Page 4 of Memory of Ashes

“We need to go—now!” the overseer yelled.

The group ran, following him through the tunnels as the walls of the mine shook. Dust rose into the air and clung to the sweat that gathered on her forehead.

Worried about the sickness, she hadn’t considered the other dangers. She was used to working above ground, excavating in open fields. The thought of being buried alive urged her to run faster.

A section of the wall crumbled. Rocks cascaded, trapping a miner as he ran.

“Karl, help me!” she cried, running towards the miner.

The tunnel shook again.

Karl turned and hesitated for a second before joining her.

Shards of rock fell. She winced as they struck her, clutching her arm as the wound oozed with blood. There was no time.

They could die down here, but she couldn’t just leave him. They crouched beside him. He screamed, eyes wide, as they wedged their hands beneath the fallen rock and heaved. He moaned and pulled himself free.

Amelia grabbed the miner beneath one arm while Karl took the other.

“Move!” Karl yelled.

A sob escaped her when the entrance came into view. A wave of fresh air hit her as they exited the mine, and she removed her mask to take a grateful lungful of it.

The dust cleared.

She was alive. They all were.

The workers stood outside, waiting as the shaking ceased.

She pressed both palms to the ground, counting the seconds until she trusted the stillness.

“What was that?” Karl asked, panting for breath.

“It’s been happening more often,” the overseer said. “We’ll have to make sure it’s secure before anyone can go back in. It will take a while.”

As the carriage bore them back to the safety of the city, her mind lingered on the ancient remains hidden within the mine. The thought of returning, only to be entombed alongside them, made her hesitate.

Chapter 2

As soon as they arrived back in the city, Amelia dashed to the guild headquarters, almost tripping as she ran through the streets.

The guild should have known about this. It should have been reported.

“Emin, you won’t believe this,” she said, rushing into his office.

“You’re back early. I wasn’t expecting you until this evening,” Emin said. “What happened to your clothes?” He frowned at them.

“There was another quake. We had to evacuate the mines. We can’t go back down until it’s secure.”

“Are you alright?”

She opened her mouth to answer, then stopped.

She nodded, glancing at her arm where the wound should have been.

She was used to the quakes, but they had become more frequent. This one had been as strong as the one on the mountain. They weren’t always noticeable; sometimes a room merely vibrated or something fell from a shelf. The movement in the mine had been far more violent. Was it a precursor to something bigger?

Emin sucked in a sharp breath as she carefully pulled the skull from the storage container and unwrapped the cloth, revealing its horn-like stumps. His stunned silence said it all.