“Unfortunately yes, though I know I’m still pretty as a picture for my age. As for the battle, I remember it quite well. It was pretty much the only thing Vremia talked about for over five decades.”
“That makes you old enough to be my great, great, great, great-” Ric continued his list while Daniel argued alongside him.
“Well, we didn’t come all this way to just stare at it.” Ethan hesitated before standing. Was he – nervous?
I wiped the sweat from my neck and followed after him, managing to reach the door just before my skirts snagged on the ground, causing me to stumble. Ethan doubled back and caught me before I fell. Thanking him, I tugged at my blasted skirts and they ripped free. Then I went very, very still.
My words faded and I stared at a skeletal hand that had broken free from the grass, still grasping the rusted spear that caught me. My heart thumped. It was easy to ignore a tragedy from centuries ago when it’s buried under the ground. It took a while to realise I’d grabbed onto Ethan’s shirt. I released him and apologised for the sweaty handprint I’d left behind, moving swiftly onward.
The stagnant air that breathed through the house tickled our faces as we made our way carefully around the rotted entranceway. The smell of decomposition and an almost sickening dampness engulfed our senses, and I couldn’t help but pity the others whose senses were much keener than mine.
“Mind where you step,” Daniel warned. “There’s a lot of rot.”
I felt Ethan’s hand hovering behind my back as we walked across the aged wooden floor, and scowled. His certainty of my clumsiness was insulting, as if I’d be so foolish to—
CRASH.
Whilst distracted I’d thumped my boot straight through the slippery boards, disappearing up to my hip. My left leg stuck out of the hole and stopped me from falling further but it wasn’t the most elegant display. Ethan tried to stifle his laughter as he lifted me out, but failed.
“It was your fault I fell through the floor in the first place, you and your overbearing presence. If you felt like you needed to have your hand at my back so desperately you could have grabbed me before I fell through.” Our footsteps reverberated around the grand entrance hall as we caught up to the others.
“I didn’t realise I affected you in such a way,” he said. I had my back to him but could feel the smirk plastered on his lips.
I was about to respond when I dropped my train of thought, eying the courtyard in front of us. Skeletons paved the cobbled ground: some of them whole, most of them in pieces; some of them fully bare, but a lot of them with remnants of old skin stretched and desiccated across their remains; half of whom bore Adrian’s symbol on their shredded uniforms and plenty who didn’t. The jagged teeth and black nails of the non-crested soldiers made it quite clear what they were and who they fought for. Goose-bumps formed on my skin and I held my tongue as Ethan’s hand grazed my back again. He wasn’t fazed though; he was probably used to it.
I'd seen mass graves before, in Wetherdon when the plague reached us from the North. I had only been a child but I could still remember the stench of them lining the edges of Old Town. The screams of infected people buried under the bodies of the dead still echoed in my mind. Thankfully Father and I could bury Mother with grace on our own land, but that was before the panic set in and before houses started to burn.
Despite how terrible the sight and smell had been, at least they’d been laid to rest beneath the ground. This army of dead had rotted where they had fallen, their bones picked at by scavengers, and nobody cared for their souls. Then again, with the amount of bodies we’d come across so far who would’ve been left to care for them? If what Ethan said had been true – that there had been no survivors that night – then how could the dead find their way to Sembeia?
When I couldn’t bear the sight of it anymore I tore my eyes away and hurried along the lengthy hallway. The locket weighed heavily and my head was thick and clouded. The ceilings were high and gained so many holes over the years that you could almost see the floor above. The darkness of the upper floor was unnerving, like there were creatures standing just out of sight watching us. Something moved to the side of me and I stopped, eyeing the break in the wall cautiously and waited asA pair of nesting birds shot out of the gap, screeching a warning to each other, and I screamed, cursing and saying things a lady should never say. Thankfully I was no lady.
“Gehn,” Ric said, pressing a hand into his ear. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear such things come from your mouth.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Ethan smirked, “though I didn’t expect the beast to be unleashed by wood pigeons.”
“I swear to the Daeus, if another pair of birds does that to me I’ll be catching them for dinner.” I moved along grumpily, shielding my eyes against the dust that showered me from the ceiling. I coughed, and brushed it from my face. “Daniel-” I sneezed. “What made you want to come along? You told me where you came from but not what your purpose is or why you want to fight.”
“Why did you want to come along?” he dodged. “After all, we didn’t exist to you until a couple of months ago.” His tone was sharper than I’d expected it to be.
“Alright,” I said. “There’s no need to get so defensive about it. I came to gratify my curiosity and give myself a break from the house.”
“Those are poor reasons,” he snapped.
“So far they’re better than yours,” I snapped back. Whatever rubbed me up the wrong way about Daniel, I couldn't fathom it. There were open ends in his story that didn’t meet and his face – though I didn’t like to watch or be watched by those eyes for too long – there was something familiar about it.
“At least tell me about your eyes,” I prodded.
Daniel bit back his impatience. “I borrowed them and never gave them back,” he joked.
Another crash came from behind us as Ric had succumbed to the rotten floor. Both legs had shot through and he gripped the remaining boards with sharp nails. Ethan clapped his hand over Ric’s arm and pulled him up. “I think it’s safe to say there’s an underground level,” Ric said breathlessly. Looking back at the dark hole he shuddered. “I can’t say I’m too thrilled about us going down there though. Places like that are bloody spirit traps.”
“Just keep your eyes peeled for anything interesting.” Ethan patted him on the back and continued along the corridor.
Daniel ran his hands along the wall closest to us, causing various forms of stone, old blood and fungi to drop from it. Spores whispered in the trailing sunlight. He wrapped his fingers around a rusted door handle and pushed it. Nothing happened; only the creak and moan of the sturdy wood under his hands. Though it had made the exposed doors rot, the dampness of the air made the inner doors swell in their frames.
“I’m sure the lord and lady of the house will forgive me,” Daniel said, before booting the door with such force it tore off its hinges.
“Daniel!” I yelled.