The passageway was dark and narrow,there was barely enough room for us to face forward between the cool stonewalls. At one point we had taken stairs leading downwards, so I assumed we weresomewhere underneath the castle. I was still unsure why we had to make thisescape, but as long as Kiran kept his promise, I would keep mine and followAmory without question.

“Stop,” Amory whispered fiercely,pressing his body against the wall and thrust out his arm, forcing me to do thesame.

We were quiet, both afraid of theunknown. The only sound I could hear was my own frantic breathing; I wiped thesweat from my brow, pushing my long hair behind my ears. Amory also breathedheavily, but I had been surprised at his level of fitness. He was awfully spryfor someone of his age.

“Eden,” he said softly, butgravely. “I need you to turn off your magic completely. I need you to repressit like you did before you knew what it was. Hold your magic in until we aresafe. Can you do that?” he turned his head to give me a serious stare and Inodded my reply.

I pushed the magic down, making itdissolve completely from my veins. I was suddenly tired and sluggish. I hadn’trealized how much the magic had kept me going; but after several days of no sleepand extenuating travel circumstances, any normal human would have beendelirious by now.

At our stilled position and withour backs pushed heavily against the cool stone, the exhaustion began to takeover. My knees became weak and without my permission my body started to slidedown the rock wall towards the uneven floor. Amory pulled my exhausted bodyback into a standing position by the arm and shook me roughly.

“We have to keep going. Will youmake it?” he asked, forcing me to look into his eyes by gripping the sides ofmy head firmly.

“I can make it,” I mumbled weakly,not sure if it was possible, but determined to try. I shook my head feebly,trying to wake myself up.

“Think of Lilly,” Amory coaxed,“Think of Kiran,” he finally had my attention and I brought my body into astrong standing position.

“Let’s go,” I said with moreenergy.

Amory grabbed my wrist and pulledme along behind him. We ran, half stumbled in the darkness through the coolcorridors. I never heard another footstep or sound other than ours, but I hadno doubt that we were being hunted. I kept up with Amory the best I could; withmy magic gone, normal, human adrenaline was forced to take over.

Suddenly we were faced with a deadend. The hallway had narrowed considerably and then came to a point where thetwo parallel walls met. I wondered what we were going to do now.

Amory let go of my wrist and I fellhard against the cool stone. I could barely keep my eyes open, but curiositygave me a few more moments of consciousness.

Amory felt the point of the wall,letting his hands fall over every stone and every crevice. He started at thetop of the wall and worked his way down to the floor, quickly and efficiently.He pushed firmly on random rocks, as if looking for one in particular.

Finally, he let out a small gruntof approval, and I watched his fingers disappear in what seemed to be themiddle of the floor. He braced his body and then grunted louder removing alarge block of stone from the floor and revealing a ladder leading further underthe castle.

I forced my body away from the walland began to descend the ladder without any instruction needed. Obviously thiswas our only option. I heard water beneath me, but was blinded by completedarkness descending slowly into the black abyss. I could still see Amory’s faceas I took the shaky ladder, rung by rung, deep into the blackness.

After I was far enough down theladder for Amory to follow, he stood on one of the top rungs and slid the rockfloor back into place. I saw a type of handle underneath the faux floor thatmade it easy to be returned home. Once the floor was in place we werecompletely in the dark and I was nearly paralyzed by fear of the unknown.

The ladder hung precariously fromthe ceiling of the cavernous hole and swayed back and forth with our bodyweight. Every move, every step, every breath we took evoked a rusty creakingsound that had me seizing up in fear. I forced my appendages to move andforbade my mind to consider the possibilities of this ladder crashing to the blackchasm beneath us.

The sound of water grew strongerthe lower we climbed, and I made the assumption of a creek or brook flowingthrough wherever we were headed. My eyes began to adjust to the blackness, butit was too dark to make anything out for sure. I wondered if Amory was usingmagic or if he repressed his as well.

Eventually my foot found the groundin an awkward step that made my knee give out. I didn’t catch myself in timeand fell to the solid ground in an uncomfortable heap.

Once on solid ground, I pushedmyself up to my hands and knees and felt through the dirt as I crawled forwardor at least in a forward direction until the ground ended and another stonewall ascended in its place.

I gripped the wall, using it topull my body up into a standing position again. Wherever we were now wasclearly far beneath ground because the temperature had dropped drastically. Thewater source was definitely a running stream of some type because I could hearthe water moving purposefully. The air was clean and clear and I took a bigbreath in, happy for the moment to rest.

I heard Amory’s feet reach thesolid ground and the ladder ceased from creaking. I listened for his footstepsto move in a direction, but I heard only the sound of the water. I was afraidto call out to him, since he had yet to speak a word.

I heard a scraping sound and myheart jumped, but when sparks flew through the darkness I realized Amory hadonly lit a match. A small flame burned alone until Amory used it to ignite alarger torch. The darkness was illuminated and I finally made out mysurroundings.

We were in a type of cavern, withrock walls on every side. A single river ran through the middle at a quickpace. The surface we stood on was wide, and the ladder leading to the castleabove was positioned closer to the stone wall than the river and its dangerouscurrent. I pressed my cheek against the cold stone one more time before joiningAmory at the river’s edge.

There was about a ten foot dropfrom the dirt surface to the rushing river below. I saw another rusted ladderbuilt into the earth leading directly down into the water, with a small rowboat tied to the orange metal. Two sets of oars lay on the bottom of the boatand a lantern was positioned at its stern. I looked at Amory with controlledfear, and he stared back with the same trepidation.

“Eden, we have to row upstream. Itis very difficult, I won’t lie to you. But if we follow the current it willtake us straight back to the Citadel. We have to row against it, do youunderstand? I am not sure if you will make it,” he was honest with me, and Isaw the pain in his eyes through the flickering light of the torch.

“How far?” I asked, afraid he wasright.

“At least two hours in the water,and then another three and a half hour hike after that. Can you repress yourmagic that long?” his eyes lost their pain and became determined. We both knewthere was no other option.

“Yes,” I said simply, I had noother choice.

“I can’t do it alone. You will haveto help me row,” I nodded with determination and took off my NebraskaSweatshirt stuffing it into my backpack, and then tossed it into the rowboat.

Amory rolled up the sleeves of hissuit shirt, and I realized that he used his suit jacket as the kindle for ourtorch. Amory handed me the torch and lowered himself over the edge and onto theladder. He pulled the boat towards him with his long leg and then slowly tookhis steps onto the bow. Using the ladder for balance the entire time, he waseventually able to take a seat on one of the small boat’s two benches.

I lay down on the dirt floor andlowered the torch to Amory who had to stand precariously to reach it. Once itwas in his grip he lit the lantern at the bow and put the torch flame out bydunking it in water. Instead of discarding the burned jacket in the river, hebrought it back into the boat and set it at his feet. The wet clothing left apuddle of water at the bottom of an already damp floor.