A few drunken men laughed loudly at the end of the alley, and a man and two women, with their cloaks wound tightly around them and their hoods up, brushed past us as they hurried to some unknown destination.
It was a dark and dingy area. The houses here were crammed close together, creating an unplanned maze of streets and alleyways which you could easily get lost in. The stench was unbearable, and I had to literally hold my nose as we walked past the sewers and heaps of garbage that had piled up on the streets.
Calisto and Zorek came to a stop outside a shabby wooden door of an equally shabby-looking inn with a sign overhead that read The Lion’s Den.
The name didn’t help my growing fear that something was wrong, as I grudgingly followed them inside. It was not like I had never been in an inn before. I had stayed in one in Greystone with Aunt Serena and Erien. But we had been traveling with Rafe, and with him I was always safe. If Rafe knew I had come here, he would be so angry, not to mention what Uncle Gabriel would do if he found out.
This place was nothing like the little inn we had stayed at. While The Dancing Daisy Inn was quaint and cozy, The Lion’s Den was just the opposite. One long, rickety staircase wound underground, opening up into a very large, square room with a high-beamed ceiling. The atmosphere here was loud and boisterous. Shabbily dressed men and women drank, danced, and frolicked everywhere. Wafts of stale ale and equally stale and unwashed bodies enveloped me in humid folds. It was even more overpowering than the smell of the sewers. I suddenly found it hard to breathe.
We had to push past some big, burly men, who didn’t look like they wanted us to pass but reluctantly stood aside. I wondered what business the Blackwaters were mixed up in to be friendly with these sorts of people. They all looked like they were ready to start a brawl at any moment.
One table had a few suspicious-looking men huddled in a group, and Zorek and Calisto were headed right for them. Damien gestured for me to follow him.
“Keep up.” His tone was irritated, as if I had done something wrong again.
I was going to protest at his rudeness, but thought I’d better wait till we were safely out of this place.
Damien and Zorek sat down on the bench opposite one of the hooded men while the others moved slightly—to give them some privacy, I supposed. Calisto stood right behind Damien, and I tried to stand as close to her as she would let me.
“Keep your hood on at all times,” she whispered. “Mages are not exactly welcome in the ghettos of the underworld.”
I froze, and Calisto smirked at the obvious effect her words had on me. My eyes darted around the room. Talk about walking into the lion’s den, literally. But why had they brought me here with them? I was not getting a good feeling about this. My palms started sweating, and my heart rate accelerated. I really wanted to get out of this place, and fast.
Zorek and the hooded man had finished their transaction, and the man gave Zorek a small leather pouch. I wondered what was so precious that we had all come down into this horrible place to get it. Even the Blackwaters, untouchable as they were, didn’t seem to be at ease around these people.
Professor Ruthbridge had dedicated a whole lesson to the Eldorean underworld. And this was it, or at least part of it, of that I was sure. The man in the hood looked like one of their leaders, because everybody seemed to defer to him or simply stayed out of his way.
Zorek slipped the pouch into his pocket and got up, Calisto and Damien right behind him.
Damien brushed past Calisto, his eyes narrowed, and I heard him say in a barely audible whisper, “Leave her.”
Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach, and my fears were realized soon enough. Calisto threw me a cruel, mocking smile, turned on her heel, and followed Damien and Zorek out of the inn.
I hurried to join them, but dirty, dreadful faces moved in front of me, touching my hair, staring at me. I brushed a few hands off me and tried to move toward the door. But it was so far away, all the way at the other end of the huge room, and the Blackwaters were already gone.
My heart started hammering in my chest, and my hands started shaking. I didn’t even want to think about the nasty things these men must have had in store for me. How could Damien have left me here to die or worse? Were the Blackwaters really that evil?
My eyes shot back and forth. I felt like a trapped deer, and the lions were converging on me. What was I supposed to do now? I tried to remember my lessons, but all that seemed like a faint memory just now. A magical shield would not protect me from those filthy hands. I tried to think, but I was so scared that I could barely breathe. The room started spinning, and I stumbled backward.
Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind. I struggled, but it was impossible to escape. The steel grip that held me did not falter. My mind suddenly went into overdrive as I covered the possibilities quickly. I had to do something, and I had to get out of here. I hadn’t even learned stun strikes so far, and even if I did manage a powerful enough stun, I couldn’t stun all of them—the rest of them would be upon me like a pride of lions.
My legs trembled, and I caught the edge of a table to steady myself. I took
