From Darkness Won - Jill Williamson [116]
Noam rowed faster. The canal twisted and turned around buildings, some burning, some dark as if their residents were still asleep.
“My lady!” Noam said. “’Tis a fork. Which way?”
Averella studied the paths before them. “Left.”
Noam paddled the boat down the left canal. Averella’s heart thudded. Torchlight was scarce now. Darkness fell heavily upon them. She nudged Gren. “The lantern. Quickly.”
Gren fiddled with the lantern. A rotting yellowstone building loomed ahead. The lantern burst aflame, spilling golden light over the boat.
“Straight ahead, Master Fox. Through that hole in the wall.”
“My lady, are you certain?”
“Yes, though perhaps we should duck.”
Averella tucked her head between her knees. Gren screamed. The temperature dropped suddenly and all was black but the light in their boat. Averella picked up the lantern and held it over her head. “Slow down, Master Fox. There will be some turns ahead. I just cannot remember… There!” Averella pointed to a narrow crack in another wall. “Through that opening.”
Noam steered the craft through. The left side of the boat scraped against the stone wall.
Averella’s skin crawled at the sound. She quickly scanned the walls. “Slightly right, through the gap that looks like the letter M.”
Noam mumbled, “I don’t know my letters, my lady.”
“Never mind that.” Averella set her hand on his shoulder and pointed. “It looks like the flapping wings of a bird.”
“I see it.” Noam rowed them through the opening.
“How do you know where we are going?” Gren asked.
“I have been here before. This path leads to the dungeons. There!” She pointed to a stony ledge that ran along a wall to their distant left. “Stop the boat there.”
Noam obeyed. He found a peg to anchor the boat to, and the three of them got out. It was silent, as if all was well above the castle.
Averella took the lantern from Gren and made her way along the wall until her fingers found a gaping crack in the stone.
She slipped inside and followed a narrow tunnel. Rock and minerals drowned the bitter smell as they moved away from the water and up a jagged stairwell carved from rock.
An orange glow lit a narrow crack ahead. Averella set the lantern down. “We shall leave this for our return.” She inched between two wall-sized rocks. Voices came to her mind. Flashes from a different time, spoken here, in this same cave.
“What did the letter say?” Achan asked.
“You never read it?” Averella’s voice, raspy and strange in her memory.
“I meant to, but I didn’t want Gidon to catch me.”
“I cannot remember it word for word, but—”
“She can’t spell.”
“I noticed.”
Achan sucked in a deep breath. “Tell me.”
“Well, she said you were her true Kingsguard knight. She wanted you to run away from the prince. She wanted to marry you and not… Riga, was it? She loves you.”
He blew out a sigh. “Figured it was something like that.”
“Why did you throw it away?”
Achan’s feet shuffled. “Because it didn’t matter what she wrote. It changes nothing.”
Averella’s stomach tightened. “How can you say that? It must have broken her heart to write those words. You should have cherished it.”
He scoffed. “So I can read it again and again, dragging myself through the memories? That would be torture. Sparrow, you should have been born a woman.”
Averella bit her lip, then shoved Achan, figuring that was what a boy would do when called a woman. She chose her next words carefully. “What’s wrong with remembering?”
“It hurts, that’s what. And I want to forget. That’s why I tossed it.”
“My lady!” someone whispered, angry, like a hushed yell.
She blinked away from the past and met Noam’s brown eyed gaze. “Forgive me, Master Fox.” She pointed out the crack. “This corridor passes between two half flights of stairs that separate the first and second dungeon levels. We are already past the gate. We must watch for guards who might be patrolling. Are you ready?”
“Suppose I’ll have to be,” Noam said.
“Gren, wait here. If anything should happen, go back for