Dawn Carver (3)

11

Casimir

No guards man the tunnels.

Only the sounds of destruction from above follow as I wind through the icy walls. The lanterns have burnt out. My breath fans as an icy cloud in front of me as I grapple the walls on either side as a guide, the temperature dropping when the withered wallpaper gives way to bare stone.

My heart skips at each shout and each loud bang from above; everything inside of me screams at me to run.

I push on till I reach the end. Deep underground, it occurs to me that one close by explosion could render me trapped in this underground tomb.

Still, I push the wooden door.

The Kinjri lie in a similar state as we left them. I avert my gaze from the old man slumped motionless against the cell, swallowing my guilt, and march straight to the woman at the end of the cells.

Her hair hangs over her face, arms slumped across the ground. Kneeling lower, my heart pounds.

"Rosemary?" I whisper. She does not shift, shows no evidence she has heard me.

I reach a hesitant hand to her elbow. At my touch, she bolts upright, eyes wide and frenzied as they dart to the source of the sensation.

"I... I don't if you remember, but we talked before," I say.

She stares vacantly, her original weariness evaporating as her shoulders slump. An explosion rattles through the tomb, rendering the wall to tremble about us. Instinctively, I cover my head, but Rosemary barely flinches.

Dust crumbles from above. My chest tightens. I don't have long.

"I need your help," I urge, kneeling at her eyeline. Still, she looks straight through me. "You mentioned a woman called Nala." Her eyes dart to me, clear as day. A shudder crawls down my spine. "You know her."

Her hand darts out to wrap around my wrist, grip deceivingly strong. "We did not know."

"What?" I place a hand on her shoulder. "What didn't you know, Rosemary?" She shakes her head. The skin beneath her hand turns red, but I don't try to break free.

"The boy," she whispers.

"The boy, yes. Please, I need you to tell me what you know about him. He's... he's like a brother to me, and we can't wake him up.

"He was kidnapped."

"Yes."

"We didn't know...

I try to mask my impatience with an attempt at an encouraging expression. It comes off as more of a grimace. "What didn't you know?"

"We didn't know what it would do to him. We did not know he was human."

A shaky breath escapes my mouth as another explosion rattles the cell, clanging her chains. "What did you do?"

"She was barely alive, she wouldn't have ever been normal again but what we did... it killed her, she knew that it would."

"Are you talking about Nala?" Rosemary nods. "She was alive when Samu was here." Another nod. "How did you kill her?"

"The King was torturing the boy. His screams kept us awake. Nala was no longer strong enough to stop the cloud, the King had made sure of that. But he was losing control." Her eyes meet mine. "He does not like when he doesn't have control."

"How do we wake him up?" I demand, my impatience getting the better of me.

But she only continues, lost in her story. "The King thought the Cloud Piecer was the only way that he could control the cloud again. But he did not know how. Nala convinced him that he must transfer her power to the boy, she convinced us. We had to help. We did not know he was human. We thought he was part Kinjri."