Crown of Eight | Bts royalty au

Chapter 54

followed Taehyung. He walked over the brick-wall and left the garden. After him his brothers went, and beside them I went. They looked at Taehyung questioningly because they apparently did not know about the secret path. Meanwhile, the people of the country whom we had gained trust from, followed closely. They were ready to kill anything in our way with their sharp spears. 

I could feel how the awful heat began to disappear and how the producing of sweat slowed down the further away we walked from the castle. However, I knew that if we were to go a little further, we would soon start to freeze, considering that it was night, a night that had just begun and that would probably last a long time.

Mi-sun walked obliquely behind me. We did not talk. We just glanced at each other sometimes. I was not angry with her and she was not angry with me, but considering that we had both kept big secrets from each other for a long time, it made the atmosphere become a bit stiff between us.

"How far is it left?" The shorter man asked exhausted even though we had not walked for very long. All fifteen inhabitants were thin and bony, they had not had food for a long time and had not much energy. None of us had. It was probably adrenaline that was constantly pumping in our bodies that kept our strength to take one step and one more after that.

"Here." Taehyung said it quietly at first, as if he were speaking to himself. He had stopped in front of a tall and very wide tree. At the bottom, in the trunk, there was a hole that was about as big as half of me.

"Here it is. The entrance." Taehyung now raised his voice so that everyone could hear. They gathered around him so that they could see what he saw, a hole in the tree.

"And it's going to take us to the room?" Asked Namjoon.

"Yes."

"How did you find it?" Jimin asked with his hands on his hips, also exhausted. His eyes were shining in the dark.

"When I was in the chamber or ivory alone once, there was this bird inside of there and I could not understand how it could have gotten in there since the room was locked and placed under ground. Then, I saw how it disappeared behind one wardrobe. I pushed the wardrobe to the side and saw a quite big hole in the wall. Curious as I was, I crawled into there and ended up here, in front of this tree." Taehyung explained to all of us.

"Why did you never tell us?" Yoongi raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Maybe you would tell the king and queen. And besides, I liked that it was only I who knew about it, like it was a little secret for only me and myself." Taehyung shrugged to make it seem like it was not a big deal so that his brothers would not start to argue.

"Why would there be a hole in the wall leading up to here? There must have been a reason to why it was made." I stated and Taehyung looked at me. His lips were so dry that they had cracked, and his usually perfect brushed hair was now messy.

"I don't know." He honestly said. "But I know that it will lead us to the chamber of ivory. We don't have any other choice."

"That is true. Lets go now. We shouldn't waste any time." The slim man eagerly said and we nodded to him, agreeing.

"Lets go."

Taehyung went first, followed by me, Yoongi, Jimin, Jin, Namjoon, Mi-sun and the fifteen citizens. First we jumped down the hole that went about 6 feet and 6 inches down (about 2 meters) and then there was another hole in the wall we walked through. Behind it I thought it would look like a smaller version of the tunnels under the castle that lead to the city, but I was wrong. Yes, it was a small path, but everything was made of cobble stone and there was a small stair leading down. It was covered in green and brown moss and it smelled literally like a graveyard.

"How did you dare to go here as a kid?" I asked Taehyung while pinching my nose with my fingers so I wouldn't have to smell the gross scent.

"It did not look like this back then. The stairs were clean and there were even torches along the way." He told me. He glanced at me over his shoulder and I smiled when I saw that he also pinched his nose.

"I guess no one has been here for a long time then." I said, concentrating on every step I took so I wouldn't slip on the moss.

"It will be hard to go up the stairs on the way back. It will be slippery." I could hear a woman say. Even though we were walking on a line and were therefore quite far away from each other, we could still hear what we one another was saying thanks to the echo. The woman's words made me sigh deeply. Not because I also feared the stairs on the way back, but because I was unsure if we would even go back. The chance that we would survive was less than the risk of dying, I could feel it. But of course, I did not say that. It would only make things worse and I was probably not the only one who could sense that.

After the long stairs we finally came to a straight road. This part of the way actually looked like the tunnels leading out to the city, the only difference was that this one was even more shabby. Moss was covering a lot of the cobble stones and there were cracks in the stones everywhere. This place was wider than the stairs so we could now fit five people sideways and having people surrounding me made me feel safer. To my relief I also no longer had to focus that much on not slipping.

"Now we're just going straight ahead until we get to the hole." Taehyung said it out loud so everyone could hear. Half of those who had torches went first with Taehyung and the rest went furthest back so we would see as well as possible. Without the citizens' torches, it would have been pitch black and that freaked me out. Those torches can't give us light much longer.

As we walked, I felt I the air becoming thinner and thinner and colder and colder. If Jungkook and Hoseok isn't in there, we all knew they must be dead. I wanted to comfort the princes' but I was too scared to say the wrong thing, so I kept quiet. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe they were sure that Hoseok and Jungkook were in there. Maybe they didn't even consider the fact that the whole room could be filled with fire and smoke even though it is placed under ground. But I kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to be the reason to why they would lose hope.

"There." Taehyung slowed down a bit and since he was walking first, we had to slow down as well. He pointed at the wall that was perhaps about 600 feet away (about 180 meters). We all saw a black spot in the wall that was just big enough for a human to fit inside.

"It's the wardrobe covering it, that is why we cannot see inside. But it is easy to push away, that is how I remember it at least." Taehyung explained.

The closer we got, the more nervous I got. We had no idea what was behind that wall and that freaked me out. What freaked me out even more though was something that was coming from behind. It was hard to explain the sound because it was quiet as it at the same time was loud. I noticed that everyone else could hear it too since they all stopped and turned around. We saw nothing, but the noise got louder and louder. It sounded like feet clapping against the stone floor.

"Taehyung?" I questioned while still staring at the staircase far away from us, but it was from there the sound came.

"I don't know what that is." He gulped.

Suddenly we saw something that almost made me threw up. It looked like a wave of grey hair stumbling down the stairs. They started coming towards us and soon I understood what it was.

"Rats." Yoongi gulped.

There were hundreds of them and they were the biggest rats I have ever seen. They were the sizes of a pillow and they must likely carried a lot of diseases that would kill us all. Their disgusting long and pink tails were swinging side to side as their black eyes stared at us while they came closer and closer.

"RUN!"