Twenty-Five
We couldn't leave Axel's home until several hours into the night.
So we spent most of the day practicing defensive maneuvers in Axel's sparring room.
Which was uncomfortable, to say the least, given what happened the night prior when we were that close again.
But it was as if it had never happened.
Julian was professional.
He respected my wishes.
And secretly I wondered if his skin was burning as much as mine was every time a movement brought us too close.
If it did, he didn't show it.
And to my credit, I tried as well.
My thoughts went back to the night before. The last time his hand was there, my thoughts would taunt, he was kissing me. The last time he held me this close there was tenderness in his eyes.
At least the punching bags gave me some sort of outlet to what I was feeling.
Eventually, after a long day of sparring we had dinner then spent the rest of the night in a room with a warm fire. Julian and Axel were in the corner of the room having a quiet conversation while I stayed in one of the chairs with my new book propped open on my lap.
I read it greedily, drinking in as much as I could.
At first, the pages were blank then the more I looked at them, words would appear in gold, fanciful script. It had spells within it, spoke of the primordial entities, how the kingdoms came to be, how the powers were formed and how the gods had blessed only a select few to have their gifts.
Winter to oversee the human winter season.
Autumn to oversee the fall season.
Summer for the summer season.
Spring for the spring season.
Then the Dark and Light kingdoms.
The Dark to contain the dark and manipulative nature of all living beings.
The Light to give life and take it away, to oversee the balance of it all. The complement to the dark.
I shuddered, shutting the book quickly.
To give life and take it away.
It was at that precise moment that Julian stood. "It's time to go."
I nodded quickly, tucking the book into my travel bag.
Axel stood as well, walking towards Julian and me. "May the gods bless the road you travel." He gave a small smile. "Let's hope you don't run into Charon."
The name sounded vaguely familiar.
Julian smiled as he clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Grave robbing should be fun."
I felt my stomach drop. "Wait, what are we doing?"
He didn't answer as he took my hand and spectered us out of the room. As soon as we stopped, Julian gently tugged my hand downwards. "You're sticking out like a sore thumb, Emylin," he whispered.
I crouched down next to him as my eyes adjusted to the blinding darkness. "Where are we?" I whispered as I shut my eyes forcefully trying again to adjust to the darkness.
"We're currently in Styx. I've spectered us as close to the cemetery as possible."
"Why can't I see anything?" I asked in frustration.
He chuckled. "Your eyes won't adjust as easily as ours do in the darkness. Faster and keener than humans but not as fast as those from the Underworld."
It still took my eyes several seconds longer to adjust to the darkness and once I did, I held back a gasp.
In the inky darkness, I could see grey tombstones and mausoleums littering the sprawling hills as far as the eye could see. There had to be thousands of them and that was only what I could see. It looked like it expanded far beyond the horizon.
"How many people are buried here?" I whispered.
"Thousands, maybe more. Usually, nobles and those who fall during battle are buried here."
I swallowed. "Why didn't we bring your parents here?"
He shook his head. "Those that die in the lands in Tartus have different customs during their funeral rights." He nodded towards a slightly opened gate. "Come on."
He tugged on my hand again but I hesitated.
He turned back with a quizzical brow.
"You said grave robbing," I whispered. "Who are we robbing from?"
A slight movement behind me made us turn and Julian without hesitation grabbed my arm and pulled me to him using his full force. He pinned me against a stone pillar as the footsteps receded and walked away.
I could barely think let alone digest what he was saying to me. "Stay close," he whispered. "Stay low and try to stay quiet."
As soon as I nodded, he stepped away, leading the path between stones and trees and upturned roots.
We walked in silence through the night, never once speaking to each other, quiet as mice as we moved through the overgrown fields of grass.
It was still dark with nothing to illuminate the space but Julian seemed to know where to step and would turn back every once in a while to watch for a root or something that I could trip over.
My nerves were screaming, as I watched the night around us, praying that we wouldn't get caught.
As we made our way to the center of the labyrinth of graves, he pressed his back against a very large mausoleum wall on the top of a large hill. He let out a long sigh of relief and smiled at me. "So far so good, no Charon."
"Who is Charon?"
"Keeper of the Dead, he guards the cemetery against intruders."
"You mean us?"
He laughed warmly. He nodded to the mausoleum he was leaning against. "Come on."
I followed again, careful with my steps so that I wouldn't make any noise.
When we rounded the corner we were met with two statues on either side of a large black door.
Two women held what looked to be large crowns in their hands over their heads as if giving them as tribute to the gods above.
Their eyes seemed to move with me as I followed Julian up the steps to the door.
"They're staring at me," I whispered.
He shook his head. "They're not alive. It's magic to ward off any intruders." He nodded to the door. "I need you to put your hand to that door."
I looked at the door in front of us and noticed that in the middle of it there was a large gold medallion the size of a hand glinting in the little moonlight that trickled in from the clouds.
I swallowed. "Julian, I have a bad feeling about this."
His eyes didn't leave mine. "Do you trust me?"
I took a deep breath. "Of course I do. But why are we here?"
"In here is the key to bringing down Robyn. There is something that lies in this tomb that will give us what we need to take him out."
I looked at him questioningly.
"All we have to do is get in, take it and get out. No one will get hurt as long as we do it quickly." He took my hand. "Put your hand to the medallion and it will open."
I shook my head. "Why me?"
"You are the Lady of Elendil and as such you are practically a Royal. This door only opens to Royals."
Realization hit me and I felt my stomach turn. "It's the tomb of Damien's family, isn't it?"
Slowly, he nodded.
It felt wrong. So wrong.
I knew how Damien felt about his family. How he felt after his father passed away, how he never mentioned the Mother that died when he was too young to remember her. And this felt like just another betrayal.
But if it could bring down Robyn, I'd do it.
If it would save Damien, he would understand.
I swallowed again and looked at the gold fixture on the door. I extended my hand out placing it on the medallion. "Damien, forgive me."
Gears began to turn beyond the door followed by popping and eventually, the door swung slightly open.
Julian made his way inside quickly and once I was with him, he closed the door behind me.
A small light danced on the walls then the floor and I recognized the warm color of small light Julian spectered in his hand. Julian held it in front of him and lit the stone steps that led down into the darkness.
He didn't look at me. "Stay close. If something happens, we won't be able to specter out."
I nodded as I followed.
The smell of damp earth and stale air hit my nose as we descended and ... something else. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It was sickly sweet but foul and I couldn't help my nose as it scrunched up.
We stopped in a large room at the bottom of the stairs and Julian immediately went down a long dark corridor of the catacombs.
The only sounds were our breathing and the shuffling of our feet. The only thing we could see in the darkness was in the beam of Julian's light across the floor of where we stepped. He pressed on and only stopped once he found what he was looking for.
He cursed.
"What is it?" I asked peering over his shoulder.
There were two statues, each over their own closed stone coffin.
On the right, the statue was of a woman.
Her stone eyes were kind and she was slightly smiling.
The male counterpart however had half of its stone face missing along with half of the crown on its head.
It was as if someone had beaten the statue's face with a hammer.
"Robyn was here," Julian sighed.
I frowned, walking over to the statue with half a missing face. "How do you know?"
"No one hated Warren. No one except Robyn."
I turned to him and he shrugged. "He's the only one with access and the only one that would desecrate his epitaph."
I picked up the stone face from the floor. I recognized what was left of it. "I didn't realize how much Damien looked like his father." I looked at the woman. "Was that his mom?"
Julian nodded when I turned back to him. He gestured towards the darkness. "Come on, what we're looking for is over here."
I put the stone back on the ground, afraid that if Robyn were to come back, he'd noticed that something was out of place after he'd left.
I followed Julian and my breath caught as soon as we made it to the next small room.
There were candles everywhere. Their warm glow casting shadows across the statue of a woman in the middle of the room. The woman looked ethereal with a golden crown sitting on top of her marble head. There were flowers all over the tomb and overflowing and spilling over the floor.
"Is this - "
Julian nodded. "Yes. Tianna. Robyn's dead wife."