The Fall is All There Is (Four of Mercies Book 1) by C.M. Caplan

Author:C.M. Caplan [Caplan, C.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Razor Sharp Books
Published: 2022-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Over the next—I want to say twenty minutes—I became well-acquainted with the back of The Mercy Guard’s breastplates.

I followed Jerim from the other end of hallways. Past windows reinforced with shimmershields that sang a chorus when the wind pressed against them. I barely dared to breathe as I tailed him.

If anything, it felt like things were going too easy. There remained a steady stream of travelers headed into town or retiring to their chambers after working that day.

All I had to do was keep a decent pace behind him and look like I had a destination in mind.

This became more difficult when he took a secluded stairway in one of the back halls, in the less traveled corridors.

I watched him enter it from my vantage point on the other side of the hallway. Debated heading after him. I tried to remember where the stairwell led.

I hurtled to the door. I didn’t have time to debate it. I had to catch it before it closed. I put some oomph into the balls of my feet, and slipped through sideways just as it swung shut.

I hustled down the steps. They took me all the way to the basement. The entrance reeked of mildew, so it couldn’t be close to the basement corridors that held Mom.

This space was a grimy, long abandoned corridor. A neglected area in Mercy House. Closed off for reasons I’d never asked about. I felt like a skulking storybook monster as I followed Jerim down the dark intestine-tunnels.

At one point I was home to the horrifying realization that only the dim yellow of his torchlight ahead lit my way. The silhouette of his back was all I had to go on.

I had to step carefully. The last thing I needed was for him to turn that flashlight around. Bathe me in a pale glow while he remained a vague shadow. That wasn’t a fight I was confident I could win.

Jerim turned a corner, and I watched as he reached an end to the dark maze. The eye of his flashlight roamed over abandoned workshop tools, swallowed up in an exoskeleton of gathered rust on corpse technology that had been left long ago to decompose.

“Jerim,” a female voice sprang from the dark. “You’re late.”

“Got held up,” Jerim said. “I was just about to clock out when the secretaries called me in to deal with the new prince.”

New prince? What did that mean? I was born in Mercy House. I mean—sure, I’d arrived back here fairly recently. But that didn’t mean an awful lot, did it?

“What about the others? Are they late too, Teya? Or is it just the two of us again?”

“Do you have to ask?” I could almost hear this new woman, Teya, rolling her eyes.

“Hm,” Jerim murmured. “I figured.” He crept into the dismally dark space. I spotted the flashlight moving and held back. I tucked myself behind a corner, and listened

“So,” Jerim said. “Where’s—”

I heard a door on the other side of the room. It opened once, and swung shut.

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