21. Chapter Twenty-One

If Kalia felt like she was being watched on the shore, it was nothing compared to how she felt now. The narrow passage pressed in on her from all angles, and the bumpy stone walls seemed to reach toward them. Her very soul was being dissected. The passage was glacial and unforgiving, as though the walls knew she was an intruder and wasn"t supposed to be there.

"Where are the guards?" Kalia whispered, though the echo of her voice still barreled into the darkness.

Reshef was tight against her back, and she could feel the shift of his tunic with every step he took. Rahmi paused as they reached the shadows, and his hand lifted to tug a wooden torch from the wall above him. With a series of scraps from the flint stone he removed from his pocket against the rock, a spark lit the end of the torch. Another moment later, a blazing flame crackled merrily along the end.

The heat from the fire washed over Kalia, chasing away the abyss and forcing it into the cave. She blinked against the light, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the shift. She could have sworn a low, angry hiss sounded from the walls.

"This prison doesn"t require guards," Rahmi said, returning the flint stone to his pocket. "Magic is its source of containment."

They pressed in deeper, kicking aside chewed bones and trudging through the puddles from the rainwater dripping down the walls. The light from the doorway, as hazy and veiled as it was, diminished with each step before disappearing entirely as they rounded a bend. Then, it was only the light from Rahmi"s torch that remained.

The cave was silent, unnaturally so. There was only a rushing quiet where Kalia expected to hear the flap of a bat"s wing or the scuttle of a beetle against the rock flooring. She couldn"t help but notice how the phantom sound was still loud enough to be jarring, that the whoosh of her heartbeat in her ears was relentless and never-ending. She focused on that and that alone as they moved forward, rounding a second bend and then a third.

Nerves settled in the pit of Kalia"s belly, and she wondered what Rahmi"s plan was for her. How could she fake the powers of a djinn to get them out? Or would she merely end up a pile of discarded bones scattered along the passageway by the unseen rodents?

Or worse.

Rahmi stopped in his tracks, swinging the lit torch to his left. Kalia nearly ran into his back, and Reshef did run into hers, but she was able to scramble in time to prevent any contact with Rahmi. Still, she didn"t expect to see the man huddled in the carved alcove of the passage. His body curled into a fetal position on the stone floor.

Stomach threatening to leap into her throat, Kalia took a startled step back before regaining the courage to walk toward him slowly. No bars separated the nook from the passage, and it seemed the man had ample opportunities to escape his small section of the prison, though he had never dared to try. She passed over the threshold, sinking onto her knees to place a gentle hand on his shoulder.

The man twitched under her touch, and a haunted expression passed over his pallid, ashen face. His eyes had long grown milky in the dark, though he didn"t squint under the bath of golden light from the torch. The odor in the small cell was acrid enough that Kalia was forced to place the back of her hand over her nose, and that scent seemed to permeate every stained article of clothing he wore.

Something about him reminded her of the days she spent huddled in the alleys of Sha"Hadra, her beaten and broken body struggling to recover. She had soiled herself and had infected wounds that led to fevers in the night. It would have only taken one person to change her fortune, only one. But that one person never came for her.

She wouldn"t allow herself to do the same for him.

"He"s not the one we"re looking for," Rahmi grunted, taking several steps away from the cell.

Kalia angrily stood, her hands balled into fists at her side. "Does that mean we should leave him here?" She gestured toward the man on the floor, and she barely swallowed her grimace when the torch illuminated the pus-filled sores that covered the skin over his joints. His mouth had begun to move, low whispers falling onto the stone floor beneath him.

"We"ve come for one man and one man only," Rahmi said, shouldering past Reshef to grab Kalia"s upper arm. "I"m not going to risk my life to save another."

"So these men aren"t worth saving?" Kalia asked, yanking her arm from his grasp. Rahmi spun on the balls of his feet and stalked down the passage. She followed him, her anger a storm cloud on the sea"s horizon. "These are still lives, innocent—"

"These men are far from innocent, ruehi," Rahmi cut in, rounding on her. The torch high above her head placed the angles of his square jaw in stark relief. He closed the space between them and placed a finger under her chin to force her to look up at him. "These are men the king feared to put to death. Sorcerers, necromancers, mind-magic users."

Kalia barely suppressed her gulp, the sudden thought of ending up here jarring her anger out of place. "What does the king have to fear from a dead man?"

Rahmi curled his finger along the underside of her jawline. The smirk that pulled on the corners of his lips was knowing. "Dead men can still speak. What is magic if not energy gifted to us by those who are gone from this world?" Kalia narrowed her eyes, but Rahmi was already turning away from her. "Come, we don"t have much time."

Reshef rested a heavy hand on her lower back as she glanced over her shoulder to take one final look at the man in the alcove. His milky eyes were still fixed on the threshold, unseeing and unfeeling. "You can"t save them all," he murmured in her ear.

Guilt settled like a weight on her heart, but she still allowed Reshef to lead her away. At the end of it all, his life hung in the balance of her choices. The freedom that had been promised to her, a freedom that was almost close enough to reach out and touch, was waiting on the other side of this gemstone. Was it worth giving that up for this half-dead man in the alcove? She didn"t know. She didn"t want to think she was trading his life for her own, but that thought flickered to life inside her.

Rahmi looked back once, assessing her with an unreadable stare before returning his attention to the passage.

They passed six more alcoves, each man more battered and frail than the last. One of the prisoners seemed to have recently died; his mouth slackened, and his empty eye sockets brittle at the edges. The Labyrinth of Lost Souls already claimed what it wanted from him, and that knowledge haunted every step Kalia took.

The longer she was in the prison, the more sickly she felt. The cold humidity of the underground placed a layer on her skin that she couldn"t differentiate from her sheen of sweat. Every few minutes, a moan would reverberate from somewhere in the prison, the sound filled with tragic hopelessness and pain. It would claw itself against the underside of her skin, ripping out pieces of her with every passing breath.

"What did the man we"re looking for do to end up here?" Reshef asked, finally breaking the silence. He bent down to avoid a stalactite that hung low from the ceiling.

Kalia slid her gaze to another person in an alcove, this one a woman with matted hair and brown, rotting teeth. She could almost imagine herself there. Mind-magic users, Rahmi had said. Would this be the final years of her life if the crown caught her?

"Wright Thackeray has always been a bit of a swindler," Rahmi said, dipping the torch toward the alcove to his right before moving on. "It got him on my ship in the first place. He did alright for himself for the first decade when he was released from his curse. He slipped back into old habits three years ago. It got him locked up here."

"Not a necromancer or a sorcerer, then?" Reshef replied, side-stepping another pool of water.

Rahmi snorted. "Not even close." He swept the torch to the next cell before stepping away. He paused and doubled back, sinking to a squat as he lowered the flame toward the threshold of the carved alcove. "You stupid cunt," he muttered, rising to a stand. He stepped forward and toed the edge of his boot against the man"s shoulder. "I warned you about this."

Kalia peered around the captain"s arm, her eyes drifting down to the man on the floor. He was in better shape than the others, though not by much. Rats had bitten holes in his clothing, which was still stained with various brown splotches that made Kalia want to breathe through her mouth. His long salt-and-pepper hair was tied in a loose ponytail near the nape of his neck, though it had long been matted and untouched. A bucket was perched in the corner, one of the only alcoves to have that, and a moldy loaf of bread sat next to his outstretched hand.

Like the other prisoners, the man made no impression that he knew three people were standing before him.

"Meet Wright Thackeray," Rahmi said. "Kalia, you"re up." He motioned to her with two fingers, jutting his chin toward the old crew member sprawled against the stone.

"And do what?" Kalia asked, her voice shakier than she meant it to be. She tried to hide her wringing hands in the creases of her dress, but she knew that he had seen her nervousness from Reshef"s eyes dropping to her thighs. For some reason, that thought didn"t sting as much as before.

Reshef took a step forward. "Why don"t we try just waking him? Is there a reason we need Kalia"s magic to free him?"

Rahmi"s lifted a sardonic brow. "Go ahead." He pressed his lips into a tight, unyielding line as his hand came to rest on the pommel of his cutlass.

Kalia and Reshef exchanged glances before she lightly pushed him forward. A low cough hid his scoff, but he crossed the threshold of the alcove nonetheless. He first planted a hand on Wright"s thin shoulder, shaking it gently. Reshef reached down to dig his knuckles into Wright"s sternum when the man didn"t wake.

Wright let out a rattling snore but continued his slumber.

Reshef cleared his throat as he stood, studying Wright with a pinched expression. He finally bent down to grasp Wright"s wrist, beginning to tug him toward the threshold of the alcove.

"I wouldn"t do that," Rahmi cautioned as he leaned his shoulder against the nearest wall. "They won"t like it."

"Who are they?" Kalia began, but there wasn"t a need for an answer. A Crackling and ominous power rose around her. It pressed at her from all angles, piercing and cruel. This was a clear threat, unlike the intense scrutinizing of their arrival at the prison.

Rahmi crossed his arms over his chest. "I spent many years ferrying prisoners to this cave. I watched them go through the doorway and never come back out. There is a magic at play here that you don"t understand. So maybe, instead of questioning me, Kalia can come forward to release Wright from his captivity, and we can leave—if we"ll be allowed to leave."

Kalia felt the sweat break out on her palms as she took a tentative step forward, avoiding Rahmi"s merciless scowl. She knelt beside Wright, grimacing when her knee made contact with a sharp stone just inside the alcove.

"What do you sense?" Rahmi pressed, shoving himself off the wall to stand directly behind her.

"I— nothing. There"s nothing." Kalia closed her eyes, racking her brain to try and figure out what the fuck she was supposed to do. She felt Reshef and Rahmi"s gazes boring into the back of her skull.

"Are you going to—" Rahmi started, but Reshef shushed him just as quickly. Kalia could almost picture the arrogant look of disbelief that was certainly clouding Rahmi"s face.

Kalia formed a tentative bridge with Wright, ignoring the sinking feeling that she would regret what she was about to do next. Peeling back the layers of his mind, she accessed the memory with one final tear at his subconscious and tumbled to the deck of a ship.

She pushed herself up, quickly glancing around. It was undeniably the deck of a ship, that much she could see through the lashing winds and pelting hail. Even in the memory, it pierced through her dress, leaving small welts in its wake. Men scurried around the ship, and, at closer inspection, she realized with a start that they were faceless.

Except for one.

"Crew to starboard!" A man yelled from the mainmast, the drenched and slick rope clutched tightly in his hands. He struggled to tether it down, the storm washing wave after rolling wave onto the deck. "Tether it down! Tether it—" But he was cut off with a gasping shout of surprise as a third wave knocked his feet from under him, sending him clattering across the deck.

Kalia hurried over to where he struggled to right himself, clutching the gunnel to keep her balance, but she was too late. A fourth wave caught him in the side, and he went careening over the side of the ship. Kalia gaped at the space of the deck as the faceless men slowly made their way back to their original stations, not bothering to give a second glance at where the man had been swept over.

But Wright reappeared a moment later next to the mainmast, gasping and coughing a lungful of water. He gulped and shakily pulled himself up, using the large hooks on the mast as counterweights. He hadn"t even noticed Kalia yet as he leaned a shoulder against the wood.

"It was your fault," a small, childlike voice echoed over the roaring sea, drawing Kalia"s attention to the top of the stern deck.

The girl stood stark against the heavy black clouds, her white nightdress whipping around her ankles. A small handmade doll was tucked into the crook of her arm, and her eyes were rimmed red with tears. Kalia darted her gaze back to Wright, who had begun to quiver against the mast.

"Please," he begged, kneeling against the deck and clasping his hands together. "Please. It was an accident, I didn"t mean to—"

"I died in this storm," the girl started again. "I—" She began to gurgle, water slipping from between her lips as she tried to draw breath.

Kalia took off toward the girl, her arms pumping and her feet pounding against the deck, fighting against the wind, rain, and rolling sea. She reached the bottom of the staircase as the girl"s face turned blue, a starfish appearing just at her hairline. In the next breath, her eyes sunk into her hollowed sockets, and her skin pulled tight against her bones. A crab skittered from her open mouth, and Kalia froze with one foot on the bottom staircase.

The girl crumpled to the deck, her doll falling from her arms and sliding with the river of rainwater toward the helm.

Wright"s anguished yell was strangled and dulled against the rising storm, though it morphed into one of shocking pain as a rope above him snapped. Kalia watched in horror as a chunk of the mast broke off and fell down, down, down. In a split second, short enough that she was unable to scream for him to move, the shard of wood pierced the man in the back of his neck. He immediately went limp, his head hanging grotesquely toward his chest as blood dribbled from the sharp end of the wood that penetrated the column of his throat.

Kalia swallowed hard, looking back toward the girl at the top of the stairs. She was gone. Furrowing her brow, Kalia swung her gaze back toward Wright, who had also disappeared in a shimmer of darkness. She blinked twice, at a loss for words or thoughts, just as Wright gasped to life again, this time at the helm behind her.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Kalia launched herself to the landing of the stern deck just as Wright clutched the wheel"s spokes, throwing his weight against the helm.

"Wright!" Kalia yelled against the roaring wind. Lightning flashed above them, forking a path through the clouds. "Wright Thackeray!"

His eyes widened as they settled on her, as the ship dipped into the valley between two waves. "What fresh plague of Liddros has come to haunt me this time?" he yelled. He reached to his side, struggling to unsheathe his blade while attempting to control the wheel.

"What?" Kalia retorted, flinching as the boom of thunder hit overhead. "I"m not— I"m not from—"

Wright seemed to make his decision, stumbling away from the helm to aim the tip of his cutlass at her. His hand was steady despite the roiling storm that continued its march across the sky. There was no horizon in the distance, just rainfall so pronounced that it streaked the clouds. His chest heaved with every breath, eyes wild as he waited. For her to attack, Kalia realized. For her to kill him.

"I"m here on behalf of Rahmi Abada," Kalia rushed out, dodging the blade"s edge as he swiped it toward her in a devastating blow. "He"s in the prison. We need you to wake up."

Wright sliced the cutlass up once more, catching a pleat in Kalia"s dress. It tore clean through, nicking her thigh. She hissed as she felt the warmth of her blood trickle to the surface of her skin.

"Captain wouldn"t dare come to the Labyrinth. Not for me," he retorted, his eyes shining bright as another flash of lightning illuminated the faceless men on the deck. Kalia felt a jerk of surprise behind her navel when she realized the men had all turned to face them. "He"s not stupid enough to—"

"He found a way to the Luminaria," Kalia rushed out as Wright whipped the blade through the air, sending her a rush of brine on a phantom wind. "He needs your help to get it."

Wright scowled, and the wrinkles in his aged face tightened. "The Luminaria is a children"s story told to those who climb out of their beds too much. It doesn"t exist. And I won"t have you killing me, not now. Not again."

"It does exist." Kalia hurried out of the way once more, the tip of the blade embedding in the wood of the wheel as Wright lunged for her. "I"m not here to kill you. I need you to wake up."

Wright hesitated, his stare darting back and forth between her eyes. Water dripped from his nose, catching in the white of his beard. He looked at her, taking in the earnestness in her expression. The rain still pelted against the deck, pooling in the cracks of the wood. He swallowed, and, from her periphery, Kalia spotted the crowd of faceless men slowly making their way toward the stern.

"How do we wake you up?" Kalia hurriedly went on as one of the faceless men began to climb the steps. As he drew closer, she saw that a thin layer of flesh covered the sockets of his eyes, nose, and mouth. "How do we—?"

But Wright was already rushing toward her, his hand outstretched. It gripped her arm, tugging him behind her as he slashed the cutlass toward the nearest faceless man. "You need to go deeper," he said, yelling at her over his shoulder. "If you got in, I know what you are. Deeper."

His instructions may have been vague to anyone else, but Kalia knew exactly what he meant. She placed a hand on the back of his balding head and threw out the tendrils of her power, forming a bridge to his soul that she tried so hard to avoid in others. It connected them, cell to cell, dust to dust before she could see the ball of energy that resided within the depths of his mind.

It glowed brightly against the darkened recesses of his consciousness, but Kalia noticed something else immediately. Like a dead vine, a blackened spiral had crept along the outer shell. It squeezed as Wright shook around her, the corners of his mind beginning to fade into nothing.

Kalia approached the vine, wrapping a hand around the deadened spiral. She pulled as hard as she could, and the tendrilled magic suffocating Wright"s ball of energy resisted. Black webbed from the vine, plunging into his soul. She pulled harder, fighting with every ounce of her power to force the vine to relinquish its grip on Wright. Above her, a dull scream of agonizing pain sounded, muffled as though she were underwater.

There was throbbing anger, shrieking fear, and sinking grief so bottomless that Kalia didn"t know if it came from her or him. But the stress of the vine had finally given way, snapping like the rope on the deck. The spiral shriveled away, curling in on itself as it died.

Then Kalia was thrown from Wright"s mind, and she landed back into her own body with an oomph against the stone of the alcove. Power rose around them as Wright gasped to life, his sunken eyes popping open. Blood trickled from each of Kalia"s nostrils as she looked up to Reshef and Rahmi, both of whom were staring down at her with wide, terror-filled eyes.

She only managed one word through the ether that coated her tongue, through the magic that she had unleashed on them when she freed Wright from his imprisonment. "Run."