The Midnight Mercenary by Cerberus Jones Page A

the walls beside her. The ground was hard and flat under their feet – like tiles or floorboards – and every now and then, when Grawk’s head turned in the right direction, Amelia thought she could make out shapes in the darkness – the shadowy outline of a workbench or a glint of light reflecting off glass.
    â€˜It’s some kind of laboratory,’ breathed Charlie.
    Lady Naomi said nothing.
    â€˜It is, isn’t it?’ Charlie pressed. ‘This is where you do your research!’
    â€˜ Shh, ’ said Lady Naomi. Then, ‘No, but if you can’t be silent, go back now .’
    She was quiet, but so fierce that Charlie didn’t dare speak again.
    They kept walking and soon the floor gave way to rough, sandy ground. Somewhere in the distance, Amelia could hear waves crashing. Lady Naomi led them along a winding path, deeper and deeper into … wherever this was. Sometimes there was a drop in temperature for a second, or a louder sound of the sea in the distance, and she guessed there were tunnels branching off in different directions along the way. Without a torch or a map or even a ball of string to guide them back, Amelia knew they’d be completely lost without Lady Naomi.
    She gulped and reminded herself that they’d already proven Lady Naomi was Lady Naomi, and not Krskn with a holo-emitter.
    Amelia blinked, peering again into the dark. Was she imagining things, or could she see slightly? Maybe a whole night without light was making her brain play tricks on her – or maybe she was just seeing spots from the glow of Grawk’s eyes … but no, she could definitely make out the faint grey line of Charlie’s head in front of her. She gazed at the walls. She could see them. The caves were glowing now. Blue and yellow lichens on the rocks were emitting a pale light.
    As they walked, the lichens grew thicker and the light strengthened until Amelia could easily see the ground ahead. She and Charlie dropped hands. They passed into a little grotto where the lichens were especially bright, with feathery pink fronds. It was so beautiful, and somehow knowing they weren’t allowed to speak made it seem almost magical.
    Amelia could see now where the tunnels split off. Often Lady Naomi had to choose between two or three forks in their path, but she seemed to know exactly what she was doing.
    They had walked so far that Amelia wondered which part of the headland they could be under now. Had they gone as far as the hedge maze? As the old magnolias? As Lady Naomi led them around a corner, Amelia saw a carved archway, and beyond it a vast chamber, like a cathedral, bigger than the concourse at the airport. It was set with glass along the walls, and two rows of huge pillars, thicker than palm tree trunks, holding up the roof.
    Stepping through the archway, Amelia noticed a heavy metal door raised up like a guillotine blade and ready to drop closed behind them. An identical door was open in an archway at the opposite end of the chamber, and beyond that, a pitch-black space that she guessed was another tunnel. The sandy ground had given way to a stone floor, not solid, but cut into complicated patterns. It was like one enormous storm-water drain cover, but done as beautifully as a Persian carpet. Overhead, the raw rock had been carved into a handsome vaulted ceiling, archways crisscrossing each other as they spanned the distances between the pillars. Lichen alone couldn’t have lit such a massive space. Behind the glass walls, Amelia saw dozens of glowing glass spheres.
    She started in surprise. Those weren’t glass walls – they were doors. Dozens and dozens of different sized glass doors, each one covering an empty, carved space behind. They were rooms .
    Amelia looked around in amazement. It was dry and empty now, but if you filled all this with water, it would look exactly like the lobby and guest wings of a hotel designed for fish . In fact, looking more