The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 18

 It was dark, darker than dark even, as my eyes slipped open to the black world around me. It smelled like murky earth and that underground smell that trapped air acquires below the soil. My skin was slick with moisture, almost like swimming as I sat up on the hard bed. It was probably wood, but by the clatter of chains I had become used to, I was distracted from it. As the four corners of the dungeon, because I was sure by now that was what it was, came into view, I could now see a barred wall, opposite which was what appeared to be a walking passage. There was no light, no warmth in that deep down, cold place, and as I scrambled up, wincing against the scratchy fabric of my gown, which had been changed since my blackout.

Squinting as I approached, I could see another cell further down the hall, but just as I neared the bars to look, the chain on my neck pulled me to a halt, preventing me from going any further. I hadn't even noticed the end of Illy's chain had been linked to a longer one, which was in turn hooked through a steel ringlet in the wall. I stepped close to it, and just to be sure, I gathered the dirty chain in my hands, the grimy soot smearing on my fingers, I gave it a yank. To my surprise, the ringlet split right off the wall like a snapped candy cane. Gathering the chain, which was thinner than that of Illy's, but looked just about as durable, I walked forward and set it upon the ground in a coil.

I took hold of the bars of the wall, which were spaced so they just barely held back my head. They were cold steel, a deep gray in the lightless corridor, but when I pressed them, they bent like thin wire, spreading in a diamond so I could step through, chain in hand. "Hello," I called down the corridor, my voice echoing off the stone walls, which seemed to hose about three other cells like my own, and had a door on one side, and a turn at the other. Supposing the door would be locked, I started going down towards the other cells, wincing at the disgusting grim on my bare feet as they scrubbed across the filthy floor.

"Hello," I called again, but received no answer, and when I reached the first cell, I found it empty, clad with the same bed, table, and bucket as my own. I grimaced at the thought of having to stay in a cell like that, but it mystified me as to why they built the cells so weak, if I could snap the chain and bend the bars, what would actually motivate anyone to stay down here? There were plenty of other pure-bloods around, why wouldn't they make their dungeon strong enough to hold them? As I progressed, the second cell was the same, so when I came to the third, I almost screamed when I saw the limp arm dangling off the side of the cot, and a head of tangled black hair laying lifeless on the board.

Immediately I yanked the bars open, and stepped through sideways, rushing forwards to the limp body. As I had dreaded, it was Mother, and in no better condition than earlier, drained of poison. I carefully took the chain in my hand and located where it linked with a circular ring of steel to Illy's chain, snapping it off here and letting it drop in a clatter to the ground. After snapping off her chain, which was weirdly connected in a sort of metal belt around the small of her waist, I lifted Mother and slipped out of the cell with her, looking back and forth towards the two ways. Surely Mortemine wouldn't put her own daughter down here, but on the odd chance she did, or that there was someone else down here, I decided I would explore the turn before starting towards the door.

It was a good then I did, because on the second cell down after the turn, of which's hallway housed four cells, I found Illy sleeping peacefully on a bed. "Illy," I called out, "Illy, wake up. I watched as she grimaced, squirmed, and rubbed her eyes, yawning.

"What do you," She began, but as she opened her mismatched eyes she stopped, seeing the pitch black around her. "Where am I?" She asked, "Did she throw me down in the dungeon again?"

"What do you mean again?" I asked, "I thought you weren't even sure if the dungeon was operational."

"I wasn't, it was a really long time ago, like, two millennium, I think." She replied, sitting up and blinking to help her eyes adjust. "How are you in here, did they put us in the same cell?" She asked.