Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,102

pushed me away from you?” Tancho asked. “Did she chant something different before she opened the doorway.?”

Crow made a face. “I can’t remember. The burning pain made it impossible to focus. It took every ounce of strength I had just to focus on getting to you. But no, she didn’t. She was laughing.”

Tancho snarled. “What about when she opened the doorways to the other kingdoms. It was in the old tongue,” Tancho said, searching the far reaches of his memory . . .

“Aperire ad meridianam,” Crow said. “Open to the south. Or occidens is to the west.”

Tancho tried both but to no avail. He growled in frustration. “Dammit. Perhaps we can’t use a direction because we don’t know where we are.”

“It shouldn’t matter where we are,” Crow said. “But where we need to go. Back to Aequi Kentron, the equal centre.” He frowned as he shook his head. “Uh . . . I can’t be sure. I think it’s aperire ad centrum.”

But his words died when the metal powder sparked purple flashes on the ground, bright compared to the dying firelight. Crow gripped Tancho’s arm. “Say it again.”

Crow sprinkled a touch more of the powder and recited the chant, louder this time, if that made any difference.

But this time the purple sparks ignited. Fizzing and flickering, until they finally took hold.

Crow laughed. “If we ever see our mentors again, remind me to thank Erelis for all those lessons I hated on the old languages.”

The swirling and spinning circle grew larger, illuminating every corner of the dark cavernous hole they’d been stuck in.

They could see now, the old and faint writings on the walls, the same letters and shapes which adorned the walls in the old grand hall. “Look,” Tancho whispered. “It’s the same as underneath the Aequi Kentron. We have to be close. Down where Adelais had said it had been blocked off hundreds of years before.”

“It certainly looks like it.” Crow turned back to the circle of purple sparks. “Let’s get out of here.”

The doorway was big enough for them to walk through now, though Tancho couldn’t see exactly where it was they were going. “It looks dark in there.”

Crow gave a nod and squinted as if to see clearer. “It does.” He drew his sword, so Tancho did the same. And together, they stepped into the unknown.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Crow didn’t know where they were going, but it had to be better than the hole they had left. Maghdlm had fully intended to send Tancho into that cold dark cell all by himself, with no hope of getting out alone.

Without Crow, without the elemental powder to open the doorway, Tancho would have died in there.

And for that, Maghdlm was going to pay.

They stepped through the doorway and found themselves standing in the middle of the old grand hall, down in the bowels of Aequi Kentron. They stood on the old stone compass, though Adelais, Gabel, and Aelfflaed were nowhere to be found, and neither were the once sleeping Ascii creatures they’d restrained in the corner.

The huge hall was dimly lit, two of the torches they’d found still gave light, but it was empty. There was not a sound, not a heartbeat. “No one’s here,” Tancho whispered.

Crow didn’t like this at all. He tightened his hold on his sword. “We need to get up to ground level, the grand hall.”

“Wait!” Tancho pointed to the darkened end of the cave. “I want to see what Adelais was hiding. She didn’t want us to go there.”

Tancho grabbed a torch, and staying close to one wall, they followed the tunnel along. The path turned downward, old stone steps were cut into it in some sections, and smaller tunnels branched off in opposite directions like blackened honeycomb. He paused, cocking his head to listen, then holding the torch out in front of him, Tancho turned into one of the catacombs.

The dark stone walls were damp, glistening in the torchlight, revealing writings in the stone. Just a few more steps in and there were pockets in the walls, and Tancho froze, putting his hand up to stop Crow.

“What is it?” Crow whispered.

Tancho held the torch out and Crow could make out the horrors on display. Bones lined the walls like decorative stacks. Human bones, skulls. Some were darkened by aeons of time, others gleaming fresh.

There were yellow cloaks and blood-stained clothes on the floor and old, old blades. Tancho picked one up. “These are made from bone,” he whispered. “Look.”

He held up the handle and Crow