Along the far wall, intricate symbols had been etched into the stone. They stirred a strange familiarity in him. He frowned, trying to place where he'd seen them before—until it struck him. One of the old books in Isadora's mother's library had the same markings along its spine.
He approached the wall, running his fingers over the cold grooves of the carvings. As he traced a spiral-shaped mark, an idea came to him. He turned on the Echo Locator. The Locator's map sprang to life. His breath caught. There weren't just dozens of Echos on the map, there were hundreds, crowding the projection in a dense constellation of glowing points.
“Woahhh… that's…” he whispered. “I need to get the others down here.”
Devvyn glanced up at the opening above. He tried climbing, searching for handholds, but the walls were too smooth. His fingers scraped against stone, finding nothing to grip. The jagged ring of roots and dirt made it clear that he'd fallen farther than he thought.
“Gaur! Victor! Anyone!” His voice echoed in the chamber.
He kept shouting, the sound bouncing back at him, until finally someone answered.
“Devvyn? That you?” Victor's voice rang down from somewhere above.
“Yes!” Devvyn shouted back.
“Where are you?”
“I fell through a hole in the ground!” Devvyn called.
“Just keep talking so I can find you.”
“Be careful."
Devvyn kept calling until Victor appeared at the edge of the hole, peering down. His face broke into a grin.
“Well, I'll be…” Victor chuckled. “...you've gotta be the unluckiest guy I've met. Four years of Echo hunting in the Shroud and I've never seen anyone fall into a hole.”
“Yeah, well, good thing I did.” Devvyn said, holding up the Echo Locator with the glowing projection, “I just found hundreds of Echos down here. You should get everyone.”
"All of those are Echos? Ignisara's teeth! I'll get Gaur." He scrambled up and then added, “Don't go anywhere.”
“Haha, very funny,” Devvyn muttered, turning back to study the ancient markings on the walls. While tracing the strange markings, his hand brushed against a patch of stone that felt damp. Frowning, he pressed harder. A small piece of the wall crumbled away beneath his fingers.
Curious, he scraped at it more, flakes of grit falling to the floor. Something pale began to show through, stark white against the dark stone. He kept scraping until the outline became clear… and realized with a jolt that it was a skull staring back at him.
“Ew, ew, ew, ew!” Devvyn yelped, stumbling back and wiping his hand furiously on his clothes.
Before he could decide whether to be grossed out or terrified, Victor's voice echoed down again. Moments later, a rope thudded against the floor, anchored to a tree above. Victor descended first, boots hitting the ground with a solid thump, followed by Gaur.
Devvyn wasted no time showing Gaur the Locator's projection and the hundreds of glowing points on the map.
Gaur's eyes widened, his grin spreading slow and wide.
“We've struck gold, boys!” he roared, the sound bouncing off the stone walls.
Gaur leaned toward the opening above and shouted for the Hunters to start lowering the crates.
One by one, the men outside looped thick ropes around the heavy wooden boxes and eased them carefully into the hole. The crates swung gently as they descended, bumping against the stone walls before touching the floor. When the tenth crate landed with a dull thud, Gaur raised a hand. “That's enough for now. Don't want to crowd the space.”
The remaining nine Hunters clambered down the ropes. Gaur's voice carried in the dim light. “Careful, all of you. We're underground. Don't go hammering away like madmen. We cave this place in, we're all done for. Dig slow and dig smart.”
Devvyn pointed out the clusters of glowing Echos marked on the Locator's projection. To his surprise, most of them were close to the surface, barely hidden beneath the packed earth or the thin stone of the walls.
The Hunters got to work, using the lighter ends of their axes to make shallow chips in the walls and ground. Within an hour, the ten crates were packed full.
The men slumped against their tools, shoulders heaving. Sweat streaked their dirt-caked faces.
One of the Hunters straightened, rolling his shoulders. “Boss,” he said, lifting his hand, “I could raise the crates up with my Echo. Would save us the trouble of carrying them one by one.”
Before Gaur even turned, his growl carried across the chamber. “No.”
The man frowned. “I could do it careful, just a lift—”
“I said no.” Gaur's voice cracked like a whip. He jabbed a finger at the ceiling, where dirt sifted down in tiny trickles. “We don't know how steady this pit is. You shift the ground, you might bring the whole bloody roof on our heads.”
Then Wills, leaning on his knee, piped up. “I could use air, then. Lighten the crates, push them up easy—”
Gaur wheeled on him too, eyes flashing. “And stir every pocket of loose soil between here and the surface? You want us buried alive?”
Wills pressed his lips tight, looking down.
“All right,” Victor said, rubbing sweat from his forehead. “We tie each crate to a rope, toss it up, and have two people haul it from outside. Easy enough.”
Gaur spat into the dirt, glaring at the crates. “We do it by hand as he said." Even he was exhausted.
The men grumbled under their breath, but no one argued further. The men set to work, securing the first crate with thick knots, ready to send it topside.
While the others worked on hauling crates, Devvyn noticed Victor crouched by the spot where the skull had been uncovered earlier.
He walked over. “Freaky stuff, huh?”
“Yeah,” Victor muttered, still staring at the wall. Then, without looking up, he added, “Want to dig the rest of it out?”
“Uh—” Devvyn started, but Victor was already scraping away at the earth.
The rest of the skull emerged, smooth bone dulled by time. But instead of ending at the neck, more bone appeared, vertebrae, then the curve of a shoulder. Victor kept going, dirt falling in small clumps as his hands moved. “I think this is a full skeleton,” he said quietly. “Must've been a horrible way to go.”
He worked down toward the arm, the soil looser there. As he brushed it away from the skeletal fingers, something caught the light. Victor froze, then cleared the dirt more carefully. Nestled in the bony hand was… an Echo. But unlike any they had seen before.
It was smaller, half the size of an average Echo, and its glow was a deep, shifting violet instead of the usual pale hue.
Victor lifted it out slowly, holding it up so the dim light caught on its surface. “Look at this. Did we just discover a new type of Echo?”
Gaur, who had been shouting orders across the chamber, caught those words. His head snapped toward them, and in three strides, he was at their side. He took the strange purple Echo from Victor, turning it over in his palm. Devvyn could practically see money signs flashing in the man's eyes.
“Oh, this one's going to make the Highlords fight each other for it,” Gaur said, grinning. He beckoned to one of the Hunters. “You, lux measurer, now.”
The Hunter jogged over, bringing the brass-and-crystal device. He placed the Echo inside and they waited for a number to appear. After a minute, the monitor remained blank. The Hunter adjusted the dials, and tried again. Still nothing.
Gaur's smile faded. He groaned and snatched the Echo back, then tossed it at Devvyn. “It's a bust. You can keep it.”
Devvyn caught it, slid it into an iron casing, and dropped it into his satchel.
Gaur clapped his hands at the other men working the ropes. “Come on, hurry up. We've got daylight to burn, plenty more Echos to haul before sundown.”
But before they could raise the next crate, the one already halfway up jerked, then tumbled back down into the chamber with a heavy thud. The lid splintered, Echos scattering across the dirt floor.
“Damn it!” Gaur roared. “What the hell are you two doing, sleeping on your feet?”
He scowled and called again, louder. “Ragnar! Henry!”
The Hunters didn't respond.
Then Devvyn's whistle went cold. Ice-deep cold, stabbing through his chest. Fear crawled into his mind like a shadow, and with it came a terrible pressure, almost like the whistle was screaming inside his skull. Run. Run. Run.
“Gaur,” Devvyn said, his voice tight, “something's wrong.”
“I have fools working for me, that's what's bloody wrong!” Gaur snapped, glaring up at the hole.
“No, it's—”
Something thumped onto the chamber floor beside the scattered Echos. A body. Headless. Blood spurted weakly from the torn stump of its neck, pooling fast. Devvyn stumbled back, bile rising in his throat. Then the shadow fell. A hulking shape crashed through the opening, shaking the underground chamber with the force of its landing. Dirt rained from the ceiling.
It rose slowly, hunched, its hide slick and black like tar stretched over muscle. Its jaw split open into a yawning maw, rows of jagged teeth gleaming wet. Dozens of eyes blinked and shifted across its chest and arms, each one twitching in a different direction, all of them settling on the Hunters.
Blood dripped thick from its mouth and claws, pattering on the stone floor.
“What in the name of the Divine Primordials…” Gaur breathed.
Victor's voice trembled when he responded. “Shroud creature.”
