Page 1063 of One More Kiss

Chapter14

I stepped forward slowly,taking in my surroundings. There was nothing else in here besides the transport circle and the ledge along the wall. It was a rectangular shaped room, about the size of our garage back home. The lighting was dim, coming from glowing stalactites in each corner. There was an opening on the far wall, an oval shape that was fast becoming familiar. Beyond the doorway it was too dim to see anything.

“You mean to say, we’ve travelled all the way from the base of the staircase and across the valley to the Palace just by stepping onto the circle? It’s that easy?”

Fin went to the pillar that was identical to the one in the other place and pulled his gem out of the slot. “You need one of these.” He held it up. “And you need to know how to use it. But yes, it’s that easy.”

“Can you teach me how to use it?” I wanted to be able to get back home without having to rely on Fin. Especially seeing as he’d said I couldn’t go home, a fact I’d been ignoring since we got to Faerie. I’d almost convinced myself I’d misheard him. I certainly wasn’t going to stay here just on his say so.

Besides. My sister would have an escape route, I was sure.

Then why hasn’t she used it before now?

I shut down that little voice. One problem at a time.

The look he gave me was pitying. “Like the travel orbs, it takes a lifetime of training. One of your lifetimes, in any case.”

He put the gem into his pocket and walked to the opening in the wall of the cavern. “Come.”

He disappeared through the doorway and I ran to follow.

There was a short hallway outside the door which intersected with a longer corridor, a T intersection. Fin waited there, tapping his foot with impatience. It was the first time I’d seen anything but cool, calm and collected from him and I wondered why.

As soon as I caught up he turned left and headed off at a fast pace. This corridor had numerous others branching off it in both directions. We kept heading straight until we came to another T intersection and turned right. We took the third corridor on the left, leaving the main branch behind. More turns followed and I gave up trying to memorise our route. The only thing I was sure of was that we were underground. The lighting was dim, stalactites lit up at irregular intervals, and the temperature was cool. It felt like we were heading downward and there was moisture in the air.

The corridors grew narrower, the spaces between the lights longer. Not that it was pretty before, but now it was downright dark and dinghy. If this was a horror movie the jump scare would be coming any time now. My misgivings grew.

Just as I was about to turn around and take my chances finding my way back I noticed bright lights up ahead. We emerged from the corridor into a rectangular room, a store room of some sort. Wooden barrels lined the shelves and there was a distinct smell of something fermenting. The wine cellar, or some other type of alcohol.

“Where are we?” We’d been walking in silence for so long I’d almost forgotten how to talk. My voice came out croaky.

“We’ve come through the servants areas, the back way.” Fin opened a large wooden door, oval of course, on the wall opposite where we’d come in. It was the first actual door I’d seen since we’d got here. He stepped out into a well-lit corridor with me close behind him. The light was from the same type of stalactite, it was just that there were more of them. Fin pulled the door shut behind us and continued forward. “This is a more public part of the Palace.”

We continued onward, winding our way through the bowels of the Palace. We didn’t see anyone else. I’d be spooked if I was alone but being with Fin made it okay, somehow.

The corridor we were in ended in an archway. We went through into a huge cathedral like area.

“Wow.” My voice echoed off the roof, which was a long way overhead. Rows of benches carved from rock lined the space, arranged like an amphitheatre with the seats at the edges higher and leading down to a stage in the center. “Not to be a whiner, but how much further before we reach my sister.”

Fin kept walking, but at least he responded. “Soon.”

Man of few words.

We wound our way around the edges to the far side of the room. There we found another corridor. This one was a whole other level of public space. It was brightly lit and scrubbed clean, with what looked like gold trim about shoulder height. This one was wider than the previous corridors, with room for maybe five or six people to walk abreast rather than two or three.

We kept going, turning off the official corridor onto a smaller, still brightly lit one. We were descending again, but this had the feel of a path well-travelled.

The corridor opened into a small room, much the way a clearing in the forest appears amongst the trees.

Fin came to an abrupt halt at the entryway. For the first time since we’d arrived we saw other people.

The fact that they looked like guards and they were standing to attention outside a set of double doors was probably a bad thing. Was Alyssia a prisoner? Something about this didn’t feel right.

Fin put his hand out to keep me behind him, just out of sight.

The guards snapped to attention and saluted. One said something to Fin that I didn’t understand. Primero. It sounded like a title.

Fin inclined his head, regal and relaxed. He replied in the same language. It was lyrical, beautiful and almost poetic.

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