Kit
The next morning, Merrick caught me before I even entered the ritual room.
He walked with me the rest of the way and held me as a captive audience for his complaints about Penny’s intrusion the previous afternoon.
When I made it clear that I wouldn’t listen to him disparage my intended any longer, he changed tack and told me to keep better control over his half-brother if I didn’t want to hear about future failings.
When I retrieved a torch from the wall and hauled open the door to the tunnel, he finally took his leave amidst ominous promises that he would find a new job for Penny before the week was out.
Her knowing smile told me she suspected exactly the kind of time we’d spent together. Luckily, she didn’t comment on it, just patted my arm and told me she was glad to hear it.
The remainder of the day was uneventful.
We broke around dinner time and filed through the tunnel back to the Ossuary.
Klaus was waiting for me in the ritual room when I stepped out of the dark, though he only lingered long enough to tell me to go home.
Merrick had things to attend to, and I could wait to give him my daily report until the next morning.
I didn’t have to be told twice.
It was a novelty to get home before twilight. I trudged up the steps of the house ready to put a pot of coffee on the stove, enjoy a warm dinner with Penny for once, and then finish out the day tangled up with him on the couch.
But when I pushed open the door, I was greeted by the sounds of conversation. I braced before I saw the gathered resistance members making themselves at home in our small living area.
Rosie was perched on the arm of the sofa next to Penny, and both of her parents stood by the fire with Reimond’s father, Hugo, all nursing mugs of tea. On Penny’s other side were Thoma and Isla, who both turned toward my approach with varying degrees of trepidation.
The chairs from the kitchen had been pulled up to the other side of the coffee table.
Reimond’s mother sat in one with Liam, her other son, behind her and her daughter sitting on the floor at her feet.
The other chairs were occupied by distantly familiar faces, people I knew were on our side but couldn't name.
I wasn’t sure whether it was fear or irritation that squeezed around my chest, but by the way Penny rose to his feet and crossed to me, I must have looked angry.
“What’s going on?” I asked, doing my best to keep my tone from sounding too sharp.
Penny stopped in front of me and reached up to undo the collar at my throat.
It was a familiar gesture these days, though it was usually him tying it for me in the morning, and I let my attention narrow to just him.
He looked better than he had the previous afternoon, too.
Less burdened than he’d been after spending days under the scrutiny of the new smith.
It was a relief to know he wouldn’t be going back there again.
“I didn’t invite them; they just showed up.” Penny tugged the collar away and looped it over his wrist as he started on the buttons of my robe. His sharp green eyes met mine. I was pleased to see the renewed confidence in his gaze when he added, “But I’m not going to send them home.”
“None of us are satisfied to sit around doing nothing,” Rosie piped up from her spot on the arm of the couch.
She met my gaze over Penny’s shoulder with as much determination as he had.
“We need to find some way to do something to make changes. We can’t let Merrick erase all the progress Levitt made and drive us all straight into the dark. Not without a fight.”
A few days earlier, I might have argued. There was too much to lose. Too much at stake. But the people I loved were at risk whether I did nothing, or whether I acted, and I didn’t like the idea of letting Merrick plunge us into adversity without having done everything I could to stop it.
“You’re right,” I conceded, and she wasn’t the only one who looked surprised. “I’ve been… complacent since we came back from spring planting.”
Penny’s hands stilled on the buttons of my robe and slid instead to capture mine where they hung at my sides. He squeezed, offering comfort where he could with so many people around.
I clung onto that small bit of connection while I turned us both so I could better face our gathered friends.
“Diplomatic means have been lost to us,” I pressed on. “There is no working with Merrick like there would have been with Levitt. It doesn’t leave us with many options, but we need to figure out how to delay the completion of the Vessel while we find other ways to permanently destroy the Bone Men.”
There were few avenues left to halting progress on the construct in the caverns, but Merrick had unwittingly given me one that I was only now figuring out how to exploit.
He relegated me to a position where neither of us thought I could do any damage.
Tucked away in a hidden part of Ashpoint with the most devout of our order, where I wasn’t likely to be able to spread effective dissent.
But maybe there was more I could do than I realized.
“I know the way in and out of the caverns where they’re building the Vessel,” I said. “The only way.”
A slow grin spread across Rosie’s face as she caught my meaning.
“Tonight, while the rest of Ashpoint sleeps, I’ll take Penny and one volunteer to sneak into the Ossuary and collapse the tunnel. It won’t stop the work for long, but hopefully long enough for us to come up with something more permanent.”
Thoma raised his hand. “I’ll come.”
I nodded my thanks, and he grinned, too.
“In the meantime,” Isla chimed in quietly, “the rest of us will carry on like we were before. We’ll spread the word about Eeus’s true nature and what he would really want us to be doing.
Even if someone catches us, it’s relatively harmless.
” Her tone turned almost mocking as she finished with, “Surely you want everyone to know more about our beloved god, don’t you, Your Eminence? It will only make us all more devout.”
I couldn’t help but snicker at her irreverence.
With everyone in agreement, all those gathered but Thoma filtered out.
The three of us shared a relaxed supper, and then it was a waiting game.
The sun set, Ashpoint fell quiet, and Penny dozed off leaned against me on the couch.
Once I deemed it late enough, I roused him, and we set out for the square.
We briefly parted ways so Thoma could fetch the farrier’s rasps and a lantern from the stables, and I could steal hammers and chisels from the forge while Penny kept watch.
We reconvened at the doors to the Ossuary, and found them locked. Before Penny could lament our bad luck, Thoma brushed us aside, set the lantern on the ground, and plucked a hammer and a single narrow chisel from my hands.
“They used the same hardware on the stall doors in the barn,” he said idly as he set the point of the chisel into the underside of one of the hinges.
He tapped the end of the handle with the hammer until the pin popped up enough for him to pry it free.
“I’ve removed them often to replace broken boards.
Easy enough to get in if you know how to take them down. ”
Penny stared, and I grinned as he undid all three hinges on one of the doors and pocketed the pins.
Job done, he stepped aside and gestured to me.
“Kit, I think you’re the only one here strong enough to lift this thing and move it.”
I handed the rest of the hammers and chisels to Penny, then wedged my fingertips into the narrow space between the door and the frame.
It was a feat of wills to get a good enough grip to ease the door out to unseat the hinges, but from there, it was just a bit of brute strength to lift it out far enough for the three of us to squeeze through.
Once inside, we heaved the door in so it would look closed from a distance, then made our way down the hall.
The Ossuary was eerie in the dark, silent and deserted so our footsteps were the only thing that echoed back to us in the cavernous atrium.
Dim shafts of blue-tinged moonlight filtered in through the high windows, but did little to actually light our way.
Thoma’s lantern, small though it was, cast a bright orange glow around us as we crossed to the narrow hall on the other side leading to the ritual room.
I led the way in, up the steps of the dais, and to the wooden door set into the floor at the back.
“Never knew this was here,” Thoma said while I hefted the door open and eased it down onto the stone floor.
“That’s the point,” I said. “I was here for twelve years before I ran, and my father was the Right Hand. Not even I knew about this until I became Shroud Warden.”
I divvied up the hammers and chisels between the three of us, and Thoma handed out the farrier’s rasps. Our pockets and belts heavy-laden with tools, I led the way down the steps and into the tunnel.
“It’s a tight squeeze, so we’ll have to go single file,” I called back.
Ahead of me, the inky darkness was barely lit by the lantern Thoma held aloft at my back. “It also means that this is going to be hard to manage if we don’t want to bury ourselves. So, pick where you’re chiseling carefully.”
We lapsed into silence as we made our way far enough down the tunnel to hopefully not be overheard by anyone in Ashpoint. When we found a suitable spot, we readied our tools and made a plan.
Thoma held the lantern while we identified existing cracks and fissures to exploit, and then, using the points on the farrier’s rasps as pry-bars, we got to work.
When there were no more cracks, we made more with chisel and hammer, picking away bit by bit and tossing the debris farther down the tunnel out of our way.
It was exhausting work. We were all soaked in sweat within minutes, and my muscles were screaming long before we saw any progress.
It took several hours of work to carve out a sizable hunk of stone. Just when I was getting ready to call it so we had a chance of getting home before Ashpoint awoke, a series of loud cracks echoed overhead.
Thoma lurched back, knocking Penny into the wall. The lantern slipped from Thoma’s grip, hit the floor, and sputtered, but didn’t go out. I scrambled toward them as the ceiling above me splintered and came crashing down, narrowly missing taking me down with it.
Dust plumed, turning the air thick as soup and making it hard to breathe. I squinted against it to see the passageway fully blocked by the tumble of rocks.
“Kit, are you okay?” Penny asked, his voice muffled.
When I looked over, he was pressed against the wall and had his shirt tugged up over his nose and mouth to filter out the grit floating around us.
“All in one piece,” I assured him. I swiped my arm across my eyes to clear some of the grime from my eyelashes. “You good, Thoma?”
He bent to retrieve the lantern and nodded. “I’m fine. I think it’s time we got out of here, though.”
We gathered up the tools we’d brought and hurried down the tunnel.
We paused at the base of the stairs to dust ourselves off before emerging into the ritual room, careful not to leave traces behind while we closed the trapdoor.
After passing through the atrium and scurrying down the hall, I hefted the door open again, and we all slipped out.
It was still mostly dark, but the barest hint of sunrise colored the eastern sky beyond the top of the cliff.
We were cutting it close.
With more effort than it took to pry the door open, I lined up the hinges, and Thoma tapped the pins back in.
None of us spoke when we headed back into the heart of the square.
At the forge, Thoma left us with a single resolute nod and continued on toward the stables.
I was quick to duck inside and return the hammers and chisels to their rightful places so I could slide my hand into Penny’s and hurry us both back home.
To a bath. Maybe a few hours of sleep. And a private celebration of a job well done.