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Chapter Text

To be perfectly honest, Maddie hadn’t expected much out of this sudden arranged marriage. Whether that was pessimistic or realistic of her would be a debate someone else could have; she didn’t much care what it made her. 

No beautiful lands or extravagant castle or pleasantly welcoming royal family would have convinced her this was her happy ever after. 

But still, even if she had spent all night before the wedding coming up with all the worst case scenarios, being thrown into the depths of a mountain wouldn’t have occurred to her. 

It did, however, prove her right. 

• • •

It probably would’ve hurt more to hit the water waiting at the bottom of the chasm if she hadn’t crashed through branches and vines first, slowing her fall. So instead of losing her breath on a paralyzing impact, she splashed frantically to the surface—her dress and all the blasted layers were heavy—her arms and face stinging fiercely. Not the worst exchange to make in the world, considering she wasn’t drowning. 

The cavern she had fallen into—pardon her, thrown into—was massive and dark. A dim glow came from beneath the water’s surface, a luminescent blue algae clinging to the rock pillars jutting up at random. It was altogether rather eerie. 

Weighed down as she was, it took Maddie endless minutes to reach the nearest one. A thin sound of desperation leaked from her as she latched on, holding herself up to catch her breath. She was fully exhausted when she fought to climb out of the water; frustration overtook all other emotions as her clinging, sopping dress tangled up around her legs. 

At long last, she was atop the slanted pillar, panting heavily on her back. Beyond herself, the only noise in the cavern was the quiet drip and splash of water. 

She tried to find the chasm she’d been cast down, but the algae’s glow didn’t reach the ceiling. 

Hauling herself up, Maddie nonetheless hollered, “Hello? Hello, please! I…” She trailed off, sagging in place. What could she say? I need help? They had been the ones to do this to her! 

The taste of blood bloomed on her tongue when she licked her lips. Being soaked through, she couldn’t tell where she was bleeding from on her face. Her arms, though, bare from the elbow down thanks to the flowing waterfall sleeves, were littered with dark, whip-thin cuts. 

Maddie looked around but could see no sign of sunlight. No way out. 

“Please, is anyone there?” she yelled again, eyes welling up. “Hello!” 

A cold helplessness yawned open in her chest at the silence. Her breath hitched on a broken sob. 

She hugged herself ’round her stomach and hunched forward, thoughts battering about in her head. Confusion and fear were loudest—why had they done this to her? It was so… calculated. The silent watchers, the ceremony in the cave, the insistence on carrying her across the walkway. It hadn’t been the prince’s sudden decision that, no, actually, he wasn’t interested in being married. It had been planned. 

But for what? Did they mean for her to die on the way down? Or was she to rot in this cavern? 

She trembled in the darkness, feeling very alone and small. She didn’t know what to do. 

Betrayal came on the heels of confusion and fear. She’d done nothing deserving of this—she’d known the royal family for a day, had never even set foot in their lands before now! If this was some revenge or punishment, she knew not what for. And to think, she’d believed just yesterday afternoon that she and the prince would get along well enough. 

Maddie thought of her father and his concern, her mother and her guilty eyes, her brother and the upset he couldn’t quite keep from his smile. Choking on worry, she hoped they wouldn’t be thrown down to join her. 

The smallest spark of indignant anger flickered deep in her chest, not yet ready to flare into fury. But it was waiting. Ready. 

Her fearful trembling turned to chilled shivers, and Maddie finally roused herself. The dress hung limp and cold against her, weighted like chainmail. Suddenly disgusted by its extravagance, she wrestled her way out of layer after layer—corset and gown and underdress and petticoats. The gold accessories clattered to the rock. She eyed the heels on her shoes, then the uneven stone, and yanked them off before they could lead to a broken ankle. 

She chucked them, one after the other, as far into the silent cavern as she could. They splashed loudly out of sight. 

And then—a chuckle. 

Maddie’s body locked up in a surge of fear. The deep, rumbling chuckle bounced around the chamber, echoing at her from all directions. It was accompanied by the scrape of something truly heavy—and large—sliding over the rocks. Water murmured in quiet ripples and rushes. The final sharp slap of something hitting the pool’s surface made her flinch. 

Frozen in place, her wide eyes darted around. But she saw nothing. 

“What have we here?” a low, growly voice said. Dark amusement suffused its tone. “Is it time again already?”

A flash of movement to her left. Maddie whirled but only saw ripples on the water. She stood up on shaky legs, feeling dreadfully vulnerable and exposed. With the remains of her wedding gown balled up on the rocks, she was left in her red shift, the white underskirt beneath it, and her stockings.

“Tell me, child…”  

She tried to follow the voice, catching a flash of shadow in the water. It was big. 

“What is your name?”  

With her eyes better adjusted, Maddie could see now that the pool didn’t take up the entire cavern. In front of her, not too far away, the water met land. 

“Don’t be shy,” the dark voice teased when she didn’t respond. “Speak your name.” 

Heart in her throat, she said, barely more than a whisper, “Maddie.” 

“Maddie,” the creature sounded out, like it was tasting each letter. She could tell, that time, that the voice came from farther away, behind her. 

Eyes fixed on the promise of land, she quietly slipped down the boulder and into the chilly water. She mentally thanked her father for insisting she learn how to swim when she was a child. Without the wedding dress, she made good time to the next protruding boulder. 

The creature did not appear to notice. 

“Welcome to my home, Maddie… did you enjoy the fall?”

She grit her teeth as she scrambled up the steeper side of this pillar. “What do you want?” she demanded, partly to know, partly to stall. 

With a hiss, the creature growled, “What do I want? You cannot give me what I want. Your ancestors took what I want, what is mine—and until I get her back, your blood will pay.”

Her ancestors? But Maddie had no ancestors in this land. A shiver of horror stole up her spine. She didn’t, but hadn’t the prince himself said that their lineage went back centuries? 

“How quickly the years pass,” the creature sneered. “All too soon, the next generation arrives. While I continue to suffer alone. And so, your family’s debt is still unpaid.” 

As Maddie set out for the next boulder, her thoughts screamed at her. The ceremony, the blasted ceremony. Oh, how kind it had all sounded at the time—we welcome you into our family, you will be one of us. The sharing of blood, shed by a blade that she was certain had runes of a sort carved in it. 

Maddie was a sacrifice. 

Heart racing, she made it to the top of the rock. There were no more between her and land. 

She wasn’t sure what made her look back, but she did—just in time to watch a monster surge up from the water to tower over the first pillar she’d taken refuge on. It was huge and scaled, like a dragon without wings, with sharp teeth and jagged plates sticking up all down its spine. Its ember eyes lifted from the empty rock, and she locked gazes with it. 

Blue light emanated from its back as a strange hum filled the air, and Maddie jumped into the pool with a shriek, just barely avoiding the jet of blue fire that shot past where she had been. She swam frantically, faster than she ever had before, entirely aware that the monster was probably much more suited to traversing the water. 

She reached the pebbly shore and stumbled up it to the flat rocky ground without daring to look back. Her trickery had given her the slightest head start; she couldn’t afford to waste it. She sprinted toward the wall of the cavern, praying desperately to find some small passage to squeeze through. 

Behind her, Maddie heard the monster burst onto land. “You cannot escape me!” it bellowed furiously after her. The hum returned, and the dim glow brightened enough to cast her warped shadow over the ground. 

She looked over her shoulder. The blue fire raced toward her again, and though she was fast enough to dive out of the way, she didn’t escape unscathed. She screamed, her upper arm burning in agony, but she forced herself up again. The smell of charred flesh and burnt hair made her stomach twist.

Tears blurring her vision, Maddie nearly slammed into the wall. The monster chuckled around the building hum. 

A crack—she slipped into it, yelling through her gritted teeth as the rough stone pressed into the burn. 

Maddie tumbled into a wider crevice, and she ducked around a twist just as the blast of fire scorched the cavern wall. She flinched from the flames that licked against the rock mere feet away.

The monster roared its anger. Thunderous footsteps pounded closer. She pressed farther from the entrance, covering her mouth with her hand. 

A terrible silence settled over them as the monster stopped. She heard it sniffing deeply. 

Its chuckle was not nearly so amused this time. “Clever child. Very well—run. I have not had a good chase in years.” With a low hiss, she heard it start to slink away. “I will see you soon, Maddie.” 

She held her breath until it was gone. 

Shaking and gasping, she twisted her left arm. The outer side was burnt raw and bloody. The throbbing, stinging tightness of it was the worst pain she’d ever felt. She slumped heavily against the cave wall, then realized she couldn’t feel her long, thick braid behind her. She reached back with her right hand and combed the remainder of the braid out, finding crispy ends just below her shoulders, at a slant.

She must have twisted just so to avoid having her head turned to ash.

With a snort that couldn’t quite decide if it was annoyed or darkly amused, Maddie closed her eyes and just breathed. 

Chapter Text

Once Maddie was certain she wasn’t about to start screaming or sobbing uncontrollably, she turned her attention back to her arm. The burn spanned most of the way between her elbow and shoulder, a shiny red with charred black edges. It burned hotly. Painfully.

A particular secret accessory came back to her mind as she contemplated the hem of her shift. A long-ago gift from her brother. 

It was still there, still secured to the side of her thigh—a sheathed dagger with a blade of roughly five inches. Carrying a weapon, even a small one, was their father’s compromise in allowing them to wander beyond the outer walls of their village on their own. It had become a habit, and something of a game, for both of them to always have one hidden on their person somewhere. It had felt good to have something of her brother with her during the weeding.

This was not the sort of thing she’d ever have expected to use it for. 

The dagger had a sharp, slim blade and a sheath of deep red leather with a matching wrap on the hilt. Etchings of the moon phases crossed the front of the cross-guard, which had ends that curved downward just slightly. The pommel formed a swirling cage around a beautiful green gemstone set into the end of the hilt. 

Andrew had given it to her for her sixteenth birthday, and it was the only one she’d kept on her since. She teared up, thinking about him. If she didn’t make it out of this wretched mountain, would he think she’d abandoned him? That she thought too highly of herself as the wife of a future king to be associating with a mere son of a lord? What excuses would be made to him and her parents when she never visited, and they were told they could not visit her?

No, no, she wouldn’t do that to them. She’d make it out. She had to.

Biting her lip, she roughly tore at her shift with the dagger until she had a few long strips of fabric. She couldn’t keep from crying out as she wrapped them around her burned arm, using her teeth to help tie a knot.

She sat back when she finished, panting. It’d been a long day already with the wedding. Add in swimming in a full dress, her desperate sprint, and the overall rush of fear and adrenaline and panic, and Maddie was soundly exhausted. 

This small crevice felt too close to the main cavern for comfort, though, so she forced herself to stand. Beyond the nook she’d taken shelter in, the passageway continued farther back, and that was the direction she stumbled in.

The rocks were sharp beneath her stockinged feet, and the darkness felt crushingly thick. Easy to get lost in forever. Patches of glowing moss dotting the walls and ceiling were her only guiding light.

The ground suddenly sloped downward, quite steeply, and by the time she truly realized it, it was too late. Loose gravel skittered underfoot; she lost her balance, flailing. With a yelp, Maddie tumbled down a narrow shaft and right over the edge of a rock shelf, falling around eight feet into a bed of ferns and moss and hydrangeas. 

The breath knocked out of her for the second time in an evening, she laid among the greenery, gasping for air. 

A minute later, the presence of actual plants struck her as odd. Feeling quite bruised, she stiffly sat up, pushing away the round clusters of hydrangea flowers. And then she stared around this new cave in awe. 

It seemed every available surface was covered in life. The floor was a sea of grasses and wildflowers and bushes and ferns. Mushrooms and moss and ivy covered the walls. Leafy vines wove between the stalactites overhead. Orchids hung from them in bunches alongside bleeding hearts. At the center of the cave, surrounded by the beautiful underground oasis, the ceiling dripped brightly glowing slime of some sort. 

Maddie cautiously made her way to the teal-blue light. Beneath it, she found a pond full of cattail grass and lily pads. Water dripped into it from the stalactites. 

She knelt and cupped her hands in the cool water. It was sweet, almost, and she soon forwent her hands to simply lean down and drink straight from the source. 

Resting beside the pond, she took a closer look around herself. Spots of that same teal-blue dotted the plant life, and she realized with delighted interest that they were plump little glowworms, each as long as her pinky finger. They left trails with a faint sheen behind them as they slowly meandered around. 

She picked up a nearby one. It wiggled in her gentle grasp. 

“I won’t hurt you,” she murmured to it, setting it in the palm of her hand. Its segments pulsed one after another, like a ripple. Its tiny feet tickled. 

Leaving it be, Maddie tipped her head back. It seemed to her that there were cracks in the ceiling over the pond, and everything was being held together by the thick, sticky-looking slime. Just barely, she caught a glimpse of something shining, iridescent, through the cracks. Like there was a cave above this one, and something sat overhead. 

The air was fresh, the dripping water peaceful in the silence, and Maddie couldn’t hold back sleep any longer. Carefully setting aside her glowworm, she laid down on her side, burned arm up, right there beside the pond. She was asleep as soon as she closed her eyes. 

• • • 

In her dreams, she sat at the edge of the pool, her aching feet resting within it. There was the soft rustle of plants and the sound of footsteps. Maddie looked up, unafraid. 

Across the pond, a woman looked back. She was so ethereally beautiful that Maddie immediately knew this could not be real, for no real person could be so perfect. 

Her straight white hair fell nearly to her waist. Some locks were braided with beads. Others were wound around crystals. A crown of flowers, all in full, bright bloom, rested on her head. Delicate trails of the blue slime hung from it in wide loops against her hair.

Her tan skin was free of blemishes and so clear that it was almost like that of a painting. She wore a silken robe with a pattern that reminded Maddie of butterflies’ wings. She was barefoot. 

Her eyes were the glowing teal-blue of the cave. 

She watched Maddie closely, and it felt like her very soul was being examined. 

Maddie looked down and discovered she held one of the glowworms in her cupped hands. She gingerly stroked down its back, smiling when it rippled at her. 

The woman moved, startling Maddie into lifting her head. They were no longer in the cave, but somewhere far more familiar to her. Snow drifted down around her where she sat on a boulder overlooking the frozen plains. 

It wasn’t the most magnificent place in the vast world, nor was it the most hospitable or plentiful. Especially during the winter months. But to her, the sparkling white drifts covering the ground, the distant towering trees at the edge of the forest, the dancing lights in the sky on clear nights—they were all twice as beautiful as the rolling hills and towering mountain and gilded palace of Aurea. 

It was home. 

The frozen pond was alive with children skating—or trying to. Some were stumbling around merely in their boots. Their laughter and yelps rang loudly in the crisp air. Their parents were gathered off to the side at a roaring bonfire. The smell of meat and spiced apple cider made Maddie’s mouth water. 

From the front of a growing train of children, Andrew looked up at her and waved, wearing the thick mittens she had knitted for him. 

Maddie, careful of the glowworm, waved back. It felt odd to be amidst the snow and falling night in only a torn shift and thin underskirt, yet not feel the cold. She glanced at the woman and something in her lovely face made Maddie explain, “It’s my home.” She twisted around to look back at the walls surrounding the village and, at its heart, the keep her family lived in.

“At the base of the mountain?” the woman asked, though she looked doubtful. 

Maddie shook her head. “Across the ocean. Far away.” 

She wondered, in a distant, hazy way, if she would ever see her homelands again. 

“You are not from these lands?” 

“I first set foot in these lands not three days ago.” 

Between blinks, the woman was standing before her, and the scenery had changed once again. They both stood now in an enormous cavern, though not the one Maddie had first fallen into. No, this was even more massive, its ceiling shrouded in mist and its far reaches lost in shadow. Enormous pillars of stone connected the rock above with the rock below. Behind the woman, just indistinct enough that Maddie couldn’t quite make out what it was beyond its iridescent glow, was something that emitted the teal-blue light. 

“I cannot return,” the woman said quickly, urgently. “Something hinders me, just within my cocoon.” 

“What?” Maddie said. She felt… fuzzy, she supposed. In her head. 

“Like a splinter,” the woman continued. “It must be removed before I can finish healing.” 

Maddie slowly shook her head, confused. 

“You do not deserve the fate they put on you.” She reached out and took Maddie’s hand, the one with the cut. She still held the glowworm, and it was wriggling over the faint pink slice in her palm. Something about that struck her as strange. “He will not stop nor see reason. You must free me.” 

“Who are you?” Maddie asked. Her own voice sounded like it was coming from far away. 

“I am his Queen,” the beautiful woman replied, so clear that it felt spoken directly into her ear.

With a great gasp of air, Maddie startled awake, alone in the cave. 

Her hand was stretched out in front of her, palm up, and a glowworm sat within the loose curl of her fingers. She unfurled them. The cut, which had been an angry red slash of more than two inches long, made mere hours ago, was little more than a faint white line in her skin. Not even enough to call a scar. The sheen of the glowworm’s slime shimmered across it. 

And when Maddie slowly sat up, she discovered the haphazard wrapping on her burn had fallen away, and in its place, a dozen plump glowworms had converged over the injury. 

All that was left of it, beneath smears of ash and sticky slime, was the tender pink of newly healed skin. 

For the first time since she was thrown down here, Maddie felt real, proper hope. 

Chapter Text

As much as Maddie wanted to stay in the oasis for the sense of safety it offered, she knew she couldn’t. Not if she wanted to escape the mountain and the monster living inside it.

She took another drink from the pond before standing. Her stomach twisted with hunger, but no matter how much she wished for it, she could find no fruit-bearing trees or bushes among the plants in the cavern. 

There was a small passage set in one wall, and it was there she eventually went to stand. She hesitated, biting her lip. She had moved her dagger to her hip, fashioning a crude belt with more strips of fabric from her shift. Considering the size of her aggressor, it wasn’t much of a comfort. 

Maddie looked back at the pond. She almost started to turn, but she caught herself before she could. Snapping back ’round to face the exit, she briskly rubbed her arms. 

No one is coming to save you, she sternly thought, so save yourself. 

And with that, she marched into the shadowy passage, leaving the peaceful oasis behind. 

• • • 

For better or worse, she didn’t immediately cross paths with the creature. Instead, after she’d been cautiously wandering the maze of different-sized tunnels for what couldn’t have been even half an hour, she stumbled upon something else. Something nearly as scary, in its own way. 

This monster was much smaller, comparable to an adult man. Its skin was black and leathery, and its body tapered down into a long tail. Its two front legs were disturbingly reminiscent of human arms. But it was its head that made Maddie’s breath catch in her throat. 

It was a skull. An exposed skull, with hollows for eyes and wicked teeth jutting from its bone-white jaws. It gleamed dully beneath the luminescent moss that seemed to have spread through the entirety of the mountain.

Perhaps she made a noise in her fear, or stumbled on a loose pebble, or perhaps it smelled her. Whatever the answer, its skull head swung towards her, a low hiss coming from its parted maw. 

She was momentarily paralyzed by the terrifying way it pulled itself along with its hands, slithering towards her like a mutated snake. 

A flash of a forked tongue in its mouth snapped her out of her trance, and Maddie tripped over herself to get away from the monster. She ran. 

It followed. Fast. 

Despite her panic, she quickly realized it would be much harder to hide from this creature. It was larger than her by only a small amount, with dexterous hands and a long neck. It didn’t appear to breathe fire, but it would be able to follow her into any small crevice she found. And it was clearly keeping up with her just fine. 

As she cast a glance back over her shoulder to gauge its nearness, she tripped over something quite large, sending her to the ground with a cry. 

She twisted, nearly retched at the sight of the partially decomposed, partially eaten body, and reached almost without thought for the scabbard hanging loosely from the corpse’s waist. 

She could not outrun the skull-headed monster, nor could she hide from it. Drawing the sword with a long snick of metal along metal, Maddie raised the blade with both hands, not wasting time in trying to get up. 

On her back, she braced herself. The monster lunged at her with a throaty snarl, doing all the hard work for her. It impaled itself on the sword—a jolt reverberated through her arms, and the pommel pressed bruisingly against her sternum. 

The bone jaw snapped weakly a few times at her face, just inches away. She’d have screamed if she’d had the breath for it. 

One clawed hand swung forward, and she was just quick enough to turn her head and squeeze her eyes shut. Burning lines were scored from her temple, over her cheek, and down to her jaw.

Maddie jerked the sword, and with a sick crunch, blood rained down on her as the monster went limp. 

She twisted with a heave, grunting as the heavy creature nearly made her lose her grip. The sword clattered out of her hands as the monster dragged it down. Forcing herself upright, she scooted away until her back hit stone, and there she struggled to catch her breath, wide eyes watching for any surprise movement. 

But no, it was dead. 

She was shaking as she finally stood, her knees stinging from the harsh landing. Forcing herself to be practical, she approached the bloodied beast and pulled the sword from its chest. 

It still wasn’t much compared to the much larger threat, but it was better than her dagger. She removed the scabbard from the long-dead knight, holding her breath against the smell of rot as she did. The leather belt it was attached to was far too large for her waist, and rather than wrestle with the stiff buckle, she instead slung it over her head to rest across her body. With only a bit of a struggle, she slid the sword home. 

Swallowing hard, Maddie slowly continued on, more wary than ever. 

• • •

As she crept through the winding tunnels and caverns, Maddie began to find signs of others who had come before her. Arrows scratched into the rock. Words in foreign languages marked out in chalk or blood. A pile of cloth here, a lone boot there. She kept catching herself holding her breath, fearful of finding another body.

And finally, she did. 

The flash of color registered in the corner of her eye. Hidden inside a small bolthole with a tiny bubbling spring were the remains of what had clearly been a young lady. A ragged dress, a few pieces of jewelry. The skeleton was petite and still curled in the fetal position. 

She swallowed heavily, trying to ignore the nausea souring her stomach. There were also bones that surely belonged to one of the skull-headed creatures, smaller than her own kill, a rusted knife resting beside it. A source of food, perhaps. 

Because this girl had lasted. The thing that drove Maddie to tears were the tally marks. 

Carved into the wall over her resting place were a total of twenty-nine lines. Nearly a month. 

Outside the hiding place, Maddie slumped heavily against the cool cave wall. She bit her lip to avoid letting out any cries, allowing herself only quiet sniffles. 

She tried to recall what the monster had said when he’d first spoken to her. Something about the next generation and a debt. There was no telling how many innocents had been thrown down the chasm. Whatever debt and deal had been made, it was still unfulfilled, and remembering the rage in the monster’s voice, she could guess it was personal. 

Something tickled in the back of her mind, like a forgotten word. 

Wiping her cheeks dry and ignoring the sting of the scratches, Maddie took a deep breath. She did not consider herself to be particularly strong, or noble, or brave. 

But she did consider herself fairly angry. And anger was a powerful motivator. 

The royal family of Aurea hadn’t been paying their debt at all. Instead, vulnerable, desperate, innocents had been lured in—her hand in marriage in exchange for gold and supplies to help their struggling village—and sent in their place. And the monster believed the lie. 

Maddie was going to escape. She was going to do it for her family, yes, and for herself. But also for every girl and boy who’d been thrown into the depths of this mountain for a crime they had not committed. And most especially—so no girl or boy ever was again. 

A deep rumble trembled through the mountain. A short rush of air, like an exhale, blew through her hair. The monster’s voice, indistinct with distance, echoed past her.

She clutched the leather belt holding her sword and straightened up. And then Maddie descended into the bolthole to examine a second carving she’d noticed on the wall. 

A map.