Read Online The Shadowed Path by Gail Z. Martin - Free Book Online

dared to go so deep. The stranger’s map took him further down one of the remote tunnels than he had ever ventured, and Jonmarc felt a prickle of fear.
    “At least the bats are gone,” he muttered to himself. A benefit of coming after dark meant that the bats that clustered in the caves were out feeding, although the floor of the cave was slick with their droppings.
    The deeper he got in the cave, the more aware he became of the faint green glow of the moss that clung to the walls of the tunnel. Most of the time, Jonmarc barely paid the moss any attention, but tonight, his nerves were enough on edge that the eerie glow just added to his feeling of foreboding.
    This deal was a mistake. The thought repeated itself in his mind with every step, and Jonmarc pushed it aside. I made a bargain. Not keeping it would be a real mistake—especially with a vayash moru . It did no good to wish for his father’s counsel or his mother’s advice. They were two years dead and buried with the rest of his village. Maybe I should have talked to Elly or Tuck, but what could they tell me? By the time I could have seen them, the deal was struck.
    The passage in front of him forked, and Jonmarc knew that the stranger’s map led him to the left. Just in case, he marked the turn with a bit of coal he had brought for that purpose. In case something down here doesn’t want the talisman brought back up to the surface , he thought.
    Jonmarc’s lantern cast a small circle of light, just enough for him to see a few steps in front of him. Darkness closed in behind him as he moved forward, and yielded temporarily to him as he advanced. But the further he went down this particular tunnel, the more the feeling grew that he was being watched. He stopped, wary of a trap. Nothing moved in the darkness, and the only sounds were the faint, distant dripping of water and his own rapid breath. Sometimes, he had surprised rats and other small creatures in the upper tunnels. All the same, he had the feeling that he was not alone, and not particularly welcome. Whispers hissed at the very edge of his hearing, and some of the shadows slipped away from his light as if they had a will of their own.
    It feels like the realm of the dead , Jonmarc thought, and made the sign of the Lady in warding.
    Enough foolishness , he berated himself. I just need to grab the talisman and go.
    Two more turns took him much deeper into the cave, and for an instant, he imagined the weight of the cliff bearing down on him, stifling his breath. His heart raced, and he fought the urge to turn and run. He mustered his courage and went on, mindful of how much the candle in his lantern had burned down. I’ve got no desire to be stuck down here in the dark , he thought, though he had taken the precaution to bring an extra candle, just in case.
    One more short tunnel led him to the end of the stranger’s map. He had passed many old burial sites along the way, with yellowed bones wrapped in crumbling cloth. On a normal hunt, he would have looked in each one for saleable trinkets, but this night, he focused only on the stranger’s errand. They’re not going anywhere , he thought with a glance to the long-dead corpses. I can always come back for them.
    At the end of the tunnel Jonmarc found a room carved into the stone. Unlike the other crypts which were natural recesses in the sides of the cave, this room had an arched doorway which still showed the faded remnants of ancient paint. Beyond the archway, a raised platform held the remains of a man. Jonmarc felt a tingle as he stepped through into the room, and he wondered what magics had been set in these tunnels, and by whom.
    He had expected to find a skeleton, or even a jumble of bones. But the body that lay in repose appeared to be a fresh corpse, unsullied by time or decay. Jonmarc took a closer look. By the look of the dead man’s clothing, he had been dead for a very long time, a century or more perhaps. But his outfit and personal items