Chapter 190: The man
What is this place?
Ayla thought as Lucius half-shoved and half-guided her up a narrow path carved into the side of a low cliff.
After their confrontation in the courtyard with the guard, Lucius had dragged her back into the palace and straight to his chambers.
He locked the door behind them and shoved her forward toward a dusty shelf on one side of the room with the knife still against her neck.
The shelf looked as though no one had touched it in years. Books lined every corner of it and were covered with dust with some of them looking so old that the covers had begun to peel.
Why did he bring me here? Ayla thought. Surely he knows this would be the first place the princes searched in their pursuit of him.
Lucius reached for one of the books, pulling it out.
Ayla’s eyes widened as a faint click reached her ears and the shelf began to move, revealing a narrow opening in the wall.
"Get inside." Lucius commanded.
Ayla stared into the musty darkness.
The opening was barely wide enough for her to fit through and the thought of it made her chest tighten with panic.
She hated tight spaces.
"I said get in" Lucius snapped.
Ayla climbed into the narrow passage.
There was barely enough room for her to move her arms. Her shoulders were almost touching the sides of the wall and the ceiling was low enough that she had to duck her head.
"Keep moving," Lucius ordered from behind her.
Ayla forced herself to inch forward, her heart pounding in her chest to near bursting. Every inch she took felt like a battle against her own mind screaming at her, sending panic down every nerve ending in her body.
The passage seemed to go on forever.
Her fingers trembled as she pressed one hand against the wall to steady herself. Her lungs felt tight and one horrible moment, she thought she was going to collapse.
Just when she could barely take it anymore, she saw a silver of light in front of her. She stumbled toward it, emerging from the passage and into sudden brightness.
Ayla blinked rapidly to get her eyes to adjust to the light then she looked around, her breath catching in her throat.
She was standing in what looked like a very beautiful garden... only it wasn’t a garden.
She could not smell the flowers that lined up the whole place in colors so vibrant they were practically glowing.
She saw carved wooden horses in varying sizes tucked behind makeshift trees that looked very real.
The entire place looked like something pulled straight from a child’s imagination.
Of all the chaos outside the palace and of the destruction happening around Emberfall, this place was peaceful, untouched...almost frozen in time.
She could not understand it.
"Move," Lucius shoved her when he saw that Ayla had stopped to gape around her.
Ayla resumed her walking, through the path where she could hear birds chirping but saw no birds around.
Finally, they got to the cliff and Lucius guided her up until they came to the mouth of a cave.
He walked past her and entered into it then, almost as if he were speaking to himself, he muttered.
"I invite you in."
Ayla blinked.
What?
Lucius reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into the cave with him.
The moment she crossed the entrance, Lucius released her and heaved a sigh of relief. He let go of her arm and stepped back.
"What is this place?" Ayla asked, staring at him.
...
"Where is she then?" Damon stepped forward, towering over Amara with a hard expression.
It was meant to intimidate her but Amara did not flinch nor did she acknowledge him.
Instead, she inclined her head toward Ares and spoke.
"He took her to the cave."
"The cave?" Ares echoed, his brows drawing together. "What is that?"
"Lucius was not always like this." she began. "When I met him, before he built all of this for himself, he was just a man who wanted to help people... rogues like him. People who had nowhere to go because they had been cast out by their own packs and betrayed by those they called family."
"I do not see how this..."
"He had a daughter." Amara looked toward the palace. "Elysia was her name. She was the prettiest soul you could ever see and she was filled with so much love that was almost blinding. Lucius was all she had; her mother had died bringing her into the world but they were happy to have each other."
The three princes had shock written across their features.
A daughter? Lucius?
"What happened to her?" Ares asked.
Amara turned to him, her eyes sad.
"Elysia fell sick. It was a wasting disease and it defied every cure; even my own powers were useless against it. We could not stop her from withering away until she died. Lucius went mad with grief. I want to believe that is what brought us all to this moment."
"The cave was a place I created for her." Amara continued. "The rogue pack Lucius had gathered were scavengers; their children grew up too fast, their childhoods stolen by the struggle to survive. Lucius could not bear that for Elysia. He wanted her to have a semblance of a childhood, a place where the world couldn’t touch her."
Ares’ could almost see Lucius’ desperation in Amara’s words.
"He decorated the place himself, you know." she gave a faint smile. "Carved a whole lot of wooden horses for her. He decorated it with flowers... real flowers, whenever he could find them. He went far and wide to bring them back then he had me preserve the entire place with magic, so it would never fade or die."
"Then let us go there now," Ares commanded, his voice regaining its edge. "Lead the way, Amara."
"We cannot get in."Amara’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Ares spun around. "What do you mean we cannot get in?"
"Lucius had me spell the place. Only he and his daughter can enter the cave, unless one of them explicitly invites another inside. As you well know, he is not going to invite us in."