Page 18 of A Spell of Bones and Madness (Nostos #2)

Chapter Thirteen

Ember

B lack stone tumbled down the sides of the cave, causing a shrill echo to reverberate along the slick walls of the tunnel leading into Aidesian.

Rotted flesh and soot and ash filled the air.

The prince recoiled as the smell hit their noses.

Ember couldn’t blame him. It was awful here, and they weren’t any closer to their destination.

For hours they wandered down the same path, no additional light or guide to where in Aidesian they were.

“Gods dammit!” Dimitris cursed from a few steps ahead, as he tripped on yet another thorn-laced vine.

“What happened to walking in silence?” Thalia hissed. “Do you know what kind of daimons linger in these halls?”

The seer appeared to be at her wit’s end with Dimitris. The supposedly stealth wolf had been nothing but a thorn in their side since they arrived on the beaches of Avernia. How much noise could one person even make while simply walking?

“Well, maybe I could if there weren’t so many of these vines blocking our path.

” His curved sword slashed away at the black vines that laced their way along the ground, up the walls, and hung from the ceilings.

Thick red thorns peppered each one, making it all but impossible to venture further into the cave without carefully angling one's body—or hacking them all to bits.

“If you stopped acting like a brute and cut a delicate path it would be easier.” Thalia took her blade and sliced through each one near her with a perfect cut, no mangled edges or incessant scratches from the thorns.

Ember snorted. When Dimitris had offered to sniff things out, she let the wolf and the seer go a few paces up, while she and Ajax tried to follow behind.

It was a mess of darkness ahead, and would take longer than she had thought to make it to the Stygian River.

Her sight was good, but not nearly as good as the lupine prince and the seer.

Surprisingly, Ajax didn’t have much trouble navigating and Ember wished she had her sister’s starlight right about now, or a torch, or anything really that would help her see more than three steps in front of her.

Her father really made it difficult for those who walked the earth to get even close to the gates of Aidesian.

She understood why the beginning was so treacherous.

The daimons that lived within these hallowed halls were more wicked than one could dream up even in the most tormented of nightmares.

Death incarnate. Kinds that would tower over you and rasp their heated breath before they emerged from the shadows, ready to rip you limb from limb with claws as long as a forearm.

Bone-chilling air circled them, no daimons in sight except Mykonos.

Even with the cold wind, every breath Ember inhaled felt like fire.

They had been traveling the winding path to the river for too long, but crunching boots against roots and the scraping of hidden beings against walls were the only sounds that filled the tunnel.

The rushing of the deadly water had not met them yet.

At least, Ember thought the river would sound like the ones that led to the Triad Mountains at home.

It was not that way at all, she realized too late.

“What is that noise?” Dimitris toppled over clutching his ears, Thalia doing the same. Their screams echoed in Ember’s ears.

“I don’t hear anything!” Ember called ahead.

A sweaty hand grasped for her own with a grip so tight Ember thought her bones might break. Ajax fell to his knees at her side as his eyes flared a lighter shade of brown—almost golden. His chest flared up and down as if no air entered his lungs. What was happening to them all?

Shadows began to circle in front of them. Not the way Nikolaos’s had caressed around them and deposited them at the beaches of Avernia. These lingered in the air, trickling side to side until they formed the outline of a cloaked man.

“Those who are not at death’s door nor born of the gods shouldn’t dare to enter any further,” a shrill voice entered Ember’s mind. The way the others shifted around, eyes widened, she guessed they heard it too .

“We understand the rules of the underworld, but it is a pressing matter that I speak to my father.” Ember stepped closer to the shadowy figure—illusion—whatever it may be.

The cloaked man had no face, at least not one Ember could distinguish behind the shadowed hood. Its voice sounded more akin to a snake hissing than an actual male and a tiny voice in Ember’s head yelled at her to turn and run.

“Curious, the youngest daughter of the underworld decides to journey here. It is not safe for you, Ember Drakos, nor your wolfish friend.”

“Dimitris is not my friend…” she muttered under her breath.

“I do not mean the son of the sea god, Lady of Spring.” Her forehead wrinkled and her brows furrowed in at the name the cloaked man spoke.

She was not some goddess of seasons nor flowers. Kora had a proclivity for growing crops, flowers, and the like, but it was not expected for that part of her magic to trickle to Ember. Only healing magic was prophesied for her.

“You may find the ones closest to us hold the most secrets.” The figure stretched its leathery hand to point toward the commander who now stood behind her, lip twitching up to reveal sharp canines she had never noticed before.

A spy and a Nexian wolf. What else did she not know about Ajax?

How many secrets would he continue to keep from her?

“How do we cross? There must be some price we can pay.” Thalia had just begun to regain her bearings, staggering over to where the others stood by the figure, Mykonos cupped under her arm .

“A drakmere each will allow the dead to pass,” the figure began, “for those whose hearts still beat and blood still runs through veins, a sacrifice must be made. The coins must be marked by the Lady of Spring, but beware of the gift your blood may bring, Ember Drakos.”

Shadows filled the air once more and the figure disappeared, in its place lay a river that sprawled out before them. Its blackened waters and swirling lost souls appeared from the mist ahead.

Ajax fumbled around in a pouch slung from his belt, picking out four gold coins.

Ember took a dagger from the baldric across her chest, letting the thin bronze slice into her fleshy palm before Ajax handed her the drakmeres.

Red seeped into the crevices of the symbol of the underworld engraved on the coins—a three headed dog, a myth of a creature that was said to guard Aidesian’s doors.

She was glad they had not met that creature and merely encountered the strange gatekeeper of the underworld.

A trickle of her blood leaked from her palm, landing on the barren obsidian ground beneath them.

She held out her hand, dropping each of the pieces into the Stygian River below.

The coins descended into nothingness, the shimmer of gold and fire red of blood snuffed out by blackness.

From the misted coast appeared a long boat, a single lantern at its bow.

They each stepped inside the rowboat, glancing about for someone to shepherd them across, but the boat began to move on its own through the thick waters.

“Do not touch the river below,” Thalia whispered, her eyes going as white as her hair, “it will steal the very shadow from your body.”

A sickening pang hit Ember’s gut. Maybe this had been a bad idea. All of their lives could be endangered traveling to such an unknown place, whether her father ruled or not. She glanced back toward the barren shore where a small white flower began to bloom where her blood had met the earth.

The boat left them at an entrance to another cave.

This time they were met with the scraping of claws and snapping of jaws echoing everywhere.

Low rumbles and the deep haunting laughter of the creatures of night consumed the darkness before them.

Characters arched above the entrance to the cave carved deep into the stone. The Elliniká Glóssa.

“What does it say?” Ember did not know the olde language, but she had heard the crew of The Nostos speak it aboard the ship and she could only hope Dimitris and Ajax learned in Nexos as well.

?σοι μπα?νουν δεν θα επιστρ?ψουν ποτ? στο φω?.

Dimitris’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Those who enter shall never return to the light.”

“That’s daunting,” the seer muttered under her breath, clutching Mykonos closer to her chest. Her hands shook ever so slightly around the creature.

Even though Ember had not known Thalia very long, she had yet to see a time where the seer was afraid of anything.

Not as she had slain the soldiers of Harrenfort while The Nostos ’s crew rescued Ember and her sister.

Not when she’d ascended the mast of the ship with ease after a storm.

Not even when they entered the initial caves and she’d carved a path forward for them.

So the tremor in Thalia’s voice was cause for concern.

Ember would have to be the strong one for all of them—after all, it was her father’s domain.

Aidon would not let anything happen to her or her companions.

“From what my father has told me, his castle in the underworld is not much past the entrance. If we can get there he can protect us and we can find out what Nikolaos was talking about.”

The obsidian ground shook beneath Ember’s feet.

An equal tempo trekking from one of the caverns to their sides.

Dimitris’s eyes widened, his pupils narrowing in the low light of Aidesian, nose twitching at the air.

“Something is coming and I don’t think we want to be here when it arrives.

” He unsheathed his sword, nodding to Ajax who did the same.

Thalia retucked Mykonos into the pack strapped to the quiver on her back, drawing the bow and a single arrow out. Ember followed suit, gripping the hilts of the dual swords she pulled from her own back, the Nexian weapon of choice that had landed next to her at the beach.

A low rumble came from the cavern, the stomping of clawed feet growing louder with each thump, thump, thump .

They would need to risk facing whichever beast her father had protecting his realm or face the darkness that lay before them.

With what Ember heard of the beasts, she would rather risk never returning to the light than encounter the prowling creature.

She took off into the deep abyss that lay before them, hoping the castle was indeed close to the entrance.

Winding black tunnels lay before her, the scent of decaying flesh growing with every step of her boots hitting the ground.

Three equal pairs of pacing steps came from behind her as the four of them wove their way through Aidesian, searching for any break in the land of night other than the dimming flames lining the caves.

Bright white light radiated in the distance before Ember, down a set of rocky stairs cut into the very ground she bounded over. It had to be her father’s residence. There was no other explanation for a break in the darkness that consumed every corner they passed.

A chilled breeze swept around her. Instinct had Ember grabbing for Ajax’s hand, but the commander was not there.

Bending over, her palms met her thighs as her chest heaved and the foul taste of bile coated her mouth.

Her legs should not have ached this much, the castle was supposed to be close and yet all Ember saw was darkened dungeons marked with blood and dirt.

Somehow she’d made her way to Tartaros, the lowest level of Aidesian where only the most horrific of creatures resided, it was the only explanation for the chains that hung from the ceiling and the blood that streaked the walls.

Stepping through a stone archway into a large dungeon, Ember realized that although she had lost her companions as she ran, she was not alone.