Kate gritted her teeth at the sound of Jorad walking up the steps above her head. The echo of his command and the chorus of responses from the company of soldiers were almost more than she could stand, and she found her grip tightening on the grey man’s shoulders.

  Across the hall, the bald man retreated through the entrance and the gate closed. Kate's grey companion slipped out from under the stairs and lowered Kate from his back. Pulling out a ball that gave off a soft glow he gestured up the stairs. "They are gone now. There is no need to be afraid."

  Kate nodded briskly, but it wasn't fear tying her in knots; it was anger. Jorad was playing games and making deals with her master medallion. From the way he talked, he could care less if she died when they took it from her.

  The grey man lifted his light and nodded toward a pile of boulders that appeared to block the far end of the tunnel. "Follow me to the top, then I will help you through the ceiling but please be careful, the stones are loose." As he picked his quietly over the rubble, Kate followed close behind, watching where he put his feet.

  At the top, Kate ducked around a thin slab of painted stone that had fallen from the ceiling overhead. Her grey companion stood waiting behind it, holding a curious blue rope that dangled from a dark opening overhead. Kate grabbed it and climbed to the top, pulling herself over the lip and onto a ledge. Ahead of her, a low tunnel ran just above the ceiling. The rope moved in her hand, and she looked down. The man was ascending toward her, but he wasn't climbing; instead, the rope was getting shorter until it lifted him up through the hole. Landing on the ledge beside her, he coiled up his strange rope and clipped it to his side.

  "I was going to carry you up. I didn't expect you to climb away from me so fast. Your mother never mentioned that you possessed such strength and dexterity."

  Kate's cheeks colored at his compliment. It was somewhat odd that she wasn't winded from climbing up the rocks and pulling herself up the rope. Perhaps the glow of the medallion was giving her more strength and energy? She shrugged it off and waited for further instructions.

  "Perhaps when we have time, I can teach you some of our ways, like I did for your sister. With the right training, I believe you would be a match, even for the Rakash." He bowed. "In case you are not aware, my name is Garek, and I am the leader of your mother's bodyguards, the Grey Men." He touched the camouflage paint on his face. "At least that's the name the people of the Cor know us by."

  A loose pebble fell off the ledge the were on and clattered down the slope below them. Garek lowered his voice, "We need to keep moving." Edging past Kate, he crouched low, his light swallowed up by his broad shadow and the dark void ahead.

  Kate followed along but was soon stumbling in the dark on the small rocks strewn across the floor. Reaching inside her back pocket, she pulled out the medallion. As its glow lit up the tunnel before her, Garek stopped and waited for her to catch up.

  He stared at the medallion, then at her face. "Your mother sent that medallion with the boy called Corvan, but he jumped off the lower bridge to save us from the horde. How did he get it to you in the rebel base?"

  There was a hint of accusation in the man's voice. Surely he didn't think Corvan was helping the rebels.

  "Forgive me." He gave a small bow. "This is none of my affair. You can discuss what has happened to Corvan with your mother when we meet up with her." Leaving her to follow he turned down a steep hallway descended through many twists and turns, then doubled back on itself.

  Where was this woman she was to meet? Garek seemed nice enough but so had Jorad at first. Both of the men were very interested in the medallion and neither thought much of Corvan.

  Garek paused and turned around. "It is not much farther now. Are you all right?". His eyes were focused on the glow of the medallion.

  "I'm fine."

  He looked up at her face and smiled. "Your mother was not sure if you would agree to meet with her or not. It has been such a long time since you have spoken."

  He moved off and Kate followed. No wonder Tyreth hadn't talked about her mother. Something must have gone wrong between them. Kate knew that situation all too well and also avoided thinking or talking about it.

  The tunnel widened. Kate caught up to Garek, then shone the light of the medallion ahead.

  "Thank you Tyreth. My globe is almost gone, and your medallion is much better to light the path.” He put his globe away in his tunic. “I have been this way many times in the dark and memorized the turns, but it is friendlier in the light. I would imagine that with you being raised at the temple, you have not spent much time below the city?"

  "This is my first time here." It wasn't a lie but there was a pang of guilt for deceiving him into thinking she was Tyreth. Why would he think Tyreth lived at the temple? Wasn't Jorad the one that lived at the temple and Tyreth at the palace?

  The echo of their footsteps fell away as the tunnel opened up into a large room. A foul stench hung in the still air, reminding Kate of the time she discovered the partially decomposed carcass of a mouse in the dirt basement under their house.

  Garek stopped and put his glowing orb away. "It would be best to also put your light away and let me guide you through this place in the dark. I think it will be better not to attract any unwanted attention and it’s not a pleasant sight, who knows what they found to eat before they left."

  Kate reluctantly slipped the medallion around her neck and under her tunic. She held out her hand and allowed Garek to lead her across the room. When her foot slipped in a squishy spot on the floor, the stink grew even stronger.

  "This used to be one of the main lairs of the Broken,” Garek whispered. “It was not possible to journey this way until they all followed Corvan into the water and over the falls." His grip tightened just a bit. "It’s the fastest way to get to where we are going but I'm not completely sure they are all gone."

  Kate found herself holding his hand tighter. Whoever the Broken were, they must be terrible people if they were capable of making this strong man afraid. And why had they followed Corvan into the river?

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  A breeze wafted past as they entered a smaller space, and the echoes of their footsteps drew closer. The air was stale but better than the cavern they were just in. After turning a few corners, they climbed a sharp incline and the man stopped. He let go of her hand and spoke quietly. "Although you climb well, this is a difficult vertical channel that leads to a ledge overhead. It may be best if you hold on around my shoulders and let me use my rope to carry you up." He put an arm around Kate's waist and she held on around his neck. There was a sensation of quick movement upward, then he released her. "The ledge is narrow so please stay close to the wall. I will use my krypin to climb higher and ensure the city street above us is secure. Then I will return and pull you up." Something soft was pressed into her hand. "Your mother sent this this loaf of bread along; in case you were hungry. I will come back as soon as I can."

  She felt him lift away from her. A square of light appeared above, and she watched him climb through and close a trapdoor behind himself.

  In the darkness Kate felt around to the lip of the rock shelf and tried to look below. What if those broken ones he was so afraid of were still here and could climb the walls? Tucking the loaf of bread under her arm she pulled out her medallion and focused the beam of light downward. The ledge she was on appeared to be well out of reach of anyone below.

  Something moved near the edges of the darkness below. Kate held her breath and listened. Everything was deathly quiet, then something scraped on the rocks. Kate waited and it came again, a rasp of sound, like a sack of potatoes being pulled across the floor. Holding out the light, she shone it across the floor. "Who's there?"

  There was movement just outside the shaft of light, then two scrawny arms appeared, pulling a woman's torso into view. Her gaunt face lifted up from the floor, wisps of long white hair trailing from her scalp. The arms pulled again and her twisted legs came into the light. The woman dragged herself incrementally toward Kate's perch with eyes that shone like a cat in the night.

  Close behind, another ragged body hopped into view. A second woman, this one with a narrow face and high cheekbones, but with one good leg.

  More women began scrabbling into the pool of the medallions light, each of them maimed in some way. They crowded in below her perch and stared up at her like silent ghosts. They were so still that only the sound of their shallow breathing gave any indication they were even alive. Every one of them appeared to be starving.

  Kate took the loaf of bread, held it over the edge and dropped it into the waiting hands of the woman balancing on one leg. Without breaking eye contact with Kate, the thin woman began tearing off small pieces of then bread and handing them out to those around her. Kate noticed she did not keep any for herself. All the women nibbled at the bread, chewing slowly, their eyes never leaving Kate.

  Kate spread her hands out in an empty gesture. "I’m so sorry, that's all there is." The eyes followed her outstretched hand.

  "It's your light that attracts them." A man's voice spoke from the darker recesses below. "You will need to put it out before they will leave."

  Kate tried to locate the source of the voice, but the man was standing just outside the medallion's glow. She tucked the disk under her tunic and after a long silence, the women below began scraping their way back into the tunnels. It was no wonder that Garek had called these women the broken. But then why was he so afraid of them?

  The man’s voice came again, this time from immediately below her perch where she could not see him. "Now you and I can have a little chat while we wait for your grey guardian to return."

  The creaky voice sounded like one of the old men who played checkers at the Barron's store on weekends. "Who are you?" Kate asked.

  "Ah, that is the wrong question. What I need to know is, who are you?"

  "I am..." Kate hesitated; she did not know who he was but she was tired of pretending she was Tyreth. "My name is Kate."

  "Ah, yes. Compassion and honesty. A good combination and why the medallion glows so strongly for you. I have never seen it quite so bright."

  "You've seen this medallion before?"

  "Not that particular one, but I have carried the light in my lifetime, before that old liar stole it from me. Tried to kill me as well as the others, but I managed to escape with my own medallion. That sure put a kink in his great plans." A soft chuckle filled the air and then was cut off by a hacking cough.

  "Are you all right?" Kate asked.

  "No, I'm not all right," the voice snapped back. "Would you be all right if you had to hide out in these stinking caverns with a bunch of lumien-crazed men? But it's the only place he would never think of looking for me."

  "Who?"

  "Who?" The voice rose in irritation. "The grand fraud, the great liar himself. Deceived the entire council with his white robes and long tassels. We all believed him because we thought the chamber was true. But we were wrong, so very wrong."

  A shiver went through Kate's body as she recalled seeing a robe like that on a man she met in the chamber on her last visit to the Cor. At first, that man was kind to her but later he had terrified her. She was searching her memories when the voice from below snapped at her.

  "Have you seen him lately? Does he still have it?"

  "Have it?"

  "My medallion. Does that young boy still have my medallion? I gave it to him to keep it safe in case that old liar came looking for me."

  "I don't know who you are talking about," Kate said. Surely the man couldn’t be referring to Corvan.

  "He’s a nice boy but he cannot talk. He used to bring me food and clothes but now he's gone."

  "I'm sorry." Kate said. "I don't have any more bread to . . ."

  "And I hear the hammer is back in Kadir. That doesn’t bode well. No doubt that old deceiver will attack Kadir with all the power at his disposal and will not leave one stone unturned until he finds the hammer. He needs it to take over the Cor. Tell me, keeper of the light, does he still show his wretched face in the chamber?"

  "I'm not sure who you're talking about," Kate said.

  "You can't miss him. Always dressed in white, the cleanest of them all - but he cheats the chamber. He was not there in his dreams like the rest of us. He discovered the true location of the chamber and cut his way to his door. That is how he took the hammer away in the first place. Now you can't see him for what he actually is - a deceiver and a murderer."

  "I once met someone wearing a white robe in the chamber. He wore white gloves but his eyes were bluish and frightening."

  "That would be him. That's what comes from consuming lumiens to keep himself alive all these years. No man should live that long, especially one so evil."

  A long silence fell into the space with only the dripping of water from above. Kate was about to pull out the medallion to see if he was still there when he spoke up. "Is the scepter still on the council table in the chamber?"

  "There isn't a table, only the seven doors, including the broken one."

  "Yes,” he snapped back, “there is a table. Both it and the stools rise from the floor when the council is called. The scepter and the hammer were always kept inside the table but somehow, they were stolen. I don't know how it was done or even who did it but at least it stopped that liar from taking over all the other cities. You better protect the master medallion with your life! If he ever gets the hammer, scepter and your glowing medallion in his possession at the same time, there will be no stopping him. His greed will devour the entire Cor."

  Muffled steps came from overhead and the voice below Kate fell to a low whisper. "Your grey man is coming back. Do not mention that you talked with me and do not trust all that he or that Toreg woman tells you. She was there at the beginning of the Great Destruction and no one knows for sure what role she played. I'm not so sure that she and her Grey Men can be trusted. You must be very careful and don’t ever show them your medallion."

  The trapdoor over Kate's head opened and the end of Garek’s rope hit her shoulder. “Kate,” he whispered hoarsely. "We must leave right away. All the soldiers from the palace are moving toward the City of the Dead."