Page 148 of To Touch A Silent Fury

I found it hard to breathe, and it wasn’t the musty air causing it. “For what purpose?”

“First built for the Nox, to carve down to the Nox pits,” he said.

“Pits?”

Lang shifted his arm, pushing off the wall as his expression changed. “Mass graves.”

I shivered. “How horrible.”

“Half the kingdom died in those spans of years.” Then he ran his hands through his hair. “But this tunnel was built after that. One of my forefathers was clearly paranoid.”

“Why do you come down here, then?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “What boy isn’t curious?”

“A morbid curiosity, that one,” I replied, with a smile.

He breathed in, staring at my mouth so blatantly that I flushed. “Better to play with death than run from it.”

I swallowed hard.

Then he took the lamp and offered me his other hand to hold. I took it without question.

If he had kissed me, I would have let him. The thought came unbidden, but I could not get it out of my head as I followed him down the hall.

I knew he had wanted to. I felt his desire in his touch, and it only made my blood run hotter, the walls feel closer. Everythingabout him put me on edge: the size of his hand around mine, the slope of his wide shoulders, the coiled muscles at the base of his neck. Even his walk. How a walk could make my insides churn baffled me, and yet he had done something to me.

His own desire only heightened mine, a clanging desperation I tried to avoid thinking about.

“Where does this entrance lead?” My voice was too high.

“The war room.”

I faltered and my slowing pulled on his hand. “Is that safe?”

He turned as he walked. “Your hearing is better than mine. I’ll let you listen at the panel. We will only enter if you’re happy it's clear.”

My heart steadied. “And you think Hanin might be in there?”

“It is where I took Chaethor the night I stole her egg from him.” I felt his frustration and exasperation rise. “As much as I hope this isn’t about him and me, I cannot deny my part in his behaviour towards you.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Despair rolled over him, and I grimaced as I felt the full weight of it. Lang didn’t notice my expression, for he had already looked away. “Let’s just find him.”

Lang slowed us after only another minute, releasing my hand as he gestured for me to be quiet. Oddly, he used the Euphon gesture, a splayed hand moving down. I nodded. Achieving true silence would be hard with a damp and crusting skirt, but I did my best, rolling my sleeves up and then using one hand to pull my skirt up and out to the side, with the other ready to steady me or pull out the dragontooth if I needed it.

We approached the end of the hall, a tiny piece of light coming from the edges of a thick wooden panel. Lang gestured for me to go ahead, and I did, lightly stepping past him.

At the end, I slowly crouched, putting my ear up next to the panel as I held my skirt off the ground.

Nothing. I waited a solid minute, and then another. Lang did not move, nor gesture, only looking at me as I breathed steadily, keeping my ear to the wall.

Eventually, I signalled to Lang. I used the Euphon symbol for clear, and combined it with a nod to hopefully indicate what I meant.

He mimicked pushing the panel, and I moved back and pressed my hands to it, slowly pushing the wall. Even if there was no one in the room at that moment, that did not mean the guards were not listening for any disturbance.

Thankfully, the panel did not creak, and it opened near silently from behind one of the huge floor-length curtains. I pushed the fabric away, revealing an empty room. Skirts in hand, I clambered out from the panel set two feet above the marble floor and stared around. Lang left the oil lamp on the floor and followed me, touching his hand to the small of my back as he moved past. His eyes narrowed as he ducked to check under the table.