the crowns hollows

chapter five

For several seconds after the third bell, nobody in the apartment moved.

Kael stood beside the open window.

Mara stood behind him.

Neither spoke.

The sound had faded, but the vibration remained.

It lingered in the floorboards.

In the walls.

In Kael's bones.

He could still feel it in his teeth.

The black mark around his wrist had stopped moving.

Now it simply sat there beneath his skin.

Dark.

Thin.

Almost delicate.

Kael pulled his sleeve over it.

Mara noticed.

"You need to show me."

"It's nothing."

"Kael."

"I'm fine."

"You've said that three times today."

"Because it's true."

"No."

Mara's voice was unusually quiet.

"You're scared."

Kael looked at her.

She was twelve.

Too young to understand what was happening.

But old enough to recognize fear in her brother.

Kael hated that.

He crossed the room and knelt in front of her.

"Listen to me."

Mara nodded.

"If anyone asks, Dad went to find help."

Her eyes widened.

"You're going after him."

Kael didn't answer.

"You are."

"I have to."

"Then I'm coming."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

"That's what Dad says."

Kael almost smiled.

"Exactly."

"I'm not a little kid."

"I know."

"Then stop treating me like one."

Kael looked at her.

She had their mother's eyes.

That made this harder.

He reached up and gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

"I need you to do something more important."

"What?"

"Stay here."

Mara shook her head.

"Kael—"

"Lock the door."

She stared at him.

"If I'm not back before midnight, go to Mrs. Venn downstairs."

"Why?"

"Because she knows the Wardens."

"You hate the Wardens."

"I don't have to like them."

He stood.

Mara grabbed his sleeve.

"What if you don't come back?"

Kael looked down at her hand.

For a moment, he didn't have an answer.

Then he said:

"I will."

Another promise.

Another one he wasn't certain he could keep.

Kael took his father's old coat.

It was heavier than his own and smelled faintly of smoke.

He reached for his knife.

Then stopped.

He opened the old chest.

The photograph was still there.

The map was gone.

The black stone was gone.

But beneath the mining gloves, Kael found something else.

A small brass object.

He picked it up.

A compass.

Except there was no needle.

Instead, a thin black sliver floated inside the glass.

Kael turned it.

The sliver moved.

Not north.

Not south.

It pointed toward the eastern district.

Kael stared at it.

His father had owned this.

Which meant Garran had known.

Maybe he had used it before.

Maybe it had led him somewhere.

Maybe—

Kael closed his hand around it.

He took it with him.

Mara watched from the doorway.

"That's Dad's."

"Yes."

"Will it help?"

"I don't know."

She looked toward the open window.

Rain had begun again.

"Be careful."

Kael nodded.

Then he left.

The Hollow looked different at night.

During the day, the streets were crowded enough to hide almost anything.

At night, the city revealed its wounds.

Shutters closed.

Lanterns burned low.

Alleys became black corridors.

The wealthy districts glowed in the distance, protected by magical barriers that shimmered like enormous transparent domes.

Kael walked beneath the rain.

He kept his head down.

His father's compass was hidden inside his coat.

Every few minutes, Kael checked it.

The black sliver continued pointing east.

Toward the ruins.

Kael didn't like that.

He had hoped it would lead somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

But the needleless compass never changed.

He passed the old market.

The shops were closed.

The silver cup had come from somewhere around here.

Kael remembered the strange footprints.

Six small impressions in the dust.

Then nothing.

He stopped.

Rainwater ran down his face.

He looked toward the ruined building where he'd found the cup.

The doorway was black.

For a moment, he thought he saw someone standing inside.

A child.

Small.

Still.

Kael reached for his knife.

"Hello?"

The figure didn't move.

Kael took one step closer.

Lightning flashed across the sky.

The doorway was empty.

Kael stood there, breathing heavily.

He cursed under his breath.

His imagination was getting worse.

He turned away.

Then something whispered behind him.

"Kael."

He spun.

Nothing.

Only rain.

Kael's hand tightened around his knife.

He started walking faster.

The eastern district began another half mile ahead.

There were no guards there.

No patrols.

No merchants.

Even criminals avoided the place.

The old buildings had been condemned decades ago.

Some still had signs hanging over their doors.

UNSAFE.

DO NOT ENTER.

PROPERTY OF THE CROWN.

The warnings had become so old that nobody remembered who had put them there.

Kael crossed beneath a broken archway.

The moment he entered the district, the compass changed.

The black sliver began to tremble.

Kael stopped.

The sliver rotated.

Then pointed straight down.

Kael looked at the street.

Nothing.

He crouched.

The stones were cracked.

Water pooled between them.

He moved his hand over the surface.

Nothing.

Then he noticed a narrow line.

A seam.

A section of the road that had been repaired at some point.

Kael scraped away the mud.

A symbol appeared.

The same symbol as the cup.

His stomach tightened.

He touched it.

The black mark beneath his sleeve pulsed.

The stone beneath his fingers became warm.

Kael jerked his hand away.

The compass suddenly went still.

Then—

click.

Something beneath the road unlocked.

Kael stood.

A section of stone shifted.

An opening appeared.

Blackness waited beneath it.

Kael stared down.

A narrow staircase descended into the earth.

His father's warning echoed in his mind.

Don't go underground.

Kael closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

Then he went down.

The stairs were older than anything above them.

The stone was smooth.

Too smooth.

There were no cracks.

No moss.

No signs of weather.

The walls seemed almost untouched by time.

Kael held his lantern ahead of him.

The flame burned strangely.

It leaned toward the darkness.

Kael stopped.

The flame was being pulled.

Not by wind.

By something deeper.

He continued.

Twenty steps.

Thirty.

Forty.

The city sounds disappeared.

By fifty, Kael couldn't hear the rain.

By sixty, he couldn't hear his own footsteps.

The silence was complete.

Then he heard something.

A heartbeat.

His own?

Kael stopped.

The sound continued.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

He pressed a hand to his chest.

His heart was beating faster.

But the sound wasn't coming from him.

It was coming from the walls.

Kael kept moving.

The staircase ended at a corridor.

It stretched into darkness.

Ancient symbols covered the walls.

Kael lifted his lantern.

The markings seemed to shift in the light.

He couldn't read them.

But one symbol was familiar.

The same shape as the silver cup.

The same shape from the floor of his father's apartment.

Kael reached toward it.

He stopped himself.

Instead, he examined the wall.

There were scratches around the symbol.

Fresh ones.

Kael's stomach dropped.

Someone had been here recently.

Not years ago.

Recently.

He followed the corridor.

A few minutes later, he found the first door.

It was enormous.

Black stone.

No handle.

No hinges.

Exactly like the one his father had described.

Kael stood before it.

His lantern flickered.

He whispered:

"This is it."

Seven miners.

A door.

A missing memory.

His father's ruined leg.

Everything had started here.

Kael looked for a way around it.

Nothing.

He searched the walls.

Nothing.

Then he noticed something beneath the door.

Blood.

A thin line of it.

Fresh.

Kael crouched.

He touched it.

Warm.

His father's blood.

Kael's heart lurched.

"Father."

He stood.

"Father!"

His voice echoed.

Nothing answered.

Then—

A sound came from the other side.

A dragging noise.

Slow.

Heavy.

Something moved.

Kael backed away.

The sound stopped.

Silence.

Then three knocks.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Kael's blood ran cold.

The same three knocks.

The same rhythm from the apartment.

Something had followed him.

Or perhaps...

he had followed it.

A voice came from behind him.

"You're not supposed to be here."

Kael spun around.

His knife was in his hand instantly.

A girl stood at the far end of the corridor.

Kael raised the blade.

She didn't flinch.

She was around his age.

Maybe a year older.

Long dark auburn hair fell around her shoulders, damp from the rain.

She wore a long black traveling coat.

Silver fastenings caught the lantern light.

Her clothes were elegant without being impractical.

Dark gloves.

High boots.

A silver pendant at her throat.

Her eyes were pale gray.

But there was something unusual about them.

A faint silver ring surrounded each iris.

She looked at Kael's knife.

Then at him.

"That's not going to help."

"You could've knocked."

Her eyebrow lifted.

"At the end of a dead corridor?"

"Would've been polite."

A faint smile touched her lips.

It disappeared almost immediately.

"Put the knife away."

"No."

"Fair."

She looked toward the black door.

Then back to him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for someone."

"Who?"

"My father."

Something changed in her expression.

Not recognition.

Concern.

"What is his name?"

"Garran Vale."

She went completely still.

Kael noticed.

"You know him."

"No."

"You're lying."

She looked at him for several seconds.

Then quietly said:

"I know the name."

Kael lowered the knife slightly.

"Who are you?"

The girl hesitated.

"Lyric."

"Just Lyric?"

"Lyric Veyne."

Kael waited.

She waited back.

Finally he said:

"Why are you down here?"

Lyric glanced toward the door.

"Because someone has been opening things that should remain closed."

Kael's grip tightened around the knife.

"Like this?"

"Especially this."

"What is it?"

Lyric looked at him.

"You really don't know?"

"No."

"Then you shouldn't be here."

"That's becoming a popular opinion."

She almost smiled.

Then the black door made a sound.

Both of them turned.

Something struck it from the other side.

BOOM.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Lyric's expression changed.

"Back."

Kael didn't move.

"What was that?"

"Something that shouldn't be awake."

Another impact.

BOOM.

A thin c***k appeared across the door.

Lyric grabbed Kael's arm.

"Now."

The instant her fingers touched him, Kael felt something strange.

Warmth.

Not physical warmth.

Something deeper.

For one brief second, the world seemed to become clearer.

He could feel his own heartbeat.

His thoughts.

His fear.

And beneath all of it...

something else.

Something vast.

Something hungry.

Lyric immediately released him.

Her face had gone pale.

"What?"

She stared at him.

"What did you feel?"

Kael swallowed.

"Nothing."

Lyric's eyes narrowed.

"You're a terrible liar."

"Apparently everyone knows that."

She looked toward the door again.

"We need to leave."

Kael looked at the blood beneath it.

"My father is in there."

"You don't know that."

"The blood is his."

"You don't know that either."

Kael stepped toward the door.

Lyric caught his arm.

"Don't."

He looked at her hand.

"Let go."

"No."

"Let go."

"You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"And you do?"

Her expression hardened.

"Enough to know that opening that door could kill everyone in this district."

Kael stared at her.

"Then help me find another way."

Lyric hesitated.

For the first time, Kael saw uncertainty in her eyes.

Then the door cracked again.

A sound came through.

Not a growl.

Not a voice.

Something between the two.

Lyric whispered:

"We're leaving."

Kael looked at the door one last time.

Then he heard something.

A man's voice.

Faint.

Weak.

From behind the stone.

"Kael..."

Kael froze.

Lyric heard it too.

Her face changed.

"That sounded like—"

"My father."

Kael stepped toward the door.

Lyric pulled him back.

"No."

"That's him."

"You don't know that."

"I know his voice."

The thing behind the door spoke again.

"Kael..."

This time the voice was clearer.

And wrong.

Because it sounded exactly like Garran.

But the words were spoken with an unfamiliar rhythm.

Like something had learned how a human voice worked...

and was practicing.

Lyric stared at the door.

Then whispered:

"That's not your father."

The black mark beneath Kael's skin suddenly flared.

Pain shot through his arm.

He cried out.

The door stopped moving.

Everything became silent.

Then, from behind the stone, something whispered:

"Found."

Kael's lantern went out.

Darkness swallowed the corridor.

Lyric grabbed his hand.

"Run."

They ran.

Neither spoke until they reached the surface.

Rain struck Kael's face.

He bent over, gasping.

Lyric stood several feet away.

Her hands were trembling.

Kael noticed.

"You knew."

She looked at him.

"I suspected."

"What is down there?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying."

"I know more than you."

"Then tell me."

Lyric hesitated.

She looked toward the stairwell.

Then back at Kael.

"Your father wasn't the one who brought that thing back."

Kael frowned.

"What?"

"He found it."

"Twenty years ago."

Lyric nodded.

"But something happened afterward."

"What?"

She looked at the black mark beneath his sleeve.

Kael instinctively covered it.

Lyric's voice became quiet.

"It chose you."

Kael stared at her.

"What chose me?"

Lyric shook her head.

"I don't know."

She looked frightened now.

Not of Kael.

For him.

"But whatever it is..."

She touched the silver pendant around her neck.

"...it isn't human."

Kael looked toward the ruins.

The rain blurred the buildings into shadows.

"What does it want?"

Lyric didn't answer.

Because beneath the earth, far below their feet, the bell rang again.

Once.

Then twice.

Then three times.

And this time, the sound wasn't coming from the ruins.

It was coming from somewhere beneath the entire city.

Every magical lamp in the eastern district went dark.

Lyric's eyes widened.

"That's impossible."

Kael looked at her.

"What?"

She stared toward the city.

"The wards."

"What about them?"

"They've been asleep for centuries."

Kael's stomach tightened.

"Then why did they just turn on?"

Lyric looked at him.

"They didn't."

A distant light appeared beneath the streets.

Then another.

Then another.

A vast pattern began illuminating beneath Veyr, like something enormous was waking beneath the city.

Lyric whispered:

"Something else just woke up."

Kael looked at the eastern ruins.

And somewhere beneath them, something answered the bells.

Not with a sound.

With a heartbeat.

Thump.

The ground beneath their feet trembled.

Thump.

Kael felt something inside his chest answer.

Thump.

And for the briefest instant, his shadow stretched across the wet street.

It wasn't shaped like him.

It was taller.

Thinner.

Its head tilted at an impossible angle.

Then lightning flashed.

The shadow was normal again.

Kael stared at the ground.

Lyric stared too.

Neither said a word.

Finally, Lyric whispered:

"Kael..."

He looked at her.

She was staring at his shadow.

"You need to come with me."

"Why?"

"Because if I'm right..."

She swallowed.

"...you're already being hunted."

And somewhere in the darkness beneath Veyr, something laughed.