Page 92 of Dead Wrong

“It’s a Veil,” Bastien breathed, moving up to the glowing section of stone and placing a hand against it. He reached his other hand back, beckoning me to join him. “A really good one. I swear, I can feel the texture of the concrete. Even Granny’s weren’t this convincing.”

“How do we get through?” I asked.

“By knowing it’s not real.” He moved his hand over a few inches, his arm disappearing through the wall up to his elbow. Then he closed his eyes and walked through the wall, vanishing from my view.

I braced a hand against the tunnel. It felt solid to me. The grit against my palm dug into my skin enough to be uncomfortable. This was so much more than a normal glamour. They were only illusions. Illusions couldn’t feel this real.

I closed my eyes and stepped forward, bracing for an impact that never came. When I opened them, my lungs deflated with a sputtering exhale.

We stood on the side of a cliff path that wound down and away from us. The ceiling of brown stone expanded high above our heads, forming a dome shape hundreds of feet above. Under the domed roof, an expanse of short buildings spread over the cavern floor, forming a grid pattern with pathways in between. Lush patches of earth sprang up among the structures, with neat rows of crops lining the outer rim, encircling the structures. Above, along the sloped roof, massive glowing crystals illuminated the space, shining down as if the sun itself were presiding over the underground town.

At the center of the buried oasis, a large fountain shot geysers of water into the air, refracting that artificial light into an arch of rainbow hues.

It was breathtaking.

“Paradise,” Bastien muttered.

Kaine had already begun down the winding path to our left, and we quickly hurried to catch up with him.

“What is this place?” I asked as we went. From above, the space hadn’t appeared more than a mile or so wide, but the further we descended from the apex, the bigger the buildings became and the steeper the walls around us grew.

“A settlement,” answered Kaine. “Refugees fled here in search of a better life. They’ve been kind enough to allow us to stay with them for the time being.”

Once we reached the bottom of the path, I stopped and looked up at the blinding lights on the domed roof. It felt as though we stood beneath a hollow mountain.

“Come on,” Kaine urged us forward. “I wasn’t kidding about dinner. I’m starving.”

Bastien seemed just as awed, his eyes wide as we took in the rows of corn and wheat that lined the flat path that led into the town. Now that we were on the ground floor, I could tell that the buildings were not dwarfed as I originally thought. In fact, some of them were two or three stories tall.

As we moved through the rows of crops, a flicker of movement caught my eye and a child carrying a woven basket crossed our path up ahead. Their skin was pale, and their grey hair was pulled back into a braid that hung down their back. Their dark eyes widened as they saw us, but it wasn’t fear I saw in them. It was excitement. They dropped their basket to the ground, waving with both arms over their head.

Bastien made a choking sound beside me.

I looked back at the child, wondering what could have caused such a reaction that he would—then I saw them. Markings of intricate black ink woven up the child’s arms to their exposed shoulders. They looked familiar.

They looked like Bastien’s markings.

“Reviled,” Bastien exhaled the word, and it hung like a miasma over his head.

Another figure appeared from the rows of plants, this one much older than the child with a stooped posture and a basket strapped to their back. Their skin was less pale than the young one, their face wrinkled and worn, but a pleasant smile parted their lips. They, too, bore the markings of a Reviled, the ink faded with age.

“Good day,” Kaine called to the duo, waving from our approach.

The child ran up to us, bowing once they reached a few paces away. “Hello again, Mr. Kaine!”

“Hello again, Thessa.” Kaine motioned at the two of us, “These are my friends, Tobias and Bastien.”

The child gave us a wave, eyes lingering on Bastien longer than expected. “Are you staying with us, too?”

“Yes,” I replied, Bastien still stunned into silence beside me. “At least, for a little while.”

The older figure—a woman with long grey braids tied back from her creased face—had caught up with the child now, setting down their basket of harvested greens. “Welcome to Paradise. Kaine, Wilhelm was asking about you. She’s in the community hall now, so you should probably catch her before she starts making the rounds.”

Kaine nodded. “Let me get these two settled in, and I’ll head right over.”

“You look frightened, child.” The woman was looking at Bastien now, her warm, umber eyes trained on him. “You needn’t be. You can rest here.”

Bastien opened his mouth but didn’t speak.

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