Amicia straightened, her bones aching as though she had aged years in just a few moments. The fear had drained from her body, leaving behind nothing but an empty husk who didn’t know what to do.
Her father.
Remy.
Little Marsh.
What did she have left now? Just herself, the breath in her lungs, and the knowledge her father would never have wanted her to give up.
Keep on living, he had once told her. When the darkness closes in on you, that is the only way you can defeat it. Continue to live in defiance of all the shadows want to take from you. Keep the light inside your chest burning.
And so, that was all she had. All she could continue doing.
Amicia blew out a breath. The space wasn’t large, but there was enough room to breathe without feeling like the stone was closing in on her. Beams crossed above her head, disappearing into the shadows and weighed down with so many cobwebs she could hardly imagine how many spiders called this place their home.
Dim, silver light filtered through small holes in the walls where the servants might have watched the nobles in the days when this chateau had been more splendorous than haunting. A few square stones were missing from their places, so she’d have to duck under them or the Dread might see her.
She brushed the cobwebs from her shoulders and moved forward. Gingerly. Each step she chose with careful precision, as she’d already made enough mistakes for the night.
Amicia reached up and brushed aside a thick blanket of web, only to find herself at a crossroads. There were three different tunnels, each leading in opposite directions.
She couldn’t make her way out of the chateau now. They would search for her outside as well as within. Which meant she needed to find some kind of safe nest and give herself a few moments of peace. .
She didn’t know what kind of safe place she could make with the spiders crawling through their homes, long legs scratching along the ceiling and floor. A few other skitters suggested there were rats. Amicia swallowed hard. Rats were among the few creatures she feared. The tiny beasts always found themselves in the storerooms at her father’s home. She’d always refused to kill them, no matter what project her father was working on.
It doesn’t matter, she told herself. Pick a tunnel and continue on, Amicia.
Turning right, she made her way down a hallway, identical to the one she had just left. This place was a labyrinth, and she could find herself lost if she wasn’t careful.
She caught her foot on a loose stone and nearly tumbled forward. Biting her lip against the sudden, jarring pain, she leaned against the wall. Amicia reached down to rub her toes, only to realize her hand braced against the stones was touching not just a textured rock but a pattern.
Stooping low, she stared at the small marker. It was a bunch of grapes. Crudely done, yes, but it was grapes with a small arrow pointing to the left, back down the hall from which she’d came.
Clever. The grapes must be a direction for the kitchens. Which meant she could look for another clue to see where she was going.
Wind whistled down the tunnels, ending in a low moan. The hairs on her arms rose. She could see through the faint moonlight the spiderwebs hadn’t been disturbed in years. But that didn’t mean she still wasn’t afraid of the spirits that walked these halls.
Amicia straightened and continued down the tunnel to distract herself. She didn’t know where she was going, or why she had chosen this route, but she could find out where it went. The small nugget of information would satisfy the curiosity that still sat in her chest.
Even now, she could feel the dim light of her soul glow brighter with direction and purpose.
Father’s curiosity, she thought as she walked through the walls. Mother’s bravery. Auntie’s dreams of the future. Uncle’s kindness. She listed all the things that made her the person she was, the things she could never forget. All the traits she had taken from her family, and thus had turned her into the woman she was.
All the things that made her stronger. Not just the lost woman in the walls.
The next four way meeting of tunnels held three new symbols. A book, a diamond ring, and a crescent moon.
Amicia pondered for a time. The book must be a marker for a library, which she would greatly enjoy seeing if the circumstances were different. But she knew if she went, she would give up. It was better to die doing something she loved, such as reading a book, than hiding in the walls like a mouse. She simply wasn’t ready to die yet.
The diamond ring stumped her, although she supposed it could be a symbol for one of the nobles who had lived here. She didn’t want to find a room to sleep in, for that could only end the same way as the library. They would sniff her out.
Which meant the only other option was the moon. The strangest symbol of them all.
Breathing out a low breath, she picked webs out of her hair as she traveled straight forward and followed the markers of the moon. Strangely, she came to a set of stairs.
The spiral staircase had seen better days. There were small grooves in each step where thousands of footsteps had worn the stone into a different shape. Somehow, that was the most reassuring thing she’d seen in this place yet.
This chateau was not cursed. It had once been a place for the living, a home where people had walked through these walls to serve those they worked for. This was a place she could live if the Dread hadn’t destroyed the world.
Amicia reached out a hand and pressed it against the wall where it had been smoothed by thousands of hands steadying themselves. Her fingers caught on the smallest of carvings, unlike the others. E + S. A love letter, perhaps? Smiling, she made her way up the dark staircase.
The light faded behind her until she couldn’t even see her hand where it rested. But she continued, picking her way in the blackness and focusing on her breathing.
Finally, she turned a corner, and light assaulted her eyes. She blinked against the haze of brightness, lifting a hand to shield herself from the gleaming moonlight.
She looked down at her dust and web-covered skirts, only to see a rainbow of colors cast upon the worn fabric.
“What?” she whispered, stepping into the most beautiful room she had ever seen in her life.
White marble pillars stood at attention, one after the other against the wall where they had been carved into tree trunks. Where leaves might have been, stained glass stretched toward the ceiling. Intricately placed glass shards made it look like a hundred colors decorated each individual tree.
It was a forest of glass and stone. Man made, and yet so beautiful that it rivaled nature itself.
Jaw agape, she stepped into the room and pressed her hands against her mouth. But her body wanted to gasp. Somehow, not acknowledging the artistic achievement of the room felt sacrilegious.
The room was empty. No furniture. No paintings. Nothing more than glass, stone, and the moonlight filtering through the false leaves. And yet, this room was the first she had seen that did not appear to have fallen into disrepair.
Exhaustion nearly swallowed her whole. She was so tired, her limbs aching. Perhaps, for a few moments, she could rest her head here.
Amicia made her way to the farthest corner, close to where the servants’ stairs began, and curled up into a ball on the cold marble floor. Tomorrow, she would investigate this place further. Tomorrow she would find out why these creatures were in this chateau, and perhaps if they had more of her people hidden away.
Tomorrow. But no sooner.