48. The Catacombs
The Catacombs
Aradia
Aradia lurched forward as she grabbed at the cracking wall. The ground shook beneath the stone floor, threatening to swallow her. They had to escape this gods-forsaken palace.
“Hurry,” she called to the others.
Fear crept up her spine, making her shiver even in the blistering heat. Debris and smoke clawed its way down her throat and rattled her lungs as she heaved to the side.
“Follow me,” she said.
Aradia hoped the inner circle had made it to safety.
She focused on getting everyone out. No one was to be left behind.
Shrieks of hysteria filled the corridor as servants ran by, uselessly shoving at each other.
Pain shot through her as a panic-filled man stepped on her foot and pushed a young maid aside.
The maid looked around Aradia’s age and slipped on the slab of stone, wedging her ankle between the rocks and the wall. She pulled at her leg in pain.
Aradia ran to help her. She ignored the girl’s cry as they worked her ankle free. “Can you walk?”
“I think I’ve broken it,” the girl whimpered, her brown eyes filled with pain.
Aradia leaned down to examine her ankle. She pushed at the fragile bones and found they were still intact. Not broken, severely sprained.
She sighed in relief. “What’s your name?”
“Rae.”
“Rae, lean on me. We can’t stop, I’m sorry.” Aradia lifted Rae’s arm around her shoulders.
Rae hobbled with a grimace, closing her fist to help with the pain.
A wall of bricks cracked and crumbled to the side of them. Dust coated her body. No light shone through the black sky and only doom filled her heart. They were still moving too slow. A thunderous crack up ahead brought a scream from Aradia’s lips.
Rae jumped on her good leg, tilting them off balance. They stumbled to the ground. The jagged rock floor sliced into Aradia’s palm, and scraped against her knees. She cursed darkly under her breath. Frustrated tears welled in her eyes.
Please don’t let us die like this.
Aradia prayed to any gods who would listen. She hoped they could hear her underneath the ruin. She held her breath as a man ran toward her.
“The passage is blocked! What are we to do?” His eyes were bloodshot and he shook with terror.
Aradia clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth so hard they squeaked.
She looked around for help but found none.
Arkanians gathered around her, waiting for her decision.
Little children cried while their mothers held them in a comforting embrace.
Most of the men had lost hope as they leaned against the walls, a vacant emptiness filling their eyes.
Rhydar’s warning drifted through her mind.
“We’ll have to go down. To the catacombs.” Her voice shook even as she raised her chin, faking the courage that no longer filled her bones.
A light scoff came from behind.
“The catacombs are a maze. We’ll be ensuring our deaths if we venture there,” an older man stared at her angrily.
“Well, we’ll certainly die here,” Aradia ground out. “I’ll take my chances in the catacombs.”
She stared at the man, challenging him to speak against her.
He blinked and looked away with a resigned huff.
“Anyone who wishes to stay here, be my guest. You will die an agonizing death. Whether it be crushed by the rocks or trapped and struggling to breathe your last breath of air.” She paused, giving them enough time to weigh the option of staying where they were.
“Or you can follow me into the catacombs and between us all find the passage leading to the outer walls and to our freedom. The choice is yours.”
She looked at Rae who stared at her.
Rae slowly nodded. She would follow.
Aradia turned with her hand around Rae’s waist. She carried most of her weight and all but dragged the rest. She didn’t look back to see who had followed and who had stayed. The patter of dreaded footsteps sounded behind her and her heart sank at the realization there were fewer than before.
“Cybelle, be my light and guide my steps. Deliver us so we may live to see another day.” Aradia’s prayer echoed off the rocks.
Other voices lifted softly in their own prayers of safety.
Aradia glanced down at her ring, knowing she could not do this alone. Her light swirled within her magic and sprang to her fingertips. She pushed the golden orb softly up, remembering how Cahira taught her the trick. Warm light pushed back the shadows and cleared a path for them.
Aradia shook her head, taking a deep breath. “We’re going to make it out of here.”
A sad smile dimpled her cheeks as Rae looked at her with a quizzical brow.
“Trust me?” Aradia stepped forward, leading them back down the corridors and deeper underground toward the catacombs.
Rae squeezed Aradia’s arm slightly as she stepped with her. “I do.”
She lost track of time but her heart beat with every rumble from the palace above them.
They traveled as quickly as possible deeper into the carved soil.
She stopped at the bottom of a step and froze.
Her breath clouded around her as an unnatural chill crept through her clothes and seeped into her bones.
The hair on her arm bristled against her sleeve as she pushed the orb of light to the middle of the room.
The skitter and squeak of rats the size of her boots echoed in the hollow chamber as they ran from her light.
“Morana, help us,” Rae whispered.
The catacombs were everything she had expected.
Laid out like a giant hand were five twisted passageways with no end in sight.
The circular chamber they stood in held a heaviness Aradia knew was not only from being underground.
Rich soil wrapped around her in a tight embrace and she gasped at the claustrophobic feeling of being away from the sunlight.
A slow drip of water from the cracked rocks above dropped into muddy puddles at their feet.
She stepped forward on shaky legs. The few people who had followed spanned around her, taking in the chamber and impossible challenge set before them.
She moved toward the first tunnel to her right and shivered at the deep mystery awaiting within.
Rows of statues were carved from stone and disappeared into the darkness.
She stepped forward at the first statue by the entrance.
Vahlor Valencia, First of his name, Lord of The Blackyards, Conqueror of the First War, Defender of Pirath and King of Arkan
Aradia marveled at Kaiden and Cahira’s twice grandfather. She moved with Rae closer to the middle of the room at the next statue.
Tenibris Valencia, Third of his name, Lord of Bartham, Keeper of Draydon Hall, and King of Arkan
“Look,” Rae said, pointing to the third statue.
Aramis Valencia, First of his name, Lord of Windshire Castle, heir to Draydon Hall, Conqueror of the Second War, King of Arkan, and High King of Peraynia.
“My gods,” Aradia whispered. “It was always his plan to rule Peraynia.”
The king’s statue had yet to be tainted by age but the gray stone had long lost its vibrant color, turning the statue into a black reminder of the destruction he was unleashing.
Someone marveled at the last statue placed in the middle of the chamber.
Even from a distance she knew who it depicted. Aradia held her breath as she neared the statue. Features as familiar as her own came into view. A strong jaw, full lips, brows turned down into a scowl only a judgmental royal could obtain.
Kaiden Valencia, Third of his name, Defender of the Southern Dunes, Lord of Windshire Castle, and of Arkan.
They had left a blank where king would one day be written along with a few inches of space for any accomplishments.
His statue still wore the luster of a newly carved stone.
His face was all hard edges and rough planes.
Once, months ago, she would have agreed it looked exactly like him. But now the contrast was blinding.
He had a rare smile which crinkled the corner of his eyes and softened his sharp cheekbones.
His laughter warmed her to her toes and she had dreamed, one too many times, of his lips.
They certainly were not cold and unyielding like the statue in front of her.
The Kaiden she knew protected his inner circle — his family.
The future king she knew had lost everything in order to do what was right and to protect his people.
“This is nothing like him,” she whispered.
Rae tilted her head. “I’ve never seen the prince up close. I’ve heard he’s as handsome as Decimus, god of the sea.”
Aradia chuckled and turned away from the statue. “Yeah, something like that. Come on.”
She focused her attention on the passageways. Nothing felt right, no urge moved her feet forward.
“How do we know which way to go?” Rae whispered in her ear.
I don’t.
Aradia looked around. There were a handful of people who had followed her. They certainly couldn’t split up. A far-off rumble was overheard and the ground shook slightly. She wondered if the castle had finally come down.
“Give me a second.” She moved Rae to the side and clasped her hands together.
Warm buzzing tingled to the tips of her fingers as her magic grew.
She lifted her hands in concentration and with restraint, taught to her by Kaiden, formed five orbs of singular light.
They glowed in the darkness as she cast them down each tunnel.
Rows and rows of marbled gravestones carved into the catacomb walls lined four of the tunnels.
The lights grew dimmer the farther it traveled until it was quickly enveloped in complete darkness.
“Alright,” Aradia sighed. “We take the one without the gravestones.”
“What if you’re wrong?” A man exclaimed.
“How can we tell if it’s right?” One woman asked. Her hands shook in a dirty apron that had surprisingly remained tied to her body.
Aradia’s smile didn’t reach her eyes, and she couldn’t help the slight sarcasm dripping into her voice. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather walk in a tunnel where I’m not surrounded by decayed bodies. Keeps the air smelling a bit cleaner.”
The woman frowned but followed Aradia and Rae as they stepped into the third tunnel.
The cold pressure pushed against her as they moved further beneath the ground.
The orb of light flickered ahead of them and she rounded the bend quickly, regaining power to brighten their guide.
How long had they been walking? It felt like hours but it could have been minutes.
She hated the feeling of being disoriented. Without natural light or a sound other than footsteps and sniffled tears, she could not tell where they were. A whiff of rot reached her and she paused. Did the tunnels connect to each other? Had they taken a wrong turn?
Perhaps it was a dead rat or whatever disgusting scavenger creature dwelled deep within the ground. They trudged on in hopes each turn would lead them closer to freedom.
Rae sighed as she hobbled on her good ankle. They had taken at least three quick breaks to ease her swollen foot. Each time Aradia’s anxiousness forced them to continue at a faster speed to catch up to the others.
“Please,” Rae huffed. Sweat dripped from her forehead. “I need another break.”
Aradia stopped, allowing Rae to lean against the wall.
She took a deep breath to slow her beating heart.
The scent of rot had distinctively grown to a lingering scent of carrion like the thousands of skaraks who escaped the Veil.
She shook her shoulders once as if she could toss the uneasy feeling away.
“Do you smell that?” She asked
“Smell what?” Rae sniffed.
Her unease morphed into jittering fear which increased with each decay-scented step.
“Nothing,” she muttered to herself. Her steps quickened with the people’s excitement as the tunnel widened and lightened.
“We’re almost there, you did it,” Rae sighed.
Aradia huffed a relieved laugh at the sprinkling light behind a moss-covered path which led toward the exit. She stepped aside letting a few of the elders go forward to their freedom.
“Be careful, there’s no telling what’s on the other side,” she said.
A shuffling elder stepped toward the entrance and an unnatural breeze drifted behind him.
It suffused through the air like a poison, choking and seeping into her very pores.
She gagged, dropping to her knees, by the smell of corpses.
A clawing terror ripped through her as the light blacked out and a form blocked their path to freedom.
Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods.
A collective gasp echoed against the walls. Rae’s hands gripped her shoulders in an attempt to steady her.
Aradia gripped her hand, pulling herself upright and faced her mother’s murderer.
The king stood with a smile too big for his sharp face and onyx eyes swirled with godlike magic.
No.
Were Kaiden and Cahira alive? Where were the others?
“You look just like her.” The king’s voice was not his own.
Aradia squared her shoulders and planted her feet in the ground, if only to keep her from fainting in fear.
“Am I talking to the king or am I talking to Ukoron.”
“Hmm,” he said, “Both, I suppose. However it’ll be the king who has the honor in killing you.”
Aradia’s heart beat like a drum and roared in her ears.
“After all, he’s waited years for this moment.”
Rage filled her veins in golden light, shimmering underneath her skin as she bared her teeth.
“I’m sorry to disappoint the both of you. I will not be dying today.” Her fists glowed in magic as bright as starlight.
The king’s chuckle bounced off the walls and crept into her mind like he was whispering near her ear. “We’ll see.”
Aloud he voiced to the group of lowborns. “I will kill every single person in this tunnel until you give yourself to me.”
Aradia gagged as the scent of Ukoron secreted into the very walls around them. “Not. Happening.”
He sighed and his rotten breath floated between them, reminding her the god had dwelled in desecration for centuries.
A whip of black mist cracked through the air and straight into Rae’s heart.
Aradia’s scream ripped up her throat and her eyes burned with tears as she watched Rae turn to her.
Rae’s shock morphed into pain as she gaped at Aradia. Her knees hit the ground and she crumpled forward. Dead.
Aradia let loose a blast of magic followed by another as she lunged forward.
She would kill him. She would destroy him.
Rae’s trust in Aradia had resulted in her death.
Aradia refused to fail another person quaking with fear behind her.
Now was the time to show the king — Ukoron — how strong a Damali truly was. Now was the time to avenge her mother.