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Chapter IV

"You go first," said Cinder. Jade's heart was pounding rapidly, but with a shaky hand she obeyed and opened the door.

Slowly, the door opened widely with a soft creek. The place she entered was a large hallway, as big as the whole building. It had red and golden decorations on the stone walls and a matching carpet right on the center which made it look quite royal. Hanging from the ceiling were two chandeliers and at the end of the hall there were some stairs that led downwards only. There seemed to be no alternative way as there were no doors in sight.

That room was fairly full of people, all wearing similar clothes to Cinder's; they were clearly assassins. In pairs of two or three they talked, whether sitting at a table or just upright, and the room was full of chatter. Until the door opened and everyone's eyes turned in that direction that is. It was almost as if they expected someone to come in and were on high alert because of it.

Jade froze in place, staring back at each and one of them. She didn't like the look they all gave her. It was full of suspicion and menacing, like a wild animal stalking its prey.

The door behind her banged shut all of a sudden and the poor captive jumped in shock. It was just Cinder closing the door.

"Move," he told her in a whisper, pushing her back. "To the stairs."

She walked slowly, watching the other people. She thought she saw a couple of thinner silhouettes among the assassins who were now whispering as they looked at her in curiosity. Both men and women were there.

"Why are they staring at me?" she whispered to Cinder who was now next to her. In as much of a whisper, he answered.

"Prisoners don't usually come willingly." He seemed amused, but Jade felt too tense to taste any jokes. "Besides," he continued. "We all expected I'd have a more powerful and unwilling target."

"I'm not that weak," she said, but it was so soft that not even Cinder heard. She was quite upset that he thought her a weak and defenseless woman. Or maybe he considered her still a kid.

When they reached the stairs, the girl noticed there were two flights of stairs, one to the left and the other to the right, but both of them were bent to reach the same point. It looked like a huge tilted oval.

They were now underground. Ahead was another hallway, this time even longer, but not as wide. At least there were no more people here to stare at her. She sighed in relief.

"Don't be too happy. You know you're going to prison."

"I know," she said without emotion.

"It's that door to the right," he pointed somewhere to the middle of the hall. She nodded, and then felt the need to ask something.

"What's in the other rooms?" There were indeed lots of doors, some even hid by thick red curtains or furniture. Much of it was holding books and scrolls, but Jade could tell that wasn't even half of the documents held in the underground building.

"Offices, meeting rooms, emergency exits, pretty much everything we need."

"Do you have a library too?" Cinder simply hummed in agreement so the girl went on asking questions. "What's straight ahead?"

"Nothing."

All of a sudden, Cinder sounded irritated so the girl just shut up and didn't dare say another word for an awkwardly long time. Instead she followed the assassin's instructions as to where to go.

Behind that door on the long hallway there was a much shorter hallway, but this one was far from elegant, unlike the previous ones. It had no decorations on the walls or carpet on the floor, and everything was made of  cold grey stone blocks. Also, it was poorly lit so walking around felt rather creepy. Jade already felt as if in prison.