The walk to the bunker through the rough grass was silent and draining, with the uneven terrain leaving Emily's legs aching. Not long after they had set out, it had begun to rain, leaving them squelching through mud. Every so often, Thomas would pause to check his pocket watch, muttering to himself with a glance in the direction of Arcadia.

How were the others getting along? Emily wondered to herself. Arcadia had been a creepy place in the short amount of time she had spent there. She tried her best not to imagine it filled with walking corpses on top of that. 'There it is,' Edward said, putting out a hand to stop the rest of them.

Over the long, wet grass was a small, grey building. At a distance, it would have been hard to distinguish it from the occasional rocky outcrops if you weren't looking for it. 'It looks like there's no one around,' Emily said, inching forward for a better look.

Thomas shook his head. 'There'll be someone or something. It might look like nothing, but he wouldn't be so brazen as to leave it completely unguarded, even if he was certain no one would be able to escape.'

'We should spread out and come at this from different angles,' Captain Caldwell said. 'It would make it much harder for anyone to surprise us. Thomas, you and Lillian come in from the left; we'll go to the right.'

'Take a couple of these,' Thomas said. Reaching into the satchel, he pulled out a vial of a misty substance and one that glowed like embers. 'That one,' he said, pointing to the misty one he had handed to Emily, 'will create a cloud of fog; the other is incendiary.'

'Got it,' she said, taking the vials from him and tucking them into her belt.

'You should have this as well,' Captain Caldwell said, handing her a dagger as he pulled it from a sheath strapped just above his ankle. He looked at the others. 'Emily carries the heir to the throne; we protect her and get her out of here again, whatever it takes.'

She wanted to say something, to object to them putting her life above their own, but they all nodded in agreement. Something pushed in her mind, like someone applying pressure to her temple suddenly. Blinking for a second, she saw a dimly lit room, the heavy iron door standing open an inch or so. 'Something's going on. I saw a flash of it—the cell door was open ajar.'

Captain Caldwell and Thomas nodded to each other, grim determination on both of their faces. 'Let's get this started then, when you're ready,' Captain Caldwell said.

Thomas unhooked a large vial of bubbling, dark green liquid from his belt, offering it to the air in the palm of his hand. Almost unnoticeable, it lifted from his grasp, drifting into the air and making its way towards the bunker. 'Spread out, remember to keep your distance and cover your ears.'

The five of them spread out, splitting into their two groups as they circled around to the sides of the bunker, the vial drifting straight towards it, twenty or so feet above the ground. It was deathly silent except for the sound of rain landing on the grass. Nothing moved except for the vial, which headed directly towards the heavy iron door at the front of the bunker. Emily watched mesmerised as it drifted, upending its contents on the roof over the doorway.

'Cover your ears!' Captain Caldwell hissed, pulling one of her hands up.

Her hands just made it to her ears when there was a deafening boom that echoed across the otherwise silent landscape. Bits of stone scattered in every direction, some the size of dinner plates, landing just short of where the three of them crouched in the grass.

A mass of darkness shot from the roof of the bunker, swirling and breaking apart before crashing down to earth, with half a dozen humanoid shadows, each with piercing white eyes staring around where they landed. They seemed to solidify slightly into muscular forms, standing at least eight feet tall with long blades of shadow in each hand. At the centre, the tallest let out a screech, its eyes flaring brightly.

'Quickly, the fire!' Captain Caldwell said, nudging Emily.

Fumbling slightly, she uncorked the vial, hurling it in the direction of the shadowy figures, an arc of sparks trailing behind it as it soared through the sky. With a gout of fire, it exploded on impact with the ground, and one of the shadows caught by it seemed to burn away as trails of embers coursed up the side of its torso and over one arm. It tried to extinguish them with the other hand, the smoke sword dissipating when it was dropped.

Smokey whisps shot out in her direction as the arms of the shadow guard closest to her tried to grab her, but Captain Caldwell was too quick. In one smooth motion, his blade severed them. Behind the shadow figure, another one of the incendiary vials exploded over two others. Like the one she had hit, they began to burn away, their dark forms covered in veins of fire, before they shattered.

Captain Caldwell pushed past her, obscuring her from the view of the shadow that had tried to grab her. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn't the loud clang of metal striking metal and sparks when his sword connected with the blade of shadow. One of the remaining shadows turned its attention on Thomas and Lillian as the other swept itself into a vortex, disappearing into the ground.

The next thing she knew, ice-cold hands had wrapped themselves around her throat from behind. Intense pressure constricted her airways as she fumbled with the dagger, trying to strike out at the shadow guard. Its face appeared beside hers, the piercing white eyes locking with her own.

It was like a white-hot needle piercing her mind that made her scream—worse than any pain she had ever felt. In flashes, she saw Sebastian slumped against his desk and Lewis being mobbed by guards in the Green Valley as he tried to struggle. Before her eyes, she saw him succumb to the poison after escaping from the tomb, as if she were there in that moment again. The vision shifted from her memories to a view of Lewis in chains, his flesh burning as Tristan stood over him.

As soon as it had begun, she was released from the memories, tears pouring down her face. The hands that had been around her throat were gone; a bright white bead of light, not dissimilar from the eyes of the shadow guard, was burning away at the darkness, Lillian's hand outstretched in control of it. Before her, the rest of the shadow guards had been scattered. 'Thanks,' she muttered, wiping away the tears.

'Are you alright?' Lillian asked gently. Emily wanted to nod but found herself incapable of it, the sight of Lewis being tortured imprinted firmly in her mind. 'I've been where you just were; some of it is memory, but some of it isn't real.'

'Tristan was torturing him with those burning chains like they used at the tower,' Emily said.

'You don't have to carry on if you don't want to,' Thomas said. 'No one would blame you.'

She shook her head. 'No, if something happened to any of you or Lewis, I'd never be able to forgive myself.'

'Here, take this,' Lillian said, lifting a small pendant from around her neck. It was delicate and looked like it was made from clay; small pieces were rolled carefully to create a wreath around an eye. 'Arden gave it to me to protect me from Tristan and his forces spying on me. It will help to keep them from being able to see you or the shadow guards from being able to get into your mind.'

Flashes of Lewis being tortured, real or not, stopped Emily from objecting as Lillian placed it around her neck. As soon as it settled on her chest, the grip the visions had on her faded. 'Thanks,' she said, cupping the pendant in her hand to examine it. 'What happened to the others?'

'They're gone. For now,' Thomas said as they grouped up by what remained of the doorway. 'We should move quickly before any more come.'

The bunker stretched much further into the hillside than Emily had been expecting, circling around a dark opening that descended into the earth. Faint screams from far below echoed up to them. She found herself wondering how many people had suffered and died here. Was it still the echoes of their screams, or were there new inhabitants of the Prison of Shadows?

'Down here,' Edward said quietly, pointing to a staircase that spiralled down around the edge of the dark void at the centre of the room.

Along the walls, hand-sized chunks of crystal had been embedded in the dark stone, giving off a soft, eerie glow. With each loop of the staircase, the temperature seemed to drop, with a thin fog occupying the centre of the shaft. The screams grew louder, echoing around them. There was a screech from below before two dark shapes shot up the shaft, neither of them noticing their presence.

'This place doesn't feel right,' Lillian said. Emily shivered behind her, wrapping her arms around herself to try and stay warm.

'Emily, is there any way you can try and reach out to Lewis? He might be able to guide us in the right direction,' Thomas asked as he peered over the iron railing and into the darkness below.

'I can try,' she said, stopping with the rest of them and putting her back against the wall before she closed her eyes, trying to focus on Lewis. When the connection had been made before, it hadn't been under her control; she was just there suddenly. 'Lewis? Can you hear me? We need help finding you.'

She waited and waited for what felt like minutes, aware of the others shuffling their feet, anxious to get moving again but also knowing that they had no idea where they needed to be heading. Just as she was about to give up and open her eyes again, the heavy iron door materialised before her, the cloak of someone disappearing around the corner as it swung shut. With a click, it remained open a fraction; something tiny and white stopped it from closing properly. 'I'm here,' Lewis whispered. 'Keep heading down; I'll find you.'

Before she could reply, the connection between them was severed, and her eyes opened to see everyone looking at her expectantly. 'Keep heading down; he said he'd find us,' she said, relaying his words. 'How's he going to find us in this place?'

'He must still have the Spiritbound Stone within him,' Edward said, falling into step beside Thomas as they continued their descent.

'What's that?' she asked.

'It was an artefact given to us by Arsuneo in Avalkan; that's a blue dragon that's made the ruins its home,' Edward explained. 'The stone is supposed to be able to guide the person it's bonded with towards whatever it is they seek.'

'You met a dragon?' Emily and Thomas said in unison, the latter more excited than confused.

'I remember Arsuneo; Arden rescued him, Brolrynth and Pythyr from Oldiron not long after they had hatched,' Lillian said.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

'What was he like?' Thomas asked. 'I've heard they can be quite vain creatures, preferring to amass a hoard far from anything else.'

'He assumed we were there for the treasure initially. If it hadn't been for Lewis and Arden looking so alike, we probably all would have been burned alive before we had been able to deny it,' Captain Caldwell said.

'If Arden rescued him from Oldiron, couldn't we try to get him, Brolrynth and Pythyr on our side to help fight Tristan?' Emily asked.

Edward shook his head. 'Lewis tried to get him to help us, but he wasn't interested in interfering in, as he put it, the 'quarries of mortal men'. Besides, he doesn't know where Arden took Brolrynth and Pythyr.'

'Look at this,' Lillian said, interrupting their conversation.

Off to one side of the staircase was a dark tunnel with three lines marked on the stone in white chalk. They were only a handful of steps from the bottom, where the shaft opened out, and the staircase was now central with a dozen tunnels around the outside. Over each door, a carved stone lintel sat, with a different number of pearlescent skulls grouped together above each one.

All around the room, there were recesses filled with bones that seemed to glow in the dim light. Between each door, a twisted stone gargoyle looked down on them. The fog that had filled the shaft on the way down now pooled at their feet, obscuring the floor and everything below knee height from view. Emily could feel the hairs pricking up on the back of her neck as she looked around—the feeling that something was watching them. 'Which way do we go now?'

Her voice echoed far more than she had expected, and she found herself listening worriedly for the sound of movement in the darkness. She had no idea which direction would take them back towards the ruins of Arcadia; they had been turned around so many times on their descent.

'There's something engraved in the wall over here,' Thomas said, moving towards the door with twelve skulls piled above it. The text had been carved into the wall on either side. 'In this place, time stands still. Standing still in this place will cost you time.'

The words had barely left Thomas' mouth when there was a grinding of stones and the whole room shook. Above the doors, the walls shifted, and the lintels with the skulls moved, taking places over different doors. Metal clanged as iron bars dropped from each doorframe, blocking their exits.

'It must be a puzzle of some sort,' Edward said, moving over to read the text again. There was a cracking of stone from above, and, with a screech, the gargoyles either side of the door leapt down from their plinths, slamming into the floor on either side of Thomas and Edward.

There was another thud from somewhere behind Emily, a second and then a third. She turned to find three more gargoyles lumbering towards her. 'What do we do?' she shouted.

'Hold them off while I try and figure it out,' Edward said, thrusting out a hand so that a wall of force knocked the gargoyle nearest him backwards a couple of paces.

Captain Caldwell jumped in on command, taking his blade to the gargoyle that Edward had knocked back. A shower of sparks fell to the floor as the metal struck the stone, the gargoyle seemingly not bothered by it. It did, however, draw attention away from Edward. 'If you've got any of those vials handy, now would be a good time,' Captain Caldwell shouted as he deflected a blow from the gargoyle on either side of him, more sparks disappearing into the fog that hugged the ground.

In her desperation, the dagger fell from her hand into the fog. It would have to wait, she thought as she pulled the cork from a light blue vial. Robyn had made sure that everyone had been extra careful with the three of these she had made. Unlike the concussive vial that had been dropped at the port, she had made it very clear to everyone that these were highly volatile and explosive.

Turning, Emily hurled it in between the three gargoyles that were closing in on her and Lillian from the base of the staircase. With a bright blue flash and a deafening boom that echoed up and down the shaft, it exploded. Before she had a chance to react, Lillian threw up her arms, a golden orange dome bursting from the ground, encasing the pair of them as fragments of stone bombarded it, bouncing off the shield and into the fog.

There was a rumble from above as huge chunks of stone began to fall, the broken staircase giving way under its own weight. Well, they wouldn't be going back the way they had come now.

Her ears were ringing from the explosion as she turned her attention back to the two remaining gargoyles that Captain Caldwell was battling to keep at bay. Thomas was weaving his hands, creating heavy iron chains in an attempt to hold them back, but they kept breaking as the gargoyles pulled against them. Emily fumbled with the vials at her belt, but there weren't any more of the explosive vials; Clara must have kept the other one after Robyn had taken the first. All she was left with were a couple of concussive blasts, a thick, corrosive substance, and three salves to heal minor wounds.

'I haven't got any of those left!' she shouted desperately, looking at Lillian as she dropped the shield.

'If you've got an answer to the riddle, now would be a good time,' Captain Caldwell said, allowing the gargoyles to manoeuvre him backwards around the room and away from Edward and Thomas.

'Emily, hold my arm,' Lillian said. 'I've never tried it like this before but I don't know what else I can do.'

Before Emily could say anything, Lillian looped her arm around her own, her eyes glazing over and her pupils rolling back into her head. She went completely rigid, all her weight falling on Emily as she tried to hold her up.

One of the gargoyles pursuing Captain Caldwell staggered to a halt, wobbling slightly. He looked in their direction, the distraction being enough for the stone claws of the other gargoyle to connect with his shoulder, sending him tumbling to the floor. Thomas' chains lashed around it, trying to restrain it as it lunged for Captain Caldwell.

With a crash of breaking stone, the other gargoyle charged in, tackling what had moments ago been its ally, aside. The two stone creatures grappled with each other, Lillian's hands twitching with every punch the gargoyle threw.

It didn't stop, the gargoyle Lillian had managed to take control of pummelling the other until it broke apart and all that was left was broken stone poking up out of the fog. 'I think I've got it. It should be this door,' Edward said, pointing to the door with four skulls above it.

The gargoyle stopped smashing one of the broken wings on the floor, standing up awkwardly. Somewhat battered itself, it shuffled across the room towards the door Edward was pointing at. With one heavy swing, it beat both its fists down on the bars, buckling them. For a brief moment, there was a bead of white light that flashed in the dark corridor beyond before the gargoyle exploded into a million pieces, showering all of them as Lillian stumbled against Emily.

'Was that supposed to happen?' Emily asked, glancing in Edward's direction.

The sound of grinding stone echoed around the room once more, a heavy thud shaking the floor. 'I don't think so,' he said slowly, his eyes following the movement upwards of something behind her.

Emily and Lillian turned, looking up to find the broken gargoyles reforming into one large one that towered over them, a good ten or twelve feet tall. Around the edge of the room the lintels shifted once more, a bead of white light glowing in the darkness of the tunnel they could see behind the gargoyle, between its enormous legs. Arms still intertwined, they scuttled backwards as it let out a deafening shriek that made the ground shake, raising its fists ready to bring them down.

A high-pitched screech filled the air as it lumbered forwards, the bead of light growing brighter and brighter before it shot forward, the bars over the door bursting inwards. It collided with the back of the gargoyle, the shockwave from the impact throwing the pair of them to the floor. Instinctively, Emily covered her head as chunks of rock rained down around her, striking her all over her body, the ones that lingered more than an instant burning any exposed skin. Slowly she lifted her head, the low fog swirling around her. Striding through the darkness in their direction was a lone figure, one hand still outstretched, eyes of piercing white.

The dust began to settle slowly, the grey light around the room brightening slightly, and the metal gates lifted once more as the giant gargoyle lay shattered on the ground. Emily stood shaking, Lillian at her side, both with their eyes on the person walking towards them. 'Are you both alright?' a man asked from beneath the hood of the cloak, his glowing white eyes fading as he moved forward.

'We are now; thanks for the help,' Lillian said, taking the lead when Emily stayed quiet.

'Lillian?' he whispered, pulling back the hood and cocking his head to one side.

'Hagre? How?' she said, taking a step towards him.

Emily glanced over at the other three, all of them looking bewildered. 'You know him?' she asked.

Lillian and the man both nodded. 'Of course we do; why else do you think you're here if not to rescue me? It's been weeks! I got out of my cell, and I've been wandering around endlessly in this infernal maze,' he said.

'We weren't here for you; it was just a happy coincidence. I didn't think anyone Tristan had taken prisoner during the war would still be alive,' she said.

'There's no denying Tristan is ruthless, but he'd spend more than a couple of weeks interrogating people.'

'Hagre, it's not been a few weeks. It's been more than two centuries since you were captured; that's why they don't know who you are,' Lillian said. 'We came to rescue Lewis; he's Arden's great-great-great grandson. Everyone, this is Hagre Vandemark, Arden's uncle.'

'Well, that's something,' Hagre muttered. 'How are you here if that's the case?'

'That tomb Arden was working on, he locked me inside before he went off to fight Tristan and kill him,' she explained. 'The tomb only opened a few weeks ago but it must have worked in a similar way to this place that time passed differently on the inside to the outside.'

'Tristan's alive; I've seen him walking these halls recently,' Hagre said. He pointed to the tunnel with the three skulls over it. 'That's where he usually goes; I kept track of where he went on one of the walls a little further up with a piece of chalk. The other tunnel he uses most is the one with the seven skulls over it.'

'The lintels with the skulls on moved when we entered the room; I was trying to figure out the riddle when the gargoyles attacked us,' Edward said.

Hagre shook his head. 'The lintels don't move; it's the floor, but you don't notice it when you're standing in the room. That's the answer to the riddle. Each tunnel is a point on a clock; the riddle says time stands still here, so it isn't the clock moving. If you stand still and the room moves, you end up looking at a different time. It took me a long time to realise that the riddle isn't actually carved into the wall, so it moves with the floor. All very clever, especially for disorienting anyone who might be trying to escape.'

'So where do the tunnels go?' Edward asked.

'The majority of them go around in circles that bring you back to this room. At first, I thought it led to a different chamber that was identical to this one. It wasn't until I started marking my path that I realised what was happening,' Hagre said, holding up the stub of a piece of chalk.

'If you were looking for the way out, why didn't you just go up the staircase?' Emily asked.

'That staircase isn't always there; it only appears when they're bringing someone in or taking them out,' he said. 'You know Kannan; he's here too, Lillian. There's a lever behind one of the gargoyles that reveals the staircase. He pulled it not long before you came down.'

'Which side is he on?' Emily asked. What she had been able to see from her connection with Lewis was that he had been helping Tristan.

'People were always suspicious of him, on both sides,' Lillian said.

'Do you know what leads where yet?' Thomas asked, speaking for the first time after being unusually silent.

'It's just cells down number three as far as I know; I haven't gone all the way to the end in case it's a dead end and Tristan or Kannan show up. A lot of them are empty, but there were a couple of people down there that I recognised. The further you go, the more dangerous they are,' Hagre said.

'Did anyone see you?' Thomas asked.

'No, the shadows are keeping them prisoner. They invade your mind and your body; you can't see anything beyond them except your worst memories and fears,' he said. 'It never ends.'

'How did you escape?' Emily said.

'Probably more luck than anything. For a brief moment, there was a weakness in them, and I managed to use a bead of daylight to break through them and force them away from me. I was weaker than I've ever been, but there was just enough to destroy them. I expected more to come, but none did,' he said. 'When I'd regained my strength, I set about trying to find a way to escape. If I could find a way out, I might be able to go back for some of the others, but it looks like the way out is gone now, at least this one.'

'Is there another way?' Thomas asked. 'Weren't there rumours long ago that the catacombs of the prison ran under the city and there was a way into the palace?'

He nodded. 'I haven't been able to find it yet, but I think it's likely. Tristan and Kannan never came down the staircase, at least not that I've seen. So, unless they're staying down here somewhere, there must be another way out.'

'I have this connection with Lewis that lets me see bits of what he can see and speak to him,' Emily said. 'He said to keep heading down and he would find us; I think he managed to find a way to free himself from the shadows as well.'

'Well, in that case, we might be in luck; this is the lowest point,' Hagre said.

Before any of them could respond, the sound of footsteps echoed around the room, and a figure emerged from the tunnel they had just been discussing. Emily recognised him immediately as Kannan, and so it seemed did Lillian and Hagre. He stopped in his tracks, considering them all, as Captain Caldwell twitched his sword. 'That's a shame; I used to like the design of that staircase,' he said, surveying the rubble from where the bottom of it had collapsed. 'Everything crumbles in the end, I guess, even the greatest cities and palaces.'

Without another word or waiting for a response, he continued walking, moving between them and disappearing down the corridor with the seven skulls stacked on the lintel over the doorway. Emily looked at Lillian and Hagre in the hope they might have answers, but they both shrugged. 'It doesn't seem like he's changed much,' Lillian said.