“When?” Silence. “When?” Was there a plot to kill the emperor? Her heart was in her throat now. Surely no one would—
No one knows about this place…our secret…The voice was fainter, vanishing. Eira could almost feel the ghost of the woman with the icy tones passing through her and heading…no, that couldn’t be right…heading to the back corner of the room?
Eira scattered the cobwebs and dragged her fingers through years of dust along a groove she had never noticed in the back corner. It was half-hidden by a shelf and a barrel. There, concealed by the shadow of an alcove, was a small handle. She gripped it and tugged. Then pushed.
Just when Eira was about to give up, unseen hinges groaned. She pushed harder. The door released at once, swinging open.
Eira went head-over heels and toppled into a secret chamber.
2
Coughing dust, Eira pushed her hair from her eyes and tried to get her bearings. The storeroom door latch disengaging drew her attention to the room she’d come from. Jumping to her feet, Eira grabbed the hidden door and snapped it shut before anyone else could see her…or her discovery.
She leaned against the door, holding her breath and listening. Supplies clanked in the other room as the person rummaged around the Waterrunner supplies. Eira prayed to the Mother above that they didn’t notice the door as she had—that she hadn’t left behind some clue as to its existence. The rummaging stopped and Eira bit her lower lip, bracing herself to hold the door closed if the person tried to open it. There was the rumbling of the storeroom door slamming shut and then…silence.
Eira exhaled slowly and wiped the hair from her face. It fell out of the loose knot she’d tied half of it into. The wispy strands hung limply between her fingers as she tried to tame them back into place.
Speaking of out of place…where was she?
Straightening, Eira took in the room for the first time. It reminded her of a Tower apprentice’s dormitory, simple and relatively unadorned. A bed, a desk, a bookshelf with some crumbling journals stacked on it. The remnants of a pennon clung to the stone wall. The majority of the fibers had long since given up and were now a heap of cotton on the floor.
“Who lived here?” Eira dared to ask—dared the room to answer.
…I will…the best they’ve ever known… the siren voice that had guided her in here answered.
Eira looked to the bookshelf. The voice had come from one of the books on the top shelf. Delicately, she hooked one with her index finger and pulled it down. By some miracle, it didn’t crumble in her hands.
Placing it on the desk, Eira slowly opened what turned out to be a journal. There was no name on the book; whoever had been its author had taken care not to give any indication of who they were. Eira could see why within the first five pages.
“Vicious,” she whispered, mostly in horror as she lingered on one particularly drawn-out instruction. But part of her, a dark, cold, and wretched place that she had chosen to ignore for the past two years, was impressed.
Laid out neatly on the page, void of judgment or emotion, was the start of what appeared to be clear instructions on how to completely freeze a person solid. Some Waterrunner had gone to great lengths, or very illegal experimentations—likely both, given the detail—to show how it could be done so that the person was frozen in stasis. They would be neither alive nor dead, completely trapped.
“Unless they’re a Firebearer, of course,” Eira mused, and then promptly shook her head. She shut the book and put her back to it. The deep currents within her stirred at the writings. Currents she needed to keep still.
As Eira worked to void her mind, she noticed the bookcase was slightly ajar. Pressing her face into the sliver of darkness, Eira confirmed her suspicion—fresh air and damp earth lay beyond. Eira pulled, revealing an opening. No, it was more of a crack in the wall that led into a rough-hewn passage. Eira couldn’t tell how far it went from here. But judging from the icy air, it progressed deep within the mountain the city and palace were built on, around, and in.
There were many hidden passages in the palace. Eira herself knew of a good few being a part of the Tower of Sorcerers. Most of the entrances and exits to the Tower were hidden in plain sight from the Commons who worked and lived in the palace.
But this didn’t look like any of the usual passages. The walls looked like they were naturally formed. And there were no flame-bulbs illuminating their depths. As such, she could only see a short distance before the unknown was consumed by the void.
“Just who were you?” Eira asked again. But this time, silence was her only reply.
She returned to the journal, curiosity daring her to open it once more. Her mind objected. But her hand disobeyed. She flipped back open to the page on freezing people solid and began reading.
The day dragged on and the pages slowly turned a deep orange with the fading light. Eira blinked, rubbed her eyes, and looked out the window. The sun already hung low in the sky. She was so accustomed to the flame bulbs that lit the majority of the Tower, constantly lending their glow, that the darkening of this forgotten chamber was an oddity.
She muttered a curse under her breath. Time never moved faster than when she was engrossed. Pressing her ear to the door that connected this secret room with the Waterrunner storeroom, Eira listened closely. She heard muffled voices and footsteps. There was a brief thundering of what sounded like a group running by.
Running to dinner, likely. Classes for younger apprentices and those not sent out to the city for the day, like her, would be ending for the afternoon. She needed to slip out now or risk someone catching her in the workroom while she exited.
Gathering her courage, Eira said a prayer and opened the door. She squeezed around the large barrel and pulled the door shut behind her. Scanning the room, Eira looked for something else she could use to obscure the opening. Something that people wouldn’t notice was out of place. Something like…a large bag of wooden tokens.
Grunting, Eira hefted the bag, placing it on the barrel. It obscured the small opening where the handle was hidden. But would it be enough? Now that Eira knew a door was there, it was all she saw. How had she never noticed it before? Surely, someone would now—
The door to the storeroom swung open. “Eira?” Marcus blinked at her. “Did you just get back, too?”
“Oh, yes,” she lied to her brother. Something Eira didn’t usually make a habit of because it was dangerously easy. He believed every word that came out of her mouth. “I finished earlier, of course, but I took a walk around the city.” As Eira spoke, she placed her bowl and leftover tokens on the shelves.
“You do like taking walks on frosty days.” He chuckled and began putting away his leftover supplies as well. Of course, he had much less than her. Eira watched him from the corner of her eye. “What is it?”
“Do you…notice anything different?” Eira dared to ask. She had to know if the door was as obvious to someone else as it was to her.
“Different?” Marcus faced her, hands on his hips. “Oh, you took your hair down. I like it.”
“That’s…that’s right. Yes.” Eira raked her fingers through her hair, making sure none of the dust or cobwebs from the room she’d spent half the day in were caked on her scalp.