CHAPTER 24
Lost in darkness, your touch I cannot feel. Copper closes over my eyes. I cannot taste. I cannot hear. Oblivion offers a glistening star, relief from a prison with no bars.
—From “Lost in Darkness”
Once Mother was ready, the two of us joined Dad and Jaquith in the harem gallery. Dad cleared his throat as if startled by our strange appearance, but none of us wasted time on questions or explanations. We just took off, racing out of the harem and through the reception hall.
When we reached the weaving room’s curtained doorway, Mother slipped inside. We swept after her into the room’s dim red light, zigzagging between looms, around baskets and stacks of carpets. She ducked behind a machine covered in spikes and into a slender doorway, all but invisible unless someone knew it was there.
At that point, Jaquith took over as the lead, down steep staircases, out into a palm-sheltered courtyard, and down again to the lower levels of the palace and into a narrow hallway. This might have been the route Mother used when she snuck off to teach the slaves, but clearly Jaquith often took it as well. Mostly I was grateful that his feelings for Chase had made him an ally instead of our enemy.
Servants appeared. First one and then more of them, rushing back and forth with slop buckets and baskets of laundry in their arms. Zenith, or whatever they called their siesta time, had to be over, at least for them.
Ahead the hallway opened into a wide chamber. Banners and shields decorated its walls. At its center, a ceiling-high cage held a massive black eagle. Near the cage, an elderly guard slouched in a chair. He snapped to his feet as we entered, his gaze darkening as he studied Mother and me.
Sweat drizzled down my temples, sticking the silk head mask against my face. This wasn’t good. Not at all.
Mother flicked her veils back, left me behind, and strode straight at the guard. “We’ve been waiting since before the zenith for our escorts. What’s going on down here? Stuffing your bellies instead of following orders? Malphic’s going to be furious.”
“I—I just came on duty, Mistress,” he stuttered, scuffing backward.
Jaquith swaggered forward, his hand resting on his whip. “Aren’t there supposed to be two guards at this post? Where is your partner?”
“He’s in the latrine. He ate some bad meat, sir.”
Dad scoffed. “More likely he drank too much wine.”
I slipped up next to Mother. It was time to top off this bit of playacting and move on. I tugged her arm. “We need to get going. I’m dreadfully late and he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
“Yes, come along,” Mother said, ushering me past the guard. It was easy to guess what he might assume: two concubines in robes sent to meet a man, most likely a favored guard or officer since we had to be near the barracks by now.
Mother and I swished down another hallway, veils flying out, silk slippers shushing against the floor. Dad and Jaquith trailed behind with heads bowed like humble eunuchs. We kept on going, moving quickly. It wasn’t until we came to the top of a rather bleak circular stairwell that Mother slowed and stepped into the darkness at the edge of the hallway.
She leaned close to Jaquith. “This is the staircase, right?”
He nodded and drew us into a huddle. His gaze went from Dad to me. “Below are the berserker quarters. Its cells lie within the outer wall and run its entire length, interspersed with stairwells. Chase will be in one of these cells. Once his change is complete the cell will become his home, unless by some miracle he comes out of it sane. If he becomes uncontrollable, it will be his tomb.”
His home. His tomb. I shuddered at the thought. The staircase already reminded me of the bone-laden catacombs I’d seen in Paris, forbidding and unnervingly ominous. No matter what, I wouldn’t leave Chase in a place like that.
Dad rubbed his hands together. “All righty, then. How are we going to get in these berserker quarters? I’m sure there are guards. But what else is down there?”
“Getting in isn’t the issue,” Jaquith said. “It’s getting out that’s the problem.”
Human howls reverberated up the stairwell, followed by manic laughter.
My heart leapt into my throat. We all looked at one another. Chase. Oh my God. That couldn’t be him.
I toughened my voice. “But there is a way to escape, right? You wouldn’t have brought us if there wasn’t.”
“I wouldn’t have let Chase get trapped in the first place, if I could have prevented it.” He lowered his voice. “There are wards on the stairwells. Anyone can walk down them, but going up them is similar to crossing the veil between realms. As long as we have your flutist, she’ll be able to get us out—” He stopped abruptly, smoothing his hands down his sides.
Dad pushed his hood back. “But they wouldn’t just leave a eunuch in a cell with a warrior on the verge of going berserk—that’s the problem, right? We’re going to need to figure out where Lotli is as well.”
Jaquith shook his head. “No, they would do exactly that—whether the eunuch was willing to care for the warrior or not. One live berserker is worth hundreds of our lives. And, if Chase makes it through the change with his mind intact, then no cost would be too high in Malphic’s eyes. Chase would be a Death Warrior, a rare half-ifrit survivor, a victor as well as his son.”
“So what’s the problem, then?” Dad asked impatiently.
“It’s not exactly a problem. There is another way to escape. The berserker cells have exits into the desert, so they can patrol the perimeter of the fortress. It would get us stranded outside the walls—and it’s harsh out there, beyond Malphic’s protective spells and wards. But it is another route.”
“Shush.” Mother raised her hand to silence him.
The far-off clip of boots sounded, coming toward us down the hallway. More than one pair. Maybe more than a dozen.
We bolted for the forbidding stairwell, fleeing downward as quietly as we could. Shimmering silver symbols coated the dark walls. Under my feet, the stone treads vibrated. A creepy-crawling sensation prickled up my legs, but disappeared when I reached the bottom.
The clip of boots passed in the hallway over our heads, reverberating down the stairwell before fading as they moved on.
“That was close,” Mother whispered.
I glanced around, getting my bearings. In both directions, a gloomy, catacomb-like tunnel lined with black carpeted doorways stretched off into darkness. Jaquith had said the berserker quarters spanned the entire length of the fortress’s outer wall. That left us with miles of tunnel and potentially hundreds of cells to search.
“We’ll need to break into two teams,” Mother said. “It’s the fastest way to find him.”
I smiled. “Not necessarily.” I pulled the egg pendant out from the neckline of my sarong and let it dangle. I focused my energy and a tingling sensation sparked in my chest, sweeping toward my arm. “What direction do I go to find Chase? Right? Left?”
The egg hung motionless. But the same crawling sensation I’d just felt in the stairwell prickled the soles of my feet. An intense hum filled my ears.
“Something wrong?” Dad asked.
I shook my head and the hum as well as the sensation vanished. “I think the ward on the stairwell is interfering.”
Jaquith nodded. “Quite likely. It’s powerful. But its effects should weaken once you get farther away.”
“How far?” Mother said.
“It’s impossible to say. Maybe never down here.” He turned to Dad, his voice becoming somber. “We should break into teams, like Susan suggested. You and her should go check in one direction, while Annie and I do the other. A concubine and eunuch. Someone who has lived in the fortress with someone who hasn’t.”
“I don’t like it,” Dad said.
I gathered the necklace up in my hand, curling my fingers around the egg and pressing it against my chest. I didn’t like the idea either, but—“It makes sense and it’ll be a lot faster. If you two find him first, one of you can come and get us. If we find him, we’ll let you know.”
Mother glanced to the right, down the tunnel. “But how are we going to know which cell they’re in? We can’t just blindly walk through every carpet and hope for the best.”
I nibbled my bottom lip, a touch of moisture clinging to my head mask. There had to be a solution. Chase was counting on us. He was hurting, mentally and physically.
An image of Chase, looking at me through the fight cage bars, flooded my mind: His face darkened by beard stubble. One of his eyes bruised and swollen shut, blood crusting along the lid. His nose flat. His lips split open. Bruises. Blood. So much blood—
That was it! “Blood,” I said. “Chase was hurt. There’ll be fresh blood on the floor you can track him with. We can do the same or use the pendulum if it starts working.”
Jaquith nodded. “This is the section closest to the fight cage. If we’re going to see a blood trail, it’ll be somewhere in this general area.”
Dad and Mother took off down the right-hand tunnel. Jaquith and I went left.
Luckily, there were only doorways on one side of the tunnel. So I crept along close to that side of the wall, letting the egg dangle and trying to ignore the sensation and hum as I murmured, “Where is Chase? Help me find what is lost.”
The egg moved, but it was a natural sway, keeping time with my footsteps, almost brushing each carpeted doorway as I passed.
“Aiyeeeeeeee!” A bloodcurdling scream ripped out from behind the carpet closest to me, sending my pulse into hyperdrive. Almost tripping on the hem of my sarong, I bolted away, egg clutched in my hand, my heart hammering against my ribs.
The carpet began to thump in and out, in and out, harder and harder, as if fists were pounding against it. It stopped moving and a voice mewled, “I can smell you. Your meat. Your blood. Tasty. Tasty.”
Jaquith grabbed my arm, towing me to the next doorway. “Don’t worry about that one.” He gestured back at three white X’s chalked at the top of the carpet. “He’s been in there a while. He’s not going to make it.”
I shuddered and I wished with all my heart that I didn’t know what Jaquith meant. The guy was berserk, uncontrollably so. Soon Malphic’s magi would drain his energy until he died.
“This is taking too long,” Jaquith grumbled. “Before we know it, Malphic will be down here to check on Chase.”
He said it offhandedly, almost to himself. But it made getting back into the zone nearly impossible. Still, the crawly sensation was barely noticeable now, the hum fading, and a slight tug from the pendulum insisted we were going the right way. We’d find Chase at any moment. I was sure of it. And Lotli, I reminded myself.
I took a deep breath, trying even harder to channel my energy toward the egg.
The next carpet was decorated with copper coins and embroidered with ravens. I held the egg in front of it. It swung back and forth, back and forth, showing no sign of wanting to circle, like it should have done if Chase were behind it.
Still, I felt drawn to study the carpet again. It was dirt free, every thread perfect. It had to have been made and hung recently. When we’d first arrived I’d found Chase easily through a carpet in the inner sanctum. But this carpet didn’t look like that one or any I’d noticed before. What if it was messing with my abilities, like the stairwell ward?
“Jaquith?” I said sharply. “Maybe we should check behind this one.”
“No,” he said without a trace of emotion. “That one’s a tomb.”
My chest squeezed. Okay. So it wasn’t Chase’s cell. Still, it seemed whoever they were, they deserved at least a drop of sympathy. I bowed my head, a moment of respect—
My gaze caught on a dark fleck next to my feet, then a larger spot and another, a whole trail of black-red droplets.
I swooped down and ran my fingers across the drops. Their tips came away sticky and as red as they’d been that night on the clifftop. But this time there was no rain to wash the blood away. No chance it wasn’t real.
“He’s here,” I called to Jaquith. No need for my egg now. My heart screamed that he was super close. I scoured the floor and found more drops. A piece of blood-smeared yarn with a tiny silver starfish threaded into it—a charm off Lotli’s flute—lay directly beneath a carpeted doorway.
Almost unable to breathe, I pushed my hand against the carpet’s darkness. The static shock of its magic prickled my skin. I stepped through it and into a tomb-like chamber lit by a single flickering candle. A chair sat beside a table. On it were a bowl and large stoneware jug. Scattered across the dirt floor as if thrown or torn off in a hurry were a white sash, arm gauntlets, and men’s boots.
A flicker of light came from a keyhole-shaped doorway to my left, its brightness casting shadows in my direction. Clearly this wasn’t a single-room cell like I’d envisioned. But it was just as tomb-like as I’d feared.
“Chase?” I called, my voice weaker than I’d have preferred. You promised to forsake him, I reminded myself. She’ll hurt him if you’re not careful.
Jaquith stepped out from the carpet and moved up next to me, his voice stronger than mine. “Lotli. Chase. Are you in there?”
Nothing.
A soft, erotic moan whispered out from the other room.
“Lie still.” It was Lotli’s voice.