Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Milo
Cosmo could not get his hands on this necklace.
No matter what happened with Olympia, no matter what I’d been briefly considering in my desperation to free her, Cosmo could not have this jewel.
I’d been right all along to dedicate my attention to the journals while a rebellion brewed in the lower rings.
This was the most important thing in this city and I finally understood why it had been entrusted to my family centuries ago.
I wouldn’t be the one who betrayed that trust. I couldn’t.
So if Cosmo wanted this necklace, he would have to raze the city to the ground to retrieve it.
“Are you sure about this?” Nascha hissed in the dark for the tenth time as I helped her through the courtyard and to the gates of our House.
“I thought you’d understand,” I replied, wary of her uncertainty. “You were the one who believed in the gods in the first place.”
“I do understand but this–”
“I know. Quiet now.”
We moved in silence, keeping to the shadows and going as slowly as we dared.
I knew my grandmother wasn’t as spry as she once was.
I imagined that had more to do with the absence of the jewel around her neck than either of us cared to admit.
Still, I didn’t mind the pace she set this time.
Rushing would get us caught and we could not afford to get caught, not now.
We waited in the shadows until Nascha had enough strength to hurry to the nearest set of stairs and then down we went to the Second.
We gave the House of Harlowe a wide berth, knowing the Vipers likely had eyes on it ever since they became aware of our entanglement with its leader.
Instead, we snuck around the House of Valin, hiding in the cover of their massive statue.
We waited from time to time for those out this late to pass, mostly couples seeking privacy away from their families or teenagers giddy with the risk of getting caught.
Once they passed, we’d hurry to the next shadow, the next hiding spot.
I felt for the blade at my side for the dozenth time.
I had no skill with using it, not really, but I’d brought it along anyway just in case and had instructed Nascha to run if she saw the color green.
I’d take care of it myself, ending up dead or on trial like Olympia.
It wouldn't matter as long as my grandmother got away, but I couldn’t think about that now.
I had to focus on our surroundings, especially once we made it down to the Third to find more people out than usual.
Perhaps they were rebels, going to or from a secret meeting.
Perhaps they were simply out for a drink or a visit with a friend who’d worked all day or on their way back from a shift above.
It didn’t matter. We couldn’t afford for any of them to see us down here.
Nascha and I were two of the most recognizable people in the city.
We couldn’t risk them running off to tell someone the news that would eventually make its way to Cosmo.
And we certainly couldn’t risk violence erupting from any lower ringers who fashioned themselves true rebels.
A party was going on at the eighth down on the Deck. I hesitated only for a moment, a memory of another party just like it I’d attended so long ago tugging at my heart. I pushed my grief aside and slid against the wall, pulling Nascha along beside me, until we faced the tenth.
“Are you ready?” I whispered into the night.
“Perhaps we should rethink this,” Nascha started breathlessly beside me. “The gods won’t like–”
“They’re not really gods, remember?”
She faltered but seemed to regain some courage at the reminder. She shot me one determined nod and I took the chance to pull her forward across the Deck.
No one from the party glanced our way even as their strobing light bathed us in neon glow. Nascha went as quickly as she could but it wasn’t quick enough. We were so close now. I simply wanted to get this over with.
We entered the tenth tunnel unseen.
I reached into the wide pockets of my large coat and pulled out the miniature hand lantern I’d brought along for this reason. I flipped the switch and watched as the short, dark tunnel was illuminated.
Solid, uneven black stone laid beneath our feet, climbing up the curved walls to form a domed roof over a small room which held nothing but two empty pods set into the wall at the end. I exchanged a glance with my grandmother before we both stepped toward them.
The paneling hissed open at our approach, some ancient form of machinery I couldn’t begin to understand at present.
Perhaps it was magic. After some doing, we both managed to squeeze into one of the tubes.
The moment the door was shut behind us, enclosing us in that small capsule of space, Nascha reached for the band of metal around the middle.
After some probing with her bony fingers, she pressed a thumb into a piece of metal that looked like all the rest and a panel popped out.
Hands shaking, she reached up and typed in the code.
1315.
The panel snapped shut and the capsule opened on the opposite end as a door slid up in front of us to reveal a brightly lit white room beyond.
I stepped out of the capsule first, reaching back to assist my grandmother in her exit as well.
Then I turned around to appreciate what I was seeing for the first time.
The tenth trial.
It was the only one not held in some far off arena.
Instead, it was a simple room of pure white with a yawning black pit in the middle.
It was exactly as I’d imagined it. The two bridges veered off in different directions before meeting at the end in front of two rings that weren’t glowing now but I knew would have been if we’d entered as the Oathed.
I made my way onto the first bridge, inching carefully forward so as not to lose my footing.
After only a step or two onto it, I turned back to Nascha and reached out my hand.
Nascha frowned back at me, chewing on her lip as if she were preparing to argue with me once again, but when I raised a brow, she reached into the folds of her dress and produced the necklace, handing it over to me without another argument.
I clutched the jewel in my hand, the pulsing glow turning my skin a sickly green. I could feel the bite of the cold metal against my palm. And then, the voice began.
Free me. I could make you a king. I could make you a god. Free me and I’ll–
I cocked my arm back once and hurled the necklace into the pit.
I watched the blue glow fade into the black as the jewel fell further and further down to the Underground.
I waited, almost concerned it would somehow launch itself back up at me at any minute, worried my plan to get the thing away from where Cosmo could ever get to it had failed.
Then I turned away and rejoined Nascha on the white tile before the tube.
She was frowning at the pit, staring at where the necklace had disappeared forever moments before. When she spoke, it was in a tired whisper.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, hafid.”