Chapter 19
STRON
“Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating when I said I knew what every underground world was like,” Adryel said, her face and hair obscured from the hooded cloak Baba had given her to wear.
Two low lumps stuck up under the hood, her hair bundled into knots that gave her a silhouette of horns, another idea from Baba.
He really needed to speak to his grandmother about how she is so aware of ways to disguise herself. She truly had too much fun helping Adryel prepare for the trip to see Knobb.
And Adryel, to her credit, got up without any sign of the Depth causing her to be sick, as it sometimes could.
Impressive as it was, he still didn’t want her coming with him into the underground, but she wouldn’t have it.
Nor would Baba.
He tried arguing with them, but neither of them would hear it.
Baba insisted that he keep her with him at all times. Stron tried to insist that Adryel wasn’t his mate, but Baba wouldn’t believe him.
Even Adryel tried to argue that she wasn’t his mate, but arguing with Baba about anything always proved to be a waste of energy.
Instead, he was stuck with this tagalong that was only going to make this trek harder.
Especially when she kept bragging about how she knew how to handle any kind of organized crime den.
At least until they arrived.
“What were you expecting?” Stron asked as they walked through the cave.
“More trees. More lights and seedy looking bars. Not this. It feels like we’re exploring caves.” She gestured her hand in the moist air. The roughly carved walls arched over their heads, much of the tunnels were naturally occurring.
Or influenced by construction.
Other Kantenans walked around them, on their own errands, many moving like they attempted to get their tasks done and get out. An urgency filled the air.
No one wanted to be here, if they didn’t have to be.
At least, no one with honest means.
Those who had more nefarious purpose, though, watched. Stron could feel eyes on them as they walked through the tunnels, and he kept his pace aligned with Adryel’s, not wanting any of those observers that milled about to take notice of her.
And keep it light, because he didn’t want her suspecting anything. “At one point, this was the height of our society.”
“We’re walking through your people’s history?”
“In a way.” He gestured to the remains of carvings on the wall, now painted and emphasizing the art made centuries before. “Those markings are ancient.”
She paused. “And you all painted it?”
“Not me, personally,” he said, surprised at her outrage.
“Somewhere, an intergalactic archaeologist is crying right now.” She shook her head and kept walking forward.
“Because we emphasized the lines that were made by our ancestors, to keep them visible?”
“It damages whatever they used to make it originally.” What he could see of the firm set of her jaw showed her outrage that the carvings were painted to preserve them.
“Where do you get your facts?”
“From a guy I know,” she replied, crossing her arms.
“A male told you this?” Even he was surprised at how much that bothered him.
She waved her hand again. “Forget it. It’s not important.”
He had a feeling it was. Maybe not for why they were here, but it was important to her. To learning who she was. “As you like.”
They walked a few more steps.
She started to speak. “He was a friend. Like an uncle. His job was intergalactic archeology.”
“He taught you about it?”
“Not exactly. Mostly he was just nice to me. I listened a lot.”
Stron nodded. “What was he researching?”
“The origins of the warp tunnels.”
He smiled. “So a treasure hunt, then?” The origins of the warp tunnels have been discussed and debated for centuries.
Who built them has never been determined, though many theories prevailed.
Stron had never used them, having never traveled outside of the Kantenan home world.
For anyone who did want to travel from system to system, though, the warp tunnels were the fastest means of traveling.
Created with anchor points woven throughout the galaxy, the tunnels allowed anyone to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in short jumps of hours rather than days.
“Basically. But he was committed.”
“How did you meet him?”
“He would occasionally authenticate creatively-borrowed artifacts for the Rhysgarrds. For the credits.”
There was that term again. Creatively-borrowed. She must have always been surrounded by those of questionable character.
“So he was for hire?”
“He had to do something to finance his passion for the warp tunnels.”
“And he was nice to you when he came around?”
“Yeah. Sometimes he would bring me a trinket from someplace when he’d stop by. One time he brought me a moonstone necklace from Orlicia—”
“Didn’t that planet blow up?”
“Yep.”
“It’s probably worth—”
“Trust me, it’s not. Believe me, I checked. A lot. Besides, right now, it’s probably mangled mush in the exploded leftovers of the transport we arrived on.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t blow up the ship.”
“Not directly,” he said. “But you lost your things.”
“They were just things. I’m alive.” Though from her tone, he didn’t think they were just things to her. They had meaning.
If they could be recovered, he was going to find them.
They walked further into the cave, following the flow of others as they headed toward the tunnels that he knew Knobb would be at.
The ones who watched looked away when he glanced at them. A sure sign eyes were on him and Adryel. He carefully kept his face neutral, not wanting Adryel to notice his concern. His own armor, however, started to grow, he could feel it pushing through under his clothing.
He should not have brought her here. This was not a good idea, no matter what she said.
“That’s citricite,” she whispered as she tipped her head back, the hood revealing a little bit more of her face.
“Raw stone, yes,” he said. “Have you ever seen it like that?”
The mineral illuminated the dark, and set off the paint that covered many sections of the rock, illustrating what different openings led to, like directional signs but more artistically done.
The deeper they headed, the more that glow accentuated, giving everything a glow of vibrant color among the shadows of the stone.
“It’s volatile, in that state, isn’t it?” She asked.
A Kantenan walked by, and he stared at Adryel, and she stepped closer to Stron, grabbing his arm.
Stron glared at the male, and the male continued on.
If she noticed the exchange, she didn’t say anything.
He continued, like they hadn’t been distracted a moment before. “Citricite is volatile in any state if not handled correctly. But that raw version is more.” He guided her further into the tunnels, and kept his arm around her, if only to keep eyes off her.
She pulled the hood down so it covered more of her face, as she remained in his arm’s protection.
Other Kantenans walked as well, some in a hurry, others at more leisurely paces.
Footfalls created an ongoing echo of sound that mixed with the reverberation of conversation, creating a kind of noise that filled the wide tunnel they were in.
The foot traffic grew as they reached a more centralized area, where markets and stands stood, with vendors pushing their wares.
Adryel looked like she was walking straight ahead, but from slight moves she made, he could tell she was examining each booth as they walked past them.
“You didn’t tell me there was a market,” she whispered.
“How else would others get marginally legal things?”
“This is an entire world down here. You can get everything,” she whispered. Foods and drinks that were imported from other worlds, and not easily found filled the booths. Everyone had their supplier who brought in something special that supposedly no other vendor had.
Each one had their unique pitch.
Either in the Kantenan system or outside, there was always an angle.
“What did you expect?”
“Bars and sex workers and drugs,” Adryel said. “Maybe not in that order.”
He chuckled at her bluntness. “Maybe I need to journey off world and see what the undergrounds that you’ve experienced are like.”
This area started to gain popularity with a certain level of criminal activity and ideas that didn’t always mesh with the Kantenan teachings, but Stron didn’t venture down here very often.
Caves and unseen places were where secret meetings were held, deals made, and itches scratched. For someone in his position, just being down here could cause issues in the future.
Probably why he’d ventured down here on occasion in his youth. It made his mother so very frustrated with him.
Which only entertained him immensely.
“There’s an underside to every society,” Adryel said as she walked with him. “This is almost legit, comparatively.”
She gestured to a bottle on a table. “That’s Nevillian wine,” she said.
He paused and picked up the bottle. “Any good?”
The vendor scooted toward him.
“Not from that winery.” She stepped closer. “And certainly not for that price.”
“Hey, I have good wines!” the vendor snapped.
Adryel’s whole poster shifted. “You think you can get this much for that swill?”
“Nevillian wines are good!”
“Not this one. Anything from Onesse vineyards is tainted. Everyone knows this,” she said, she waved her hand as she spoke.
Stron put the bottle down. “The lady isn’t interested,” he said.
He took her arm and they started to step away.
“Wait, wait. You want the best, I show the best!”
“I doubt it,” Adryel said.
He reached into the back of his stall and pulled out a different bottle. “What about this one? Nevillian from the Treviss region. It’s better.”
She shrugged. “Meh,” she said.
“For you, I’ll give you a discount.”
Adryel waved her hand. “Nevillian wine, though. I just don’t think—”
“Half off!” he said.
She tilted her head.
“Do you want some wine?” Stron asked.
“It’s not bad. Fair. Ish.”
“I throw in the glasses!” He picked up two wine goblets, trimmed in silver with crests that matched the logo on the wine bottle.
“I guess,” she said.
Stron said nothing, and paid the male.
The vendor went on and on about how good the wine would be especially in the special Nevillian glasses.
As they walked away, Stron glanced at her. “Is this wine worth the price?”
“That one? Oh yeah. It’s typically triple the price, it’s one of the best wines out of Neville.”
He shook his head. “You are devious.”
“I’ve been around enough to know how it’s done.”
He kept his arm around her, and she held the wine in between them. He kept watching the crowds.
“We need to move. Can you walk faster?”
“Don’t be rude.”
“I’m not. I don’t think we’re unnoticed here.”
“I had that feeling myself,” she said and started to increase her pace.
He didn’t like the eyes on them.
Whether she saw it or not, he did, and they absolutely were being watched.