Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Kyle
It was an underground castle.
It rose from the stone floor like it had grown there rather than been built or carved.
We had traveled through a maze of vines, a dangerous passage that required our steps to be centered and careful, and when we finally broke free, there were none overhead to block the view of the cavern ceiling that arched high overhead.
Stalactites hung like a forest of stone teeth, their tips dripping slow mineral tears into the black walls of the fortress that loomed up overhead.
It had huge windows and balconies that looked out in all directions, and I realized that those who inhabited it could likely see large swaths of the maze, even though the vines would block the view of the hallways themselves.
"The tops of the vines light up when people move beneath them," Durom said, answering my unspoken question.
The main gate stood open in front of us, and as we passed through it, it opened up into a garden.
There were no vines here, nothing to reach and choke, just lush edible plants that grew wild, needing tending.
Sunlight streamed through one of the walls, beams that came through perforated holes and shone down on the plants.
I studied the curve of the cave wall and realized that this was likely a section of the caldera walls.
We were above ground yet encased in rock.
We moved through the gardens, and my heart leapt at the sheer size of the space.
"What is this place?" I asked as Durom pushed open a heavy wooden door, holding it for me as I passed through.
Inside, the air shifted, warmer. The entryway opened wide with plenty of space for towering minotaurs to stand.
The air held the clean scent of mineral water and beeswax.
The walls held veins of a soft purple rock, and a stream ran through the side of the room, guided through a trough of stone as it exited through a little grate to the garden.
The entryway towered three stories high, with a railed balcony that looked down into the huge room from both of the levels above, and the walls that led up to them were covered by an intricate metal motif of artificial twisting vines, black metal that matched the image of the vines in the maze if not the life of them.
The floor was laid with wide, dark slabs, but there were thick, woven rugs that softened the center of the path.
Durom sat down on a bench next to the stream and dipped his hooves in it, washing them and drying them with a small towel that hung nearby.
"This is my home," Durom said. "The Dungeon has asked me to be the keeper of this section of the Labyrinth. It was a great honor to be asked."
I took off my boots, leaving them near the door.
There was a double set of stairs that curved up at the end of the room, and wide arched doors on either side that led out in either direction.
There was so much to explore. So much to see!
But there was something that was bothering me, something that tickled in the back of my mind, a thought held onto from the many conversations we had while travelling through the labyrinth.
"But you said you would follow me as far as you could," I said.
Later conversations, he had said if I wished to live in the Orc city, he would live there with me.
Each of those conversations had made me excited and yet also uncomfortable.
It had taken a while to sort through it, but Durom had given me that time.
He didn't pressure me for my thoughts or demand that I get with him just because he wanted me.
All he asked was to spend time with me, and he made that time together extremely appealing.
When I asked him to start sleeping with me, he held me with all the restraint that I never thought a man could have.
He was warm, strong, and gentle. Despite the intensity of how he came on to me in the first place, he did nothing to make me feel uncomfortable, to the point where I was starting to wish he would.
In the space that his gentle attention had provided, I realized that I was uncomfortable because it was difficult for me to believe him.
I'd spent so much time being rejected by those around me that it was hard to believe that someone who just accepted me for who I was existed.
It was hard for me to believe that the person he presented himself as was real.
And yet here he was.
Existing.
Horns, hooves, and all.
"Does that mean you would give this place up?
" I asked, suddenly realizing the monumentous weight of that offer.
This was a palace. When he described living in the city, it sounded like we would have a townhouse or an apartment, and here, the whole time he was sitting pretty as a lord with a manor, his primary responsibility was to maintain rest stops for battle-weary monsters.
"Yes," Durom said. "The mate scent is rare. If you want me, being with you is more important to me than any honor. I will go wherever I can follow."
I already knew the boundaries of that statement.
He couldn't leave the Dungeon.
I didn't care. I had learned more magic in a few weeks down here than I had in the years I had spent at the Order Academy.
I already had faith in this place. I knew that when I was done with this book, I would find another, and then another, and with time spent on study, I would be able to turn myself into a master mage, with an arsenal of spells memorized and ready to go.
I wouldn’t have to fight with fists; I could defend myself and my chosen family with magic.
One day, when the moment was right, I could strike to free those I’d left behind in cages.
The thought of such power to help others excited me, and I could have it, with or without Durom.
But I wanted it with him.
Because he was sexy as fuck.
I was tired of waiting.
I needed to get laid.
And I already knew exactly how to do it.
"Durom," I said, taking a few steps away from him.
He looked at me with his soft brown eyes, curiosity twinkling in them.
"Yes?" he asked.
I could feel myself getting wet from the thought of what was about to happen, my body responding to my thoughts as it had been doing night after night, where I lay in his arms, and he did nothing at all but hold me.
All his direct aggression had completely vanished in the face of my hesitation, and it was maddening as it was attractive.
I tensed, getting ready, my heart thudding in my ears for what I was about to do.
Durom's eyes widened, and he stood up from the bench, turning his entire body towards me as he reacted to what my stance was communicating, even if my words hadn't yet gotten there.
"I took care of everything I need for myself," I told him. "I just want you to know that it is okay for you to be yourself."
"What do you..." his words cut off, transforming into a guttural groan as I turned and bolted away from him.
I felt the soft rug under my feet change into the smooth, clean slabs as I flung myself towards the curved edge of the stair's railing.
I put one palm on the polished wood, launched off one foot as the bare foot of my other caught the smooth railing.
I used my arms and legs to fling myself up towards the wall.
I grabbed onto the metal vine motif and scrambled up it, the smoothed edges of the vines digging into my palms and feet.
Durom bellowed down below, the sound vibrating through the metal, sending shivers through my skin.
I was up and over before his bellow finished ringing through the air.
In my time at the school, I hadn't just been a pack mule.
Being seen as a guy meant that I was in the male-only martial classes.
I got pummeled, but I also had to climb walls and run the obstacle courses that were trivial for the proper students but a challenge for those of us coming from the mundane.
Being able to dodge, run, clamber, and hide were top survival skills for Mundane students.
So when my feet hit the other side of the balcony and found plush carpet, I didn't hesitate for even a second.
I heard his hooves clattering up the stairs, and I knocked open a door.
It was a sitting room with a veranda and a series of chairs and small tables in the room.
On either side were doors, two exits. I ran in, kicked the far door open, and then darted back towards the other door that was in the direction that Durom would be running down the balcony hall toward the room.
I ran through it, shutting it quietly behind me, then planted a palm on the huge table in the center of the next room, jumping and lifting my knees to launch myself across it, clearing it in one leap.
It had a raised rim and was set with a purple felt cloth.
I had only a moment to take in the fist-sized polyhedral pieces covered in runes that were arranged neatly on one side like billiard balls, before I was through the next door, opening it and shutting it quietly as a loud crash echoed through the previous room, like tables and chairs were being knocked over.
Another door, this time a dining room that would fit around fifteen people, and I was out back into the balcony hallway and headed back down the stairs.
There was another crash from the rooms above, and I glanced up as I flung myself down the steps, only to see Durom at the edge of the balcony, his eyes wild and crazed as they landed on me. He tensed as if he were about to jump.
I focused on running, veering to hurdle over the stream and through the other archway.
A loud thud and a grunt behind me, the sound of Durom landing.