Darkness Watching (Darkworld #1) (20 page)

couldn’t stop looking around uneasily as we made our way through the dark streets, Cyrus leading the way. I didn’t see any of the strange birds swooping overhead, but somehow that made me more nervous, as though we were being watched by unseen eyes. We crossed the town square in silence, like thieves, and slipped into the alleyway between the Art Gallery and the cathedral.

“Where are we going?” I whispered to Claudia.

“The library entrance is hidden in the cemetery,” she replied. Sure enough, Cyrus jumped over the stone wall onto the damp grass that surrounded the gravestones.

“Really?” I said, following him over the wall. “Seems a weird place to hide a library.”

It was even creepier at night; the sense that the dead were present all around us was almost suffocating. An almost-full moon was caught between two spires reaching from the cathedral into the indigo sky, surrounded by a halo of ghostly light. Black shapes flitted overhead; knowing they were some sinister messenger-birds belonging to the Venantium did nothing to ease my apprehension.

“The Venantium seem to have a thing for creepy places,” said Claudia. “This place has been around as long as the library itself―about five hundred years,” she added, for my benefit. “I’m guessing they figured no one would go snooping around a graveyard at night, especially right under their noses.”

“They thought wrong,” said Howard. “I’ve sneaked in there a dozen times, at least.”

Cyrus stopped in front of a pedestal, on which stood a large statue of a weather-beaten gargoyle. The rough stone was covered in so much moss it was impossible to make out any of its features. The foot of the statue was on a level with Howard’s head and towered over the rest of us.

Cyrus was rummaging in the pockets of his jeans. He pulled out a silver key.

“I didn’t steal it,” he told me, before I could ask where he got it. “Leo
borrowed
it from our guardian, who works for the Venantium.”

I wanted to ask more, but he’d already inserted the key into a hole on the side of the pedestal and turned it once, clockwise. With a grating sound, the front of the stone pedestal swung open, revealing the top of a dark staircase.

“Lights,” whispered Cyrus, and five small white lights flared up in the others’ hands. I concentrated hard on the connection to the Darkworld, and it responded, my hand igniting like the others’. I hoped it wouldn’t go out.

Down we went, down into the darkness. At once, the sense of claustrophobia hit me, but I forced back my panic and concentrated on keeping up with the others. The staircase gradually grew steeper, and the walls became narrower until Howard’s shoulders brushed them on either side.

Just as I thought we must be a hundred feet underground, or more, the stairs opened out into a wide passageway. I saw several tunnels branching off it, but Howard led us in a straight line. Candles cast an eerie blue light from old-fashioned brackets either side, each clasped in the claws of a crudely carved stone bird.

“Who lights those?” I said.

“Lucky
venators,
” said Leo. “Some poor sod has the joy of checking they’re still burning every few hours. It’s magic fire; it doesn’t go out easily.”

The tunnel was obviously manmade; the walls so even it was as if they’d been expertly dug out, then smoothed by some sort of machine.
Magic,
I thought, remembering Claudia had said the tunnels were hundreds of years old. It couldn’t have been anything else.

Strange, how quickly my life had gone out of my own control. Magic was real; the old laws that governed the universe no longer applied. Now it was perfectly rational to take a night-time stroll through a tunnel hidden beneath an old graveyard to find answers.

Our footsteps echoed eerily behind us, as if our own shadows pursued us. A musty smell hung in the air, the sort of aroma I associated with old books. One final pair of candles marked the end of the tunnel. The last two statues were so horrible I stopped for a second to stare. They looked like some kind of grotesque hybrid creatures, old crones crossed with birds of prey. Each was the size of a small child, with cruel, hooked talons. As we passed, I could have sworn one of them moved, a sunken eye flickering in our direction, but, when I saw the library, I forgot all about it.

For a good minute, all I could do was gape. The circular room appeared at first glance like a giant maze―a maze formed of bookshelves that seemed to grow out of the walls of the tunnel itself. Books beyond counting lined the shelves, towering up to a ceiling so high it was lost in darkness.

“Impressive, huh?” whispered Claudia.

“Yeah.” I had to exercise extreme self-control to stop my quivering hands from picking up some of those enticing volumes. I breathed in the scent of old tomes and felt a smile creep onto my face. “It’s bloody
awesome.
”

Then I remembered why we were there, and my smile faded. “How on earth are we supposed to find what we’re looking for in here?”

“That’s why we have Howard,” said Claudia.

Howard said, from somewhere amongst the shelves, “The
Sorcerer’s Almanac
isn’t here.”

“Seriously?” said Leo. “I thought no one could remove it.”

“Only senior Venantium members,” said Cyrus. “Maybe they’re investigating someone?”

“Right,” said Leo. “Well, that makes things tricky. The
Almanac
has the details of every magic-user known to the Venantium.”

“We can still look in the records, though,” said Claudia.

“If they’ve repaired the damage,” said Leo. “Remember last time?”

“I told you that was an accident,” said Howard, through gritted teeth.

“Why, what happened?” I said.

“There was an incident involving a candle and a shelf of priceless manuscripts.”

“Ah.”

“Okay. Let’s just look around for a bit. You might find something.”

So I walked amongst the shelves, moving my gaze along the rows of books, scanning titles as if I were merely browsing in a bookshop. A large leather-bound volume caught my eye, and I felt a strange shiver pass through me. I pulled the book from the shelf. It was called
The Seven Princes of the Darkworld: A General Guide to Demons.

“Not exactly what I had in mind,” I said, as I opened it at random to be greeted by the grinning face of a demon.

“Neat, I’ve been looking for something like this,” said Claudia. “It’ll help you understand demons, too.”

In the end, I had a small stack of books piled at the entrance, and we each took one―except Berenice, who was playing Angry Birds on her mobile instead, as though she was bored with the whole thing.
Why did she even come in the first place?
I wondered. It wasn’t as if Howard was paying her the slightest attention.

None of the books I’d chosen contained a single mention of the name Temple, or my mum’s maiden name, Francis. I realised too late I didn’t know the surnames of my grandparents before that; if my parents had ever told me, I didn’t remember.

“I’m bored,” Berenice announced.

“Then go,” said Cyrus.

“We can’t check every book,” said Berenice, without moving. “We’ll be here all night.”

Cyrus put down his book. “I suppose we could wait a couple of weeks, then come back and see if the
Almanac
‘s here.”

“And what if it isn’t?” said Howard.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We’re clearly not going to find any―”

There was a noise above, somewhere in the gloom of the ceiling.

“What was that?”

“Shit,” said Howard.

I heard another noise, a ringing shriek―and one of the crone-bird-creatures dived at me, talons outstretched.

I flung my arms in front of my face to shield myself, crying out as the claws sliced deeply into my skin. For a moment, I stood frozen in shock and pain.

“Run!” shouted Cyrus, and, in a flurry of dropped books, we fled the library.

The instant we ran into the corridor, all the candles were extinguished, plunging the tunnels into an absolute darkness that even our hurriedly conjured lights could barely penetrate. Horrible, shrieking cries echoed around us, and, every time I felt the rush of something fly overhead, I ducked farther down, until I almost ran at a crouch.

“They’re blind, but they can hear us!” shouted Howard.

“Shut the hell up then!” said Leo.

But it was impossible to run quietly; the echo of our footsteps continually pursued us, as though we were followed by a ghostly army. Terror gripped me as I narrowly dodged the swipe of another creature’s claws. I wasn’t imagining it. They were targeting me.

Then my light went out.

“No,” I whispered.
Light!

Nothing happened. I could just make out Claudia’s outline ahead of me, pelting down the tunnel, but I wasn’t fast enough―I was falling behind―

Talons grazed my scalp as the creature flew at me yet again. I ducked and ran flat out, faster than I’d ever run before. I could have sworn my feet hardly touched the ground. Each breath tore at my throat, but fear kept my feet moving in tandem with my thudding heart. I heard an exclamation up ahead and skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding a collision with Claudia.

“The stairs have gone,” she whispered. “Someone must have raised the alarm.”

“But―then we can’t get out, right?” Panic squeezed my heart once again.

“Don’t worry, Howard knows another way out.”

“Come
on,”
said Berenice from somewhere up ahead. “I’d quite like to get out of here alive.”

“Shut up, I’m trying to think,” snarled Howard. “I don’t plan on any of us dying down here, you clear?”

After a moment, he said, “All right, it’s this way.”

He took one of the other tunnels that branched off the main one. No sound of the bird-creatures followed us; that struck me as suspicious. Had we lost them in the tunnels? The others no longer ran, but walked swiftly. I took advantage of this to catch my breath.

“Claudia?” I whispered. “Wha―what were those?”

“Harpies. I used a spell to put them off our scent, but it took a while to aim. Did they get you?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. I could feel blood dripping down my arms, and my skin burned as though it was aflame.

I lost track of time as we walked on through the darkness. My arms felt heavy and numb. It took me a moment to realise we’d reached the ladder, and the others were frantically hauling themselves upward.

I grasped the rungs with sweaty, shaking hands and pulled myself up after Claudia.

The night air had never smelt as sweet as it did in that moment. I inhaled, purging the stuffy air of the tunnel from my lungs.

We were back in the cemetery, but a different part; the ladder came up in a ditch directly behind a large memorial statue. Howard slumped against it, cursing.

“Please tell me none of you used magic,” said Cyrus.

“Only to throw the creatures off the scent,” said Claudia.

“And the lights,” said Leo. “Shit―I forgot.”

“Lights’ll be okay,” said Howard. “The Venantium will know someone trespassed, but not who it was. As long as none of you hit the creatures with any kind of spell.” He gave me a hostile glare. “Did you use magic?”

I shook my head. I felt incredibly dizzy.

“Good. Then we’re safe.”

“I hardly think that matters,” said Berenice, tossing her hair. “We shouldn’t have taken the risk. It wasn’t worth it. Not for her.”

“Well, I vote we get the hell out of here,” said Howard.

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Berenice. “I’m going back to my flat. You coming?”

“Sure, why not? You lot all take alternate routes,” he said to the rest of us.

“We know,” said Leo, as Cyrus shook his head.

“Those two,” he said. “I’ll never understand them in a million years. One minute, they’re at each other’s throats, the next―”

“Ash!”

I dropped to my knees as a wave of dizziness engulfed me. I saw Howard turn back to face me, and the others moved closer.

“Shit,” said Claudia. “The harpies―”

I looked down at my arms. They were stained with blood. In the disorienting, white moonlight, the streaks looked black and somehow glowed.

White-hot pain burned both arms, and my head pounded like I had a severe migraine. Spots danced before my eyes, and everything blurred into a dark mass interspersed with dazzling lights.

“We have to get her to Madam Persephone!” said Claudia.

“Shit. She’s marked. It’ll bring the Venantium right to our doorstep!” I heard Berenice say. “Someone’ll have to fix that glowing; I’m not getting arrested.”

“Spoken like a true philanthropist,” said Leo.

“Don’t start arguing now!” said Claudia.

“Madam Persephone’ll be in her tent,” said Cyrus, taking charge. “Howard, you carry her.”

“I thought you were coming back with me!” said Berenice indignantly, as I felt strong arms lift me into the air.

“Are you for real?” said Leo. “She’s hurt, you absolute―”

“Berenice, no one’s forcing you to stay,” said Cyrus.

“Stop arguing!” Claudia said. “Let’s go, already!”

“Where?” said Howard, and I felt him shift my position.

“Town square,” said Cyrus.”Come on, we have to hurry.”