Chapter Nineteen ~ Part Two
A/N: So, here's the second part. Warning: contains gore. May also be rushed due to Borntobe's bullying. ;P
Kieran’s shallow breathing and the clattering of disturbed rocks were the only sounds in the deserted tunnel. Ahead of him, Aliessye led the way to the safe chamber, the place she always headed to whenever the harpies attacked. It was also the place she’d been imprisoned in for all of her childhood, she had told him as they navigated their way through the twisting tunnels.
Conversation had been the last thing on Kieran’s mind, so he’d only grunted a reply. Taking the hint, Aliessye had walked on ahead, leaving Kieran to his dark thoughts. He knew the harpy would have followed the trail of blood he’d left behind as easily as sniffer dogs after a convict. The entrance to the tunnels wasn’t exactly hard to find, either. He’d plunged into to the wood only to find that the building Aliessye had been talking about was only strides away from the clearing, clearly visible and had no door they could bolt shut and throw chains across. No, it was the same as the armoury room, Kieran had to walk through the wall to get inside, and he still couldn’t shake the unnatural feeling of walking straight into walls.
Inside the room had been a spiralling staircase, leading straight into the catacombs. That was when Aliessye had tried to cheer him up with a little information about the place, naming who all the skulls placed inside the walls belonged to. That and the flaming, old fashioned torches she and Kieran carried made him suddenly unsure if he’d rather be back outside with the harpies.
“Would singing ease your nerves?” Aliessye asked, turning back to look at Kieran. When she saw the scowl on his face, she turned back around and began to walk again. Kieran forced his trembling legs to move and he followed her, trying hard to avoid the empty stares cast by the crumbling skulls.
“The harpies cannot enter the safe room,” Aliessye assured him after a moment’s silence. “And not long after we reach it the guards on duty shall join us.”
“Why aren’t they here now?” Kieran grumbled. “You’re lady Aliessye: you must have one or two here to keep you safe.”
Aliessye didn’t reply for a moment. When she did, her voice was quiet, sad. “We have lost so many to the harpies. So many. We no longer have the number of guards to be so carelessly distributed. The harpies rarely attempt to attack me; they choose to weaken our city by destroying its walls, its people’s lives, our already dwindling morale… Not a guard can be wasted on the upper levels: they are soon safe. The lower levels are more vulnerable to the harpies’ ferocity and for a longer amount of time.”
“So what were they doing here now?” Kieran demanded. He shook his head irritably and forced his stare to the ground. “Never mind. Just my luck, I guess.”
He looked back up to see Aliessye had turned around. The flames of the torch reflected in her dark eyes, but Kieran saw something else: pity. She knew why the harpies had attacked them and it was written as clear as day on her face.
Because of you.
Aliessye sighed and walked back to Kieran, standing so close that Kieran felt her breath against his chest. He looked down at the top of her head, realising for the first time how small she was compared to him. So fragile, like Emily. And, like Emily, his bad luck was hurting her.
The sharp sound of cloth tearing distracted him from his thoughts of Emily. He peered down at Aliessye and saw her pulling a strip of her clothing off. She bundled it up and pushed it into Kieran’s hand. “Put this against the wound in your neck or you’ll weaken.”
Kieran just stared down at her, refusing to say or do anything until she explained what she’d meant by that look. She didn’t meet his eyes, and instead grabbed his hand and lifted it to his neck.
Kieran winced as she used his hand to gently press the material against the wound in his neck. He was sure the harpy had left behind a tooth or two.
“They don’t know anything about me,” he said finally, forcing her to answer him by asking her outright. “Why would they-”
“They know you are new,” she interrupted. “That you are not from Junella at least. They came to investigate what your presence means and they have found you here, resting on the top level – treated with utmost respect and reverence.”
“I wouldn’t say I’ve been treated like that,” Kieran grumbled quietly, thinking of Rhogan and how much of a bitch that guy had been to him.
“But you are a figure worth investigating.” Aliessye took her hand away and turned her back on him. She continued along the tunnel, carefully stepping over a pile of shattered bones gathered in the middle of the tunnel floor.
Kieran tried to keep the scowl off his face as he watched her, waiting for her to turn around and come back to him when she noticed he refused to follow her anymore. Instead she began to sing to herself, some old, lively tune. She didn’t even check he was with her when she reached a turn in the tunnel. Her flickering torchlight began to fade from sight as she left him further behind.
Kieran growled to himself and forged after her, forgetting about the pile of bones she’d elegantly stepped over. He stumbled and looked down at what had made him trip, the hairs on the back of his neck rose instantly. It was cracked in half, but unmistakably a pelvis. If that wasn’t bad enough, a broken ribcage rested near his right foot.
He leapt away and stumbled, reaching out a hand to the tunnel wall to help steady himself. His fingers closed around something smooth and unstable. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that he was holding on to one of the skulls sat inside a hole cut into the tunnel wall.
Kieran yelled and yanked his hand away, knocking the skull to the floor. It bounced, rolling clumsily toward him as Kieran stumbled away. He clutched his flaming torch with white fingers as she turned and ran in the direction Aliessye had gone. Heart hammering in his chest, he navigated the random twists and turns as he fled through the tunnel. He reached a split in the tunnel and plunged into the left one, sure he’d seen footprints in the sandy floor leading into it.
Yet when he didn’t catch up to Aliessye sometime later, he forced himself to stop, dragging in huge mouthfuls of air. What if he was wrong and it was a footprint from God-knows how long ago, just left in the sand? What if he was lost?
Kieran cursed. He knew he had to turn back and wait at the split in the tunnel. Maybe she would realise he wasn’t behind her anymore and would come back to fetch him. He let himself rest against the tunnel wall for a few more seconds, and then headed back the way he had come, thankful that in this particular tunnel, the decorators had decided against using skulls in their walls for once.
His knees threatened to buckle underneath him now that the adrenaline had drained from him, taking his strength with it. When he had been running after Aliessye, he’d forgotten all about his wounds and the claustrophobic tunnels. His only though had been to run as fast as possible.
It took longer than he thought it would to return to the split in the tunnel. Aliessye wasn’t there. Fear began to tighten its hold on his heart, squeezing it with its icy claws. He pushed out a quick breath and bent down to massage his aching leg muscles, trying to ease their tingling and control his urge to run back to the harpy-invested clearing.
His eyes fell to the sandy floor and stayed there.
There was blood.
From his wound, of course. He’d left the rag Aliessye had given him for his neck back with the bones. But … there was another trail of blood, leading into the right-hand tunnel – the one Kieran hadn’t gone near. It went into it and then doubled back again.
His breathing grew noisier as he dragged the stale air into his lungs. He twisted around and moved the torch so that he could see where it lead.
Into the dark.
He stood up slowly. His harsh breathing and thumping heart were the only things he could hear. He took a step down the tunnel which lead back to the clearing, sure he could sense something standing there. Something that dripped blood onto the floor.
A soft hissing reached his ears. He stopped and tightened his grip on the flickering torch, ready to use it as a weapon. His hands shook and the light bounced around the tunnel walls, making it look as though all the skulls were grinning.
He swallowed and forced himself to take another step. And another.
A black shape loomed out of the dark, huge and misshapen. It staggered into the light, the jagged black shadows and dripping blood making it look even more grotesque than usual. Huge wings scraped against the walls, and black feathers brushed against the dusty skulls. Blood was smeared across its chest from its broken nose which was twisted at an odd angle.
Kieran felt the last of his courage curl up and die.
The harpy snarled and began to step towards him. Kieran still held up the torch, thinking that if he threw it at the harpy, the flames would distract it enough for him to get away. Maybe he could lose it in all the tunnels.
He thrust the torch toward it, but rather than cowering, the harpy shot out an arm and grabbed his wrist. Its talons dug into his skin, slicing through his tattoo. Its bloodshot eyes had been fixed on his, but as soon as its claws cut through the tattoo, they widened and shot down to his wrist.
Kieran had folded his hand up into a fist, ready to punch the harpy on the nose again, when it opened its mouth and spoke.
“The legion.”
Kieran opened and shut his mouth, unsure if he was trapped in the strangest nightmare ever. All he had heard these creatures do was shriek and scream. They didn’t seem able to think, let alone talk. For some reason, though, the sound was familiar. Kieran couldn’t remember how, so he shoved it to the back of his mind and concentrated on what the harpy had said.
“W-what?”
The harpy’s lips peeled back from its teeth and it slowly released Kieran’s wrist. It shuffled back a step or two, its eyes now locked on his. “You are of the legion.”
Kieran frowned at the tattoo on his wrist and wondered if he should still throw the torch at the harpy and make a break for it.
“The tattoo?” he finally asked, hating that he was so stubbornly nosey.
“She will not be pleased if you are killed.” The harpy began to retreat again, still watching him and the torch warily.
Kieran lowered his hand and stepped after the harpy. “Who is ‘she’? What is the legion? This is just a gang tattoo. Why did you-?”
The harpy hissed at him again. “Questions!”
Kieran paused, resisting the urge to say a sarcastic reply. Instead he went with, “Why are you attacking the city?”
She snarled at him, showing the black stumps that were her teeth.
Kieran lifted his chin, trying to act cocky and failing because he kept trembling. “I order you to answer!”
To say the harpy didn’t like that would be putting it mildly. She shrieked and ran for him, claws raised to rip him open. Kieran yelled and ducked automatically, squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for her teeth to tear into him. When he didn’t feel anything, he opened an eye and saw her standing above him, a murderous fury glinting in her eyes.
He remembered what she’d said. She will not be pleased if you are killed.
“The legion does not give us orders,” she snarled. Her saliva fell onto Kieran’s cheek. He stared up at her, his mouth wide open.
“W-what is the legion? Why are you here?”
She hissed softly and began to back away again. “I have already said too much.”
“N-no.” Kieran slowly got up from his crouching position. “You haven’t said anything. Why didn’t you attack me? Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful you didn’t, but … why? Who is ‘she’?”
The harpy shook her head, still backing away.
Kieran frowned. It was a long shot, but he asked, “Do you know anything about the master?”
She hissed again, the noise sounding like air escaping from a slashed tyre. “The Black Dragon.”
“Wait – what?” Kieran’s heart pounded. How the hell did a harpy know the name of his gang?
“He is-” The harpy cut of with a gargling shriek. Kieran stepped forward, alarmed. Then something caught the light from his torch. It was a shiny, red metal, sticking out from the harpy’s stomach. She coughed, blood rained from her mouth and her wild, rolling eyes bulged.
Then the harpy was pushed off the sword and she crumpled to the floor. Dead. And all that she knew – the secrets that surrounded Kieran and the master – died with her.
