“Now you’re going to know the path to the workshop and it will be another place for us to secure and I’ll never see you again.” Winny seems a little perturbed by how much time Callos has been spending with the records and experimentation.
“Outside of the records, we do have a human. That’s certainly something no other covenant has had, and it’s worked out pretty well,” Lavenzia points out.
“Pale moon above, the vampir are never going to be able to live down the shame of a human being the cause of the curse breaking,” Ventos grumbles, though there’s a sarcastic note that’s never been there before.
“I’m right here, you know.” I glare back at Ventos. He has the audacity to grin. I roll my eyes. “Besides, if it’s a human that made the curse, then it should be a human that breaks it.”
“You have a point.”
“Of course I do, now, we should focus.” We’re back before the stairwell that leads to the room of casks. I can smell the elixir wafting up from the depths. I brace myself.
The remnants of the fight are everywhere, in the blood on the floor, the splintered shelves and casks. I stare at the spot where Ruvan fell. I expected it to hit me harder, to shock and numb me the same way that returning to Hunter’s Hamlet did. Perhaps this wound is too fresh; I don’t yet know all the ways it has damaged my psyche. Or perhaps I’m not slipping into the void of despair because I know that he still has a chance as long as I can keep pressing on.
I cross over to where I dropped my dagger. Now that Ruvan is in stasis I wonder if using it won’t injure him. But it might not be a risk I’m willing to take—drawing our power could break the barrier that’s protecting him by siphoning my magic.
“Old blood and orchids,” Callos whispers, kneeling by the Lost.
“Nasty monster, isn’t he?” Ventos grumbles.
“No. Yes. Yes he is. But that’s not…” Callos gently reaches to the Lost’s neck, grasping a fine, silver chain I hadn’t noticed in the previous chaos.
“What is it?” Winny asks, kneeling at his side. Callos says nothing, turning a small, tarnished pendant over in his hands, smearing off grime and blood with his thumb. “Callos?”
“Jontun.”
“What?” Lavenzia steps forward.
“It’s—he’s Jontun.” Callos slowly looks up. “This was the pendant of the king’s archivist. They modeled the ones at the academy after it.”
“We have to go deeper,” I declare, sheathing the dagger on my thigh. This discovery only supports my earlier theories of these halls.
“I’ll take you to the study we found.” Winny offers Callos a hand. He takes it with a nod. She looks to the rest of us. “We’ll meet back with you later.”
“Be on guard,” Ventos says, and we part ways.
In the back of the room is another staircase. Down Ventos, Lavenzia, and I go, descending farther, farther than I ever have before. It is as though we’re walking into the very center of the Earth.
Eventually, the sloping descent becomes less extreme, before it completely levels out. We walk for what feels like an endless amount of time through a rough-hewn tunnel deep within the earth. Our ears pop, and the walls become drenched with water, seeping from unknown sources. The water is so deep in some areas that we’re wading through. But we carry on.
The one good thing about the tunnel is that it’s impossible to be ambushed. Thanks to that, we make good time.
We come upon a section of the passage that is so thick with inky shadows that our eyes can’t see through it. I slow to a halt, Lavenzia at my side. Ventos takes up the rear.
“Is that what I think it is?” I’ve only known this curling darkness through mist stepping.
“It’s the Fade, there’s no doubt about that,” Lavenzia says. “I’ll scout ahead.”
“Be careful,” I say.
She grins. “You realize how amusing that request is, right? Considering how nothing we’re doing is careful at this point?”
“Do your best.” I return the grin.
Lavenzia dashes ahead. Ventos and I wait with bated breath for her return. It seems to take forever. And yet, I know it was only a few moments.
“It’s a straight shot,” she says on return. “No difficult maneuvering of the barrier. Not sure how whoever set this up did it, but they definitely found a weak spot in the Fade and exploited it.”
Or made one themselves. I think of Loretta and her power over the blood lore as I step into the Fade with them. The stone walls disappear, even though I can still feel them on either side of me, the atmosphere thick and heavy. It’s almost like trying to breathe underwater. I keep pushing ahead. And all at once, we’re on the other side.
