Page 8 of The Catacomb King
Too late. “You want me totalkto them? Like they’rehuman?”
“Don’t act so shocked. We know they have language. There are firsthand reports. Calix —”
“Firsthand reports? You mean from theone girlwho ever escaped their clutches —”
“Calix.”
“Two hundred years ago,” Calix went on, almost frothing. “That’s the last time and theonlytime anyone’s ever escaped the underworld. Two hundred years ago,onegirl came runninghome to Limer,weeksafter her abduction, barefoot and scratched all over.”
“I know, but still —”
“And less than twelve hours later, her family had to strap her to her bed to stop her runningbackto the underworld, because it was dragging her there like a magnet. They had to nail the bed to the floor, because she was so desperate to go back she hauled the whole bedframe along, scraping it across the floor. And it was no use. She went anyway, Persephone. Sheate through the straps.”
My stomach roiled. “I know. But while she was here, she provided firsthand accounts of the underworld.”
Calix scoffed and paced.
But he didn’t contradict me. I was right. She’d spoken of walls studded to the gills with precious jewels. Crazed labyrinths of twisting tunnels. A great, cold cavern where women had been hanged.
The godlings’ plated flesh, their innumerable eyes.
And — yes — their shockingly human-sounding speech.
“I’m not saying they’re not dangerous,” I insisted to Calix. “I’m just saying, they’re sentient, and they can talk. So talk to them.” I didn’t dare add,For me.
“If they’re sentient, that only makes them worse! If they were wild animals, they could maybe be forgiven for what they’ve done. But they aren’t, and they can’t.”
“I don’t need to forgive them. I just need access to the water.”
Calix ran his hands through his hair. “I know. But this is crazy. Look, I’ll tell you what. I’ll talk to the representatives in Corcagia. I’ll place an inquiry with the Body to establish a partnership with an entity on the mainland. They can ship water to Corcagia, and we’ll transport it here by truck.”
I exploded. “Are you kidding me?That’syour grand plan? Anything that has to be reviewed by the Body takes six months at least. And that’s not even counting the time it’ll to find anenterprise on the mainland, andtheirreview process, and then building the infrastructure, and the packaging time and the shipping time. But this, this construction, I can do by myself.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Yes I can! I can get Isaac and Jameson” — two local merchants, as thirsty as the rest of us — “to front the materials for the reservoir and the artery pipe. I can round up enough volunteers to build a basic version of this in a week. But I can’t get access to the water without you. You know I can’t go into the underworld, not now.”
“No one should go in there ever,” he said darkly. “I’m sorry, Persephone, I won’t.”
The fucking bastard. And after he’d seen my mother. “So you’ll just run back to Corcagia, is that it? This isn’t your problem?”
“I didn’t say that. I told you, we’re trying to help —”
“Forget it. Just wait here while I gather some fucking herbs.”
Calix’s eyes widened. “You’re not crossing over again?”
“Move.”
His hand shot out. He wrapped his arm around my stomach, caging me in. “No. I can’t let you.”
Heat bubbled in my stomach against his hand. I ignored it. “Let me go or I’ll kill you.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
Before I even knew what I was doing, I had whipped around in the cage of Calix’s arms and screamed, “MY MOTHER IS DYING!”
Calix froze.
