Chapter 43: A Desperate Plea

Three Days Later

Vix nestled back further into her little alcove, set into the bronze-plated walls of the old, sunken tower where she had taken refuge. Huge, arching windows, packed tight with earth, served to remind Vix that she was hundreds of feet below the ground. A winding spiral staircase swept downward, into patchy darkness, illuminated by intervals of torches. The lights grew smaller and smaller the further one looked, until they were so buried in the roots of the sunken tower that they could not be seen at all.

It was quickly becoming her favorite spot in the Nostrom Catacombs, where the Hidden Court made their home. For one, she was not likely to be disturbed, here. And the gleaming, bronze walls and total silence were a vast improvement over the creeping dark, the damp smell, and the ceaseless whirring of bats’ wings that awaited her outside.