Page 55 of Somber Prince
“An underground city? It sounds fun.” Lin elbowed her friend in excitement.
“That’d be neat to see,” her friend agreed.
“Do they have a food market there?” Kostya eyed my half-eaten breakfast. “The porridge was nice, but I could use more.”
I offered him my bowl, and he grabbed it with a happy grin.
Sigid came by to collect Elaine’s empty dish.
“Hey Sigid.” I touched his hand, getting up. “You said we’re allowed to go into the city with an escort, right?”
He scratched behind one of his long, pointy ears.
“I did say that, yes.”
“Does it mean you can take us on a trip to the city? We’d like to visit an underground market please. Is there such a thing?”
“Sure. When would you like to go?”
I glanced at the people around me. “When?”
“How about right now?” Kostya boomed.
Sigid nodded. “I’ll arrange it.”
Chapter Fourteen
DAWN
Elaine looked up at the ceiling that arched high above the street. “Are we underground already?”
I didn’t even notice when the glowing ceiling replaced the night sky as we walked along a street that slightly sloped downwards.
The eighteen of us had been broken into three groups of six to make it more manageable for our escort of Keepers and guards. Elaine and Melanie were in my group, as well as Lucia, Kostya, and a man named Sipho. I knew his name from Elaine and that he’d been abducted from South Africa, but he wouldn’t talk to me when I’d tried to introduce myself. I didn’t judge. We all had things to work through after being snatched from our past lives so abruptly.
Sigid came with us, too, along with a female Keeper and two male guards.
“It doesn’t feel very different here,” Melanie noted. “The streets outside are just as narrow as here. And the lighting is almost the same.”
In addition to the silver-blue glimmer of the moths fluttering around, the street was illuminated by the golden light from the ceiling and the glowing columns of the building.
“Those ceiling tiles are really bright.” Kostya squinted at the light.
“It’s a naturally glowing stone,” Sigid explained. “We mine it deep under the city. Its glow varies by location and can be enhanced with magic. No matter how bright it is, however, its light doesn’t hurt our eyes the way sunshine does.”
People hurried along the street, squeezing past our group. We encountered a few riders on horseback and a couple of merchants with camels in tow. All of us had to practically flatten ourselves against the walls of the surrounding buildings to allow for the camels with bundles on their backs to pass by.
“They’re on the way to the market,” Sigid said.
We followed the black camels to a wide, open space. It was divided into rows by thick columns that supported the high ceiling. Merchants’ stands formed perfectly straight rows along the columns.
The noise and the high energy of the market felt invigorating after the stagnated quiet of the sarai.
“Stay together,” Sigid warned us, as the guards took their positions in the head and at the end of our small group. They held out their weapons, keeping the crowd at bay as we moved along the aisles.
“So, where is the food?” Kostya roamed his gaze along the wares displayed in the stands.
Clothes of natural colors and geometric prints lay folded or hung draped over horizontal bamboo rods inside the stalls. Various weapons and household tools lay on the tables. Sandals, boots, and bejeweled armor were sold here too. There were a few stalls with bags of grain or baskets of vegetables on display. But I didn’t see anyone who sold street food, nor could I smell any.