What sleeps Beneath
850 Words
Chapter Four: What Sleeps Beneath.
The violet light spread across the river like ink.
Elena stumbled back, but the water wouldn’t let her. It held onto her ankles, cold and heavy, as if the river itself had hands. The ring on her finger pulsed once,and her vision doubled.
She saw two things at once.
The river in front of her went black, moonlit, the Warden kneeling in it.
And beneath it was a vast chamber of stone, older than Blackthorn, older than the forest. Chains as thick as houses stretched across the bottom, all leading to the center.
And in the center, chained by all of them, was something with too many arms.
It had no face. Only a smooth expanse of stone where a face should be. Six arms, each ending in claws made of bone. And on its chest, carved deep, was a symbol: a circle with a ring through it.
The Warden in the water bowed lower. "Matron," it said.
"Don’t call me that," Elena whispered, but her voice wasn’t entirely hers.
Darien froze on the bank. For the first time, his smile was gone. "No," he said quietly. "It can’t be. The Matron was killed 300 years ago. The witches said……"
"The witches lied," said a new voice behind them.
Lyra.
She stepped out from the trees, but she wasn’t alone. Three other women in white robes followed, staff glowing. Their faces were grim. Lyra’s eyes were on Elena, not Darien.
"I went to the Temple," Lyra said. "I read the sealed books. The High Priestess told me never to open." She looked at the river, at the thing beneath. "The ring doesn’t make a queen. It makes a key."
The water rippled. One of the six arms under the river twitched. The chains rattled.
"What’s it locked for?" Elena asked. Her throat was dry.
"To keep it from finishing what it started," Lyra answered. "300 years ago, the Matron tried to merge the vampire court and the witch coven. One ruler. One bloodline. When they refused, she tried to drown the world. So the first witches and the first vampire lord trapped her here. And they made a ring. A key that could either reinforce the chains or break them."
Darien laughed, but it was bitter. "And you think she’ll reinforce them?"
"I think she deserves the choice," Lyra snapped. "Before you use her."
The Warden in the river stood. It wasn’t looking at Elena anymore. It was looking down at the thing in the stone chamber. Its sewn mouth moved.
"Release me"
The ring burned. Elena cried out and dropped to her knees in the water. Visions hit her again faster this time. The woman with her face on the bone throne. The Matron’s six arms reach out. And then a memory that wasn’t hers. Elena, as a child, cutting herbs at the forest edge, and a whisper: one day.
"It’s been calling me my whole life," Elena said. "Not just tonight."
"Because your blood is hers," Lyra said softly. "The last of the original line. That’s why the ring fit."
Darien crouched next to Elena in the water, ignoring the Warden. "Then you decide what happens next. Break the chains, and we rule together. Reinforce them, and the witches get what they want from you, powerless and safe."
The thing under the river moved again. This time, all six arms shifted. The water rose.
And from the forest behind them, horns blew. Not witch horns. Not vampire horns. Something deeper.
Lyra’s head snapped up. "The High Priestess. She felt the key activate. She’s bringing the full coven. If they get here before you choose, they’ll take the ring by force. And if they do that while the Matron is awake..."
"She’ll break free anyway," Darien finished. "And she’ll be furious."
The Warden took a step toward Elena. The chains on it were loosening. The chains under the river were loosening too.
Elena looked at Lyra. At the witches behind her, ready to fight.
She looked at Darien, bleeding but standing between her and the Warden.
She looked at her reflection in the water. The other Elena was smiling again.
The ring pulsed. Words appeared, fast, burning.
The horns sounded again. Closer.
Elena pressed her hand into the water. The violet light shot up her arm and into the river. The stone chamber below cracked.
From the cracks, black water began to rise. Not water. Shadows. And in the shadows, eyes opened. Dozens of them.
Lyra raised her staff. "Elena!"
Darien grabbed her shoulders. "Elena!"
The Warden reached for her hand.
And from beneath the river, a seventh chain . None of them had seen before snapped taut.
Something huge shifted in the dark.
Elena opened her mouth to answer, but before she could speak.
The river went completely silent.
No insects. No wind. No horns.
Just a voice, ancient and amused, echoing from under the water and from inside her head at the same time:
"Too late. I’ve already chosen you."
The seventh chain broke.
The Matron is waking.
Lyra wake up ..….
- Writer
