.

I tried to glimpse some features of his face, but none came to me. His face was far too shadowed from the torchlight behind him to make any features discernible.

“It is alright. I will not harm you.” His voice was gruff and accented. I couldn’t understand what he said. After running his words over a few times in my head, I realized what he meant. I gently slid my raw hand into his as he glided his past my palm to wrap his fingers around my wrist and then turned while hauling me onto his back. The movement happened too fast for me to scream, to which I was grateful. This seemed like the rescue mission Neyr had spoken to me about previously, but I couldn’t be sure or afford myself the hope.
Where is Marren?

“Who are you?” I forced out in a whisper. My throat was too dry from gasping for what seemed like years inside the hidden tomb. All around us, sandstone, carved into different sized rectangles and laid with mortar formed tall walls leaving a narrow space to walk. Ever so often metal plaques engraved with a strange symbol and a number topped the walls. If I looked closely as we passed, the cracks in some of the mortar formed the shape of a door.

“I would love to introduce myself once we get you to safety, my lady.”

After focusing on his words and processing them enough, I decided that was best until I caught a glimpse of his face.

“You’re a cat.” It was meant as a question, but my surprise and my body’s energies weren’t communicating well so it came out as a poorly stated comment.

“Would you prefer if I was someone or something else?”

“N-n-no,” I stammered.

“Marren has told me this world is new to you. I’m sorry, but I must insist on your silence now. I have to get us out of here safely. To do that, I must have complete silence.”

I nodded and then resumed taking in the stone as it changed to dirt and rock that crumbled away, leaving only remnants and faded memories of what had been. A cool breeze started blowing around us, moistening the air with the fresh scent of water mixed with stone and iron. A slight whisper of water rushed nearby us. I lifted my head to view the tunnel we ran down opened up into an underground room with large bowls of lit oil resting on monoliths of stone appearing as though they grew from the side of the rocky wall behind them.

Ahead, a thin, stone bridge stood balanced on precariously stacked stone blocks that had been etched away over time. The rushing sound below us was hidden within a black chasm. On opposite sides of us were large dragon heads, carved from the stone. Their mouths hung open with streams of water pouring out and into the river below us. Above, the roof of the cave was opened on one side, showing a thin line of torches and stars in the clear sky above. They twinkled like tiny beads of light. And for the first time in however long, I had my sight back. Everything started to glow of bluish-green aura. Despite the torchlight behind us, in front of us remained a blackness that caused my heart to drum so hard in my chest I worried my rescuer felt it.

He slid me off his back. “We have company. Do as I say.”

I nodded quickly as he slipped off a coiled rope draped over his shoulder and head. He tied one end around my torso tightly.

“When I say, jump off the edge and swing yourself over to the other side. Quickly untie yourself and do not turn around. Run until you reach a fork in the road, then turn left. Follow the stairs out of this place. On the outside, someone will be waiting to take you to Marren.”

His green eyes, with a slit pupil, stared at me in a cold and impatient manner. I cleared my throat and nodded while looking over the edge of the small bridge. I let out a heavy sigh. This time I was able to hang onto many of the words he spoke through his accent, as if him facing me made the difference in my understanding.

He nodded once then turned to face our upcoming foes. He started to run with one end of the rope in his hands. I ran, surprised to be able to keep up with him. A large group of cloaked and armored creatures charged onto the bridge. They stopped as my rescuer kept charging. He turned his head and spoke over his shoulder, “Now!”

I took a few more steps then jumped off the edge, swinging down into the abyss; my heart nearly jumped into my throat. The rope went taut, ripping the skin from my raw hands as I started to swing upward. At the top of my swing, I hung, suspended for a brief second, and then dropped down to the bridge. I untied myself as quick as possible with my fingers slipping from the ooze and blood—stinging as though they were set ablaze—then turned and ran, trying to remember the directions I was given.

I found the stairs to my left and ran up them. The dancing leaves above me fell upon my ears. The air started coming to me fresher and cleaner. I almost took the last stair when a sound, one that echoed back to me, froze me in place. The mournful howl of a large cat. The cry raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I took a deep breath and let a shudder escape before climbing the final stair to my freedom.

Thankfully, the ground was level, covered with grass that poked up between the stone. A small wall with an archway stretched out toward the sky just ahead of me. Standing on the other side was someone moving—no, pacing. They appeared from one side of the arch, disappeared on the other, and then reappeared again. I jogged at a slow pace, lightheaded from the previous excursion and not fully recovered from being locked in the cell.

As I approached, the shape became familiar. The way he took purposeful strides, the hold of his shoulders, and his features—all things I knew well having had to memorize the way he moved to learn how to defeat him in combat.

“Danst!” My voice cracked but didn’t hide the utter relief I felt when his head turned toward me.

“Relena, thank the Gods! You have no idea how glad I am to lay my eyes on you.”

We met each other in a fond and tight embrace.

“We have to hurry. Let’s go.”

I nodded and tried to keep up.

We trekked for so long I thought for sure I would die before reaching Marren. The sky around us brightened as the hills grew into mountains with the ridges capped in snow above the grey rock, and along the lower half, windows were carved from the face. The edges had been polished, smooth with the area around them left jagged and rough. Rows upon rows of these windows lined the side of the rock. Torches gave light, despite the night fading into morning. Skirting shadows of figures moved on the inside, their aura barely seen.

A small lake came into view as we drew closer, appearing almost black at the deepest point. The water trickled along the rough rock from within the mountain and into the lake. Dark shadowy movements along the surface splattered every now and then where the water trickled in. I assumed it was some kind of fish or the way that the water hit the surface. Either way, Danst pulled me along by my arm toward a slightly hidden path leading up a short, steep hill to another smooth, polished archway sealed with two large, thick, and heavy doors. Iron divots secured large iron hinges to the doors and frame.

Two arched windows flanked both sides of the doors with two people in each, armed with bows and arrows. I couldn’t see the people themselves, being concealed in the shadows of the windows, but I definitely had a clear view of their weapons. The sight caused my mouth to go extremely dry and my head to become light. I was going to faint…or die.