Mel took charge and headed down the stairs, taking the first couple of steps in stride. Then she lingered on the next, feeling the darkness closing in around her and a damp smell of something rotting and horrid below. She swallowed hard and brought out her dagger, connecting to it and making it glow orange in her hand.

It lit up only a small portion in front of her and Mel could barely see the next step, but not much more. She continued down, fighting her senses and the feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her this wasn’t a good idea.

She heard Austin’s deep breaths behind her and Mel saw a faint blue glow coming from him. She felt better knowing he had her back and Mel hoped that whatever they found down here, it would all turn out okay for them.

The stairs finally bottomed out into a narrow corridor with a dark gray stone surrounding them. She held up her dagger toward the wall and saw moss growing along the cut stone. The smell down here was even worse, and Mel had to shield her mouth and nose to stop herself from hurling.

Austin walked beside her and together they made their way through the corridor. Behind them, Gabs, Clara, and Brandon walked in silence. No one in the party made a sound as they snuck down and into the depths of Bahlan. Mel’s foot brushed something.

It was soft and her toes sank into it; it made Mel look down. She jumped back and her spine went rigid. Austin caught her with an arm on her shoulder and peered over her at that thing on the floor.

Mel’s eyes adjusted, and the shock settled. She could see now that the thing wasn’t moving and when Austin took a step forward, leaving Mel standing on her own, she saw it was a person. Or at least had been a person.

It was a corpse, but it was soft and mushy, with small worms wriggling around everywhere. The smell was so strong now that Mel took another step back, trying to shield herself from the stank. Her eyes flickered around the corridor, not wanting to step on the decomposing corpse, and she saw a boot up ahead and a sword lying on the ground.

Mel swallowed hard. She knew then that there were more corpses like this down here, and suddenly she wished she had never come to Bahlan. She wished she had never seen a dead person like this. The sight and the smell were just too much. It was nothing like seeing a shadow killing someone. This was so much worse, in a way.

She felt a hand on her arm and Mel jerked away from it. Gabs looked at her with worry in her eyes and Mel felt herself sighing out the breath she had been holding.

“Are you okay?” Gabs asked.

Mel shook her head. “Don’t go further. There are bodies.”

Gabs swallowed noticeably. “I figured. The smell, it’s strong.”

Mel grabbed Gabs’ hand and squeezed it tight.

“We need to continue,” Gabs said. “We need to know, and I think we’re running out of time.”

Mel swallowed hard, looking down at their joined hands and shaking her head slowly. She didn’t want to continue into this nightmare. But she knew Gabs was right, and she knew she needed to know what was down in this corridor. And if Gabs was willing to go there with her, she needed to be stronger.

Clara and Brandon stood like statues to the side of them and Mel glanced over at their green tinted faces. “You don’t have to continue,” Mel said.

Then she looked around, and behind them, noticing they were missing a member of the group.

“Where’s Flavio?” Mel asked.

Clara turned to Mel and fixed her gaze on her. “He didn’t want to come with us down here. I can’t really blame him. We shouldn’t have come.”

Mel felt her skin growing cold and her mind seemed to whirl around the topic. She didn’t want Flavio with them down here, and she felt like Brandon and Clara didn’t have to be here either. But the idea of Flavio being up there on the surface alone, with the possible ability to lock them inside. It sent a sinking feeling down into the pit of her stomach.

“Could you go up and check on him while we continue searching this place? I’m not sure how I feel about him being up there alone.”

Brandon immediately clasped Clara’s hand and nodded at Mel, half turning around before he’d even gotten his answer out. “Yes, we’ll check on Flavio and the entrance and make sure no one is coming this way.”

They stumbled back through the corridor and up the stairs to the surface, and Mel wished she could join them. That she could leave this dark place and the bodies waiting for her here. She swallowed hard and turned back to Austin and the corpse she had accidentally kicked.

He was still crouching down toward it, his arm snuggled around half his face like a mask and his other one outreached, searching the body. Oh, god, how could he even touch that thing?

Austin brought out a small book from an inner pocket on the cloak and that’s when Mel noticed the color. The dead person’s cloak was red, just like the one waiting for her in her dorm room at Falden. Just like the one she’d gotten from High Priest Alcon before her trip to Aldrion.

The book almost fell apart in Austin’s hands, but somehow he managed to open it to a random page. He stood up straight and removed his sleeve from his face, revealing a tense expression.

“I think I finally found it,” Austin read aloud from the book. “It was here all along, just like the dragons said.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Mel felt her stomach twisting and her eyes grew wide. Austin looked up from the notebook in his hands and met Mel’s gaze for a second before his eyes darted down to the text again. Gabs squeezed Mel’s hand tighter, and she felt her body moving closer to Mel as if to shield her from the words of the book.

Mel just stood there frozen, her mind whirling around the possibilities. Who was the person who was dead here before them and why had he died? Was he really from Windbrook?

“I’m coming home,” Austin read. “I fulfilled my destiny despite the odds. Despite the danger. I did it. The secrets are secrets no longer. The ones who kept them are dead, and I feel a pressing need to let them out into the world once more. With them, I’m sure the dragons will return and save us all from the void.”

Austin tried to turn the page in the notebook, but it fell apart in his hands and a chunk of pages landed with a wet slosh on the floor next to his feet. He frowned at the notebook, which now only looked like a leaflet. Then he licked his lips.

“They hid something in the song. It’s in the songs. Who would have known?” Austin read, then squinted down at the page and seemed to jump over something he couldn’t make out. He continued. “...now they’re awake, now we’re dead.”

Mel felt a shiver run down her spine at those last words. Austin looked up, closing the book in his hands and catching Mel’s gaze. Gabs hugged her arm closer and Mel could feel fear emanating from her.

“I think I know that song,” Mel said.

She felt Gabs turn to Mel in surprise, but Austin just kept looking at her with the same intense stare as before.

“I think he’s from the dragon cult,” Austin said, gesturing down to the corpse.

Mel nodded, her eyes landing on the corpse. She recognized him now, like the text and his cloak and the mention of the dragons had jostled something in her memory. She had seen him before. She had said goodbye to him once and wished him good luck.

“His name was Ben Ramsen,” Mel said. “He was like me. One with a great destiny, tasked to find the secrets hidden in the wastes. It seems like he did it. It seems like he found the secrets.”

“How do you know that?” Austin asked.

“He mentions a song. Those last words you read, they're from a song. One that my father taught me. I think it might be part of the secrets of this place. It’s called the song of Bahlan after all. I’m not sure how, though. I’m not sure what Ben meant in the notebook about them hiding things in the songs. I don’t know what’s hiding in it.”

Mel shook her head, and Austin released her gaze finally. He glanced down at the corpse again, releasing the notebook onto the dead body. It fell apart even more as it landed, the spine sogging like a piece of debris.

“Maybe it’s the song to create double imbues,” Gabs said. “Like the song of fire is to create fire imbues. Maybe that’s what they hid in the song.”

Mel nodded at this, feeling like Gabs might be right. “Yeah, that would make sense, I guess.”

Austin put his sleeve up over his face and lifted his still glowing sword from the ground where he had left it for light. He continued down the corridor, a blue light emanating all around him, and Mel knew they needed to follow.

She sucked in a deep breath and brought up her arm to her face. She tugged at Gabs’ hand and together they followed behind Austin. Mel walked carefully, making sure not to step on any of the bodies down here, because there were plenty more lying in the corridor.

Austin’s back was straight, and he looked like a hero walking through a dangerous dungeon without even a single trace of fear in his body. Mel envied that. She didn’t know how he did it. How did he keep his irrational emotions from taking over?

She sidestepped a couple of corpses wearing Aldrion blue and noticed that it was only Ben’s corpse who had the red cloak of the dragon cult on it. The rest must have been hired soldiers from Aldrion who had followed him on his mission.

Austin stopped after a while down the corridor, and a big room opened up before him. He looked around, scanning the place, and Mel hurried inside with him. Gabs followed after her, still holding a tight grip around her hand.

Mel noticed there were no more corpses in this room, but instead there were anvils and hammers strewn about. She took a couple of steps inside, looking around at a forge built below the ground. There was a sound in here too, like a dripping noise, and it took her only a couple of seconds to find where it was coming from.

To one side of the place, there was natural water leaking in through the wall. It had created a slow stream, like an underground river, and it seemed to disappear somewhere.

Gabs was standing alone now, close to Austin, also looking around with wide eyes. She had released Mel’s hand after she had started walking around the room. Gabs walked up to the forge, where embers would have been burning if it was still working. She picked something up among the ashes and turned it over in her hand.

Mel looked back at the small river pooling in front of her and dipped her finger down into it. The water was cold as ice and it looked fresh. Maybe even drinkable.

Austin had walked up to one of the walls and seemed to be scanning something along the stone. Mel stepped up next to him and from the blue glow of his sword, she saw pictures. They were carved into the stone and what was depicted were people working in the forge.

Just normal carvings, she guessed. Nothing special. Just workers and weapons and a forge. She studied them though, and when Austin’s hand traced the lines of a depiction Mel hadn’t been focused on, she saw it. It was a carving of a person who stood with their hands limp to their sides. But their jaw had snapped open and out from it fire leaped.

Mel took a step forward and her hand went up to the carving, tracing her index finger along the curve of the fire. Mel’s hand brushed Austin’s and their eyes caught. There was his intense gaze at her again, his black eyes glowing in the blue light, and Mel licked her lips.

His eyes flew down to her mouth, and her stomach tightened.

“I think this is the same material as your dagger,” Gabs said from the other side of the room.

Mel jerked her hand away from Austin’s and took a step back from him. He did the same, like he had forgotten himself in that moment, but had now been reminded this was not a good idea.

Austin cleared his throat. “What did you find?”

Gabs held up pieces of metal in her hands. Some were charred, but others were smooth. Like the beginning of a pommel or the blade of a knife, but not finished yet.

“It’s an alloy,” Gabs said. “I recognize it. It’s just like the metal in Mel’s dagger. I think it’s made of iron, perhaps. I remember my father experimenting with iron alloys when I was a kid, but he never quite managed to get it like this. This feels strong and durable. I think we should show it to the governor when we get back. Maybe together with the song and the dragon stones we can actually make double imbues. Maybe you were right, Mel.”

Mel felt a pang of worry at that. More double imbues would mean more dangerous lava that could devour entire beings in seconds. Was that really a good idea?

From down the corridor, they heard stone scraping on stone and Mel’s heart leaped out of her chest. She took a step forward toward the corridor, but the light that had shone down the stairs from the sun above was disappearing fast.

She swallowed hard and turned to Gabs and Austin. How were they going to get out of here now?