Chapter 7

Caris was glad she wasn't claustrophobic, but after spending hours in the catacomb tunnel, she could feel the tight space getting to her. Walking beside Soren behind a pair of Royal Guards and Halyna, with Blaine and Nathaniel at her back, only soothed her anxiety a little. All of them except the wardens were in borrowed Daijalan uniforms, having changed clothes once below.

Starfire cast from both herself and Soren danced far ahead of them in a line of fireballs down the tunnel, pushing back the dark. In the time they'd been marching underground, they hadn't come across any threat, but she knew how quickly that could change. In such tight quarters, with no cover to hide behind, fighting could quickly become a bloody bottleneck.

Halyna had tasked herself with the duty of casting shields if they were attacked. The time she'd buy them would hopefully be enough for Soren and Caris to burn whomever or whatever tried to approach them from farther up ahead. Caris' stomach clenched at the thought of killing people again, but not defending herself and those with her would result in their annihilation and the ruin of Maricol.

All of those worries pulled at the edges of her thoughts, making it nearly impossible for her curiosity to get the best of her regarding the makeup of the tunnel. The metal paneling and seams were different than anything she'd come across before, and if the situation wasn't so fraught, she'd love to study the design of it all. It made her wonder about the history of Maricol and the Ages that had come before. Some long-forgotten ancestor must have built the catacombs, but the reason was lost to them now.

She knew the Clockwork Brigade had a secret way to smuggle debt slaves out of Amari, but she hadn't known about the catacombs. She wondered if Meleri would have ever told her. Caris thrust those bitter thoughts aside, knowing they didn't help her here. Right now, as tired as she was, her focus had to be on the tunnel they were traversing.

"How much farther?" Nathaniel asked.

"We'll be approaching the outer wall soon," Halyna said.

"How do you know for sure?"

"Just because we can't see the ground doesn't mean we can't deduce distance."

Wherever they were, it was deep enough that the sound of fighting from above was impossible to hear. The tunnel had dipped deep into the ground after they'd left the access point behind. Caris assumed the air would be cold and stale, but her gas mask made it impossible to tell. She could feel the chill of the depth they were at through her borrowed uniform. Walking kept her warm, but only marginally.

"Doing all right?" Soren asked in a low voice, wiggling his fingers and letting starfire spark at the tips to clarify his question.

Caris nodded jerkily. "Just a little tired."

Keeping up a constant burn of starfire made sweat bead on her brow above her brass goggles, but Caris wasn't about to snuff it out. No gas light sconces existed down here in the catacomb tunnel, which meant starfire and the handful of handheld gas lights were all the illumination they had.

Which was enough to bring into clarity movement up ahead.

Soren grabbed her by the arm, rocking them both to a stop. Halyna had halted, causing the Royal Guards to stop as well. Caris stood on tiptoe to peer over their shoulders at the figures far down the tunnel, at the edge of light from starfire. The raspy moans of things not living echoed strangely against the metal walls.

Revenants.

Halyna cast her magic, drawing on the aether to create a pale white shield of energy that spread like a spiderweb between them and the oncoming threat. Soren shouldered his way to the front, and Caris hesitated a moment before doing the same. Her awareness of the starfire became more focused, and she looked to Soren for what to do next.

"Keep walking. Caris and I will keep the starfire contained. I don't want to burn up oxygen. The rest of you, stay back and hold your fire," Soren said.

Halyna started forward without argument, arm held out in front of her, clarion crystal–tipped wand gripped firmly in hand. The spark of aether at the tip grew brighter as they closed the distance between themselves and the revenants.

Soren glanced at her. "Push your starfire to engulf them. Burn them hot and quick, but try to keep it away from the tunnel walls."

Caris nodded. "I'll follow your lead."

The revenants came ever closer, all of them with the too-fresh look to them that spoke of dying sometime recently and being run through a death-defying machine to aid the Daijalan war effort. Whoever they'd been—whether soldiers or citizens or debt slaves—none of them deserved to be used in such a way. The dead were meant to be burned, ashes sent to dance amongst the stars. They would not find the sky so deep underground.

Between Soren and herself, they managed to incinerate the revenants that packed the catacomb tunnel. Despite their best effort to keep the starfire burning in midair, the heat of it still scorched the surrounding tunnel.

Starfire decimated the revenants until nothing remained but ash that kicked up in puffs during their passage. Caris cast her starfire farther down the tunnel again, following Soren's lead. Halyna kept her shield up, the soft glow of it a marker of their position, but they'd rather safety over anything else at the moment.

"Eimarille might have had her people flood the catacombs with revenants. Not every route was accessible even before the riot last year. Causing cave-ins in some of them could hinder the stability of the buildings above them. She'd want the city intact," Blaine said quietly from behind her.

"She'd blame any destruction on the Clockwork Brigade and the Ashionens rebelling," Nathaniel replied.

"Amari survived the Inferno. It will survive this," Caris said.

Once they got inside the capital, she hoped their path would take them past the prison where her parents were supposedly being kept, according to the broadsheets. Caris was willing to take the bait Eimarille had made them out to be if it meant she'd get her parents back.

But first, they had to make it through the catacombs and whatever other horrors Eimarille had left for them to survive.