The Crown of Embers
Page 8“I knew you’d say that.” The slightest smile curves his lips. “A walk in the monastery garden is something active. This is—”
“This is what I’m going to do.”
He sighs, resigned. “Times like this, I miss Alejandro. He was malleable.”
I choke back a startled laugh.
“Hold on to my shoulder. And if you change your mind—”
“Yes, let’s go.”
I glance over at Ximena, expecting her to protest, but she just stares at Hector, her face unreadable.
Fernando steps into the hole first, holding the torch aloft, and Hector follows. When my turn comes, I’m careful to land squarely on the balls of my feet to avoid slipping on the green slime. Moist air tickles my face, lifting strands of hair from my temples. We are sure to encounter water on this expedition, for the underground river is nearby, its rushing steady and monstrous, so ever-present that it is almost like silence.
The stair spirals—tight and steep. The close-in walls are covered with the slime, and I’m reluctant to touch them, even for balance. I find it’s easier to leave my hand at the crook of Hector’s shoulder and trust him to keep us both upright.
“There are scuffs in the slime,” Fernando says, and his voice echoes around us. “Someone passed this way.”
“There were no footprints in the tomb,” Hector asks.
“Did the floor look too clean, by chance?” I ask. “Who was first to investigate?”
Hector pauses on the step, and my knees bump the backs of his thighs. But he continues without answering. Maybe he doesn’t want to name the general within hearing of his men.
My wounded abdomen throbs with strain by the time the stair ends at a low tunnel. The sand floor is smoothly rippled, like a beach after the waves have retreated.
“It’s flooded at high tide,” Hector says as I’m drawing the same conclusion. “There’s the water line.” He points to the wall, where a wainscoting of barnacles reaches knee-high.
I swallow against disappointment. All trace of those who passed before will have washed away, and we are unlikely to find a clue here about my would-be assassin.
Fernando squeals, and we all jump. “Sorry,” he says, breathless. “Crab.” I’m suddenly very glad for my desert boots, which are impervious to slime and sand and scuttling creatures.
Something on the wall catches my eye—a carved rivulet in the stone. “What’s that?” I point.
Fernando lifts his torch to reveal a line of script, each letter the height of my pinky finger. My Godstone warms with recognition.
“It’s in the Lengua Classica,” Ximena says, her voice breathy with wonder. “From the Scriptura Sancta.”
I translate. “The gate that leads to life is narrow and small so that few find it.”
Ximena reaches out to trace the letters with her fingers. She was a scribe at the Monastery-at-Amalur before she became my nurse, and like me, she has a reverent interest in ancient texts and holy writings.
“But is it meant for those coming or going?” I muse. “Which direction ‘leads to life’?”
“Only one way to find out,” Hector says, and it warms me to hear the anticipation in his voice.
The limestone squeezes tighter until the corridor is barely wide enough for the guards’ armored shoulders. Though it’s cool and breezy, I’m too aware of the weight of rock above. So huge, so heavy. A whole city goes about its business up there. I’m becoming very nervous when Fernando announces, “Another stair.”
This one leads upward, straight instead of spiraled, and rough-hewn as if carved by a giant clumsy ax. I’m glad to note dry, mold-free steps.
“Fernando,” says Hector. “Aim your torch away.”
The guard puts the torch behind his back. Ximena does the same with hers, and it becomes apparent that a separate glow, faint but true, illuminates the stairway.
“Do you think it leads outside?” I ask.
“We’ve descended too far,” Hector says. “Unless I’ve gotten turned around, I think we’re beneath the Wallows.”
The Wallows. The most dangerous quarter of my city, where I’m not to travel even with an armed escort. The place each monarch before me has vowed to improve, with mixed—mostly poor—results. Where prostitutes and beggars and black-market merchants band together to form a society within a society, outside of my rule.
Hector turns to me, his gaze fierce. “Majesty, if I sense danger, I’ll hustle you away, against your will if necessary.”
“And if that happens, I promise to be only temporarily enraged.” It comes out more sharply than I intend, mostly out of pique that he has reverted to calling me Majesty even among friends. “Let’s go.”
Climbing yanks at my sore stomach, and I slow everyone down. The passage is so tight and steep that hanging on to Hector is more trouble than it’s worth. The sound of rushing water gets louder, and the glow brightens. Soon we don’t need the torches at all. I can’t imagine what would cause such light so deep underground.
The stairway levels off. Fernando gasps, and I’m about to ask him what he sees, but speech leaves me when I step into brightness.
The stair has ended at a high ledge overlooking the most enormous cavern I’ve ever seen. The river curves against the sheer wall opposite our ledge. The water is as smooth and clear as glass, though a constant sound like rushing wind attests to rapids nearby. To our left, the wall is riddled with smaller caves, all connected to one another by swinging ladders and scalloping rope bridges. On the floor of the cavern are several large huts, cobbled together from driftwood and shipwreck scavenge.
People are everywhere, going about their lives as if this were any ordinary place. A woman sits framed in the entrance to one of the small caves, stirring something over a cook fire. Outside the largest hut, two bearded, wind-chapped men work together repairing a fishing net. Near the river, a group of barefoot children plays a game with sticks and a leather ball.
Light streams through cracks in the ceiling. These sunlit crevices are lush with plants: broad-leafed creepers, a few ferns, and hundreds of hanging vines that don’t quite brush the tops of the huts.
“It’s a whole village,” I whisper, “right beneath our feet all this time.”
“I’ve not even heard of this place,” Hector whispers back.
But the peculiar nature of the cavern amplifies our voices, carries them to the huts below. Everyone freezes and looks up. I see my own shock mirrored in their faces.
Hector’s hand flies to his scabbard. He and Fernando step up to shield me from view. But it is too late, for someone bellows, “It’s the queen!”
I hear gasps of surprise, utensils clattering, running footsteps.
“Not yet! They’re more afraid of us than we are of them, see?”
Fernando swings his bow over his shoulder and fits an arrow. He and Hector exchange a look, and Hector nods. The guard steps forward, draws the bow, aims toward the milieu below.
“Halt!” Hector booms. “In the name of the queen.”
The sounds of humanity fade, leaving only the wind whistling above and the water rushing below. Now that everyone has stilled, I note bandages, a sling, a splinted leg, a head wrap stained brownish red.
“We have their attention, Your Majesty,” Hector says. “Would you like to address them? Or do you wish to retreat? I recommend ret—”
“Hector, these people are wounded,” I whisper.
“They were most likely involved in the riots,” he says matter-of-factly.
They all stare up at me, half in terror, half in hope, and the sight is so familiar that my heart aches. Who would hurt these people? “They look like they’ve been to war.”
“Riots are war.”
Oh. My stomach thuds with the understanding that they were probably injured in my name. I am at war again. A nebulous, aimless kind, but a war nevertheless. These are my people. But maybe they’re my enemy too.
“Do they have weapons?” I ask. “Can they reach us from down there?”
“I see none. We have the high ground and the advantage for now.”
Maybe I should burn the place to the ground, force everyone to the surface. But the Belleza Guerra rings in my head. Always cultivate allies. When that fails, cultivate fear in your enemies.
I step forward. Hector moves aside to let me pass, but I know from the whisper of steel on steel that he has drawn his sword. Fernando’s eyes roam the crowd, ready to shift his sights in the space of an instant.
My confidence grows, which seems strange until I realize that this secret cavern reminds me of the hidden desert camp where I spent months plotting our war against Invierne. Like my desert rebels, these people are ragged but clean, wounded but proud. I probably should not allow myself this feeling of kinship.
“This is a surprise,” I say, and my voice echoes around me. I smile, hoping to put them at ease, but I see only fear reflected back. One woman reaches down and hooks a young boy with her arm, pulling him against her.
I decide honesty is the best approach. “I could send a company of soldiers to empty this place.” Eyes widen, feet shift. “It’s clear you’ve already caused some trouble, but I might be convinced to overlook that. If you’re hiding here just to avoid the tax increase or to do some honest commerce away from the guilds’ prying eyes, then I’m sure we can come to an arrangement.”
Their collective wariness does not ebb in the slightest.
I try a different tack. “Do you have a leader I can speak with? If not, you must appoint a representative right away.” I step back from the edge.
Ximena gives me a quick nod of approval, even as she bends over to pull a dagger from the inside of her boot. I watched her kill a man with a long hairpin once, in my defense. She slipped it under his jaw and into his brain with the ease of long practice and training.
A voice rings from below. “Your Majesty!”
“You lead these people?” I ask.
“No, Your Majesty. Lo Chato leads us, but he is not here. I expect him to return this evening.”
The ground beneath me sways, and I grasp for Hector’s arm to steady myself.
I’ve heard the name once before. Lo Chato was the animagus who interrogated me when I was a prisoner in the enemy’s camp. Even months later I can imagine him with perfect clarity—his baby-smooth skin, Godstone-blue eyes, flowing white hair. I shudder to think of the preternatural grace of his movement, the way his sibilant voice managed to bury itself inside me. I thought I had killed him.
What are the chances of encountering the name of an old enemy only weeks after one of his brethren martyred himself in my city?
I ask the old man, “How long has this village been here?”
“Almost as long as Brisadulce itself. But we live and do business above ground too, in the Wallows. We are Your Majesty’s loyal subjects.”
“I’m glad to know it.” I have so many questions. But my legs begin to tremble, and my breath comes too hard. I need to make an exit before my weakened state is too apparent. “When Lo Chato returns, tell him I require his presence in the palace. He will not be harmed. I wish only to speak with him. I’ll leave word with my mayordomo that he is to be received at once.”
The old man inclines his head in what I presume is the only kind of bow his body will manage. “You should know that he is a private, reclusive person. He will be wary of your summons.”
“Then you must convince him. I would be very disappointed if he did not come.” I pause long enough to see understanding in the faces below. Then I bid them good day and gesture for my entourage to retreat.
“Tyrant!” someone yells at my back, and I whirl.
The people shift uncomfortably, avoiding my gaze, and I can’t tell who the heckler is. “Fernando,” I say, clenching my fists. “Fire a warning shot.”
He looses the arrow at once. It thuds into the ground at the old man’s feet. Its fletched tail vibrates with impact, as the crowd recoils.
“Do not,” I say, “add sedition to your transgressions.”
I turn away and head into the tunnel, Hector and Ximena at my back. During our return journey, I nearly trip over myself more than once, so lost am I in thought. It was a small group—maybe sixty people. Why so few? Is the secret of the village so well guarded? Have they climbed the ledge and traveled this path to reach the catacombs? Was the heckler expressing the feelings of the whole group? Maybe the whole city?
Most disturbing of all is the mysterious man called Lo Chato. He could be my assassin. And I have invited him to my threshold. But the Belleza Guerra devotes a whole chapter to the art of keeping one’s enemies close, and so long as I am cautious, I know I am doing the right thing.
By the time we reach Alejandro’s tomb, my breath comes in gasps and pain shoots through my side. I want nothing more than a mug of spiced wine and a day of sleep.
Fernando asks permission to stay behind. “I’d like to experiment with this opening a bit,” he says, gesturing toward the gaping hole we just climbed out of. “I want to see how it opens from beneath, determine how often it is used.”