"Follow my lead," Lars instructed, bending down to fling open the door in the floor. He then crouched and swiftly began the descent into the hole, his boots clanging on the rungs. I hurried to the edge to watch the darkness devour him. I was to go down there? "Come on!" Lars suddenly called from below.
As I stared into the hole, I noticed the warm air filtering out of it, brushing my skin lightly as the faint smell of cooking meat swirled into my nose. Food! There was food down there! I heard shuffling boots beside me and the Volthonian named Levi appeared at the edge as well, gazing into the black. Despite the hope of a good meal, neither one of us moved toward the ladder. "After you," Levi said with a sweep of his arm. His right hand was at his side, resting close to the hammer hanging on his belt.
It dawned on me then that he was not afraid of the dark. He was not afraid of going down that ladder into the unknown. After I had awoken, Lars had explained to me the origins of these ruins. Levi hadn't seemed much afraid of that either. What he was afraid of was me. And I was of him.
The only reason I chose to go first was the gnawing, burning hunger in my stomach. I was confident that he would not attack me as long as Lars was present. Lars had told him to spare me after all.
Keep me safe, I prayed, clutching the purple crystal of my necklace and stepping around Levi. I crouched at the hole and with a deep breath, I began the journey downward, hand over hand on the cold rungs, peering up to see the square of daylight shrink. I thought of the window of my bedroom, when the morning sun would greet me and Rose and welcome us into a new day. Oh, how I would do anything to be home again with Pa and Ma and my sister! Tears were beginning to well up in my eyes, fogging my vision. Focus on the ladder, on the sound of your shoes on the metal, on the rumbles of your stomach. I needed a distraction, to keep my composure. If only Obsidian could've come down with me, it would've been easier to feel not so...alone.
When I dropped from the last rung, I spun around and peered down the long, shadowy corridor. At the very end, I noticed there was an orange, flickering light dancing along the walls, beckoning me forward. A human silhouette stood there in the middle, the mysterious light softly passing over his features and causing his gold ring to glitter. "This way," Lars whispered, his voice echoing through the passageway. The silhouette moved to the right and disappeared.
"Go on," Levi said from behind me.
I flinched and immediately hoped he didn't see it. I hadn't even heard him step off the ladder.
It wasn't his words that finally made my feet move. It was the smell of something cooking and the distant burst of laughter. It was the hope of food that sent me after Lars. So down the dark corridor I went, reaching out to trace the uneven walls on either side of me. Levi's footsteps followed, slow, but I sensed his impatience. Volthonians, I thought with a sigh.
I knew not to let him bother me. His presence thankfully faded away from my mind when I arrived at the end of the passage, the flickering, orange light revealing itself to be torches set into the walls, lining yet another corridor. At the end of this hall, a rusty, metal door waited. Was that thumping I heard? Music on the other side of it? I wasn't imagining this, was I?
"Is someone singing?" Levi's question travelled down the dim hall.
Now that I was truly listening, smothered by silence, I could see that the Volthonian was right. There were possibly three voices, all belonging to men, though they each sounded so different and yet, fit so well together. It was a beautiful song. Haunting and beautiful. It was the Aldaian song of mourning and the harmonies wove themselves around my heart and squeezed tightly like vines. I drew closer to the door, each careful step quiet in the dark.
