Under the Willow Root

Chapter 44

It turns out that Luca is serious about having as much fun as possible before I leave. Every day, we're eating at a new tavern, dancing, attending concerts, making little craftsy bracelets and necklaces, anything we can think of. I push away the knowledge that our time together is coming to an end and pretend that we'll go on like this forever. It works, mostly, until about a week into Luca's fun fest.

Luca takes me to yet another wonderful dinner. Afterward, instead of walking me home, he leads me to the very cavern where I cowered in the dark after Cimari's beating. I slow down and almost pull away, but he assures me that we aren't going to the Terrace. We're going someplace else.

"Secret," he says when I ask him where.

"It always is, with you," I huff, but I smile.

He holds a sphere of light in his hands and leads me unerringly through the winding tunnels, explaining as we go that most people use the tunnels to visit lovers in secret. Every once in a while someone tries to use them for darker purposes, but those who live in the King's Terrace value the ability to conduct illicit love affairs in safety and with discretion far too much to tolerate that kind of nonsense. Of course, I think. Sounds totally reasonable.

We pass through tunnels and caverns filled with stalactites and stalagmites until we come to a passage that's hardly more than a crack in the rock. I can barely squeeze through. I have no idea how Luca makes it, even with some truly virtuosic wiggling on his part and a lot of tugging on my part.

"I was a lot smaller the last time I came through here," he puffs, laughing at his shredded and grimy clothing.

"When was that?" I ask curiously.

"Ten years ago," he says. "I was eleven. The Prince--the old Prince, that is, my father--he'd just died and our tutor wanted Costi and me to do some kind of casting for Father's funeral. I don't even remember what it was. I just remember wanting nothing to do with it. I went to hide in the tunnels, and Costi came looking for me. He was the only one who had a hope of finding me in here back then. Ari--my sister--she probably could, now, but she was only a little girl at the time."

"Does she use the tunnels to visit her lovers?" I tease.

"Sometimes," he says, surprising me. He climbs down a small ledge and lifts me down after him. "Anyway, Costi was mad as a boar with a bee-sting when I slipped through that crack--he couldn't fit, and I wasn't coming out for anything. They could probably hear him shouting at me all the way back at the palace with the way everything echoed. I climbed down here to get away and just...kept going. I found the most amazing thing, but I didn't tell anyone about it."

"You didn't tell anyone when you came out, you mean?" I ask. "Or..."

He smiles at me, his teeth flashing in the light of the tiny sun in his hand.

"Not ever?" I say skeptically. "In ten years?"

"You're the first," he confirms, squeezing my hand.

"Well, what is it?" I demand.

"Secret," he says.

"Of course it is," I mutter.

"We're almost there," he consoles me.

I cling to Luca's arm both for physical and emotional support as we keep walking. Stumbling through the bowels of the earth with only a little ball of light is the single creepiest thing I've ever willingly done, and the ground is rough and uneven. It occurs to me that if I break an ankle down here, Luca may not be able to get me out by himself. I shudder at the thought of being left alone in the dark and tighten my grip on his arm.