20 Chapter 20 - Wherein Several Potentially Disturbing Elements Are Unearthed

"So, anyone care to explain what the hell the actual plan is!?" Judas exclaimed once Lozen had led the trio into one of the many empty hallways filling the manor. She pulled out the weapon she had managed to talk Sirius out of and started looking over it as she replied "I thought the plan was clear. We lure whatever that creature is into a confined area, maybe bury it under rubble or catch it in something, and perhaps find a means to kill it for good."

"Oh you made that part crystal fucking clear! I'm talking about the fact that you're trying to get out of our little deal!! You asked that bastard for 500,000 dollars!! You're planning to take the money and bail aren't you!!?"

"Something like that."

"Like hell you are!!"

"Let me explain. What's the one reason you're not shooting up this entire manor right now?"

"Because you're too scared of getting your mortally challenged ass shot-Oh."

"Precisely. Now here's the plan. We capture this creature, I receive my reward, carry said creature off the campus, let it loose to destroy the manor-"

"Nope!!"

"Pardon?"

"If anyone is going to tear up this manor like the devil out if hell, it's gonna be me!! I've got a whole persona to maintain! What kind of Horseman of Hell let's someone else single handedly massacre an entire manor of people and their sworn enemy!!"

"Fine. You can help if you want-"

"Help!! Hell's Horseman is not some sidekick who fucking helps!"

"A head start. You can have a head start."

Judas paused for a moment before shrugging and saying "I'll take it."

Lozen rolled her eyes and continued "Then, you'll take what you need, leave the body for all I care, I'll lead you to Isacriot, and then we'll be on our own ways from then on."

"And her?"

"Once we take care of Cane, I don't care. For now, she's good leverage."

Alberta interjected at that moment "So I'm assuming you're going to be ignoring that elephant. Can we please discuss what happened in that ballroom?" She sounded more hasty and desperate then before and Lozen didn't blame her. What else would one do after over hearing discussions of their death. Not that she cared though. It was just another death in a graveyard of a state. Who would bother?

"That is a good point." Lozen muttered as she looked over the weapon and then turned to face Judas. She aimed it right at his foot and fired out a single shot, tearing right through his boot. Judas let out a yelp and started hopping up and down on one foot as he gripped his injured foot in his hands. "JESUS FUCK!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!!?" He exclaimed, a sentiment Lozen ignited as she started looking over the weapon again. "Interesting." Alberta muttered as her own eyes glanced over Judas even as he continued bouncing like a toddler with a stubbed toe. "Jebediah, do you still have all your toes?" She asked to which Judas replied "YEAH!! AND NOW THEY FEEL LIKE, OH I DON'T KNOW, THEY'VE JUST BEEN SHOT!!!" Lozen hummed for a moment before saying "So either it's not the weapon itself or maybe it just doesn't work with you."

"DOESN'T WORK!! WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN?!"

"You should have lost your foot."

"HEY!!"

"Judas, shut it." Lozen started. "She had a point. When that creature was shot by this weapon-"

"The Wraith! We're calling it the Wraith! Enough said!"

Lozen paused for a moment to let the stupidity of that sink in before saying "Right. The Wraith-" Her eye twitched as she used that title. "-lost a hand when it was shot by this. Something that you haven't had happen to you even after being in the middle of several firestorms. So the question is, why was this creature different?"

"Maybe he was just a pussy?" Judas offered and Lozen immediately ignored. "Sirius refuses to tell us more about the Wraith, so he's most likely hiding something from us and we'll need to know that if we're going to trap this thing. So here's the plan. Judas, you're going to patrol the grounds, see if there's anything suspicious, but play it subtle."

"BLASPHEMY!!"

"While Alberta and I do the same inside the manor. Finch, I'm assuming you know the interior well?"

Alberta replied "Yes and I have numerous individuals on my payroll as well. Moving about shouldn't be a problem."

"Good. We're going to figure out where that creature might have run off to."

"Won't he come after the gun?" Judas asked and after ignoring that stupid question, Lozen grabbed Alberta by the arm and started dragging her down the hallway. "Just meet back at the main entrance in one hour. If anything happens before that, follow the sound of gunfire."

"Like usual?"

"Indeed. And don't get caught. The only thing between us and the gunmen filling this place is a mentally unstable individual who I do not trust to keep an opinion for long. So be quick about it. Alberta-"

Alberta interrupted "Let me guess, dear. If I speak a word about this, you'll kill me?"

"I can survive long enough for Judas to do the same as well. You best keep that in mind."

"Oh don't worry about that, darling. Shall we be on our way then?"

With that, Lozen pulled Finch in front of her and started making her way down what had to be the fifteenth ornate hallway in this damn place. "Wait, can you at least tell me which way is out! This place is a literal maze!!"

"Keep talking. Eventually someone will show you out." Lozen called back over her shoulder before saying to Alberta "Now tell him the actual way out."

"Complying. Take three rights and a left and you'll be at a stairwell leading to the back!"

"And what about-"

They turned a corner before he could ask what Lozen was sure to be something no one in their right or wrong mind would want to know. The hallways were still just as empty as the others apart from the paintings and over used gold architecture, so there weren't as many of those guards around to worry about. Still, Lozen didn't herself be at ease just yet and that lack of guards presented its own problems. Either because of that maniac's own stupidity in pulling all of his guards to one location or something else, that creature was still roaming the manor unimpeded by anything. No guards could give her an alarm. A part of her even wished there were still a few men around. Even their corpses could give her a clue.

Instead, all she had was a couple guns and a matriarch she was certain was plotting to kill her. But she would make it work. She had to. "Any theories yet?" She asked and Alberta replied as they continued making their way through the hall. "Pardon?"

"You know the layout of the manor better than Cane would and as such, should be aware of where somewhere may go to not be found."

"A good point, but I'm afraid this isn't the house for such an action. Sirius is as paranoid as he is resourceful and designed all of his manor to be as open and difficult to hide in as possible. There are only wide, empty hallways and dozens upon dozens of locked doors within the walls of his place. Why do you think the only decorations are paintings? It's so that there's no statues or tables for anything to hide behind in the halls."

Lozen took a look around and saw that she was indeed correct. Nothing obstructed her line of vision down the hall and none of the doors she saw looked like they had been broken down. She doubted the creature could have done so without drawing attention to itself and therefore inciting yet another shootout. So where could it have gone? Outside? Maybe. "Are there any structures outside the manor?" She asked and Alberta replied "Apart from a storage bunker. No. But it's heavily guarded at all times. Our friend couldn't get to it without causing a scene."

"And the door? Who has the keys?"

"Only Cane. Not even the staff is allowed access to them."

Something hit Lozen the moment Alberta said that and sent her mind crawling back to the room Sirius had himself holed up in. There had been a tray there with food on it, recently prepared judging from the temperature, but by who? "Speaking of which, I haven't seen any servants around apart from the ones on the grounds. Are the ones inside hiding somewhere?" She asked, assuming the commotion had scared them away, but Alberta's paused through a wrench in her theory. The patron tilted her head up as if in thought before she mumbled "Huh" and continued silently contemplating something. Lozen gave her a moment to organize her thoughts before asking "What is it?"

"Odd. I can't believe I never noticed that before."

"Noticed what?"

"Whenever I have come to one of Cane's manors, I don't recall I've ever been greeted by a servant. It's just been him or the guards he hired. Strange."

"Really?" Lozen said, not believing a word of it. "And you've never noticed?"

"Well I'm sorry, but I usually have more important matters to attend to whenever I travel to this premise. I don't usually think of who would be taking my coat. I'm sophisticated, not pretentious."

Lozen raised an eyebrow of that and retreated into her mind for a moment with that. No servants? Unlikely, given the sheer size of this manor. Someone had to be maintaining it. Maybe they had been shuffled away somewhere? No, then who would have sent that tray to Cane? Odd. Although there could be an explanation, she just didn't know enough to make any assumptions yet.

Using what little she could remember from when they were led to Sirius, Lozen doubled back on their path towards the stair well they had used to get to the second floor. If her internal map was correct, there should have been some doors on the opposite wall that led out to the balcony the creature was last seen. There had been guards in this hall that didn't indicate they had seen the beast, so somewhere between the balcony and here, it had disappeared.

"What's in this hallway?" Lozen asked and Alberta replied "Nothing much. Just the main staircase and the balcony." Lozen raised an eyebrow again before letting go of Alberta and starting to slowly walk through the corridor.

Her eyes scanned every tiny detail she could find, even the gaudy paintings that were becoming difficult to keep looking at, and hoping to find any trace of the creature. It had lost a hand, so maybe there could have been more chunks of it that came loose in the process. A bone pebble that could have shown her to where the creature had vanished. Nothing, though. Absolutely nothing. Everything was as clean as if it had just been cleaned and that was proving to be more of a hindrance than she would have liked.

"You know, I could match what Sirius has offered if I knew all that you were after was the money. I assumed there may have been some ulterior motivation. I have killed quite a lot of people, after all." Alberta remarked as she leaned up against a wall and Lozen answered "Why would I do that? You've been plotting to escape and kill me ever since we met."

"More so than the psychopath?"

"He's desperate and will do anything to get rid of this creature. Something I will not do until I am far away from here with that reward."

"You trust him to keep his promise?"

"He doesn't have a choice."

"But do you think he would know that?"

"You do."

"And what makes you say that?"

"Because you're trying to convince me otherwise."

Alberta paused for a moment at which point Lozen decided to stop listening to the patron. She was clearly trying to find a way to keep herself alive when this was all over and would say anything to keep herself alive. At least that meant she'd be honest when it came to what she knew about this place. She couldn't afford to be caught lying at this point and that was something Lozen didn't doubt she was aware of.

Though none of that helped her search. Every inch of this place was just as spotless as before. No indents in the carpets or anything that might indicate where the creature had gone. There wasn't anything here but.....wait.

"Finch, is there nothing else in this corridor?" Lozen asked as her eyes glanced over to the painting again. "Not that I should know of."

"Now, the wall on the right would make sense. That just leads to the balcony. But why not the other? There are rooms behind this, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then why are there no doors?"

"Maybe it's because this manor was designed by an insane person."

"But one smart enough to leave the hallways open so they were harder to hide in and keep the one key on his person at all times."

"Maybe that creature could have busted down one of the doors."

"Not without causing a commotion. Besides, Judas isn't that strong and I'm assuming the doors are reinforced."

"Indeed."

"Then he must have disappeared-" She stopped talking as one tiny speck of white caught her eye. It was lying right against the wall and was barely big enough to see, but stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise spotless corridor. Lozen rushed over to the speck the second she saw it and was about to reach down and inspect the spot she saw that tiny fleck of bone, when something on the wall caught her eyes.

The painting hanging in that one spot on the wall seemed different from all the others in this maze of a householdIt wasn't that it was disorderly, far from it. It was that it didn't appear to be hanging from the wall. The frame was fused to it and the painting itself seemed rather off, somehow. She glanced all over the portrait before wandering towards it and placing a hand against the painting, finding that it wasn't paper. "It's wood." She said out loud as she ran a hand over what she was realizing was a massive plank of wood sheared flat. "Pardon?" Alberta asked, sounding genuinely confused as she walked over to the painting. "This painting is fake." Lozen said as she placed her ear against the wood and wrapped her knuckles against it. "And hollow." She noted as she heard the knocks echo back into her ear. "Finch, what's behind this?"

"Believe me, my dear, I have no earthly idea. Although, a secret room wouldn't surprise me in this place."

Lozen ran her hands all over the wall, inspecting every inch of the surface and finding that most of it was the same. Hollow wood. Every inch of it. She slid her fingers all across the face, trying to find something that was detached from the frame and only locating something right on the side of the frame. It felt like a latch or something. No. It was definitely detached, but it felt like it was supposed to sink into the frame inside. She pressed down onto the segment and felt a small click echo through the wood before a large thud followed suit. It sounded like a bolt sliding as far as she could tell and the second she felt it, the entire wall connected to the painting came loose.

It didn't fall in anyway, more so it started hanging on hinges that she realized made it more of a door than a part of the wall. She jumped back at first, expecting something to kick the door back in her face upon her opening it. "Huh. And what might this be?" Alberta muttered as she peaked over Lozen's shoulder. " Can't say I'm really surprised though. Do you think the creature is still in there?" She continued before Lozen started creeping towards the door and slowly pulling it open. Some tiny part of her thought the creature hadn't started shooting at the door the second someone opened it and kept her braced to run with every inch she moved the door.

Thankfully her rational mind was proven right and the creature hadn't been stupid enough to stay in one spot. The door apparently opened out right into what Lozen at first assumed was a room, though a jarringly run down one compared to the rest of the manor. There weren't even walls to be painted over in marble and gold, just the manors skeleton with old, rotting pillars running up and down what looked like a massive flat surface of old bricks. Plaster long since petrified spilled out over the wall and a storm of tiny wood splinters still floated down to a floor cobblers together by more planks. Everything about it seemed rotted and dusty with particles made of god knows what floating through the air. There wasn't a light source and even given the deplorable state of the walls, they did managed to seal away the light from the manor.

"Oh my god. What on earth is this?" Alberta said, her voice reeling back and on the verge of devolving into a vomiting fit at the sight of the interior. Lozen pokes her head into the corridor, cringing for a moment as she smelled fresh plaster hanging in the hair and felt wood slip into her mouth, and taking a look around inside. It appeared to be a passageway of sorts, running right behind the wall and showcasing the unflattering interior of the manor.

"It looks like some sort of tunnel built right into the manor." She said, mainly as confirmation to herself and right before she spotted something lying on the board that served as a floor in the tunnel. A tiny collection of white flesh gathered in a tiny pile that was just barely illuminated by the light leaking in from the doorway. "And one this creature apparently knew about. So," She turned back to Alberta "care to explain?"

Finch took a tiny step back and covered her mouth in disgust before saying "I wish I could, my dear, but I'm just as lost as you. Perhaps it was some sort of..." Lozen couldn't remember if she ever heard Finch pause and it felt stranger for her to suddenly fall quiet in the middle of a sentence. Even when she started talking again, she sounded more like she was guessing "-escape tunnel? I have no idea. This is all...so disturbing. Though I don't see why Cane at least didn't disinfect the infernal thing."

"Was this not on the blueprints or something?"

"Lord no."

"Huh." Lozen murmured to herself. There were dozens of red flags rising from just this one fact and she didn't have time to process all of them. Not only did this corridor look like it would give her every disease known to man, but the fact that it wasn't marked anywhere was suspicious at least to downright horrifying. Well, there wasn't much she could do. She had a feeling telling the guards about this secret tunnel that she, an "Injun" woman, found might cause more problems than it would solve.

She pulled out the weapon she talked off of Sirius and grabbed Alberta before she stepped into the tunnel. Finch struggled, though not well, and exclaimed as they stepped inside the tunnel "What are you doing?! You're not honestly going in here!?" Lozen replied as she pulled the door closed behind them "Would you like to tell Cane that we discovered one of his secrets?"

"But why am I coming along!!? This place looks like where a lunatic would dispose of the bodies!"

Lozen latched a hand down on Alberta's shoulder, spun her around and started pushing her forward in front of her. "There's only one thing that creatures bullets can't pierce through." She answered as she pointed Sirius's revolver right over Finch's shoulder. "Oh. So I'm your human shield?" Alberta asked and Lozen answered "You'll at least give me a moment to react. Now shut up and keep moving or we'll see if you're as good of a shield when dead."

The corridor itself wasn't the sort of place Lozen wanted to stay around for long, even if there couldn't have been an unholy hellspawn running around in it's connecting tunnels. Every step she took was accompanied by the sound of creaking wood and a gust of wood particles that sliced up the insides of her throat. The entire place looked like a hazard for countless reasons and it only took one of them to kill her. Though, as rickety as the floorboards looked, they didn't break or even bend under her footing and there were times when some of them looked relatively new. Like they had been replaced at some point. It also wasn't as dark as she would have expected. She assumed the walls were just filtering the light from outside as opposed to blocking it and letting a few traveling rays come tumbling through the cracks. It wasn't much, but it was enough to where she was going.

The tunnels were also much bigger than she expected. Now, they weren't as massive as the hallways in the rest of the manor, but they were enough for two people to squeeze past each other. Though that still didn't tell her what in God's name these things were made for. And how did the creature know about them if they didn't even appear on the blueprints? Not even Alberta knew they existed. Somehow it knew about these beforehand, so that meant it was either more connected than Finch or it knew about them by some other means.

Well, for now it at least she had some understanding of where the creature had gone. The tunnels seemed to continue on and on for the longest time, winding throughout the walls and dodging around every corner without end. She lost track of where she even was inside the manor and would have kept wandering aimlessly looking for any other sign of the creature if something didn't catch her eye.

One of the wood pillars supporting the roof of this place was defaced enough to cause her to stop next to it. There was something carved in its face, not recently, and the actual words that were scrawled all over them caused her heart to skip a beat. It looked like English at first, but it was heavily altered with additional markings and symbols added to the letters that resembled the colonizers language. Though, it was still a language and one that Lozen didn't expect to see anywhere near a location owned by a white man.

Cherokee. Perfect Cherokee as well. Even having been carved into some old wood, the expertise of the writer was apparent, but that wasn't anywhere close to the first thing that went through Lozen's mind. That would be the barrage of questions that arose from the sight of Cherokee within the manor.

Why was it even here? Did the creature carve it? It dressed in a rather blatant manner, but she could still tell that it was a member of a tribe somewhere. Not one that should have known Cherokee, but there she couldn't think of a single explanation outside that. Even then, why on earth would it carve this? To communicate? With who? Did it have companions? Was that-"Darling, is something the matter?" Alberta's voice cut right through Lozen's thoughts and pulled her back to reality. "Finch, does anyone on this manor have Cherokee heritage?" Lozen asked as she glanced all over the pillar, trying to find any other instance of writing. "I can't think of a reason why. Why do you ask?"

"Because there's Cherokee writing carved into this pillar."

"Really? Cherokee, you say. Do you need it translated? I have dabbled in the less sophisticated dialects of this land."

Lozen ignored her again as she took another look at the writer. It read "West Wing" and was followed by "Guest rooms, ballroom 4" although it was clear some modification had to be made to accommodate for those words. Strange. A marker? Wait, there was something right next to the pillar. Just to the right of the woodwork, was a little handle of sorts made of rusty iron. It looked like a long rectangle of sorts and appeared to be sticking out of another plank of wood that interrupted the brickwork running through the veins of the house. Pieces started falling into place as she saw that and Lozen wrapped a hand around the handle to test the theory that suddenly burst into her mind. She pulled the handle, finding that it slid across the wall to the left and after a tiny pop, caused what had to be another door to unlock.

Lozen pushed it open just enough for her to take a tiny peek out and saw that they were indeed in another section of the hallways. Though which exact one was the crucial piece to her theory. She pulled Alberta over until she too could peer out at the hallway and demanded "What part of the manor is this?" Finch glanced around for a moment before saying "If I had to guess, the West Wing, perhaps. Why?" Lozen pulled her back in and slammed her door shut before taking another second to think. Why would the creature mark down what sections of the house were which? If it had some secret blueprints or something, then it wouldn't need place holders. And why here? That marker showed there had to be guest rooms here. What good would that information pose? Something wasn't right. Clearly someone else was in here, but she was starting to doubt it was just the creature. This carving looked old judging from the breakage, so who else could have been in here and why?

She was missing something. There was a piece to all this she knew she wasn't seeing and it was somewhere inside these tunnels. Along with the Wraith. "Just keep moving." Lozen said as she took one more look around her and then resumed pushing Alberta further and further through what she could only describe as catacombs.

They wove and wove and wove through the walls, Lozen never once relaxing her grip around her weapon and Alberta trying and failing to object to their circumstance with every step. At this point, Lozen didn't care anymore. The patron was just a meat shield and she didn't care less what she thought with that monster in here with them. Better some colonizing, mass murdering sociopath than her.

They must have passed through a major of the second floor tunnels, but only moments after they found that door, they found what was at the end of the tunnel. At first all she saw was a dead end of bricks before her eyes fell on the ground in front of it. There was a hole of sorts with a small set of stairs leading down into a dark tunnel she could barely see down.

"Well, that looks-" Alberta started commenting before Lozen started pushing them down the steps and whispered in her ear "Shut up." Not that it would have helped though. The steps creaked beneath their feet as they descended, but thankfully they were short and they reached another section of tunneling built into the walls. They looked identical to the one above, same brickwork and rotting wood, but this once seemed much larger than the one above. Lozen assumed it was to accommodate for the old stairs as her feet hit the floor and she took a quick look around to see that must have been the case.

It was still just as dark enough for her to still be able to see everything and was maybe big enough for three people to walk through instead of just two. Right behind the steps look like a much smaller corridor barely big enough for a person and right in front of it appeared to be another wooden door like the ones upstairs. Just to the left of that door however, was yet another tunnel that descended below the floor and was filled with a thicker darkness then the one she stood in.

Despite that, it was that door that caught her attention and for a reason she had been close to glossing over. Laying on the ground, right near the base of that door, was a small pile of what she could only make out as debri of sorts. She kept Alberta close as she marched over to the wreckage and reached down for a second to feel the substance. Sturdy, but brittle and familiar to her the instant she felt it. Bone shards.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she slowly crept towards the door, letting go of Alberta and tell her only one thing. "It's close." Lozen wasn't actually certain of that. This place was revealing itself to be full of secrets and for all she knew, the door could just lead to another stretch of tunnels. But Alberta seemed to respect her enough to trust her judgement, so that little lie must have sounded like the gospel right now. She pressed an ear against the door, expecting to maybe hear the sound of creaking wood or shuffling feet, but instead heard the soft, subtle whistling of the wind. Actual wind.

"No." Lozen muttered to herself as her mind jumped to a new, terrifying conclusion. Wind meant outdoors. Outdoors meant picking a fight with the guards. But there hadn't been a commotion. No panic or even gunfire, which only meant one thing. It hadn't been spotted and what else would it do outside, but escape? And without that creature, she didn't even know what Sirius would do when she came back empty handed and she didn't want to find out either.

"No!" She spat as her fingers scrambled to find the latch on this door. Once she had pulled the lock open, she delivered a panicked kick to the wood and came rushing outside before she could even think about what she was doing. Her boots crushed gravel and then grass with the dark and cold of the night smashing in her face before she stopped her mad dash.

Directly in front of the door appeared to be a hatch dug into the ground. It looked like something she would expect to see in front of a cellar and standing in front of it was, much to her surprise, Judas. Well, standing wasn't quite right. More like stumbling in place. His back was to her at the moment and she was so shocked to see him standing there that all she could say was a tiny "Kremly?"

He spun around the second she spoke and let out a shriek as if he had just seen the Devil himself. "What the.....Low shed?! What the hell are you....." He started saying before he must have seen the doorway behind her. "Oh. Let me guess. Secret passageway?"

"Worse." Alberta called as she stepped out of the doorway. "Apparently our old friend found it necessary to fill his entire house with a labyrinth of tunnels built right into the walls. Tunnels he never thought to make mention of their existence."

Judas seemed to perk up at that and said "Dammit! Why couldn't I have been the one to find the secret-slash-possibly demented catacombs slithering under the symbols of ornate and formal society?! That's mysterious traveler shit 101!! Wait, what am I saying? Lozen, can I ask you something real quick?"

Lozen marched up to him as she said "What are you doing here?"

"Forgive me, bitch. I was only doing exactly what you told me. Perhaps I should have been doing the opposite. Would that satisfy you?"

Lozen fell quiet for a second as she realized how stupid that question really was and then shook the shock form her mind before saying "Sorry. What was it you were going to ask?"

"Right. Nothing much. Just, what tribe are you?"

Again Lozen had to pause in order to let the shot of that question wear off before saying "Pardon?"

"What tribe are you from? I really need to know."

"Why do you need to know?"

"Just answer the question, woman! What are you? Cherokee!!? Iroquois!? Sartavach?!"

Lozen took another moment to process that before answering "First off, it's which, not what. Which tribe am I from. They're cultures. Not species. Two, I have traded with Cherokee and Iroquois people before, but I'm not from them. Also, I'm fairly certain 'Sartavach' isn't a word."

"But which one are you from?!"

"Well, my village broke off from the Chiricahua a few decades before I was born."

She saw his head titling even under the cloak. A sigh escaped her lips before she said "Apache. I'm Apache."

"Oh! The war axe guys!"

"Yes." She grimaced. "The war axe guys. And it's called a tomahawk. But aside from that, why do you want to know?"

Judas grappled her by the wrist as she said that and started dragging her over towards the cellar doors he had been standing in front of as he said "Oh, nothing. It's just...." His voice trailed off as he knelt down and pulled the doors up. Lozen noticed the lock had been shot out with glowing bullets holes punched into its face, but she didn't ask. The door swung open with loud screeches as iron hinges ground against themselves and landed on the ground beside them with a loud thud. "That." Judas stammered out before taking a step back and leaving Lozen with the door.

She kept her weapon draw as she peeked over the edge of the opening. The doors lead down to another set of stairs, these ones so steep that the opening they lead down let her look right down at the bottom, but she heard them before ever looking down. Odd languages, some clearly infected by English accents and words, and at first Lozen dismissed them as just gibberish. But then she saw the source of those voices.

They came from all over the continent, Cherokee, Miwok, Lakota, even Paiute, dozens of different dialects all floating up into the air and merging into a vortex of mutters. She only heard bits and pieces even from the ones she could understand, but what gazed up at her was more than enough to fill in the gaps. Peering out from a doorway in front of the stairs, their emaciated faces smeared with dirt and pulled flat over their bones until, were natives. Dozens upon dozens of native and they all stood, huddled at the beginning of what she could very easily see, was an ocean of heads entombed under a sea of glistening green.