Page 4 of Hellbound
Ksenia knelt down to face them, turning a blue-gray metal coin in her fingers.
“Do you know what this is?”
Life sparked in one girl’s eyes. “That’s Grastelian steel!” A metal so rare and coveted it was worth more than its weight in gold.
When forged and beaten into shape, it became the most durable and lightest of weapons, never losing its edge, and now it would serve as their beacon to a safe house.
“Smart girl.” She beamed at Ksenia and accepted the coin in her outstretched hand. “Do you want to know a secret?”
The children crept closer. Ksenia coaxed them deeper into the tunnel and lifted the girl’s palm until a faint glow began to emanate from the coin.
The sewer ceiling above them shone with blue metal shards embedded into the rock. Their eyes lit up, mouths parted slightly as the girl let out a giggle, waving the coin to mimic a firefly.
The teal glow lit their awed faces, and Ksenia was transported back to when Danika had first shown her. She'd been upset over something small and enormous, the way everything was as a five-year-old. Danika had taken her by the hand, led her to a tunnel entrance, and held a scrap of Grastelian steel up to the ceiling.
When it lit up like a second night sky, Ksenia forgot what she was upset about before Danika even lowered her arm.
But now they were running for their lives, and there was no time for play.
“Listen carefully,” she began, “this is a wayfinder coin, and there aren’t that many left in Kraal. It’s your light through the darkness and will unlock the safe house. Guard it like your life depends on it because it does. The Shepherd will find you there and take you to Drenvar.”
They sobered, but with the token clutched in the girl’s hand, their gazes were sharper and more focused as they looked into the darkness.
Ksenia gathered them even closer. “That man earlier, you sensed his blade, didn’t you?”
The children nodded slowly.
“That feeling of his blade, that’s your bondsense. Every one of us has it; it’s how your blood recognizes bound steel.” She kept her voice steady. “Headhunters know you can hear that. That man wasn’t bored; he was hunting.”
The youngest girl pressed closer to Ksenia’s side.
“The Vein isn’t empty. You might hear the same thing down here. If you hear a soulbound blade—what should you do?”
The boy on the right hesitated. “Run?”
“Yes. Run. Fast, in the opposite direction. Do not approach it, do not investigate it, do not try to see who’s carrying it. Just run and return to the coin’s light on the path when the sound has subsided. Understood?”
“Yes,” they chorused, though their faces had gone pale.
“What about—” The same boy swallowed hard. Ksenia waited for his courage to return. “What about hellbound blades…?” His question trailed.
Her expression hardened. “If you hear a hellbound blade, what do you think you should do?”
A little girl at her waist whispered up to her. “Run faster?”
“Run faster,” Ksenia confirmed. “They’re worse. Much worse. No one in the Bound Eye will be carrying those, only bad people who want to catch you before you can reach the safe house.”
Ksenia looked at each child in turn. “Stay sharp.”
“Stay safe,” they replied together, stronger now.
Ksenia nodded and managed an encouraging smile.
She watched the children descend farther into the tunnels until the glow dimmed.
She clambered out of the canal, fingers digging for purchase between the stones lining the wall. As she hoisted herself over the edge and back onto the walkway, dried blood greeted her nose.
At her side, a small stone shrine was embedded in the wall. Inside, a statue was worn down, its face smoothed and unrecognizable as to which god it honored. Nailed to the shelter’s pointed archway lay a dead rabbit with its entrails torn out, blood dripping on the shrine’s floor.
