I suck in a breath. The tunnel to the right has more doors like the one to my dwelling. I don’t think that’s going to take me anywhere new. Could I use the stone to distract the guards and travel past them? Maybe. It’s risky.
The darkness in the small tunnel reaches out like a living thing, calling to me. I want, more than anything, to avoid it, and yet, there is a tug at my soul.
If only Astella were here to tell me the right direction. She would know, wouldn’t she?
I am here.
I suck in a breath. Was that an actual voice?
Was it Astella telling me the right way?
I bite my lip, considering for another moment, then I choose. I sneak down the narrow tunnel, toward the eerie pressure rising in my chest.
It’s the smell that finally stops me, every muscle frozen.
I gag but manage to keep silent. My vision shrinks, body clenching in fear and disgust. I press my back against the wall, sucking in breaths of air through tight lungs. I am alone, but I can feel his hand over my mouth, taste the decay, as if it were happening again.
My body trembles. I can barely breathe. But I know I must stay silent.
That decay, it smells like the Dread that took me. But he is not here. I am alone in this tunnel. I am okay—for now.
Finally, the panic subsides. I press both palms against the cool damp stone and reground myself.
I’m here.
I focus on the grit under my fingers, the cold stinging my toes. My eyes flutter closed.
Three deep breaths, then I force myself up straight. I can’t give up.
I do not fear death, I tell myself, despite my rapid heart and my trembling hands. And so, it’s death I will face.
No fate is worse than losing her. No fate is worse than losing myself and giving up.
My next steps are slow and small. I almost turn around and flee back to my hovel with warm blankets, where I am the property of a beast I do not understand. Instead, I press on, deeper into the dark, toward the smell of decay.
The screech of carving stone sends another jolt of fear through my body. What was that?
There’s movement up ahead. A huff. A growl. Then, silence.
My heart pounds. I know those sounds, and while fear still pulses in my limbs, I am also relieved. I walk with more purpose until I reach a pitch-black opening.
The air is cold in this new room filled with darkness.
I inch forward. When my toe touches the darkness, it curls over the edge.
I stumble back, suddenly dizzy.
It’s a cliff. I can’t see anything in front of me, so I can’t tell how deep it goes. It’s a wide-open pit. Another growl echoes through the space.
I can’t see anything in front of me, but even so, I know exactly where I am.
The drakai pit.
39
Lina
Istare out at blackness, knowing it’s an open void filled with lizard beasts. I don’t know how deep it is. I don’t know how wide. I only know that if I fall in, I’ll never come out.
