“Because of me?” I whispered.
“Yes,” he replied coolly. “Because of you. The Monster Crushers do not choose their members. We are bound by law to let the houses choose, as the spell is supposed to only allow those worthy to find the secret doors and enter Derwin. And because of this same law, we now have no choice but to train you as a Monster Crusher.”
I laughed. I didn’t mean to, but it just kind of came out. Surely he was joking. There was no way I was going to live down here and hit fake monsters with swords, just as I was sure there was no way they’d want me to. I looked around, shaking my head. Almost all of the boys looked like they were captains of the football team: square jaws, defined muscles, stern looks. I looked like an absent-minded grandma who had just wandered out of the house in her pyjamas. Except I was also thirteen, which I’m pretty sure was younger than anyone else in that courtyard.
Eldon didn’t laugh. No one did. In fact, they just looked angry.
“You can’t be serious,” I said, turning back to Eldon.
“I am. Like it or not, the spell has chosen. Even if I believe it has finally been broken, I cannot make that decision myself. That’s up to the Brotherhood. And so I will train you, girl, to the best of my abilities. And then I suspect you will die, and we will all have to live with the consequences of what happens after that. What is your name?”
“Laura Ledwick,” I whispered.
Eldon nodded. “Very well, Laura Ledwick. Come with me.”
He turned and strode back toward the gleaming white castle, and I just stood there, looking around incredulously. Was he serious? There was no way he was serious.
Eldon stopped and turned around, his eyes narrowed. “Now.”
I hesitated, and then very reluctantly followed him, trying to ignore the disbelieving stares as I shuffled through the courtyard.
—
“Are those like…accurate?” I murmured.
I was staring up at the elaborate murals that covered the great hall of Arnwell Castle, which was a massive, domed room dominated by a beautiful marble floor and a ring of golden statues of what I could only guess were past Monster Crushers. Every one of them was a man: tall, strong, and proud. Their cold eyes watched me from all sides.
But the statues were the least of my concern. The murals on the wall depicted actual battles between the Monster Crushers and their foes: grotesque trolls with mossy-green skin, yellow orbs for eyes, and shocks of black hair swung stone clubs at brave young men with iron hammers and gleaming steel armour. Dragons flew above the scenes, while hordes of goblins swept like a green tide toward the Monster Crushers and the hooded Swords that stood beside them.
“More or less,” Eldon said, finally turning to face me.
He had led me straight to the great hall from the courtyard, his steps echoing around the massive room as he stalked into the middle.
“You must have questions,” he continued, watching me closely.
I snorted. “That’s an understatement.”
“Let me give you the brief version. And then we can discuss your training.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he ignored me and went on.
“When humans first appeared on this planet, somewhere in the northeastern heart of Africa, they went many ways. North to Europe, east to Asia, south to the tip of the continent. Those you know. But humans went one other way. Down.”
He suddenly turned and started walking again, and I hurried to keep up.
“Early humans always gravitated to caves, as you know, but some decided to go deeper. They went deep enough that they discovered places like this…places where the world reset again and where water pooled into lakes and even tiny patches of vegetation grew in the dim sunlight that filtered through the cracks.”
He gestured to a painting at the far side of the hall, where some early humans were walking with a torch through the darkness.
“It was a difficult road to take, but they had an advantage. No predators, no competition, and from very early on…magic.”
He stopped in front of another line of statues: hooded men with serious eyes and scraggly beards. They looked like wizards.
“The ground beneath them hummed with magic…it was hidden down here in the darkness. They began to find new ways to create light with alchemy and spells, real light that could grow crops and scare away the shadows of the Under Earth.”
He clasped his hands behind his back, looking thoughtfully at the statues.
“Ten of these great openings in the Under Earth were found—the foundation for the ten realms, of which Derwin is the smallest. For centuries, the ten realms grew in peace. The people of the Under Earth wanted no part of the endless wars on the surface; instead they worked together to build the most complicated series of tunnels ever devised by man. Any tunnels created by surface humans are but a pinprick of what they created. Most thought we would long outlast the surface humans here. We could journey up to take seeds and livestock and building techniques, and continue living down below. In fact, the surface humans forgot we were here. We were ignored. And that’s how we liked it. Thousands of years ago, we decided to keep it that way.”
I frowned, scanning the murals. “So what happened?”
“We realized we were not alone,” Eldon said quietly, following my gaze.
A little ways down, there was a disturbing picture. Yellow eyes flashed from the darkness, just like the ones I had seen in the forest behind my house. Slit-like pupils, like a snake, watched from the shadows. I felt my skin crawl as I realized the implications.
There were monsters behind my house.
“One day our tunnels merged with one the humans had not made. A crude tunnel reeking of rotting meat and death. The diggers followed it, and
