Page 83 of The Catacomb King
I threw her unceremoniously out of the pit. It didn’t matter what damage I did to her body. Hades had said the Lake would heal her injuries.
I climbed out and slung her rigid body around my shoulders like it was a wooden board.
Then I set off for the Gestörbunlund.
The sun beat down on my bare shoulders and arms. By the time I arrived at the border, I was scorched. My beautiful dress, which Josie had just had cleaned, was filthy all over again.
With my mother, I crossed the Gestörbunlund border.
No Human Woman
The temperature dropped ten degrees. This side of the border was cloudy today. The beating weight of the sun vanished at once, leaving only quiet light and cool shadows. A breeze lifted. It combed through my hair. Sweet dew from the grass blew against my burned skin. It was like the underworld was welcoming me.
But I couldn’t rest yet. My back and triceps and thighs were screaming from carrying my mother’s weight. It was with a strong sense of guilty relief that I dumped her into the shaft Calix’s men had drilled two days ago. I heard thewhumpas she hit the ground.
The hole was still paired with all its machinery: the winch, the rope, the harnesses. But as I strapped myself into a harness and took hold of the rope to lower myself down, I noticed something else.
Cannons.
My stomach flipped uncomfortably. I remembered the massacre in the Lake cavern. All at once I wanted to throw up. I hadn’t been able to dwell on it until now, but the gushing blood, the bayonets…. The War Police had done so much damagejust with small weapons. What horrors could they work with cannons?
What had happened to Elke? What had happened toHades?
I didn’t know what to do. I thought about running back to Limer, where perhaps I could force Calix to call off the invasion. Maybe if I did tell him in more detail about the underworld, he would realize that the chaosgötten were no threat.
But there was still the question of my mother’s resurrection.
I had already tossed her into the underworld. I could not leave her. Not again.
I resolved myself. I would resurrect my mother, escort her back to Limer, andthengive Calix hell. In that order.
With that, I lowered myself into the Gestörbunlund.
Once there, I gathered my mother and paused. I hadn’t thought any farther ahead than this.
I wanted to run straight to the Lake. But I would have to enter it through the throne room, and the King might be there. The vast, monstrous, mountainous King who had regarded me with such hunger.
I shivered.
I thought again of the massacre. Hades had run after his father during the battle at the Lake. Perhaps he had caught him? Had… restrained him, somehow? Maybe now it was safe for me to go to the throne room?
But I couldn’t be certain of that. Besides, Hades had made it eminently clear that between me and his father, he’d pick his father every time.
There was no one I could trust here.
I hesitated, flipping through my mental catalog of every chaosgötter I’d met. Hades: No. The Vizeking: Absolutely not. Mackr: Dead. Mackr’s brother: Dead. The other workers: Mostly dead. Elke…
Maybe?
Yes. I thought I could trust Elke. She loved Hades, but she’d always gone out of her way to help me. Even when I’d brandished a spear in her face.
I decided it was worth the shot. But I didn’t know where to find her.
The only place I could think of to start was Hades’s bedchamber.
My heart began to pound. What if Hades was there?
Did Iwanthim to be there?
