“This doesn’t look right,” Olivia said, eyeballing the entrance to the cult compound.

  It was as well hidden as Tenebres had promised, and Olivia doubted that they could’ve found it without the former cultist’s help. A tangle of bushes and briars surrounded the low hump of a hill, and through the underbrush, the four adventurers could just barely make out a small cleared area, a rough semicircle that sloped down where it met the hill, which Tenebres promised was the main entrance to the cave system.

  Olivia and Cadence were reminded of the bandit hideout where they had fought Egin, and the squire wondered aloud just how many of these well-hidden, secret places were hidden throughout the Realm, leftovers from an earlier age, long-dead bands of outlaws, or even territorial outsiders.

  “I expected guards,” Allana said, “or at least some sort of undead.”

  “Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Tenebres replied, studying the place closely. “An earth wight would have no problem hiding underground to wait for us, and I’m sure there’s other forms of undead we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting that she could’ve been hidden in the same way.”

  “He’s right,” Cadence said. The celestial’s eyes were narrowed as she studied the small clearing. “She didn’t make too much effort to cover her tracks–the dirt has clearly been overturned recently. I’ll bet a mantle she’s buried some sort of undead down there.”

  Olivia frowned. It was an effective way to hide a guard, if Cadence was right–and she so often seemed to be. “And I’ll bet the same coin it’s set to trigger only after we’ve gone past it, so we’ll get flushed down towards Hellesa and whatever other traps and ambushes she’s got planned.”

  “So what?” Allana asked, looking at Oli. “I could trigger the trap then Trick Step out, make whatever it is fight us on open ground.”

  “Or we avoid the main entrance altogether,” Tenebres suggested.

  Olivia arched an eyebrow at the boy. “Is that an option?”

  “Maybe. Kellen had a bolt hole in the back of the compound, a way out if the entrance got surrounded. If the hag doesn’t know about it-”

  “Big if,” Allana interjected.

  “-then we could sneak in. It might be our best chance to get the drop on her.”

  Olivia chewed her bottom lip. Cynical or not, Allana’s point was a good one. If the hag had trapped this hidden back entrance, it could be even worse than if they just dealt with whatever she had guarding the main entry.

  As if sensing her hesitance, Cadence suggested, “There’s no harm in checking it out. Between Allana and I, I’m sure we can figure out if she’s got that entrance trapped too.”

  The group traded some hasty nods and carefully backed away from the cave entrance.

  #

  Oli hauled back on her arm, forcing the clutching vines out of the bush they had emerged from, and Allana took the chance to strike, teleporting into the thicket.

  The wraith hissed in discomfort as the jagged little thorns jabbed against her skin, but she didn’t let them slow her down. With Olivia pulling the attacking vines taut, it was easy enough to find the knot of tangled roots and densely packed branches at the monster’s core, just as Cadence had described it.

  Her daggers didn’t sink very deep into the bramble-spawn, but they drew a weird little whistling shriek from the monster all the same. It released Olivia, pulling back its vines to instead use them like little spider legs and run away.

  The sight was so odd, so unexpected, that Allana didn’t even know how to react, but Cadence was ready and waiting for it. When the bramble-spawn emerged from the bush it had hidden inside of, the adventurer promptly swung her little hatchet down, and the wide-headed blade proved significantly better than Allana’s daggers against the rootbulb that was the monster’s core, quickly killing it.

  “I hate those things so much,” Olivia muttered, drawing a little sigh from Cadence.

  “Look on the brightside,” she said, “I don’t see any itchleaf on this one.”

  Another Trick Step took Allana back to the group in time to hear Tenebres’s snort. “Itchleaf?”

  “It’s a great story,” Cadence promised, “I’ll tell you later.”

  “Or you could not,” Olivia suggested, her voice tired. “There’s always that.”

  “Can we focus please?” Allana asked, rolling her eyes, hoping the motion was enough to cover the fact that she had no idea what that was. Plants that make you itch? The wilderness sucked. Why did anyone ever go outside the city?

  The reminder of their duty wiped the little smiles off Tenebres and Cadence’s faces, and they nodded.

  “Why weren't there any monsters like that by the first entrance?”

  “I was wondering the same,” Cadence said. “My best thought is that if there were any bramble-spawn in those bushes, Hellesa killed them when she was setting up her guards.”

  “So if this one is here,” Tenebres guessed, “it’s a pretty decent sign she doesn’t know about this place, right?”

  “I think so,” Cadence nodded.

  “We’ll check it carefully anyways,” Olivia said. Allana supported the eclipsed girl with a nod–they had butted heads a few times over the past few days, but now that the real time to focus was here, Allana found the squire’s serious demeanor much more appropriate than Cadence’s relaxed energy.

  “Fair enough,” Cadence said, turning her focus back to the hidden entrance.

  #

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Tenebres watched the pair of Allana and Cadence look over Kellen’s bolt hole. This tunnel was even more well-hidden than the first, little more than a crack between the underside of a rock and the dirt underneath. For Olivia especially, it would be a tight fit.

  Fortunately, it was just asdifficult to find from the other side. Kellen had hidden his emergency exit in his study, behind a tapestry (cliche as that was). Tenebres could only hope that Hellesa hadn’t taken the time to explore the late cult leader’s study as thoroughly as Tenebres once had.

  In the meantime, the boy found himself surveying their surroundings. There was little to distinguish this little piece of woods from the rest of the deadlands, but to Tenebres, it was carved into his memory. He could still remember finding Kellen’s secret tunnel, an unguarded way out of the compound that had made him a prisoner. Tenebres had stood right here, looking at these very woods, a dozen times or more in the year between finding his escape and finally using it to escape the charnel house his gift had created.

  Every time, he had returned to the cult, to his uncomfortable little bedcave, to his increasingly distant parents. They were the reason he had stayed, of course. Had he made a run for it, his parents would’ve been punished, even killed–Kellen couldn’t have allowed word of his escape route to get out. Love had always kept Tenebres returning to his parents, to suffer alongside them under Kellen’s control.

  And then they had given him to that same man as a sacrifice.

  Tenebres swallowed, his throat suddenly tight. This isn’t the time for tears. As if that mental scolding would make his eyes stop burning.

  Desperate for an escape, he turned to his gift–not the one still gnawing away in his chest, desperate to be used, but the one he had actually wanted. Branded onto his chest, the intricate, runic circle of the gift of the evoker surrounded the gaping maw of the gift of the void, a sigil imprisoning the dark temptations Kellen had accidentally carved into his soul.

  As usual, the quiet, smooth logic of his evocations distracted Tenebres from both his tumultuous feelings at returning to this place and the unending hunger of the void.

  “I think we’re good,” Cadence said.

  “Looks like you were right, Seo,” Allana told him. “There’s no sign Hellesa knows about this place.”

  #

  Cadence was, generally, an optimistic person. Sure, she had seen some bad things happen in her life–from being nearly eaten by an ogre, to the raids in Kellister and on Hugo’s caravan, to the assortment of accidental deaths that were simply part of life in the villages of the Realm–but she had never let those things get to her, never let them dampen her excitement for whatever else the road may bring.

  But now, as the four adventurers began squeezing themselves into the secretive little tunnel, Cadence found herself nervous. The horrors that they had seen in Culles were different, a slaughter perpetrated with cruel purpose, and while Cadence wanted to ensure that no other village would suffer the same fate, she couldn’t suppress a tremble, nor shake the feeling that this was all wrong. That this was a terrible idea.

  She’d remember those fears, later, as prophetic.

  Tenebres went first, his skinny frame able to fit through the crack easily enough. Once he was down there, he used a light spell to illuminate the tunnel underneath. Past the crack, he had explained, the passage opened up quickly enough, so the claustrophobic fit would only be a brief concern. Allana went next, crouching until she could see Tenebres’s light, then using her Trick Step to simply teleport into the tunnel.

  Olivia was next. The eclipsed girl gave Cadence a smile that was about as shaky as her own, and they traded a brief, reassuring grip of their hands before she slipped into the crack. It was a much tighter fit, as Oli was the largest out of all of them. Even with her cloak, sword, and shield sent down before her, it still took some doing, with Cadence trying to loosen the dirt on the surface while Allana pulled on Olivia’s legs from below, before the squire finally popped through with a sudden curse.

  That left only Cadence. She took one more look around, but the woods around her were as still as ever. It was just past midday, and the sun was still bright overhead. Cadence frowned up at it. That had been part of their plan–they had faced Xythen at night, and even if his undead hadn’t been enhanced by the darkness, it definitely hadn’t helped their odds. Only now did Cadence realize how pointless their planning was. It didn’t matter how high the sun was in the sky, they were descending into the lightless underground, away from whatever safety it promised.

  Briefly, she thought of Alyssia, Oli’s sister, who she had spent a few days and a single wonderful night with back in Kellister. Cadence wished that the noble sentinel was here now–she had made sport of the earth monsters that crawled out of Kellister’s quarry, and would’ve been as comfortable in the confining tunnels as Cadence was in the sunlit forest.

  “Cadence?” Olivia called up. “Everything alright?”

  Cadence blinked and turned back to the darkened sliver in the ground. Her gaze dropped to her own shaking hand–and then he clenched his fingers into a tight fist. There would be time to feel the fear later, when this was all over.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Caden replied, his voice dropping an octave without thought. “I’m coming now.”

  #

  Allana led the way, at the edge of Tenebres’s light. The caster himself came next, with Olivia just behind him, sword and shield at the ready. Caden took the rear, bow strung and arrow nocked, casting occasional glances behind him.

  The celestial hadn’t taken the time to adjust his presentation the way he normally did when he felt the need. His hair was already tied back in a functional tail, and he couldn’t justify taking the time to loosen clothes that felt a little too tight now.

  Soon, the tunnel came to an end, Tenebres’s light illuminating the back of a woven tapestry. “Kellen’s study is past here,” the boy whispered.

  Allana held up a hand, gesturing for the others to wait, and crept forward, daggers in hand. She carefully moved the edge of the cloth, crouching to look into the room. “Clear,” she reported. “It’s dark and dusty.”

  “Weapons ready,” Oli said anyway. “There might be guards.”

  The swordswoman followed Allana into the room, shield raised, leaving Caden with Tenebres for a moment. The boy turned to give him a grim little smile.

  “You okay?” Caden asked.

  He shrugged. “No. But I’ll make it through.”

  Caden frowned, wanting to talk to the boy further. Tenebres no doubt had more than a few trepidations about returning to the cult compound, and Caden couldn’t blame him for being nervous. But unfortunately, the time for talk was over.

  If he can do this, Caden decided, so can I.

  The tapestry was pulled aside, and Olivia gestured them out of the tunnel. The abandoned study proved to be dimly lit by a couple small glowstones set into the wall, and Tenebres let his own light drop.

  It was less of a “study” than Caden had expected, little more than a couple half-filled bookshelves, a ratty old chair, and a workbench too small and crude to be called a desk. Tenebres went right to the bookcases, examining them closely.

  “There’s a few books missing,” he told them. “She’s been in here.”

  “No sign of undead or traps though, magical or mundane,” Allana told him. “She must’ve not noticed the tunnel.”

  “Lucky us,” Olivia said. “Where to next?”

  Tenebres frowned. “Hard to say. We’re pretty deep in the compound now. Even if the hag has the entrance trapped, I doubt she’d have too many undead lurking this far into the caves. We’ll have to crawl through looking for her.”

  Olivia and Allana both grimaced. That sort of search, and the vigilance they’d need to keep up throughout it, would be draining to both of them.

  Caden had a better idea though. “Tenebres,” he asked, “how far to that ritual chamber from here?”

  Tenebres’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “Not far.”

  “You think she’d be there?” Olivia asked.

  Caden shrugged. “If I was a hag setting up in a place like this, it’s where I would go.”

  The four traded quick looks. “I’m with Cadence,” Allana finally said. “We’re out nothing checking.”

  “Caden,” he corrected her gently. “For the moment. If you don’t mind.”

  Allana arched an eyebrow, looking more closely at the celestial in surprise.

  “Fine, Caden,” Tenebres said. “Let’s go.”

  “Are all the caves lit like this?” Oli asked, gesturing at the glowstones.

  “Should be. The big ones have probably burnt themselves out by now, but the little ones should still be going.”

  “Okay,” Olivia nodded. “You’re behind me, then. Allana still leads, Caden watches the rear. Agreed?”

  "Just tell me where to go.”

  Tenebres gave Allana hasty directions, and they were off.