58. Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter 58
48 hours later
D ante stopped at the entrance of the underground cell. The air tasted stale, a testament to how often the cells had been used over the last three centuries.
The two black-clad guards at the large dark metal door moved to the side, their identities hidden beneath tinted helmets. A glint of gold material flickered in the darkness. Aadya. Dante waited for his grandmother to exit the cell, not surprised that she had beaten him to see Idris.
Anhur had announced Idris’s death the day prior; it had been a solemn affair. The Jimourt had been told that Idris had fallen afoul of ancient poison from an artifact that he had handled. No one had questioned Anhur, instead they had chosen to mourn the passing of the assassin turned scholar and his relative youth.
If Idris had died, there would have been some sort of closure. Dante could have remembered Idris as he wanted to; instead all that was left was a shell of the Atlantean. A monster who had shed his dignity for broken bloody promises.
Dante turned and faced his grandmother. There was a sadness in her gaze that had not been present earlier. It had aged her more than anything else.
“Idris is not the Atlantean you knew.” There was no hint of malice in the tone, and there was a weariness he had never heard in her voice.
It shook him. “I don’t think I ever knew him.”
A ghost of a smile crossed Aadya’s face as she turned to walk away. “Rieka has already changed you.”
The door creaked open, the bright lights from the corridor streaming in, chasing the shadows. Dante waited to adjust to the darkness. The sandstone walls were bare and thick enough that no screams would escape into the corridor. It didn’t take long to find Idris. He was huddled in the corner, his once proud shoulders hunched over. Still wearing the clothing of the scholar, Idris’s pants and shirt were covered with dirt. The smell of blood and sweat permeated the air, overriding the mustiness of the dungeon.
The door quietly shut behind him.
Idris defiantly lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot as a single blood tear rolled down his face. His oversized arms strained at the unnatural angle they had placed him in. The metal restraints glittered in the darkness, with the yellow light casting Idris in a sickly glow. Molten colors of red, purple, and yellow covered every piece of exposed flesh.
This was no longer the Atlantean he had claimed as a brother.
“You attacked Rieka.” Dante lowered himself until he was at eye level with Idris.
“Rieka is the key.” Idris threw back his head and laughed. “But now you have it. You can’t keep it safe forever. It belongs to the O’hurani.”
“She.”
He wanted to force Idris to acknowledge Rieka as a person, but it would change nothing.
“When did the Anki approach you?”
The question was never far from his mind, always followed by how he had not seen the changes within Idris. In a flash, Dante saw the old Idris appear. The assassin turned scholar, the brother he had confided everything to, but in a blink of an eye, it was gone. The Idris he remembered would never return.
“I told you there was something in the catacombs with us.” Idris shook at the chains, the sound rattling off the walls. “But you refused to believe me.”
Dante closed his eyes. The memory slammed into him as if he was back in Rome. As young adolescents, they had helplessly wandered the underground chambers, cut off from the world. After three days, half-starved and dehydrated, Idris had suddenly found a way out for them. In the end, Dante had never known Idris. It had always been a facade that he had worn around Dante.
Idris licked his lips, smiling as he stared at Dante. He shook the shackles in front of him, blood dripping from his wrists. “There are worse things than death.”
Dante sat in the silence. “I know.” He picked up a handful of sand and watched the suspended particles as they floated midair before they drifted slowly to the ground. Something else was down there with them. “What are the Anki planning?”
“They will come for the key. You cannot stop them.”
Seconds ticked by.
“The O’hurani is awakening. And so is his army.”