Page 20 of A Spell of Bones and Madness
“Dimitris is not my friend…” she muttered under her breath.
“I do not mean the son of the sea god, Lady of Spring.” Her forehead wrinkled and her brows furrowed in at the name the cloaked man spoke.
She was not some goddess of seasons nor flowers. Kora had a proclivity for growing crops, flowers, and the like, but it was not expected for that part of her magic to trickle to Ember. Only healing magic was prophesied for her.
“You may find the ones closest to us hold the most secrets.” The figure stretched its leathery hand to point toward the commander who now stood behind her, lip twitching up to reveal sharp canines she had never noticed before. A spy and a Nexian wolf. What else did she not know about Ajax? How many secrets would he continue to keep from her?
“How do we cross? There must be some price we can pay.” Thalia had just begun to regain her bearings, staggering over to where the others stood by the figure, Mykonos cupped under her arm.
“A drakmere each will allow the dead to pass,” the figure began, “for those whose hearts still beat and blood still runs through veins, a sacrifice must be made. The coins must be marked by the Lady of Spring, but beware of the gift your blood may bring, Ember Drakos.”
Shadows filled the air once more and the figure disappeared, in its place lay a river that sprawled out before them. Its blackened waters and swirling lost souls appeared from the mist ahead.
Ajax fumbled around in a pouch slung from his belt, picking out four gold coins. Ember took a dagger from the baldric across her chest, letting the thin bronze slice into her fleshy palm before Ajax handed her the drakmeres. Red seeped into the crevices of the symbol of the underworld engraved on the coins—a three headed dog, a myth of a creature that was said to guard Aidesian’s doors. She was glad they had not met that creature and merely encountered the strange gatekeeper of the underworld.
A trickle of her blood leaked from her palm, landing on the barren obsidian ground beneath them. She held out her hand, dropping each of the pieces into the Stygian River below. The coins descended into nothingness, the shimmer of gold and fire red of blood snuffed out by blackness. From the misted coast appeared a long boat, a single lantern at its bow. They each stepped inside the rowboat, glancing about for someone to shepherd them across, but the boat began to move on its own through the thick waters.
“Do not touch the river below,” Thalia whispered, her eyes going as white as her hair, “it will steal the very shadow from your body.”
A sickening pang hit Ember’s gut. Maybe this had been a bad idea. All of their lives could be endangered traveling to such anunknown place, whether her father ruled or not. She glanced back toward the barren shore where a small white flower began to bloom where her blood had met the earth.
The boat left them at an entrance to another cave. This time they were met with the scraping of claws and snapping of jaws echoing everywhere. Low rumbles and the deep haunting laughter of the creatures of night consumed the darkness before them. Characters arched above the entrance to the cave carved deep into the stone. TheElliniká Glóssa.
“What does it say?” Ember did not know the olde language, but she had heard the crew ofThe Nostosspeak it aboard the ship and she could only hope Dimitris and Ajax learned in Nexos as well.
?σοι μπα?νουν δεν θα επιστρ?ψουν ποτ? στο φως.
Dimitris’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Those who enter shall never return to the light.”
“That’s daunting,” the seer muttered under her breath, clutching Mykonos closer to her chest. Her hands shook ever so slightly around the creature.
Even though Ember had not known Thalia very long, she had yet to see a time where the seer was afraid of anything. Not as she had slain the soldiers of Harrenfort whileThe Nostos’s crew rescued Ember and her sister. Not when she’d ascended the mast of the ship with ease after a storm. Not even when they entered theinitial caves and she’d carved a path forward for them. So the tremor in Thalia’s voice was cause for concern.
Ember would have to be the strong one for all of them—after all, it was her father’s domain. Aidon would not let anything happen to her or her companions. “From what my father has told me, his castle in the underworld is not much past the entrance. If we can get there he can protect us and we can find out what Nikolaos was talking about.”
The obsidian ground shook beneath Ember’s feet. An equal tempo trekking from one of the caverns to their sides. Dimitris’s eyes widened, his pupils narrowing in the low light of Aidesian, nose twitching at the air. “Something is coming and I don’t think we want to be here when it arrives.” He unsheathed his sword, nodding to Ajax who did the same.
Thalia retucked Mykonos into the pack strapped to the quiver on her back, drawing the bow and a single arrow out. Ember followed suit, gripping the hilts of the dual swords she pulled from her own back, the Nexian weapon of choice that had landed next to her at the beach.
A low rumble came from the cavern, the stomping of clawed feet growing louder with eachthump, thump, thump. They would need to risk facing whichever beast her father had protecting his realm or face the darkness that lay before them. With what Ember heard of the beasts, she would rather risk never returningto the lightthan encounter the prowling creature.
She took off into the deep abyss that lay before them, hoping the castle was indeed close to the entrance. Winding black tunnels lay before her, the scent of decaying flesh growing with every step of her boots hitting the ground. Three equal pairs of pacing stepscame from behind her as the four of them wove their way through Aidesian, searching for any break in the land of night other than the dimming flames lining the caves.
Bright white light radiated in the distance before Ember, down a set of rocky stairs cut into the very ground she bounded over. It had to be her father’s residence. There was no other explanation for a break in the darkness that consumed every corner they passed.
A chilled breeze swept around her. Instinct had Ember grabbing for Ajax’s hand, but the commander was not there. Bending over, her palms met her thighs as her chest heaved and the foul taste of bile coated her mouth. Her legs should not have ached this much, the castle was supposed to be close and yet all Ember saw was darkened dungeons marked with blood and dirt. Somehow she’d made her way to Tartaros, the lowest level of Aidesian where only the most horrific of creatures resided, it was the only explanation for the chains that hung from the ceiling and the blood that streaked the walls. Stepping through a stone archway into a large dungeon, Ember realized that although she had lost her companions as she ran, she was not alone.
Chapter Fourteen
Ember
Kora lay bound on the floor, her blonde hair streaked with crimson. A slit lay across her throat, hot sticky blood pooled around her. The breath left Ember’s lungs. Why was her mother here? There was nothing left inside Ember except pain, bone-chilling, icy pain that had her frozen in place with nothing but pure terror. Not again. She would not lose someone she loved again. Ember willed her lead-filled legs to move, to carry her to her mother. It couldn’t be real.
Body still shaking, Ember knelt down next to her dying mother, bloodied coughs and raspy breaths leaving Kora’s mouth. She reached her hand out to try to stop the bleeding, but when shepushed down her palm met stone, not flesh. The body was gone. An illusion.
Sensing an approach from behind, Ember turned to see a figure cloaked in black. Ember’s hand went to the hilt of her sword and she drew the long bronze weapon. Another illusion? Was it the same male they encountered at the river? The cloaked figure lifted its tanned hands to the hood, dropping it back. Deep brown eyes, hair the color of pure darkness, wicked white teeth.
“Father?” Ember’s hands began to tremble. He approached her, his strange stare tracing over her features.
