Chapter 31 #2
Aelia pushed herself into the corner where the two structures met, clinging to the wall as the waves gently lapped at her, sucking her out just to push her back in again.
Now she was in it, the ocean felt like a living creature, with an alien sentience that made her skin crawl.
The sooner they could get out of it, the better.
“What now?” she whispered, nearly choking on seawater as a wave forced itself into her open mouth.
Shiva put a finger to his lips, before pointing at an enormous hole in the sea wall. A trickle of water flowed from its open maw, and Aelia looked from Shiva, to the hole, and back again.
“The drains?” she hissed, suddenly filled with immense regret for trusting him.
Shiva just slammed a finger back to his mouth, his head jerking angrily to where the Astraea were searching the docks, the Dogs whining at having lost their scent.
Aelia huffed through her nose, keeping her lips pressed firmly shut against the salty water.
He didn’t wait for her to agree, he just took off towards the hole, his arms slipping silently through the waves.
Aelia glowered after him, wishing to the gods she had another choice, any other choice, but to follow him.
Aelia cursed Shiva for what felt like the millionth time in the last hour. The drain was vile, filled knee deep with the city's waste, and even breathing through her mouth hadn’t been enough to stop her from vomiting at the smell.
So here she was, lost in a network of tunnels she wasn’t utterly convinced Shiva could navigate, covered in countless people’s excrement and her own vomit. Right at that moment in time, she wasn’t sure if she’d rather be on a ship to Ideolanthea.
“Will you stop moaning?” Shiva said, shooting her an exasperated look. “You think I’m enjoying this any more than you are?”
Aelia snorted. “You belong here, just as much as every other piece of shit we’re wading through.”
Shiva stopped and spun to face her, the brown water splashing around his knees.
“I don’t need to be here, Aelia,” he reminded her with a snarl, their surroundings seeming to have worn away at his earlier remorse. “I could very easily leave you to rescue your friend on your own.”
Aelia averted her eyes and waded past him. His sigh echoed off the circular stone walls, but she heard him start to slosh towards her.
“Did you know Fenrir had been taken?” she asked, after a while.
Shiva hesitated before answering. “I was going to get him out, that was always the plan. He didn’t trust me when I told him as much, but I swear I was waiting for the right moment for us both to make a break for it.
That’s the only reason I stuck around.” His voice darkened.
“Then Beserkir found out it was someone from Callodosis who’d killed his men by the lakes, and he worked out the connection between you and Fenrir.
The next thing I knew, Fenrir had been taken from the warehouse. You know the rest.”
Aelia’s lower lip trembled and she shut her eyes against the prickle of tears, grateful Shiva was still behind her and couldn’t see.
She’d been so foolish to think she could help; if she’d just stayed in her little hole in Callodosis, Fenrir might have got free.
How egotistical had she been to think she could do anything of any worth?
She was nothing, she had always been nothing, and she’d got Fenrir killed trying to prove otherwise.
“I’m sorry, Aelia,” Shiva said quietly. “They’re monsters.”
“And they’re working for the King.” Aelia slowed down to let him catch up, having regained control of her expression. “How did that even happen?”
Shiva shrugged. “The King’s scared of the ideolan. Aren’t we all?”
“But what do they want with them?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Shiva sighed, looking as exhausted as she felt. “I don’t even know how we could stop it.”
“There must be people working against the Astraea? There must be some kind of push back?” Aelia sounded almost pleading, even to her own ears.
“Beserkir has the Astraea and the King’s Guard at his disposal. I don’t know how anyone could fight against that.”
“No, me neither,” Aelia admitted.
“Look, this Keeran guy, do you know he worked with Beserkir?”
Aelia shot him a look of surprise; she’d considered that Shiva might know about that.
“I know a little,” she said hesitantly, wanting to hear what Shiva had heard.
“Do you know he was arrested by Beserkir for murder?” Shiva raised his eyebrows at her. “Multiple murders.”
“Yes,” Aelia said reluctantly. What Keeran had told her about the last night of the War of Two Kings had haunted her.
He’d been involved, had been there to see his friends and comrades hewn down like beasts, and she could no longer bring herself to blame him for wanting revenge.
Especially as the desire for vengeance was something she was coming to understand all too well.
“And do you know he told Beserkir when to attack Callodosis?”
Anger sparked in Aelia’s eyes. “He didn’t tell them when to attack, because he didn’t know who Beserkir really was. He gave them information he thought was harmless.”
Shiva looked at her closely, and Aelia averted her eyes to hide what she wasn’t willing to show him. What she’d barely admitted to herself yet.
She’d forgiven him. The seething anger she’d been clinging to had dissipated, leaving nothing but dejection in its place. She’d pushed and pushed and pushed him away, and yet he’d never left, he’d never stopped looking after her. And it had got him locked up.
“I think this is it,” Shiva said, breaking the silence.
Aelia narrowed her eyes at the rusty ladder hugging the wall, curving up to meet a hatch in the ceiling.
“How could you possibly know that? Everything down here looks the same.” He’d only been here a few days more than her at most, how had he had time to learn its sewers, and why?
“Well, to be entirely honest,” Shiva yanked uncertainly on the ladder, testing to see if it would hold. “I’m not one hundred per cent certain we're in the right place.”
Aelia folded her arms and scowled at him.
“You led us through the sewers, through literal shit, without knowing where you were going?”
“I didn’t see you coming up with a better plan,” Shiva bit back. “And I had a rough idea where I was going. This was how I was going to get Fenrir when I found out he’d been taken to the Inner City to become Beserkir’s latest plaything.”
Aelia sighed and dropped her arms. “You’re right, I’m being a dick, sorry. Let me go first. That ladder looks like it’s going to crumble the second one of us touches it.”
Shiva looked down at her but didn’t move away from the ladder, a strange light in his eyes.
“What?” she asked, panicking that something awful might have splashed onto her face without her noticing.
“Just…” Shiva shook his head, an incredulous smile lifting his lips. “Well, if someone had tried to tell us a few weeks ago that we’d be here, in a sewer in Llmera, working together, either one of us would have beaten the fucker up.”
“Yep, isn’t life just fan-fucking-tastic,” Aelia said, looking up at the rusty bolts securing the ladder to the wall. “Give me a leg up, would you?”
Shiva snorted and grabbed her shin, boosting her up onto the ladder. He pressed his hand into her back as they both waited to see if it would hold her weight. He gingerly let her go as she began to climb.
Aelia made it to the hatch and twisted the lever with a screech that made them both wince. With her heart racing, she pushed it open as carefully as she could before peeking her head through.
“It’s a changing room.” Aelia twisted her neck round to peer past the hatch door to make sure the room truly was empty. She wrinkled her nose at the damp smell that permeated the darkness. “A really old changing room.”
Shiva punched the air and let out a quiet whoop. “That’s how it’s fucking done.”
Aelia rolled her eyes and pulled herself up into the room.
“I take it this is where we were meant to end up, then.” The Inner City was meant to be the height of luxury, the physical embodiment of the Dragon's wealth and power. Aelia spun slowly on her heel to take in the filthy, derelict changing room with pursed lips. This was not at all what she’d imagined.
Shiva grunted as he climbed out of the hatch, jumping to his feet and looking around with a smug smile.
“Ready to be impressed?” he wiggled his eyebrows at her.
“More so than I am now?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Impossible.”
He strolled to the door and scrambled around in the dim light.
“What are you looking for?” She peered over to him, not able to see past his back.
“You’ll see.”
With a satisfied grunt, he reached up, standing on his toes to strike the flint he’d found against the wall. It took a few attempts, but finally sparks flew and flames erupted in a shallow trench near the ceiling, snaking around the room until they ate their own tail.
“Admit it, that’s pretty impressive,” Shiva smirked.
“How?” Aelia gasped, turning to follow the ring of fire that sat in a gentle lip well above head height, encircling the whole room.
“Oil. The whole city is lit with it. And that’s not even the best part.” He crossed the room and put his hand around something on the wall. Aelia’s eyes opened wide when she realised what it was. “Get ready to love me.”
He turned the tap and dove out of the way of the water that sputtered from the rusty head in the ceiling.
“Oh, thank the gods.” Aelia nearly stripped off right then and there, desperate to get under the pouring water. She’d never felt so unclean in her life.
“Uh, did the gods make sure there were clean clothes here? It’s me you should be thanking.”
Aelia tore her eyes from the shower to look at where he stood in front of a wall of lockers, holding two tightly wrapped leather bags. She could have hugged him, honestly, truly could have hugged him.
“I thought if Fenrir and I held them up high, we could keep the worst of the filth of the sewers off them.” He chucked one of the bags at her. “Means yours might be a bit big, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
Aelia snatched the bag from the air and looked at it in wonder.
“You really were trying to save him.” She turned the bag over in her hands, opening it wide enough to see the black uniform of the Astraea tucked neatly inside. She frowned.
“It’s all I could get my hands on,” Shiva explained, reading her confusion. “But it works out well for us now. It’ll make it that much easier to get to the cells they’re keeping Keeran in.”
“You know how to get there, too?”
“It’s the same place they were keeping Fenrir. I mean, I’ve only seen it on maps, but I think I can get us there.”
Aelia took a deep, shaky breath as she looked at Shiva anew. He smiled back at her, and it held none of the snarky arrogance she was used to.
“No one uses these rooms anymore, but we still need to be quick. You shower first, just come out when you’re ready, and I’ll swap with you.” Shiva turned and made for the door.
He was just about to disappear through it when Aelia stopped him.
“Thank you, Shiva,” she said.
He just smiled and nodded before ducking out of the room. Aelia stared after him for a moment, until her gaze was caught by the flames once more. An idea sparked to life at the sight of them, and she smiled as she stepped forward to have the most thorough shower of her life.