God Rising: Fated Touch Book 6

Chapter 3

3

Naso led us out into the streets, and I sidled up between my grandfather and Caius. “So what kind of shifters are the van Petrus family?” I asked my companions as we made our way through the grid-like streets.

“A rather stoic owl,” Sage told me as he studied the tall buildings around us. Unlike most of the houses of the Shifting World, around us there were several buildings that reached five stories tall. All of them were square with equally square windows. “A magnificent architecture, though I wonder what it looked like before the great renovation.”

“We’re probably going to find out when we go into those catacombs,” Caius quipped as he swept his eyes over the area. On occasion a Blue Bind passed us, but didn’t give us a second glance when Naso bowed his head to them. Caius moved to walk beside our guide and lowered his voice. “You sure it’s a good idea for you to lead us? You could just tell us where to find it.”

“And miss this chance to study some of the interior of the catacombs?” Naso pointed out.

Caius frowned. “You’re not coming with us.”

Naso lifted his nose in the air and looked straight ahead. “Of course I am. As a scholar of the Index this will be a very unique chance to decipher its contents.”

“Or get yourself killed, or worse,” Caius countered.

Naso swept his eyes over our group and smiled. “I believe I am in capable hands, or would you have me not believe that the Beastly Bee and Storm Sage are-”

In one swift movement Caius clapped his hand over Naso’s mouth and drew him into a nearby alley. We slipped inside after them and Caius pushed Naso deeper into the narrow path. “Don’t go blabbing it to everyone or the only thing you’ll get is the sharp end of a Blue Bind’s sword.”

Naso cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I merely wanted to show that I’m not amateur in adventuring and ‘know my histories,’ as it were.”

“Adventuring is a little more than histories,” Caius snapped.

I peeked around the corner. “Guys, I hate to break up your good bickering, but the sun isn’t going to get any higher.” Indeed, the opposite was true. The sun was on its descent and in a few hours the city would be in darkness. A perfect time for sneaking.

Naso smiled at Caius. “There is an advantage to taking me along which my map didn’t show. The guard patrols inside the Index. They’re rather too complicated to show on a map.”

“You are risking your entire career, and perchance your life, on your curiosity,” Sage pointed out.

Naso shrugged. “Then I can say I have lived once and will be glad to say it was not in the pages of another person’s memoirs. Now shall we be off?”

Sage glanced up at Caius who shrugged. “All right, it’s your skin. But don’t go expecting us to save your hide if you do something stupid with it, got it?”

Naso bowed his head. “I completely understand, and will follow your instructions explicitly.”

We continued on our journey into the bland residential district. The houses were all alike with their square shapes and boxed windows. A few stood out for their flower boxes, but they were otherwise copies.

Naso turned us off into another alley and toward the walled off portion of the city that denoted the Index. The ground sunk at an angle and I noticed that the homes, though still square, were less taken care of. Dirt specked their faded paint and the windows were grimy.

We reached the end where the alley met the wall. The smooth gray stones that marked the front gates weren’t used in this lesser area where rough boulders had been stacked to keep the masses out. The dirt of the ground smothered the boulders with black soot-like dust and rose up like a black wall some fifty feet above us to end on a cap of neat, smoothed stone.

Naso nodded at the top of the wall. “Those are the gardens where the vilicus likes to take his evening strolls.”

Sage’s eyes widened and he ducked down. “Down!”

We obeyed his order and I looked up. My breath caught in my throat when I noticed the figure lean over the wall. The fading light made it difficult to make out any features, but their eyes stood out. Their pupils were so pale as to be white so that their eyes looked like hollow lights in the growing darkness.

I jumped when a hand slipped into mine. I looked to my right and found it was Caius. His eyes glowed a soft red that made me flinch. He gave my hand a squeeze and the rest of me a wink. I gave him a shaky smile.

The figure above us looked out on the city for a few moments before they drew back out of sight. I took my first breath in a long while and noticed Naso creep along the wall. He beckoned to us and we followed his lead along the rough stones. They cut into my back and scratched my arms, but I bit my tongue and eventually we reached a large stone arch nestled into the wall. The entrance was covered by a few crossed bars that hung on hinges.

“Was that the vilicus?” I whispered to my companions.

Naso nodded as he grasped the gate. “Yes. He’s a rather frightful person, isn’t he? His eyes are an uncommon trait even among his house. An inside joke among we Indexians is that he gained the position through fear of his eyes.” He drew back the door and nodded at the interior. “Ladies first.”

I leaned forward and peeked inside. The arch led into a narrow passage wrapped in cold walls of rough stone dripping with condensation. The water pooled in the center of the dirt floor and, through countless centuries, had carved a ditch into the mud. Trash and mold littered the water and dirt, and the smell hit me like a skunk in hell. It was a rat’s paradise.

“Have I mentioned that I hate rats?” I whispered to my companions.

“Then I suggest we not visit the island of the rat shifters,” Sage mused before he slipped inside.

“You’re joking, right?” I asked him as I grasped the edge of the arch.

Sage lit up the area with his fiery hand and gingerly walked forward, careful to avoid the sludge-filled ditch. The fire made the shadows over his face flicker as he turned to me with a mischievous smile. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. But let us explore these ruins as quickly as possible.”

I looked at my grandmother as she passed me. “He was joking, right?”

She kindly smiled at me. “No, dear.” Then she ducked inside.

I sighed and followed Naso inside with Caius bringing up the rear behind me. We side-stepped the wide trench as best we could, which in the case of my short legs meant I had to keep jumping from side-to-side when the trench wound its way left and right.

I pressed my palm against one of the walls to give me balance, but yelped when my hand sank into gooey muck. The gunk was also slick and my hand slid forward, causing me to tumble with it.

Caius wrapped his arm around my center and caught me before I went head-first into the putrid punch in the ditch. I turned around and smiled at him. “Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” he returned as he righted me.

Sage had stopped and half-turned to us. “A little more care, pumpkin. We can’t be sure that the contents of that water aren’t magic in some way.”

“Magic in what way?” I asked him.

He leaned down and squinted at the muck. “Perhaps in a way that would change your morphology.”

“The Librarians of the Index have been known to experiment with alchemy,” Naso informed us.

I sighed. “Why can’t even sewers be simple? Like just poison or gangrene.”

Caius flashed me a mischievous grin. “I could carry you.”

I snorted. “You’re just trying to make up for lost time, aren’t you?”

Sage cleared his throat. “I fear we’re not making up for lost time if we don’t continue onward.”

We continued on — without me being in Caius’ arms — and journeyed deeper into the cavernous Kingdom of the Darkness. A few yards inside the tunnel we found the beginnings of the catacombs. Long, deep niches appeared in the walls on either side of us. Their only occupants were dust, but a few fragments of bone bespoke the former dead dwellers of the slots.

“What happened to the bodies?” I asked my companions.

“Rats and age, I imagine,” Sage mused as he gingerly stepped over the dead body of said rodent.

I bit my lower lip to keep from squealing and leapt over to the opposite side. The floor was slick and I had to catch myself on one of the niches. A pair of beady rat eyes glared back at me from the darkness. I yelped and scurried forward while Caius laughed behind me.

Bee caught me in her arms and smiled down at me. “These rats won’t hurt you, dear. They’re actually very curious to know why we’re down here and only want to see us.”

“Could you tell them we’re just tourists and not to gawk at us too much?” I pleaded.

“And might you ask them what dangers may lead ahead, dear?” Sage requested.

Bee looked back at the rat I’d whom I’d made its acquaintance and made some squeaking noises. The rat replied with his own squeaks and she pursed her lips. “She says even the rats don’t go too deep into the Darkness. Whenever they do they don’t come back.”

Sage sighed. “Comforting, but I suppose we can do better than rats. Let us continue.”

We crept onward into the impenetrable darkness. I wouldn’t have gone a foot farther without the warm glow of my grandfather’s light and the soft touch of my grandmother at my side. It helped to have my dragon shifter husband at my back, too. Naso wasn’t going to be of much help, but he could be used as fodder for any creature of darkness.

A noise caught my attention. I paused and tilted my head to one side. There it was again. I heard it more clearly, and this time it made my skin crawl. The sound was the mournful cry of some terrified creature. It loosed a soft wail up and down the dripping corridors. I couldn’t tell if it was ahead or behind us.

I wrapped my arms around myself to stop the shaking. It didn’t work. “D-did you guys hear that?”

My companions had all stopped. Sage scowled at the ceiling. “We are not alone.”

“But what is it?” I persisted as I looked around the darkness. “A kid?”

Caius shook his head. “I’ve never heard anything like that.”

Naso whipped his head to and fro, and his wide eyes glistened in the weak light. “Alvars’ Horrors.”