Page 85 of The Lands Defying
“The sketches…” I begin, and Darius’s eyes sharpen. “We have seen sketches of them from your father.”
He looks away for a moment in thought. “We need to port back here and take any information we can,” Darius tells his men, and they nod, their faces a mixture of disgust and anger. To me, Darius says, “stay close,” as we move toward the double doors.
I steel myself for what we may find on the other side, at finding out what this woman is screaming for, and to hope it’s not one of my pack members.
Twenty Four
Rhea
The large, wooden doors loom over us as we halt in front of them.
It feels like an omen, an entrance to death and all that is wrong in the lands.
Nerves rattle through me, causing my hands to shake. We can still hear the screams of the woman, but now that we are closer, I can hear murmured voices beyond the closed doors.
That, followed by unknown growls that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention, makes me want to rush inside or hide.
It’s unnerving, this fear I have.
I don’t know if it is those growls itself, or what we will find, but seeing what was left of those females in those cells…
I swallow roughly again, saliva filling my mouth as Darius brings a finger up to his lips, letting us know to keep quiet as he slowly turns the handle. He begins to pull the door open on another scream, and a subtle light shines through the crack. I move out of its way before it hits me, standing next to Josh.
Blades ready, we pause, waiting to see if anything happened. We cast worried glances at each other as we wait, but when it doesn’t, we nod to ourselves.
Acreakfrom the door opening more has my eyes snapping to it, but another scream, followed by a growl, covers the sound. The scent of more blood reaches us.
Please, Zahariss, not them. Vallier, I chant to myself.
Knowing we haven’t been noticed, Darius quickly slips through the opening of the door on silent feet, and we follow.
A large, tall stack of wooden shelving is directly in front of us and we move to hide behind it, crouching low. It’s full of different herbs, materials and vials of liquid, the color of burnt orange inside of them.
I scrunch up my nose at the odd smell.
Peeking through the shelf at my level, I search the vast room between the items.
It’s large and oval, with torches placed throughout the space to cast a dull light upon everything, which makes it feel eerie. Some light shines down through cracks in the ceiling between the rock, creating bright spots on the uneven stone floor, making me wonder how close the surface is up there.
Cells line either side of the room, mirroring each other but they stand freely off the underground walls, not attached to a wall in any way. Stone pillars separate the cells, but that is the only solid thing holding them up as you can see directly through the other side of the bars. I don’t see a door of any kind attached to it to open them, and a sick feeling settles in my stomach.
My eyes move to the center next, a raised platform sits where a crude, large rectangular stone rests, and one of those beasts we saw in the other room is chained down upon it.
My hand tightly grips the shelf as its odd, beastly form violently shakes, rattling the chains around its wrists and ankles.
I give a wide-eyed glance at Darius, seeing his jaw tick.
My eyes go back to the beast, and it tilts its head back suddenly, letting loose a terrifying growl from its muzzle that sounds like it's screeching.
It is almost the same sound a rogure releases…but much deeper.
Rogures sound unhinged, this beast sounds…angry.
I scan its body, which is exactly like the rogure-human-thing we found in the other room. I trace my gaze lower, looking over the clumps of gray skin from the waist below until I reach in between his thighs. Vomit threatens to rise within me once more.
I resist stepping back, fear running through me at what I’m seeing, at what one of those things did to that woman.
I avert my eyes back to the cells on the left, seeing shadows moving in one of them three down from the one closest to us. There is someone in there…
