Little Saint Bride [Death and the Maiden, #1]

Chapter Thirty Four: A City of Shades

Mercer shrugs, as if it's no big deal. 'Shall we go? I'll say when it gets quiet...'

Nodding in agreement, we settle side-by-side to wait to dash across the lobby. To my eyes, it's already empty, but seeing Mercer's eyes follow things I couldn't brings out the competitve spirit in me. 

What had the book said? Necromancy starts with you.

You are in tune with your own body. Everyone can See, if only they would Listen. To See, first close your eyes...

I try it. I shut them with impatience, aware that at any moment Mercer's eyes might flicker towards me and see me trying.

...with eyes closed, hone your senses on everything you feel around you...

What do I feel? Urgh, the cramping in my legs from being crouched down as we wait. The smell of Mercer, pressed up at my elbow, is like pine, which is suspiciously pleasant...but reminds me directly of Hadrian's smell, which is deeper and darker than Mercer's, like a rich mahogany and...and...

My stream of thoughts are ridiculous! I shake my head. It doesn't help that when I close my eyes, I can see Hadrian's half-naked body sprawled before me, gorgeously ready and waiting for my return. 

Opening my eyes, the room is still empty. When Mercer grabs my wrist and pulls me across, I don't feel any of the urgency that's in his step. 

Reaching the main doors, we slip outside.

We exit the palace on the opposite side to the one we'd first entered it in. This door is more like a window, with stained glass pictures decorating the huge arched panels that open Hadrian's home into his people's below. The palace also acts as a fort, I assume, because of the way the building then becomes a great wall around the outside of the city. 

Where Elysium had been bleak, Hadrian's city is more natural. The entire town, I realise, is built around an old tree-- a tree that is so large, and stretches so high, that at first I thought it a building, taller than any I'd ever seen. But then I notice the branches, devoid of leaves, sprouting from the tree.

My eyes follow the trunk, right up to where there's mist at the very top. Steps are carved all the way around the trunk, hidden among branches, until they reach a platform. An archway, made of the branching tree, hides something else-- something important, judging by how the city grew around it. The houses are dark shapes from this distance, but they wind around the tributaries of the large river of the Underworld, built into the roots of the tree and the rocks of the cliff. 

From the top of the tree to the steps below, the world shimmers. I frown, wondering if it's some sort of mist or magic-- but feel the cold at the tips of my nose and fingertips.

It's frost, I realise. Hadrian's Underworld is freezing!

'Mercer,' I mutter, my attention back on the largest part of the city. 'Can you see the top of that tree? Is there anything special about it?'

My guide looks at me in amazement. For once, I'm asking for his help. Then, silently, he turns back to squint at the direction I'm pointing, and he nods.

'It's a passage,' he breathes. 'It shimmers-- like a portal. Nerissa, I...I think it's how Shades and Hadrian pass back to Minoa!'

We look at each other in barely concealed excitement. 

'Can it be that simple?' I say, looking back at the top of the tree. 'We just have to make it across?'

My companion shrugs, uncertain. Maybe it's not a portal at all. Maybe it's where Hadrian holds his Hogmanay parties. Besides, if that's the portal, what does he use the mask for?