Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Noah let Keir’s warning settle around him.
It hung over all of them like a weapon, with the possibility of being just as deadly.
If Skye truly was being held in the deep cells and the rumors about them were true, they were facing a maze with mere hours, not days, to find Skye.
And who knew what other obstacles they’d encounter.
But for him, there was only one path forward.
He looked at Emily. Her breathing came in shallow whispers now, each one a fragile thread tethering her to a world that seemed determined to release her. Brody sat beside her, his small hand lying over hers in a show of protection, his jaw set in a way that made him look years older than five.
“We can’t all go.” Noah looked directly at Taran. “Mother and the children cannot be left here in this chamber, waiting like lambs for The Keeper’s guards to come for them at dawn.”
“Ye read my thoughts, lad. We willnae abandon any of our family this day!”
There was no question Noah would give his life for his mother and siblings.
And no question he’d gladly lay it down to save Skye.
He prayed again he wouldn’t be forced to make an impossible choice between them.
“Keir, you said when The Keeper’s men come at dawn and find this room empty, they’ll tear the fortress apart looking for us.
So mother and the children must be moved somewhere they won’t be discovered.
” Desperation clogged his chest. “The Citadel is enormous. There must be somewhere. Can you think of such a place?”
“We dinnae ken this fortress well enough,” Taran stepped closer to Keir. “’Tis naught in this life I value more than my family. I’m forced tae place them in yer hands. Do ye ken the weight of what I’m sayin’?”
Keir nodded, the burden of Taran’s words clearly reflected in his face as he scrubbed a hand across his jaw. Minutes passed as he shook his head, obviously discarding one thought after another.
“I recall a storage alcove off an abandoned servant’s kitchen in the lower section,” he finally said. “It hasn’t been used in years. Too small and too far from the main kitchens to be worth the trouble. But it’s near the storage tunnels and that collapsing passage Noah found.”
He glanced at Noah, then back at Taran. “If we move them now, under cover of darkness, there’s a fair chance we won’t be seen. If we are, I’ll claim I’m letting them prepare food and medical supplies for your morning departure, on The Keeper’s orders. No one will question that.”
Noah and Taran nodded as one.
“You must go with them,” Noah stressed to Taran as a plan began to take shape despite the fear clawing at his insides.
“Keir will need help to move Emily. And you need to learn the route and the layout of the kitchen.” He gave him a look meant to convey the urgency he felt.
“And most of all, you must learn where the collapsing tunnel is. If any of us are…disabled…or even get separated later, you’ll need to know the way.
You still have the stretcher you used to bring Emily here? ”
At his father’s nod toward the corner of the chamber, Noah pressed on. “Good. While you and Keir take them to safety, Finn and I will gather torches and be ready to leave for the deep cells when you return.”
The silence stretched between them, heavy with all the things neither could say. Taran finally dipped his chin in agreement.
“Ye best get on with it,” Finn warned from his post near the door. “Every minute we spend discussing a plan is a minute lost from actin’ on it, a minute less to find the lassie and a minute closer to this whole Citadel coming down on our heads. Dawn isn’t that far away!”
His words drove through all of them like the cold blade of reality Finn obviously intended.
Noah went to Paige, her face drawn tight with exhaustion and worry, and pulled her into an embrace. She gripped him so fiercely he felt the tremor running through her small frame.
“Bring Skye back,” Paige whispered against his shoulder. “Bring everyone back.”
“I will.” He eased back, giving her a smile of assurance he didn’t quite feel.
Her violet eyes glistened in the candlelight, but she refused to let the tears fall. That was his mother. Always stronger than she had any right to be. “Keep the children close. Stay hidden. We’ll come for you.”
Brody appeared at his side, small arms wrapping around Noah as far as he could reach. “Be careful, Noah.”
He ruffled the boy’s hair, his throat too tight for words, then moved to Emily’s bedside.
Her skin seemed nearly translucent now, the veins at her temples visible beneath flesh that seemed to grow thinner by the hour.
He pressed his lips to her cheek and lingered there, breathing in the fading scent of the lavender oil Paige had smoothed across her brow.
“I love you, little one,” he murmured. “Be strong for me. I’m coming back for you. I swear it.”
She didn’t stir. Didn’t so much as flutter an eyelash.
Noah straightened and turned away before anyone could see the moisture brimming in his eyes. The thought that he might never see any of them again stole the breath from his lungs.
He helped Taran lift Emily onto the stretcher, noting his father’s incredible gentleness as he tucked the blanket around her frail body.
Paige gathered what few belongings they had as Finn checked the corridor and gave them a quick nod.
Then he and Finn stood alone, watching with shattering hearts as the small group slipped into the darkness of the passageway.
Noah listened to their footsteps fade and felt the silence close around him like a tomb.
Noah and Finn worked quickly, stripping torches from their brackets in the abandoned corridors near Noah’s chamber, examining the pitch-soaked heads and binding those that needed it with new strips of cloth.
They had four good torches and two spares by the time footsteps echoed in the darkened passageway beyond.
Noah’s hand went to the sword at his hip before Keir’s familiar silhouette materialized in the dim torchlight, Taran close behind.
“Safe?” Noah asked.
“Aye.” Taran’s face was grim but resolute. “Hidden well. Keir chose wisely. I memorized the route and the kitchen layout, marking all the turns in my mind. If we get separated, I ken I can find my way back.”
“And the collapsing tunnel?”
“Beyond a third corridor, past the main storage chambers. ’Tisnae far from where they’re hidden.”
“I’ve no certainty that tunnel will lead to a portal,” Noah admitted shamefully.
“But I’ve seen Austin return from its depths with trunks of what I perceived to be more artifacts.
So it at least must lead to something that could lead to a portal.
It’s not much, and it could end up being a deadly choice, but it’s the only one we have at this point. ”
“Aye,” Taran nodded, his face grim. “’Tis a chance we’re forced tae take. Emily dinnae stir the entire way tae the kitchen. Nae once.”
Noah absorbed the blow in silence. There was nothing to say that wouldn’t shatter what little composure he had left. The fact that he hadn’t positively identified a portal by now weighed heavy on his soul.
“We must hurry.” Keir took one of the torches. “The entrance to the deep cells is this way. Stay close. Stay silent until we reach the lower levels. The Keeper’s guards patrol the upper corridors, but as far as I know they have no reason to venture that far down. At least not before tonight.”
He led them through a succession of passageways that grew progressively narrower, darker, and colder, the walls peppered with moisture that gleamed rusty-orange in the torchlight.
Noah noted doorways sealed with age-old timber planks, corridors blocked by fallen rubble, abandoned guard posts where a few rusted brackets still held the remnants of long-dead torches.
They stopped before a section of wall that appeared no different from the rest until Keir pressed his shoulder against a particular stone. A narrow gap opened, barely wide enough for Finn’s broad frame, revealing a staircase that spiraled downward into complete darkness.
“I wasn’t sure that door actually existed,” Keir whispered, seemingly amazed.
“I only heard stories about this place as a boy. Some of the older guards spoke of it in tales designed to frighten impressionable children. They said it was built centuries before the rest of the fortress, carved straight into the mountain. Used for prisoners the lords of that time wanted forgotten.”
He lifted his torch and the light caught the first few steps, some slick with moisture, all worn smooth by the passage of countless feet in some distant age. “No one comes here now. Or so I believed.”
Noah followed Keir onto the first stair, feeling the temperature drop as if he’d crossed a threshold into winter. Cold, damp air rose from below, carrying the scent of ancient stone and closed up places.
They descended single file. Keir, then Noah, Taran, and Finn guarding the rear.
The staircase twisted steeper and tighter as they went deeper, the walls pressing close enough that Noah’s shoulders nearly brushed both sides.
Water trickled somewhere in the darkness, a constant, disorienting drip that echoed from somewhere impossible to discern.
Great cracks ran through the stone steps where the mountain itself had shifted over centuries.
Sections of wall had crumbled, exposing raw mineral-studded rock behind the rough masonry.
Iron rings jutted from the walls at intervals, some rusted to brittle stumps, others still holding fragments of chain.
Noah counted forty steps. Then sixty. The staircase seemed to have no end, spiraling ever downward into the belly of the mountain.
Then Keir stopped so suddenly Noah nearly collided with him. “Look.” He held his torch higher, closer to the wall.