Arc 3, Chapter 30: False Start

  Ash's eyes opened.

  Stone pressed against his palms. The surface was rough and cold enough that he felt it through the numbness in his fingers. He flexed his hands, confirming the ground beneath him was solid.

  Voices drifted through the haze in his mind. Low murmurs he could barely make out.

  Walls curved around him, rough stone climbing into shadow overhead. Light leaked through a gap in the ceiling near the far corner. Enough for him to make out the people around him and the shape of the cave.

  Seven people occupied the space with him. Some sat against the walls while others stood.

  His last clear memory surfaced.

  Thunder rolling across Willowden. The creature collapsed as crimson fire consumed the corruption binding it together. Mira's hands pressed against his back, her healing mana flowing into him even as her breathing turned ragged. The wet sound of her coughing. Blood warm against his shoulder.

  Then nothing.

  He looked at his hands.

  Black veins spread beneath his skin. Dark lines branching from his wrists, crawling upward.

  He scanned the space again. Stone. Strangers. Dim light filtering from above.

  *Where am I?*

  A woman stood and walked toward him. Black hair fell loose past her shoulders. Hazel eyes met his as she stopped nearby. Her face was clean, standing out against the dust and grime of the cave. She wore padded travel clothes beneath a dark cloak. A rapier hung at her side.

  She smiled.

  "Hi."

  Ash braced his hand against the wall and pushed himself to his feet. His legs trembled. The moment he straightened, the cave lurched sideways. His vision blurred at the edges and the ground tilted beneath him.

  His balance gave out.

  Arms caught him before he fell. The woman had moved fast, hands gripping his shoulders to keep him upright. She held him steady until the spinning stopped and his feet found solid ground again.

  She released him slowly, making sure he could stand. "You okay?"

  The dizziness faded to a dull ache behind his eyes. Ash straightened, testing his weight.

  "Thank you."

  She gathered her hair with both hands and pulled it back, tying the strands away from her face in one smooth motion. She met his eyes. "I'm Anna, by the way."

  Her gaze dropped to his neck.

  "What happened there?"

  Ash's hand moved before he formed a conscious thought, fingers pressing against the skin below his jaw. He felt raised lines beneath the surface. The corruption had climbed higher than he realized.

  "Nothing worth mentioning." His hand fell away from his neck.

  "Call me Ash."

  He looked past her to the others.

  An older woman sat with her back against the far wall. She wore a brown dress. Gray streaked through brown hair pulled into a loose tie. Her hands twisted together in her lap, shoulders drawn inward.

  Ash turned back to Anna. "What is this place?"

  Anna shook her head. "No idea. I woke up here, same as everyone else."

  She gestured toward the older woman. "Her name's Vera. She was at home when it happened. Playing with her daughters while her husband worked around the house. Next thing she knew, she woke up in this cave."

  Ash's gaze followed Anna's gesture. Vera's lips moved, shaping words he couldn't make out. The same sound, over and over.

  "That one's Voss," Anna said. "He was working in the fields when he got pulled here. Woke up angry about it."

  Ash's eyes tracked her gesture. A man with brown hair leaned against the wall, his face locked in a scowl, arms crossed over his chest.

  Anna nodded toward another man standing close to Voss. Thinner build, same brown hair. He shifted his weight from foot to foot.

  "Pell." She frowned slightly. "He said something about the market. Blinked and woke up here."

  "Bram..." Anna's gaze shifted to a man sitting against the opposite wall. Younger than the others, hands resting on his knees. "He was heading home from work when everything went dark."

  "Rowan over there," Anna continued, nodding toward a man pacing near the cave entrance. "He was sleeping when it happened. Still seems pretty rattled about the whole thing."

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  She gestured toward the distant edge of the chamber—"That's Orin"—and at his name the man's head turned, slow and precise, before Ash's gaze even found him.

  "He was tending his garden before he ended up here."

  Anna turned back to Ash, her expression shifting to curiosity.

  "As for me? I was setting up camp for the night. Had my bedroll laid out and everything. Blinked, and suddenly I'm waking up on cold stone instead."

  She looked at Ash.

  "What about you?"

  Ash held her gaze for a moment before answering.

  "I was in a village."

  A beat of silence passed between them. Anna's gaze held on him, then she looked away toward the others.

  One of the men pushed off from the wall.

  Rowan.

  His hands moved in sharp gestures as he spoke.

  "Alright, we all know who everyone is now. Great. Can we figure out how to leave? I'm not sitting in this cave waiting for something to happen."

  Vera's voice broke through the tension, cracking on the words.

  "My girls. I need to get back to them."

  Anna moved before the woman finished speaking. She crossed the space in quick strides and crouched beside Vera, one hand settling on her shoulder.

  "Hey. We're getting out of here. All of us." Her voice carried steady certainty. "You'll see your daughters again. I promise."

  Voss's voice cut across the cave.

  "We leaving or are we waiting for her to finish crying first?"

  Anna's head snapped toward him. Her hand stayed on Vera's shoulder.

  "She just got ripped away from her family. Give her a second."

  Voss pushed off the wall, arms uncrossing.

  "A second? We've been sitting here long enough. I'm not waiting around because someone can't hold it together."

  Pell stepped forward, positioning himself beside Voss.

  "He's right. Who put you in charge anyway?"

  Anna stood, releasing Vera's shoulder. She turned to face them both.

  "Nobody. But someone needs to think about more than just themselves."

  Voss's jaw tightened.

  "I'm thinking about getting out of here alive. Sitting around playing nursemaid isn't going to help with that."

  Ash turned away from the argument and walked toward the far end of the cave where shadows pooled deepest.

  Anna glanced between Voss and the direction Ash had gone. She looked down at Vera.

  "Can you walk?"

  Vera nodded, wiping at her eyes. Anna helped her to her feet and guided her forward, following Ash into the darkness.

  The others watched them leave. Voss glared but followed anyway. Pell stayed close behind him.

  Bram stood, brushing dust from his pants before joining the line. Rowan hesitated, looking back at the dim light from above, then hurried to catch up. Orin brought up the rear, silent as he had been since waking.

  The passage ahead narrowed into a tunnel. Stone walls pressed in on both sides, torches mounted at intervals casting flickering light across the rough surface.

  Ash walked at the front. Anna fell into step beside him.

  "That guy Voss?" Anna said. "Seriously annoying. And his friend too, just agreeing with everything he says." She glanced back over her shoulder. "At least Vera seems kind. When she was crying about her daughters, it made my heart hurt. I can't imagine being pulled away from family like that. Do you have—"

  She kept talking. Her voice filled the tunnel, words tumbling over each other without pause. Complaints about Voss. Sympathy for Vera. Questions she didn't wait for answers to. Observations about the cave. More thoughts about the situation.

  Ash glanced at her.

  Anna's mouth closed mid-sentence. She met his eyes for a moment, then looked ahead at the path. The silence settled between them as they walked.

  Ash stopped at the threshold.

  The tunnel opened into a circular room where eight monkey statues stood along the curved walls, carved from dark stone and positioned on each side of the chamber. Every statue was in prayer with its palms pressed together and its head bowed low.

  A plain wooden door stood at the far end of the chamber, with a simple iron handle.

  Rowan stayed near the entrance.

  Ash stepped inside. The others filed in behind him, spreading out across the chamber.

  Anna moved toward one of the statues, leaning in to examine its face.

  She stayed there for a long moment, her eyes tracing the line of its mouth and the curve of its eyes before she moved to the next one. Vera kept close to Anna's side.

  Ash's eyes traveled upward to the wall above the door. Words were carved into the stone, deep enough to cast shadows in the dim light.

  *The old order must not be disturbed.*

  Ash walked to the door and gripped the iron handle.

  The metal turned in his palm, yet the door remained firm. He shoved his weight against the wood. Nothing. He tried pulling it toward him. The door wouldn't budge.

  Anna appeared beside him, reading the inscription. "What does that mean?"

  Pell strode forward before anyone could answer. "Doesn't matter. Let's just break it down."

  He slammed both hands against the door and shoved with all his weight. The wood didn't budge. He stepped back and threw a kick that landed with a dull thud. It still held fast.

  He gripped a statue and tried to wrench it from the wall. The stone didn't budge. He let go and found a heavy rock near the corner, then threw it at the door. The impact boomed through the chamber, yet the wood remained unmarked.

  Bram stepped away from the wall. "Stop. You're wasting time."

  Pell turned. "You got a better idea?"

  Bram walked to the door. His eyes moved from the inscription to the handle, then back to the carved words.

  "The old order must not be disturbed." He murmured the phrase under his breath, brow furrowed.

  His gaze stayed locked on the text. Seconds passed.

  Then his expression shifted. His eyes widened slightly.

  "The old order." He whispered.

  "Knights. The old knightly orders." He looked at the door.

  "Knight... sounds like—knock." A smile crossed his face. "You knock on a door."

  He raised his fist and knocked twice on the wood.

  A click came from inside the door. Metal sliding against metal. Ash heard it clearly despite the distance.

  Bram's face lit up. He gripped the handle and pulled the door open.

  Absolute darkness waited beyond the threshold until a massive mouth erupted from the void, its rows of teeth gleaming in the torchlight as it lunged forward with impossible speed.

  Ash's body reacted before his mind caught up. He pushed off the wall, arm extending toward Bram.

  Anna blurred past him. Her hand shot out, fingers reaching for Bram's shoulder.

  The mouth closed around Bram's torso. His scream cut off as teeth sank through fabric and flesh. The creature yanked him backward into the darkness.

  Anna's fingers grasped empty air.

  The door slammed shut. The sound cracked through the chamber like thunder.

  Silence.

  Anna stood frozen, arm still outstretched. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, breath coming in short bursts.

  Vera screamed and pressed her hands to her mouth, her wide eyes fixed on the door.

  Rowan stumbled backward until his shoulders hit the wall. His breathing came rapid and shallow.

  "What—what was that? What the hell was that?" Pell's face had gone pale. He stood rooted in place, staring at the door.

  Orin backed into the stone, his body trembling in the silence.

  Voss's jaw clenched. His hands curled into fists at his sides.

  "We need to leave. Now."

  Stone ground against stone as three statues unhinged their jaws.

  A harsh, mocking laugh filled the chamber and echoed off the walls until Ash's ears rang.

  Then the sound cut out.

  The three monkeys snapped their mouths shut and bowed their heads.

  They returned to their prayer poses with their palms pressed together.

  Once again, all eight statues looked exactly the same. The room went cold and quiet.

  No one moved.