Behind me, the catacombs echo with angry shouts and the screech of metal.
My eyes dart to the grinning skulls lining the walls.
I think I hear the voices of the dead.
Credit: Joseph Siroker
Be swift, be fleet,they seem to hiss.Unless you wish to join our ranks.
Faster, Laia, my guide says.
His armor flashes as he hastens ahead of me through the catacombs.
Well lose them if were quick.
I know an escape tunnel that leads out of the city.
Once were there, were safe.
We hear a scrape behind us, and my guides pale eyes flick past my shoulder.
His hand is a gold-brown blur as it flies to the hilt of a scim slung across his back.
A simple movement full of menace.
A reminder that he is not just my guide.
He is Elias Veturius, heir to one of the Empires finest families.
He is a former Maskan elite soldier of the Martial Empire.
In one step, Elias is beside me.
In another, he is in front, moving with unnatural grace for someone so big.
Together, we peer down the tunnel we have just passed through.
My pulse thuds in my ears.
Any elation I felt at destroying Blackcliff Academy or rescuing Elias from execution has vanished.
The Empire hunts us.
If it catches us, we die.
I think I hear a growl, like that of some sly, hungry creature.
Hurry, my instincts scream at me.Get out of here.
We reach a fork in the tunnel and veer right.
In, he whispers, all the way to the back.
I slide into the crypt, suppressing a shudder at the loudcrrrkof a resident tarantula.
Elias ducks into the crypt after me, his height forcing him into a half crouch.
In the tight space, our arms brush, and he draws a sharp breath.
But when I look up, his face is angled toward the tunnel.
I feel a jolt low in my stomachIm not used to his face.
He tilts his head, listening as the soldiers close in.
If he had half a brain, anyway.
The soldiers enter our tunnel, and one pokes his lantern into the crypt across from ours.
Bleeding hells, he recoils quickly at the sight of whatever lurks within.
Our crypt is next.
My belly twists, my hand shakes on my dagger.
Beside me, Elias releases another blade from its sheath.
His shoulders are relaxed, his hands loose around the knives.
But when I catch sight of his facebrows furrowed, jaw tightmy heart clenches.
He meets my gaze, and for a breath, I see his anguish.
He does not wish to deliver death to these men.
I squeeze Eliass forearm.
He slides his hood over his head and pulls a black kerchief up to hide his face.
The soldier approaches, his footsteps heavy.
I can smell himsweat and iron and dirt.
Eliass grip on his knives tightens.
His body is coiled like a wildcat waiting to strike.
I clamp a hand onto my armleta gift from my mother.
Beneath my fingers, the armlets familiar pattern is a balm.
The soldiers spin, draw steel, and hurry to investigate.
In seconds, the light from their lantern fades, the sound of their footsteps fainter and fainter.
Elias releases a pent breath.
Come on, he says.
If that patrol was sweeping the area, there will be more.
We need to get to the escape passage.
I stumble, and Elias grabs my shoulder, backing me into the wall and flattening himself beside me.
The crypt remains intact, but the ceiling of the tunnel cracks ominously.
What in the skies was that?
It felt like a land tremor, Elias takes a step away from the wall and eyes the ceiling.
Except Serra doesnt have land tremors.
We cut through the catacombs with new urgency.
With every step I expect to hear another patrol, to see torches in the distance.
When Elias stops, it is so sudden that I barrel into his broad back.
Weve entered a circular burial chamber with a low, domed ceiling.
Two tunnels branch out ahead of us.
Torches flicker in one, almost too far away to make out.
Crypts pock the chamber walls, each guarded by a stone statue of an armored man.
Beneath their helmets, skulls glare out at us.
I shiver, stepping closer to Elias.
But he does not look at the crypts, or the tunnels, or the distant torches.
He stares at the little girl in the center of the chamber.
She wears tattered clothing.
Her hand is pressed to a leaking wound in her side.
Poor thing.Tears mark a path down her dirt-streaked cheeks.
Ten hells, its getting crowded down here, Elias mutters.
He takes a step toward the girl, hands out, as if dealing with a scared animal.
You shouldnt be here, love.
His voice is gentle.
She lets out a tiny sob.
Help me, she whispers.
Let me see that cut.
I can bandage it.
She shies away from him and looks toward me.
I step forward, my instincts urging caution.
Can you tell me your name, little one?
Help me, she repeats.
Something about the way she avoids my eyes makes my skin prickle.
She must be terrified.
She inches back, and I glance at the torch-lit tunnel.
Torches mean were in Empire territory.
Its only a matter of time before soldiers happen by.
I nod at the torches.
We do not have time.
The soldiers
We cant just leave her.
His guilt is plain as day.
And we will, if we leave the girl here alone to die of her wounds.
Do you have family in the city?
Do you need
Silver, she tilts her head.
Eliass eyebrows shoot up.
I cannot blame him.
It is not what I expected either.
We dont
Silver, she shuffles sideways like a crab.
I think I see the too-quick flash of an eye through her limp hair.Strange.Coins.
She glances at my neck, my ears, my wrists.
With that look, she gives herself away.
I stare at the tar-black orbs where her eyes should be, and scrabble for my dagger.
But Elias is already in front of me, scims glimmering in his hands.
Back away, he snarls at the girl, every inch a Mask.
At my clear disgust, her lips curl in a sneer that looks obscene on her otherwise sweet face.
I know you have silver, a rabid hunger underlies the creatures little-girl voice.
Give it to me.
Get away from us, Elias says.
Before I take off your head.
The girlor whatever it isignores Elias and fixes her eyes on me.
You dont need it, little human.
Ill give you something in return.
She whips her arms out, her hands glowing with strange viridescence.
Elias flies toward her, but she tears past him and fastens her fingers on my wrist.
She dodges it, still shrieking.
She darts away as Elias lunges for her again, her eyes only for me.
You ask what am I, but what areyou?
Elias swings at her, sliding one of his scims across her neck.
Hes not fast enough.
she whirls on him.
If your sins were blood, you would drown in a river of your own making.
Elias reels back, shock etched into his eyes.
Light flickers in the tunnel.
Three torches, moving toward us swiftly.
Soldiers coming, the creature whirls to face me.
Ill kill them for you, honey-eyed girl.
Lay their throats open.
I already led away the others following you, back in the tunnel.
Ill do it again.Ifyou give me your silver.
Hell reward us if we bring it to him.
Who in the skies ishe?I dont ask, only bring up my dagger in response.
the girls clenches her fists.
Hell get it from you.
Hell find a way.
Then she turns toward the tunnel.
Her scream is so loud they probably heard her in Antium.
Elias Vetu
Her words die as Eliass scim rips through her heart.
Efrit efrit of the cave, he says.
He sheathes his scims.
Never realized how handy it was until recently.
Elias grabs my hand, and we bolt into the unlit tunnel.
Maybe through some miracle, the soldiers didnt hear the girl.
Maybe they didnt see us.Maybe, maybe
No such luck.
I hear a shout and the thunder of bootsteps behind us.
