Foolishly, I sit up too quickly, forgetting that my head isn’t the only tender part of me. My ribs scream their disagreement. I’m all but certain that my moving has splintered them further, and that any second now, one will puncture some vital organ inside me.
Exhaling through my teeth, I lower myself back onto the cot.
“You should rest,” a woman says from somewhere in the room. “You almost broke your ribs today.”
I lift my hands from my abdomen to take a look, as if I could see them beneath my skin, let alone from this supine angle. All I see is the hump of black leather covering my breasts.
Judging from my failed attempt to move, it seems the obvious thing to do would be to lie here and allow my body to heal. I hate being this incapacitated though, especially while in the company of a stranger.
Ignoring the pain welling in my rib cage, I lift my head up enough to see who she is.
Eparah’s warm smile watches over me from the foot of the bed.
Relieved for her company, I muster the energy to smile through my wincing. “Only almost broken?”
Her smile falters, saddening as if she was watching my earlier match unfold before her eyes all over again. But that warm demeanor of hers never seems to be too far out of reach, and she musters it again. “You’re very lucky your friend stepped in when he did. You could’ve fared far worse.”
“Dimitri…” I breathe the word, remembering him and what he’d done for me. It had gone against every rule of command that I knew of, but he’d stood up for me.
And he’d been punished for it.
I push myself upright, agony ripping from my belly to my chest, cleaving me in two as I sit at the edge of the cot. “Where is he?”
“He’s all right,” she reassures me, coming to my side to gently push my shoulders back. “His punishment could’ve been worse, as well, but the general only gave him your duties at the catacombs for the night.”
I resist her shoving. “The catacombs?”
My brow furrows. I feel like I’ve searched this place high and low but apparently not low enough because in all my exploration last night I never came upon such a deathly place. I didn’t even know people still had need for burial grounds such as catacombs. I thought it was forbidden to do anything with bodies but to burn them.
Eparah brings a wet washcloth to my forehead. “You should lie back down. When you didn’t wake, the general had no choice but to pardon you from training for the day, but now that you have roused, he likely won’t be so generous tomorrow. You won’t be given another opportunity to rest, so I suggest you take it.”
Her words seem to dissipate like smoke in the air before they can reach me. I’m too fixated on what little I remember about my spar with Güthric. The only thing I can recall with any real clarity is the first moment his fist crashed into the side of my face. Everything else is just cracking sound and searing pain and blurring motion.
I owe Dimitri my thanks, as well as an apology.
I scan the dimly lit room for the door. “Where are the catacombs?” I wince again as I try standing on my wobbly legs.
Eparah gasps, hands steadying me before I can topple over. “You’re hardly in any state to—”
With one hand clutching my side, I wave her fussing off with the other. “Fine. If you don’t want to tell me where the catacombs are, so be it. I’ll find my way to them on my own.”
Hurt wilts her expression. It carves into her face like a knife and her steady grip loosens. She doesn’t let go though, not completely. Instead, she twists her head toward the door like she’s afraid someone will be listening. It’s the same thing she did when we met in the Blighted hallway, as if she knows that these walls have ears. It’s something I’ll need to keep in mind.
When she finds the doorway empty, Eparah returns her attention to me.
“It’s not far from here, but you’ll have to go outside. The catacombs are in a separate building. Exit left out this room, take the stairway at the end of the hall—the one all the way at the end, not the first one. The first one leads to Alphonse’s quarters and I’m guessing you wouldn’t like to run into him.”
“Stairway at the end of the hall. Got it.”
“It should lead you back to the main floor and to a door that will take you outside to the back of the castle. Be careful though. The Shadowthorn draws nearer every day. Demons do slip through the border from time to time.”
I’m about to ask why she doesn’t come with me if she’s so concerned about my protection, but then I remember her skittish glances, and know that I’d be asking too much.
Instead, I start to move for the door, but she clutches my arms tighter.
“It’s not forbidden or anything for you to go there. The initiates are often sent to assist with burning the exsanguinated bodies and aiding in the bloodletting but…”
That word sounds familiar. It reminds me of something I think I heard before I blacked out, but I’m not sure what it means. I mean, I know what bloodletting is, but I have no idea why new recruits would be asked to help with it—or rather why Dimitri was asked not to—and who they’d be letting the blood from, and why this takes place in the catacombs of all places.
But before I can ask her to explain, Eparah rubs my shoulders, a rueful smile playing at her lips. “I fear you’ve attracted too much negative attention from General Alphonse already. He will not like to hear that you have gone to visit your friend in the catacombs, but I can tell your loyalties toward each other are mutual. So if you are intent on going down there, I implore you to try not to draw any more attention to yourself. Go unseen, if you are able.”
I nod once, resolute, and suddenly feeling like time is of the essence, I leave without another word.
Her instructions are dizzying for someone who’s head still throbs, but I do my best to follow them. This time, I am smart enough to take note of the infirmary in relation to the corridor, so should I need to return, I know my way back. Otherwise, I take the corridor to the left and ignore everything in it until I reach the staircase at the end.
She didn’t say how far down to go, but considering I need to reach the main floor, I’m hopeful this staircase doesn’t lead anywhere below ground.
It winds up only being one flight, and the door leading outside is close and unguarded, allowing me to leave the compound without being seen.
A gust of bitter wind greets me on the other side. In my daze, I’d forgotten it was still winter. The black Crusader leather is a far cry warmer than the rags I wore on my journey here, but fur pelts would still be better. I tug my cape around me and press out into the white abyss.
Snow flurries in the courtyard, making it difficult to see much farther than my own nose. At least demons are black; at least I’d be able to spot them easily in so much brightness, not that I’d be able to fend any demon off in this state.
Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about that for long. Just up ahead, a grey structure comes into view through the haze. Gothic spires pierce through the winter storm. The cathedral before me is much smaller than the castle behind me, but it’s still far larger than where I anticipated the catacombs would to be.
But that’s when I notice the smaller, stone building to the side of it. Even from out here, the grim structure looks like a beacon for death. If I hadn’t been assured that these buildings were safe to enter, I’d turn back around and march back to the safety that the castle has to offer.