Chapter 28 Hunting Party #2
She wanted to live in ignorance and stay in the circle of his arms forever.
***
Elizabeth found herself in a secret tunnel in the royal palace in Calyx.
A dark hall of stone. The tunnel stretched on for what felt like ages, and at the end of the tunnel was a wall made of fire—covered in brilliant orange and yellow flames.
On the ground, there was a young woman who looked suspiciously like someone she knew from court, lying prostrate on the wooden floor.
The woman had her arms outstretched, her body forming a star on the ground.
Elizabeth stepped around the girl on the floor, gingerly keeping to the walls and staying far away from the girl’s fingers and toes.
She approached the wall of fire with caution, and when she reached out to touch it, it burned her, and she woke up.
Elizabeth threw off her covers and marched to the library.
She was determined to find out what was going on with that shelf.
She didn’t know why, but she felt like the dream and the mysterious corner of the library were somehow related.
Something lurked behind that bookshelf, and she was going to find out what it was.
She peered at the bookshelf where she kept seeing strange wisps of shadow.
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she decided to pull every single book off the shelf, replace it, and see what happened. She thought there might be a catch somewhere so that when she pulled a certain book, it would trigger a mechanism that opened a secret compartment or door.
But nothing happened.
She sighed in exasperation, ready to dismiss the mystery when she saw a small, bronze circular shape in the wall of the bookcase. It was nearly flush with the wood, hidden unless someone was standing exactly where she was.
She looked closer.
The small bronze circle bore a pentacle with crescent moons between each point: only an inch and a half wide, almost impossible to find.
She swallowed.
Hands fluttering like nervous butterflies, she fished the seal out of the desk drawer and placed it against the wood. She inhaled sharply. The two fit together like a lock and key. She pressed the metal seal against the circle, and it sank into the wood about half an inch.
A loud thunk resonated through the aisle.
Keeping the seal pressed into the circle, she turned it and was gratified when she heard a click. A creaking sound filled the air, as if metal cranks were being turned.
The entire bookshelf opened like a door, and she found herself looking into a large room.
On the other side was an archway made of warped, golden metal. A thick, transparent film made of a curious gelatinous material filled the space. Flames lined the edges of the archway, light dancing across the film. The top of the archway held a hand-sized ice-blue stone with a pearly sheen.
There was ominous writing painted on the walls, and a shelf stood in the corner that was bare except for a handsome wooden chest, and a stack of yellowish parchment with a quill and an inkpot.
Dark lines were painted on the floor, forming a five-pointed star surrounded by a large circle.
She avoided the dark lines on the floor like she had in the dream, feeling like it would be bad luck to touch the pentacle, and made her way across the room.
She peered at the chest on the shelf. It was made of ebony wood with clasps of solid gold. The chest bore the same sigil as the seal. Unable to resist, she flipped the lid and looked inside.
The chest was filled with neatly stacked coins. She examined one of them and nearly recoiled. They were the same coins with a roaring dragon on one face and the pentacle on the other. Caspian had so many of them.
Lost in her reverie, a loud scraping sound cut across the room, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
It came from behind the archway. Nervously, she took the quill from the shelf and poked at one of the flames that danced across the film, afraid to touch it directly.
Nothing happened to the quill—it didn’t even burn.
Then she stuck the quill through the barrier and pulled it back. It came back normal.
She put her ear close to the archway. She could hear faint clanging and what sounded like a distant battle. The sounds were quiet, hardly more than a whisper. Her heart thumped loudly. A portal.
She debated, wondering if she should stick a finger through the archway, and what would happen if she did.
Deciding against it, she took a step back from the portal. Her curiosity had been sated enough for one day.
Suddenly, the light shimmering across the archway flared, growing brighter, and flames swirled in the middle. Clawed fingers reached out through the portal.
Something was trying to cross over.
She hurriedly skirted the room, avoiding the lines of the pentacle once more, and scrambled to grab the seal. She pressed the seal against the shelf hurriedly, desperately. It slipped, and she dropped it, clattering to the floor.
The clawed hand felt along the edge of the portal, testing it out, and then was soon followed by a demon’s head. Green skin and sickly yellow eyes greeted her. Its face was etched in a snarl, locking its eyes on her.
She suddenly felt frozen in place. Unable to scream or pry her eyes away, her breath quickened as it crawled towards her on all fours. Elizabeth desperately tried to wrestle control over her body.
Move, move, move! she ordered her feet, but to no avail. The demon snarled something in the Godstongue and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
Then the demon reached the center of the pentacle, and light erupted. The demon opened its mouth, but no sound emerged. She watched in horror as its skin grew pale and waxy, as if all the fat was being leached out of its face. The creature’s skin tightened and dried out over its bones.
It thrashed against the pentacle’s hold, jaws open in a silent scream. Then its bones began collapsing in on themselves. It clawed at the stone floor, talons scraping against the stone, trying to find purchase. The skin on its face grew more sunken, and its eyes popped grotesquely from its skull.
Finally, its hold on her weakened, and she scrambled to her feet.
Awestruck at the demon dying before her eyes, she picked up the seal and firmly pressed it into the wood.
She pushed the seal into the matching piece of wood until she heard a thunk, and the hidden notch fell an inch into the shelf.
She twisted the seal, hoping to trigger a mechanism that would close the door.
Nothing.
She tried twisting the seal the other way, and something clicked. Unseen metal cranks groaned within the walls. The wall moved, and soon the bookshelf shuddered into place once more, hiding the room from sight.
She listened carefully, getting ready to run if she had to. There was no sound. After a few moments, a wisp of darkness rose from the bookcase, coiling through the air, as if the thing had just died, as if the magic of the castle cooed in answer.
Her lips parted in wonder.
Maybe Ambriel’s work was easier than he thought.
It looked like she had just found the portal to the Underworld.