Page 22 of Kingdom of Ashes & Bone
The demon gently grasped my index finger in its rough, ashy hand, and tugged me forward. The other demons followed like mindless hounds pulled along by their master.
Together we went down the tunnel on the left, the air cooler the further we went. It was odd; I was much less at fear down here with demons all around me than I had been upstairs with Zephyr, surrounded by the sick Nobles. There was a quiet restlessness down here and a steady feeling of purpose. Up there, there’d been nothing but despair and resignation.
The tunnel widened dramatically, and my strange honor guard of demons used the extra space to push around me, chittering excitedly like a bunch of children eager to show their mother a small treasure they found.
And small treasures they had in spades.
One demon pulled on my arm and pushed a small clay dragon into my hand, its fangs and gaping mouth stretched into a macabre grin. I gave him (because they were all ‘hims’ and not ‘its’) a shaky grin of thanks in return, and he bounded away only for another one to take his place.
Another demon tugged on the bottom of my tunic and pointed to the cave wall where there were long claw marks gouged into the wall, along with a few other items of note.
Artwork. Pictures.
I stopped and gawked, my demon guide slowing next to me as we all looked together. I squinted at it, then relaxed my eyes, trying to take in the crude markings as a whole rather than individually. That’s when it started to make sense.
The markings were old and etched deeply into the wall. The dragon was easy to spot by its giant oblong body and the two wings. Lines spewed from its mouth, indicating fire. Stick figures cowered and ran beneath it, turning into a giant pile of squiggles and scribbles.
Ash.
“What is it you want me to see?” I asked quietly.
The demons around me were silent and staring. It was as if they knew that whatever was etched here was important, even if they weren’t sure what it was. My demon guide tugged on my hand and pointed to the far left, and I raised my torch. The light illuminated another set of drawings; ones which seemed to precede this one. I ran my fingers over the etchings, swallowing heavily.
A crude figure of a woman was on the far left, standing over a cluster of figures working. The woman had an angry look on her face. The second drawing showed her with her arms outstretched, more lines and shapes flowing from her fingers toward a group of stick figures with flowing robes and hair. One of them wore a crown. The next picture had the same figures bent over and contorted, crying out. The figure with the crown twisted with them. The last picture showed the people turning into monsters, and the figure with the crown into a dragon. The final picture was the one I’d already seen, with the dragon flaming and destroying everything in its path.
I remembered the ‘fantastical stories’ Zephyr had mentioned before I’d run, the pieces flying together in my mind. I said it out loud more for my benefit than the demons, but it felt nice to have an audience that wasn’t sneering at me or trying to lord their knowledge and skills over my head.
“There was a witch,” I began slowly. The demons went still, like children gathered around me to hear a campfire story. “She saw the slaves working in the mines, and cast a spell that turned the Nobles into demons, and the princes into a dragon.”
I stared at the second picture. It made sense when I said it out loud, but it didn’t feel right. I was missing something.
“The dragon came to the mines and … and killed all the slaves there. That’s what shut down the mines.” My voice broke a little, and I scarcely dared to believe it. Zariah had sworn he hadn’t done it. Had he lied, or had it been Zion who’d gone on a massive killing spree? Both of them agreed Zion had the least control over his dragon between the two of them, but I just couldn’t imagine one of my boys killing in cold blood like that, even if it was ordered by the queen. It didn’t fit!
And the timeline … these carvings were old. So old.
“Thanks for showing me,” I told the demons. “Is there anything else?”
They shuffled around me as if in a hive mind mentality, herding me gently down the tunnel until we emerged into the same large cavern Zariah and I had explored.
The old mines.
More demons erupted from crevices and pits as we entered, emerging like ants. There were hundreds … no, thousands! They shrieked and moaned and cried out like they had before, but it didn’t fill me with fear like it did last time. Now I understood. They were hungry. They were confused. They were hurting.
Together, they rushed me to sniff and poke at me, and again I was reminded of large, dirty dogs. No, I had to stop thinking like that. These were people, just changed. It was demeaning and awful to think of them like dogs, like how the queen thought of my people.
A short demon frowned at me and grabbed my hand, tugging me toward one of the many tunnels. Only about a dozen demons came with us, the rest falling back and staying in the large cavern.
We walked for what felt like ages, until the air grew hot and stifling, and the stone floor under my feet inclined sharply and gave way to dirt. Great large boulders met us at what appeared to be a dead end.
“What—” I began, cut off when the small demon bounced forward, slipping easily between a gap in the middle of the rocks that wasn’t obvious when you looked at it. I squeezed between it and the demon, who refused to take another step further. I stumbled into a familiar opening, daylight hitting me in the face as I emerged from the darkness.
I recognized this. I used to hide here as a child. We were in the mud quarter, in one of the many old mine entrances that everyone had thought blocked.
The demon behind me whined, taking care to stay out of the sun. My eyes weren’t ready for the brightness either after such an extended time underground. I backed up into the tunnel again just to take it all in.
“I don’t understand,” I began. “What keeps you from leaving these tunnels? Even if you don’t attack, you could still escape. What keeps you here?”
“Something has to be keeping you here,” I insisted. “What is it?”
