The Hammer - Cor Series Book I

Chapter 39

Corvan and Jorad followed Madam Toreg past the staircase leading to the upper level of the library, under the balcony, and through an arch into a darkened lobby. Dried lumien vines twisted around rusty lamp stands that sprouted from mounds of broken tiles. Shattered statues and pieces of fluted columns lay scattered over the floor. The front of the building had completely collapsed.

Moving through the maze of broken stones, they encountered a stairwell that swept downward in a wide arc. At the bottom, a passage ran a short distance in either direction, only to dead end in ceiling high piles of rubble.

Madam Toreg marched straight ahead and inserted the tip of her broken cane into a hole in the smooth rock wall. Concealed doors sprang open, revealing armed guards waiting within. A stocky, bald man rushed out and proceeded to engage Madam Toreg in a heated conversation with furious gestures toward Corvan and Jorad. His face grew redder. He pursed his lips, stepped back, nodded to Madam Toreg in a cursory manner, then scurried back inside the guarded passage.

Madam Toreg looked at Corvan with a deep frown and gestured for them to follow. Edging past the guards, they all moved into a crevice so narrow only one person could go through at a time. It twisted back and forth on itself like a snake. The corners were so sharp they had to tilt Kate's litter at a steep angle to get her around them. As he negotiated a tight corner, Corvan glanced up and noticed there were openings in the ceiling. He could see they were being watched. At two places, they had to wait for doors to open and then shut behind them.

The channel finally opened into a wider chamber, where Madam Toreg waited for them before an arched double door. As Corvan stepped beside her, she pushed firmly on the doors and swung them wide.

After what felt like weeks in near darkness, the scene completely overwhelmed Corvan. He squinted against the light at a domed ceiling so crowded with lumien globes it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the others. Jorad shoved the litter forward, which thrust Corvan tight against a low stone wall. The doors banged shut behind him, and the echo came back from the far side of the rounded cavern.

"Welcome to our City of Refuge," Madam Toreg said proudly as she came up beside him. "All who seek the truth and live with compassion are welcome here."

Corvan leaned over the ledge. Small, whitewashed dwellings were evenly spaced along terraces cut into the floor of the cavern. The scene looked more like a painting than something real. The circular pattern was like the streets of Kadir except the tracks were narrow and stacked downward like a funnel along the sides of the bowl. Narrower lanes connected the circular roads, like snakes slithering toward a central plaza surrounded by larger buildings at the bottom.

"It's beautiful," Jorad spoke quietly from behind Corvan. "Seeing all these healthy lumiens gives me hope that Kadir may again shine in all its glory."

Madam Toreg glanced back at the priest with a question on her face and pointed to the left, where a creek rushed along the bottom of a deep channel next to the cavern wall. "That is what currently remains of the water that flows from under the library." Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Jorad. "The water that was sent by the palace in Kadir. They are the ones who tried to fill our City of Refuge with water. Many of our people drowned in that attempt." She made the special sign with her hands and sighed heavily. "We are ready if they try it again. Next time, our water channel will carry the water back to the lower river outlet."

"How many people remain?" Jorad asked. "I don't see anyone."

"You won't," she said. "The day has not yet begun, and those along our path were instructed to stay indoors, for your safety as well as theirs. It is best if you pass unseen. Come, we will follow the water channel."