Moonrot (Heirloom Earth Book 2) by Elliot Hendry

Author:Elliot Hendry [Hendry, Elliot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elliot Hendry
Published: 2021-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

It took them hours to find their way back out of the ossuary, navigating by touch along the walls and memory of their journey in. Ella had tried to pry loose some of the blue crystals that had lined the cavern, hoping for at least some form of light, no matter how small, but had been unable to do so. The torches that Alan had lit on the way down had been extinguished in the same manner as the torch that he carried. Only the faint glow of Ella’s mace, infused with lightning over and over as the enchantment faded, lit their way. When they came to the first room, at the bottom of the stairs, the sunlight from the font antechamber began to light up their surroundings. It took them another hour to climb the spiral stairs, not because of any great physical struggle but because it took that long for their eyes to slowly adjust to the increasing light. Even then, climbing into the daylight of late afternoon, they were forced to cover their eyes and squint as they navigated the curving paths back to the graveyard’s entrance.

Dev was waiting for them when they arrived, sat against a house opposite the gate and reading from a small book. When she looked up and saw them, covered in bone dust and screwing their eyes shut, she let out a small cry and leapt up, her book dropped to the floor and forgotten. Alan saw Carl wince at the mistreatment but he said nothing. When Ella explained what had happened, blunt words like “failure” and “impossible” dropping from her lips like rocks, Dev buried her face in Ella’s arm and only brought it away once the tears had stopped flowing. Alan was touched by the concern but only distantly; his thoughts were still numb from confusion and pain.

They returned to the inn, the evening drawing in as they did so. Townsfolk streamed past them, away from the market, and when they reached the common room they found it full of men and women toasting the end of another peaceful day. The sight of them all, happy and jolly and totally under the sway of another’s control, turned Alan’s stomach and he made his excuses, quickly shouldering his way through the crowd and heading up the stairs to his room. He heard shouts after him, felt the party messages that Carl and Ella sent him, but he didn’t respond. He had no appetite for food or company and simply wanted to crawl into bed - with any luck, he would sleep straight through the headaches and suffer only nightmares. He didn’t lock the door behind him, though, his hand lingering on the latch as he listened to his three friends shuffling awkwardly in the corridor and talking between themselves in low voices. The memory of their presence the night before and the comfort they had brought was just enough to make him turn away and cocoon himself in the sheets without shutting them out completely.

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