The final copper rung gave way to empty air. Ada's boot fumbled in the darkness, and her hands clung a little tighter to their holds despite her aching fingers. But Yue was walking away, her footsteps echoing off seemingly solid ground, and so Ada let herself drop. For a moment she fell, weightless and wild. But then stone hit so hard that it left her ankles quaking.
As they descended, the bundles of burning sage had smouldered out above their heads. When Ada now peered up into the shaft, she could no longer make out the city above. There was no light at the bottom of the ladder either, but Yue stopped a few metres ahead and cracked her knuckles. Her bones groaned like the creaking of timber wood, and a second later, a small pocket in the stone to her left glowed to life.
The scent of sage was more pungent underground, and with nowhere else for it to flow its bitterness hung heavy in the air. But the flames gave light enough to see, and Ada pivoted out of Armestrong's way as she dropped down onto the slab Ada had been standing on. It was flat and white, glistening against the dim depths of the passage like a royal seal upon a paper parcel. The wreathed words engraved around its edges were lost to the shadows, but Ada could make out enough to identify the compass rose, now rooted in the earth.
She was suddenly squashed into the passage's rock wall as Armestrong made way for Lark. The woman gathered Min closer into her chest, but her arms were trembling slightly. It was the first sign to suggest that Armestrong was becoming weary, but she didn't drop Min, even as they waited for Lark to straighten next to them.
The bandits and Ada gathered behind Yue, heads bowed beneath a low ceiling that was furrowed with channels of stone. Deep currents of ochre ran through the rock, only visible when cast upon by the faint sage-light. When Lark stepped off of the compass' face, a deep rumble hummed beneath the earth, and the bandits watched breathlessly as the stone rose up through the air. It spiralled around and around through the darkness before disappearing up into the hollow shaft like a shard of smoothed bone.
"This way," said Yue, her voice already drifting off as she strode into a narrow tunnel. "Keep up."
Ada refrained from pointing out that there were little other choices of ways to go, as the passage was dug in one direction only. But she hurried behind Yue anyway, and the bandits caught up in time to see new tunnels begin to thread out from their own. Most were dusky fissures, but as they walked further, larger ones wove off from their path and burrowed away into the earth. Ada thought they must twist beneath the city like a system of tangled veins, almost passing as a design of nature were it not for their perfectly even entrances, which were circled by complex braidings of pebbles.
Voices occasionally floated from the tunnels, muddling together when they met at Ada's ears and humming like a distant harmony. The underground realm was rich and primal, each scent and sound adding to a world that was older than any city could claim to be. There was a beauty to it, but a whisper, too, of a danger dredged up from ancient earth, now built into a dark labyrinth. A labyrinth sure to swallow you whole were you to wander too carelessly.
Behind Armestrong, Lark spat a curse. Ada turned and caught a flash of grey skid across her boots, and claws skittered against stone as a creature dodged around Yue and blundered off into the shadows. The woman huffed, feigning a kick into empty air as dust shivered up around her shins.
"Mangy beast," she said, but followed it around a corner.
Ada squeezed after Yue through a breach in the stone and walked straight into a wooden barrel. Its hollow thud echoed endlessly around the rock antechamber she now stood in. Above her was a domed ceiling that reached twice the height of the previous passage, and below her, the floor was fitted with ageing planks of wood. The room was lined with capped barrels and boxes, though the walls were undecorated apart from the multitude of doorways carved straight through the bare stone.
The one to Ada's left was immaculate, guarded on either side by tall candles that illuminated polished steps engraved with words of Old Fae. The doorway opposite had no candles to light the steps leading down from it, though Ada could see that the top few were warped with drippings of wax and years of footsteps.
It was next to this second set of stairs that two more fae stood. The first was a man, old and hunched with age, a mottled beard sprouting from his wiry chin like a puff of smoke. An even older woman stood at his side, thin and bony with a gash the colour of roses and violets across the place where her eyes should have been.
"You," Ada breathed, staring at the beggar woman she had met on her first morning in Wysthaven.
"We find each other again, young wishmaker," croaked the old woman.
Yue walked from Ada to the pair of old fae, and Ada saw that when she moved in the open it was with a startling grace. Quick and calculated.
"As you foretold, Master Edmere," Yue said, bowing her head before the old man. "I bring her to you."
"We've come for healing," Armestrong broke in, and Yue's head abruptly snapped to her with a glare. "A fire—"
"You dare to beg for healing when you've already been taken in by the Circle's generosity?" said Yue, but before she could continue, Edmere raised a single, wrinkled palm.
"Enough, Yue. Can't you see the child is injured?" His eyes were pale, bleached blue as though he had stared for years at the sun. They were out of place here below the ground, their brightness muted like two stars left to light an entire sky.
"I practice patience, Edmere" answered Yue, though her words were tight. "Just not easily with those who keep the company of traitors."
Behind Ada, Lark and Armestrong stiffened, and she knew that the woman would have shot a curse back at Yue had she not been cradling Min. But then there came the clatter of claws across floorboards, and a grey creature clambered up onto the barrel beside Edmere. It was a cat, thinned to its bones, but still purring as the old man rubbed his knuckles between its ears. With a flick of a tattered tail, the cat jumped down onto the ground and prowled over to the bandits.
Edmere watched a moment, before replying to Yue, "And has this child done anything to deserve a traitor's title? I, for one, have never seen her face before, nor do I believe it right to cast the injured away if they happen to be caught up in unfavourable circumstances beyond their charge."
Yue's knuckles strained white, but she did not stop the man as he took one of the beggar woman's hands, and beckoned to Armestrong with a tilt of his other. Armestrong flushed with relief, her arms shaking as she stumbled over to him, keeping Min tucked into her chest. The cat padded along by her boots.
Edmere placed the beggar woman's hand on Armestrong's elbow. "Hester, if you would be so kind as to lead our guests to your alchemy chamber. There's a young child here in need of immediate attention, quite severely burned by my eye. And I dare say the woman with her could use some herbally-aided rest if I may suggest it."
"Of course, Edmere," replied the old woman, as Armestrong gave them both a tired but grateful smile. "Come along, come along."
The old woman felt around with her feet for the nearest wax-spattered step and then led Armestrong slowly out of the antechamber. A taut silence settled between those remaining in the room, Ada glaring at Yue, whose dark eyes were slitted almost black. Lark gave an awkward cough and ducked out from behind a barrel.
"Er, my leg isn't in the best shape either," he said. "If you've got a spare bandage or two..."
Yue turned on him, her lips curling back to show the tips of sharp teeth. Lark coughed again, leaving a wide girth between them while he edged around the room, as though wary a knife may materialise between her clenched fingers were he to stand too close.
"Perhaps the older gentlewoman?" Lark said, voice strained as he neared the stairs. Armestrong's footsteps were already echoing away, but Ada could still see her tall shadow.
"I would hobble faster," Lark called after them, already half-way down the steps. "But I know you two can hear me!"
His red hair disappeared down a tunnel below, leaving behind an even heavier tension than their previous silence. But Ada was glad that he had gone, if only because she didn't like the idea of Armestrong and an unconscious Min left alone with that strange woman in an even stranger place.
"If you have no room for the rest of my companions, you have no room for me," Yue mimicked Ada's previous words in a cold voice, and Ada flinched. "But see how fast the Wolf leaves you? You really don't have any idea what you've gotten yourself into, and you and your companions should show a little more respect to the Circle and our Master for taking you in."
"Kindness earns respect, which Raeph showed by getting Min down here with me," Ada snapped back.
"You'll be sorry for dealing with him," said Yue. Her words were deathly quiet. "Traitorous excuse for a fae."
"I suppose I'll have to find that out for myself," countered Ada, equally as smooth.
"Yue," said Edmere. Both women flinched now, having forgotten that the old fae had been present the entire time. "Would you be so kind as to fetch The Gilded Book from the library? I will take our guest from here."
For a moment, Yue's eyes didn't leave Ada's. They were piercing, dark and unforgiving, the stare of a bird circling its prey. But then she turned, gave a slight bow of her head, and strode away without another word. The candles nearby quivered at her passing.
Now alone with Edmere, Ada was unsure how she should approach the old man, but she kept her chin tilted high and defiant. He stared at her with his pale eyes, and Ada thought he may begin to repeat Yue's warnings about Raeph. But then he swept his arm out, guiding her towards the steps engraved with Old Fae.
"If you will join me for a brief time," he said. "I am sure that you have many questions, Adalyn."