Page 28 of Darkening Truth
Knowing my luck, it would awaken some kind of beast or entity that would be intent on devouring our souls.
“Whoa, careful,” Zev says, as he catches my arm and prevents me from falling down one of the holes that begins to crumble and get bigger.
“Thanks,” I tell him as we continue forward.
“I wonder how much further we’ve got to go?” He asks.
The kid stops and points to a door. Somehow, it’s made out of the same material as the castle and the cells above us, but it’s covered in inscriptions and spells. Each one is intricately carved in various colours that I know strengthen various parts of the spells.
Whatever is in here, someone wanted to ensure that they couldn’t get out.
I tilt my head to the side as I study them closer, no, that’s not right. They weren’t put there to stop the occupant from getting out, but rather to stop anything from getting in, and I think, if I’m reading them right, that they’ve warped over the extremely long period of time that they’ve been here, and no one can get out either.
“They’re in there, miss,” the kid says.
“Rolo, is that you, boy?” A kindly voice asks from within, and I can’t help but gasp.
Someone is alive in there.
What the fuck?
A face appears in the small barred window, and he looks as shocked to see us as we are to see him.
He’s tall, and I can only tell that because of the size of the door and the fact that he’s having to duck slightly in order to look through the small, barred window. He’s like no supernatural that I have ever seen before. He’s got a nose a bit like Poca’s but huge eyes like an owl's, and red and orange feathers in place of hair.
I don’t even have a vague inclination of what he could be.
“Who are they, Rolo?” The supernatural asks, suspicion heavy in his tone.
“I’m Farren, and this is Zev,” I reply, and his eyes widen in shock. “You’ll have to excuse our surprise. We had no idea that anyone was still alive here.”
“We shouldn’t be,” he replies with a smile. “I’m Ignatius.”
“We?” Zev asks, his eyebrow rising with surprise.
Again, the guy looks shocked, but he nods, “Yes, take a look.”
He steps back from the door, and I hesitate for only a moment as I hear him call out to someone else.
Clearly, the saying curiosity killed the cat has absolutely no bearing on me because my curiosity quickly chases away my caution.
Stepping up to the door, I feel Zev move behind me so that he can see as well.
What I see behind the door has me gasping in shock. What first appeared to be a small cell, much like all of the others that we have walked past, couldn’t be further from the truth.
It’s a lot bigger than a normal cell. Although it is not that big, it’s certainly not really big enough to house the number of people inside of it, but the people still have room to move around.
There must be a hundred people in there—all different supernaturals, most of which I do not recognise, all in tattered clothing and all pretty cramped.
“How?” Zev mutters.
“Everyone that we have come across is nothing but bones and has been that way for years and years,” I say. “How is it that you are all still here and alive?”
“Why are you in here?” Zev adds with a slight edge to his tone.
A good question and one that should have probably been higher on my list. They are, after all, in a cell, in a massive castle. Logically, that means that they have been put there because they’ve pissed someone powerful off at best.
At worst, they deserve to be there and are actually incredibly dangerous.
