Chapter 3
Chapter Three
“Am I in trouble?” Teo asked as they walked away from the atrium.
Marcus looked over his shoulder, almost as if he expected to find someone standing there, but there was nothing to see. He faced forward and glanced down at Teo. “Nay, lad.”
They walked a few more steps before Teo lifted his large, blue eyes to Marcus. “Why did Con put up the barrier?”
Marcus set his hand on Teo’s shoulder. The boy had braved much alone in his short life before he found Hector in Highvale. The last thing Marcus wanted to do was scare him, but Teo needed to understand that there were dangers everywhere.
He drew Teo to a stop and turned the lad to face him. “Why did you go into the atrium?”
“I don’t know,” the boy said, shrugging his narrow shoulders. When Marcus stared at him, Teo sighed. “I was wandering around and came here. It’s pretty.”
“There are many pretty sections of Iron Hall. Why this one?” Marcus pressed.
Teo licked his lips. “I’ve come the last couple of nights, but I never went inside. And, aye, before you ask, I felt something stretched across the entrance.”
“And you went in anyway? Did the magic hurt you?”
“There was a slight sting, but it was over quickly.”
Marcus wanted to delve more into that, but there were other things he needed to ask. “What did you feel when you stood in the atrium?”
Teo’s lips parted, but before he answered, he turned his head to look back at the vestibule. “Like it was waiting for me.”
“What was?”
The lad swung his gaze back to Marcus. “The domed room. What did you call it? An atrium.”
That wasn’t what Marcus expected to hear. “Waiting for you to do what, exactly?”
“Enjoy it,” Teo stated, as if it were obvious.
Marcus dropped his hand to his side. “I take it you were comfortable in there.”
“I wouldn’t have stayed if I wasn’t.”
Teo was now looking at Marcus as if he had lost his mind. “Did you go into any of the hallways?”
“Sure. I like to explore.”
Marcus looked away, his heart racing as he recalled the foreboding feeling that came over him any time he looked through the last corridor waiting to be cleared.
“Why are you worried?” Teo asked. “There’s nothing there. You and the other Kings already looked.”
Marcus lowered his gaze to the boy.
Teo swallowed nervously. “Unless… Shite. Something happened, didn’t it?”
Marcus forced a smile he didn’t feel. “From now on, stay out of this area until we sort everything out.”
“I don’t want to be around anything a King is leery of.”
They started walking again, each of them lost in thought. When they reached the hallway where all the children were housed, Marcus steered Teo to another room so he could sleep on his own.
“Tamlyn put me with the other boys,” Teo said.
Marcus grinned. “It’ll be fine. I’ll talk to her. I doona want to disturb the others with the sounds of the ocean.”
“Okay.” Teo walked into the chamber with its narrow bed set against the far wall and sat on the mattress.
Marcus held out his hand and produced a conch shell in his palm.
He set it on the table next to the bed, and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore softly filled the room.
Teo smiled as he slipped beneath the covers and turned onto his side, his eyes closed.
Marcus exited the chamber quietly and shut the door behind him.
When he turned around, Evander stood with his back against the wall and his arms crossed. Marcus stared into his friend’s gray eyes. “What?”
“You know what,” Evander stated as he dropped his arms to his sides and straightened. “I know you went to the atrium.”
Marcus walked away since he didn’t want to wake any of the kids. He waited until Evander fell into step beside him, then shared what had happened with Teo.
“Fuck me,” Evander mumbled. “Maybe the corridor doesna affect children.”
“Rhi was in the vestibule, too, and she didna seem bothered.”
Evander grunted. “Several Kings were in there, but only you, Ryder, and I seemed to sense anything. I want to know why.”
“Me, too.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
Marcus didn’t bother to respond as he lengthened his strides.
“Are you sure about this, brother?” Evander asked.
“I’m no’ sure of anything anymore.”
Evander grunted again, the sound rumbling deep in his chest.
Neither said anything as they returned to the atrium. Con’s magic wouldn’t keep them out. It was there to keep the children and others away, but Teo had gotten through without much difficulty.
Marcus halted at the barrier and stared at the invisible shield. “Is the dragon magic waning? Is that why Teo got through?”
“It might be that our magic doesna affect the lad.”
“Or,” Marcus said as his eyes shifted to the corridor, “it could be what’s past the cave-in.”
Evander’s face wrinkled with doubt. “Marcus?”
“You wanted to know why we feel such unease. I aim to find out. You can stay here,” he said, and then strode through Con’s magic.
The barrier clung to him for a moment before separating to allow him entry.
Marcus walked to his table and placed his hand on the architectural plans laid out there.
They detailed this part of the city. He had been trying to understand the area below the atrium without much success.
Nothing was laid out in a grid or any sort of framework.
It was as if the builders added on whenever and however they wished—at least as far as he had been able to discern.
Yet he couldn’t shake the idea that he was missing something. That he only needed to look deeper or harder, and it would all be revealed to him. It’s why he had spent so long down here by himself. He’d felt he was close.
Iron Hall wasn’t just any city. It was a place to be experienced—almost as if it were alive. He had no proof of that, just a feeling. He intended to keep that to himself until he had evidence to show the others.
“Marcus.”
He turned his head to the side and found Evander two steps from the entrance to the caved-in hallway. Evander’s hands were clenched, and a muscle worked in his jaw. Marcus walked to him and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his friend.
A wave of trepidation crashed into him as if a force at the other end wanted to ensure they remained on their side. Everything inside Marcus urged him to turn away. He realized he had already swiveled his head when he made his gaze return to the hallway.
“I think only one of us needs to go. Stay here in case something happens,” Marcus said.
Evander shook his head, his expression pained. “You’re the architect. It should be me going.”
“I need to do this.”
Neither moved for several moments. Finally, Marcus took a step forward, only to have Evander stop him with a hand on his arm.
“Let’s do this right,” Evander said and lifted his other hand, where he clutched a length of climbing rope. “If something happens, I can pull you back to this side.”
They both knew it likely wouldn’t work, but by the determined look in Evander’s eyes, it was the only way he would consent to remaining behind. Marcus took the end of the rope and wrapped it around his waist before tying it off.
“Be careful, brother,” Evander said.
Marcus slowly turned to the corridor. He needed to get into the hallway before Con arrived and demanded that they cease.
Marcus had no intention of stopping, but he didn’t want to get into an argument with Con, either.
Earth’s magic had chosen each of them to rule their clans, and they had selected Con to govern them all.
The Kings had always deferred to Con without hesitation.
He had earned their trust and their loyalty.
But this was different. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that this was Zora. At least, Marcus didn’t think it did. One way or another, he was going down the tunnel. He would get through the cave-in, and he would see what was on the other side.
“Should something happen, doona allow yourself to be dragged in with me,” Marcus told Evander.
“You need no’ worry. I’ll drop the rope at the first sign of trouble.”
Evander’s attempt at humor worked. Marcus looked at him over his shoulder and smiled.
Then he took a breath and started walking.
Marcus wished he could say he strode in with purpose.
Hell, he’d even take marched or ambled, but it was more like a shuffle.
With every nerve ending alight with uncontrolled panic, his feet wouldn’t work properly.
It seemed to take an eternity for him to finally enter the corridor. He scanned the wide passageway with his eyes as well as his senses. Something here was meant to frighten them, and damn if it wasn’t doing a fine job. Which only enraged him. Marcus clenched his jaw and kept moving.
“At the first sign of trouble, you’re out. I’ll no’ wait for you to say something,” Evander stated behind him.
Marcus lifted a hand to let him know he’d heard.
Each step was arduous as he fought against the need to flee.
There was no other movement in the hall.
Not even from insects or a breeze. The only sound came from his feet stepping on debris or kicking small rocks.
The air was heavy and as still as a cemetery.
On Earth, the Dragon Kings were the most powerful of all magical beings.
Zora was a different animal. There were many more beings with magic, and the Kings weren’t the strongest anymore.
Zora changed the rules the Kings had lived by for millennia.
It no longer took another Dragon King to kill a King.
Marcus could be walking to his death at that very moment, but that observation didn’t make him pause.
He reached the section where he and Ryder had found the tech and waited, hoping that revisiting the area would return his memories. Unfortunately, they remained elusive. Just like the whispers that had teased him.
Marcus continued onward. He tensed, waiting for something to attack so he’d wake to his fellow Kings staring down at him and asking what had happened.
But there was nothing. Had he or Ryder inadvertently touched something?
Had there been something in the air that day?
No matter how hard he surveyed the area, Marcus found no answers.
Eventually, he made it to the wall of rock that blocked anyone from going forward.
He put a hand on the stone and looked up at the ceiling.
By his estimate, they were fifty feet below the ground, and with some quick calculations in his head, he estimated that there were thirty tons of earth above him—more if the entire passageway collapsed.
He crouched, dust clinging to his skin as he studied the pile of jagged stone and soil that had engulfed the hallway.
There was no way to tell yet whether his theory that this section had been deliberately damaged was true.
It could be a simple collapse. He had seen a few of them already, but none had been this large—or felt this angry.
The fractured ceiling arched downward as more waited to fall and crush whoever was beneath.
One wrong move, and the entire corridor could implode like a snapped rib cage.
He traced the fallen debris with his eyes, calculating the angles, displacement, and pressure points.
The support columns had held, keeping the majority of the corridor intact.
One more thing that made him believe this had been done on purpose.
He saw past the broken rock and mounds of dirt to the hallway as it would appear on the architectural plans, each line sketched out from the supports to the ornamentation.
He knew that if he dug too far to the right, it would bring it all crashing down.
If he didn’t give enough pressure to the left, it would ripple into the next chamber.
Marcus shifted closer to the rock and let his magic delve deeper into the blueprints. He turned the design around, flipped it, turned it back, and flipped it again, searching for a way through.
Then, he found it. A section of the wall to his right was thicker and denser. It might be stable enough to cut a narrow channel around the worst of the collapse. It had to be perfect, though. One miscalculation and…
He rose to his feet and walked to the section.