Chapter 4: What Lived Beneath the Palace
1232 Words
The impact against the throne room doors shook the floor beneath my feet. Wood groaned. Metal screamed. Then there was total silence in expectation..The kind that comes before storms split open. Every candle had died.
Darkness swallowed the hall except for flashes of lightning bleeding through stained glass windows. My breathing sounded too loud. The king stood several feet away, unmoving. Only the silver markings beneath his throat gave light now. They pulsed twice, faintly beneath his skin.
The realization crawled under mine..Another strike hit the doors harder. The hinges bent inward. Something on the opposite side scraped slowly across iron. It didn't look like claws and that seemed worse because claws belonged to animals. This sounded deliberate . She was thinking then she suddenly heard a low sound that didn't seem like a growl or human speech. It was somewhere between both. My stomach tightened violently.
“What is that?” I whispered.
The question escaped before pride stopped it. King Caelum did not look at me. His gaze remained fixed on the doors. His voice came calm.
“Something you shouldn’t meet.”
Fear sharpened instantly inside me. I hated fear. It made old memories surface. Suddenly I remembered fire. Running. Screams. I forced my jaw tight. The doors shuddered again..The king moved fear, at last. He crossed toward the throne steps and reached beneath carved black stone.
A metallic click echoed then the floor trembled. Behind me, part of the wall shifted like stone grinding against stone. I spun then a hidden passage opened. Cold air spilled from the darkness beyond. My heartbeat stumbled. That was an escape route. The king turned toward me fully for the first time since the screaming began.
“Go.”
He just said that one word that was a command obviously. I stared. Rain flashed silver across his face.
“You expect me to trust you?”
The question sounded absurd even to me. He looked briefly toward the bending doors, back to me. His expression remained unreadable.
“No.”
Another impact exploded against the entrance. Iron cracked and the sound ripped through the hall. The king’s jaw tightened slightly. I noticed the first sign of strain in him , though barely visible.
“You don’t have enough information to trust me,” he said.
The response stunned me because of the honesty. He continued: “But if you stay…”
His gaze lowered briefly toward my hands then returned.
“You die.”
He said that with no cruelty or threat. It was actually a simple fact but something cold moved down my spine. The doors bent inward again. A long split appeared through heavy wood. Darkness waited beyond.
I was about to move but my pulse lurched. For one impossible second, something stared back. I saw a very tall pale shape with too many eyes. I stepped backward instinctively. The king noticed.
“Nyra.”
The use of my name felt wrong and too familiar. His voice sharpened.
“Move.”
I hated being ordered. Hated authority. Hated kings but survival arrived before pride..My body turned toward the hidden passage. I took one step, then another and I stopped. The realization struck abruptly. I looked over my shoulder.
“You’re not coming.”
I said that out of observation..The king’s attention remained fixed ahead. His profile was hardened by lightning.
“No.”
The answer came instantly. I frowned.
“Why?”
This time, his expression changed.
It was tiny but was gone quickly like he was almost surprised. As if people rarely asked why he remained behind. Then duty replaced it. The word appeared in my mind without reason. His gaze never left the doors.
“Because I locked them below.”
The sentence landed heavily. My throat tightened.
Locked *what* below?
The split in the doors widened. Wood exploded outward. Guards screamed somewhere distant then silence followed immediately. This was totally abrupt and feels wrong. My stomach twisted..The king spoke again.
“As long as they believe I’m here…They’ll come toward me.”
Understanding arrived slowly in me. So this was a bait. He intended…No. I stared. The realization unsettled something deeper than fear.
“You’re staying so I can leave.”
His eyes flicked toward me briefly, his silver and unreadable eyes.
“I’m staying because the alternative is unacceptable.”
The answer avoided mine purposefully..Before I could speak, the doors burst apart. They were torn. Wood splintered across marble..Iron crashed. A freezing wind flooded the throne room then came silence. The kind predators create.
My lungs stopped. Something tall entered that looked wrong.Its body bent unnaturally, long limbs dragging across stone. Skin pale as drowned flesh stretched too tightly over bone. Its head….
My pulse stuttered. Its head resembled no creature I knew. It had human shape, until the jaw unfolded farther. There were too many rows of teeth. Six eyes covered its throat instead of its face blinking independently watching us.
I swallowed a sound. Impossible. The creature inhaled sharply as if scenting. Its throat and eyes widened. Then every one fixed on me. Terror arrived all over me. The king stepped sideways immediately, between us. The movement happened so fast I almost missed it. His voice turned ice cold.
“Run.”
The creature screamed. The sound shattered stained glass windows overhead. I stumbled backward. The hidden passage. I told myself, move!!!!. Move!!! The thing lunged fast toward me. Its body crossed half the hall instantly.
My instinct failed and thought vanished. I froze. Death looked strange. Long fingers. Too many joints. The mouth opening wider then silver exploded across the room.
The light was violent and blinding. The king intercepted it. His hand closed around the creature’s throat. Impossible force stopped the thing midair. The marble floor cracked beneath both of them.
Shock stole breath from me. The silver marks beneath Caelum’s skin blazed bright now.
It was no longer veins but moving ancient symbols. The creature shrieked. The king did not. His expression remained terrifyingly calm. One hand around the monster. The other hanging loosely at his side like this required no effort. My thoughts fractured because men should not stop nightmares barehanded.
The king looked over his shoulder toward me. His eyes were no longer grey. Silver consumed them entirely. His voice echoed strangely like it was layered. As though another spoke beneath it.
“Nyra.”
The sound raised every hair along my arms.
It raised a long fear of him. The realization horrified me. His expression hardened.
“Leave.”
The command struck harder this time with magic power beneath it. My body moved involuntarily..One step backward. The king noticed, good. Then the creature smiled even though it was still trapped and held. Its throat eyes narrowed toward me and in a voice cracked with too many sounds overlapping, it whispered:
She smells like the last one.”
Everything stopped. The king’s grip tightened instantly. The creature laughed then said: No wonder the throne wants her. The silver light around Caelum erupted violently. The monster screamed. The hall shook and the king looked at me with something close to fear. His voice cut through the chaos:
“GO!”
I ran because monsters had escaped, because kings bled silver, because creatures beneath palaces knew me and because one impossible sentence echoed louder than everything else: The throne wants her.
- Writer
