Moonshadow (Book 1 of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Fifteen: Forgotten Pride

They approached the front of the largest building with quiet, wary steps, staying in the deepest shadows and waiting for Fykes to signal them forward. He had insisted on going first and making sure there were no more of those strange creatures in sight.

The way the whole building seemed to glow ever-so-faintly in the dark reminded Katerin of something she could not quite place. Something she had seen recently—though the fatigue in her mind and her focus on moving forward kept it from coming to mind.

A set of steps led up to a broad archway. Wide enough for all three to stand side by side and more. The smell of musty soil was strong enough to taste. It told of the fact that nothing had touched this place in a very long time. The archway showed them into a small room, with a pale, crescent-shaped desk coming out to meet them. Stairways curled up on either side.

"Which way?" Arjiah asked in a whisper.

"Left is always right," Fykes said, with a boyish smirk.

They took each step carefully, testing it before stepping with their full weight. Katerin looked up the stairs for a moment, forgetting about her footing, and knew in an instant she had made a mistake. A hole broke in the floor and her leg slipped through, scraping her calf as she fell backward, failing to catch herself on the railing with her injured hand.

Fykes caught her hand and pulled her into him, not letting her fall. He picked her up under the arms like one might pick up a young child and set her ahead of him on the steps. "Careful," he chided, and his eyes blazed brighter for a moment, showing the ever-present humor within.

He smelled like campfire smoke and the forest, with a hint of cinnamon.

"Thanks," she said, her tone as sharp as it was quiet. How could someone so thoughtful be so condescending, she wondered. She turned her focus to the stairs, trying to ignore the heat in her cheeks and ears, thankful for the darkness surrounding them. She did not need him to catch her when she fell. She had never needed anyone before, at least.

At the top of the stairs, they found a number of small sitting rooms and a long hallway. The rooms were in a state of disrepair and dust, and they found nothing of interest within them. The hall opened up at the end to reveal a room much like the one they had originally entered. In the place of a desk, there were several long curving tables. Again constructed from the same material as the building. They looked heavy and immovable. As if they had been made in place, flowing seamlessly from the building itself.

Another pair of stairways wound up the walls, though these steps were smaller. Katerin frowned, as she had been hoping to find something that could give her a better idea of her mother's whereabouts. But if anyone had been here recently, she could not tell. She examined these stairs with scrutiny; they would have been an exact replica of the others but the left stairway was caved in and full of rubble. "I guess right is right, this time," Katerin said, with a proud smirk, eliciting a quiet giggle from Arjiah.

As they crept up the next stairway, Katerin took her time and never once made a misstep. Both her limbs and pride still stung from the last one. She was determined not to be the girl who needed someone to save her.

At the top of the stairs, the roof had partially caved in, and the moon lit up the space with a brilliant silver glow. They moved down the open hallway into a large central room. She immediately saw something familiar. A large white and blue stone table with a glass tube running behind it.

"We should be care—" her words cut off as the same voice echoed in her head again.

Identify yourself. It spoke into their minds, strange and cold.