Page 147 of To Touch A Silent Fury

“Where are we going?” I asked quietly.

“I know some of my brother’s hiding places,” Lang replied, just as quiet. “Can you speak to Hanindred, find out anything about his surroundings?”

“He’s asleep, I found domil on the bed.”

Lang paused, then nodded. “Hanin isn’t strong yet, but he would have put up a fight my brother wouldn't have wanted. At least his eyes might have gone unnoticed.”

I found it strange he had come to the same conclusion I had, but I was too distracted to think much of it. “Are we going to his quarters?”

“No,” he replied. “At least, not first.”

We reached the hall of the southern gardens, and Lang pulled us out into the evening air. He led me past the rosehilt and the flowering trellises of lamia. Then, into the maze of shrubbery, much less imposing in the soft orange haze. The contrast hit me then, of being led in the same way by the other brother through the same hedges only days before, but my feelings now were the opposite.

He tensed at the edge of the hedge wall, and dropped my hand, motioning me to stay. Then he stepped forwards into the marble clearing. Nothing happened.

After a few steps, he called back to me. “You can come out.”

The fountain pittered away, its statue unaffected by the turmoil I was in, ever constant in the empty courtyard.

“I’m not in the mood for another proposal,” I said.

He looked back at me. “I think this place has been tarnished enough.”

“You thought he had hidden Hanin here?” I asked, scouting the hedge for anything that looked out of place.

“Not exactly.” Lang stepped up onto the fountain’s marble flagstones and reached towards the fish’s stone tail. He pressed his palm against it and pushed forwards.

Stones grated against each other, rubbing as if the earth itself was shaking and coming undone. Dirt displaced as three rows of stones slid apart, revealing a hole gaped open behind it. A staircase peeled into view, ensconced into total darkness within two of its steps.

“It’s a tunnel that leads back to the castle. When you get down, there’s an oil lamp on your right. Light it and tell me when you’re done.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’ll follow you. I just can’t leave the entrance open behind us.” His hand waited on the fish’s tail, and he gave me a reassuring look.

I rolled my shoulders and stepped onto the first step as if expecting it to move. It was firm under foot, and I stepped down the rest a bit quicker, my hand on the wall as my eyes adjusted to the pitch blackness I was venturing into.

At the bottom, the light from the sky above helped some as I patted the wall and found the oil lamp and the flame striker beside it. I opened the glass door and lit the doused wick.

Before me, the pitch-black four-foot-wide tunnel brightened, enough to see a dusty floor and the next ten feet of hewn rock until it faded away into absolute nothingness.

“You can come down now.” I spoke as loud as I dared. Something about the tunnel made me feel as cold as Eavenfold had. Built, and then left to decay, waiting for its next prey.

Footsteps sounded fast behind me as the stones above began to move. I was well clear of them, but my heart raced as Lang vaulted through the closing window of evening light, landing quite gracefully on the third step down and descending as the gap above him lessened. His head was just clear of it as the stones rumbled to a slither and then closed, plunging us into greater darkness as Lang stumbled down the last two steps and fell into me.

I caught him with one arm, steadying his momentum even as it pushed me back against the wall. The oil lamp swung away, and I nearly dropped it. The flame bobbed and resettled as Lang breathed hard before me.

His face was only inches from mine, and he grinned. “I haven’t done that in years.”

“You cut it pretty fine.”

“Couldn’t have anyone following us down.”

We both breathed too fast, him from the exertion and me from his proximity. He hadn’t moved, his body still over me, folding me into the wall. He raised his arm, his elbow resting over my head, and his tongue darted over his lower lip as we both stared down the dark tunnel.

“What is this place?”

“Secret exits and entrances to various places in the castle. I know a handful of them, I’m certain my brother knows even more.”