The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern by J. Dianne Dotson

Author:J. Dianne Dotson [J. Dianne Dotson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Android Press
Published: 2023-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

In The Shadows

Some lights blinked on from above, and others underfoot. Just off to Gen’s left, a tunnel branch winked on that led to the cave garden. Her nose tingled from the earthy reek of fungi within it and the tang of aging root milk cheese as well. Ahead, the tunnel stretched west and then north, sloping gently down. It eventually forked off to other tunnels, and as it dropped, its ceiling stretched high above. While Gen’s family hadn’t decorated their spur of the tunnel, other families sometimes made paintings or tiled their portions, and changed their light colors.

In this way, it was easy to know where you were based upon the differences in home tunnels. Almost all of them formed a subterranean network that led to the main districts of Glimmerbight, emerging aboveground before the earth changed over to silt from the sea. From there, transit could be made throughout the city either on foot, by bicycle, air bike, various buses, and mag lifts, or by water taxis on the crescent-shaped bay itself. Tonight, traffic was light, although several animals scurried at brisk paces carrying Biolumen Pen pods from town to their destinations.

When they reached a tunnel branch leading to other neighborhoods to the north, Gen, Mira, and Lyn came across one dark tunnel spur. This tunnel was unusual, as all others held some form of lighting. However, this was not the only strange feature of this tunnel, nor was a doorway placed within it that was partly open. It smelled off.

At this point, the power of the sea upon the land aboveground was apparent elsewhere; a particular tang in the air traveled up through the tunnel systems, so it was a good indicator of how close the bay was. For this dark spur, something seeped out of it into the main tunnel. The three teens looked at each other.

“Gross,” whispered Mira, scrunching her nose.

“I don’t like it,” agreed Lyn.

Gen’s pulse quickened. She covered her nose. “I know that smell.”

Lyn looked sideways at her under the dim light behind them in the main tunnel. “We know that smell.”

“Don’t think we could ever forget it,” Mira said.

Gen cleared her throat. “My point is, why are we smelling it here?”

They all looked at each other, and Gen shuddered.

“Maybe let’s... let’s keep going,” Mira suggested.

So they did, but Gen glanced over her shoulder occasionally as they descended from the hillside and into the busier tunnels ahead. The stench, however, stayed in her nostrils making her uneasy. The thought of those things out on the moors, their black tendrils snapping and whipping, lashing at her brother and her friends... she replayed it in her head. And she was utterly exhausted by now. It was not until they could smell the sea that she finally relaxed enough to focus on what they were doing.

They emerged from the tunnel system and its eventual networks of underground shops and out into the thriving night markets of Glimmerbight, the streets covered in archways of lights, the trees hung with lanterns.

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