Black Ice ✓ | Deathsworn #1

Chapter 43 ∞ Swamp

"Hellen, you get the lights," Mistress Neilly said. "I thought I saw some lamps over to your side."

There was some rustle and clanking over to my right. I couldn't see anything at all, but I still felt Maun and Erenol clinging to either side of me. My arms were starting to feel numb from their death grips, but I didn't have the heart to push them away. What happened—was happening—tonight was nothing short of traumatizing after all.

There was a small spark. A crackle, a pop. And a light flickered to life. My mother held up an antique gas lamp—one that came with a sparker to help light up the wick inside. It was very old technology that people hardly used anymore, but it still came in handy during moments similar to right now.

When the light flooded the room, I was finally able to see where we were and what kind of place it was. Old bricks lined up the walls. Cobwebs hang in the corners. The air was thick and musty. It had probably had not circulated properly for the last ten...twenty years or so. Before us was a lengthy tunnel that looked like something out of a horror game. There was furniture scattered about next to the stairs that led up to the surface. The light wasn't very bright to be able to illuminate what was ahead of us well enough to make me comfortable.

"Where does this lead to?" I asked.

"Outside," my mother replied. "Only for desperate moments."

"You expected we would have something like this?" I followed.

"Oblivion deals with a lot of things, Evy. Some of them are more complicated than we would like to acknowledge ourselves," Mistress Neilly said.

"Are we going to leave without the others?" I continued, stepping towards my mother while peeling off the fingers that were gripping me so hard. "I need to breathe, dammit," I told the two on either side of me. "Can you stop being koalas for a minute and just...I'm supposed to be the youngest here, double dammit."

At least physically. I'm actually older than these two by a lifetime.

"Just a little longer please," Erenol muttered, clinging to me while sniffing. Her eyes were rimmed with tears though she was trying hard so that they didn't fall. "I just don't want to be left behind."

Maun, on the other hand, was just...quiet, frozen...scared stiff. His eyes were wide and blank. Whatever I said just now seemed to have just breezed over his head—into one ear, right out the other. I pursed my lips guiltily, looking at the two of them with brows furrowed.

"No one's going to leave anyone behind," Mistress Neilly firmly stated. "You three listen to Hellen and me, alright? You three precious morsels will not be left behind. Oblivion is strong. Leave it to your mistresses to figure it all out."

"Your mistress is right. We'll stay here for now to see what happens, but we best make preparations first," my mother replied. "We have got to find out what is happening and who sent those people into Oblivion. Judging by how they were able to get in without a hitch, that must mean they pack considerable power and means."

I looked at the two of them and said, "I've got to say something."

Neilly and my mother exchanged glances.

"Evy, what is it?" my mother inquired.

"I actually stayed up late tonight and opened the windows. This guy came in through the them and I hid in the bathroom," I said. "He...wasn't normal."

"How?" she prompted.

"He had these eyes...like those of a snake. I think you might've seen it too a while ago," I told my adoptive mother. "And there were things around him. Around all them."