Of Whispers and Daggers ✓ [TLRQ #2]

Chapter 9.3 - Aster

Dedicated to Miya Hikari for being generally amazing
(and also founding one of the best award communities on Wattpad)

We reach the antechamber of the dungeon, and only the wizard guarding the heavy door to the cells greets us. Quietly, I ask Reyan, "Where is the soldier that's supposed to be down here?"

He glances at me. "You already know all available forces are at the wall." I nod, but my lips twist. I don't like the idea of it being any less difficult for Amarris to escape.

The wizard casts, and the door swings open for us. I'm sure Reyan could force it open if he tried, but there's no point in testing it. The ringing of his footsteps and the whisper of mine follow us through the stone corridor.

We march down the long row of cells, most of which are empty. In the first occupied one, a man no more than a few years older than myself sits on his bench. He looks up as we pass, and with a start, I recognize him. I focus ahead.

Once we're a few feet past the cell, I murmur to Reyan, "That man is a soldier. What is he doing here?"

His jaw clenches, and through his teeth he says, "He tried to desert. Before the barbarians made it to the castle wall." Silence reigns between us for a moment before he growls to himself, "The coward."

I don't reply, but anger at the man rises in me as well. If he wasn't willing to withstand the trials of being a soldier, then he should never have joined. Pride in and loyalty to your country and people should be the reigning motto of anyone that works for her. And at least the soldiers had the decision when they joined whether they wanted to.

The hall ends abruptly with a thick blackwood wall. Three doors of the same dark wood decorate its face. No window peeks in, and the doors are made to sit as flush with the wall as possible.

Reyan steps forward and inserts his key into one of them. He pushes the door open with his shoulder and steps in. I hesitate. Agraund once brought me down here so I could see what it was like, and I've always hated the feeling of these cells.

Reyan glances back, annoyance splayed across his face. My lips press together, and I slip into the little antechamber. A second wooden wall stands just feet from the other. Reyan lets the door fall shut, a dull thud echoing down the way we came, and locks it. Standing here, there's a strange muteness in the room. Discomfort fills me. It is not so much like a buzzing in the air but the lack of a buzzing I never would have noticed except for its sudden absence. I force my expression neutral.

Blackwood. A blessing to certain spells, but in the wrong circumstances, it's like it sucks all the life out of the magic. Reyan, of course, doesn't seem to notice the deadness in the air and instead moves forward to slide back the eye-level slot in the door before us. He blocks my view of the cell, but I can't help but remember a different slot in a different cell and of being on the very different side of the situation.