Chapter Thirty-Two—Better Acquaintance

They walked on back across the raised thoroughfare with the archways and statues. Shiro had to step carefully though the rubble of much of it, caused by Akarilion’s violent thrashing during their battle.

Shiro turned, glanced one more time back at the giant dead serpent, the dungeon guardian and boss, so named after the dungeon and the dungeon after him. He let out a sigh of relief.

“I knew you would win, Shiro,” Jessamine said as she walked with him. Her tone didn’t sound very believable.

Only a little time ago he had thought she’d uttered words inside his mind, but decided not to say anything about that right now. He wanted to get out of here, back to the surface.

They left the cavern and made their way back to the chamber with the pillars and the elongated pool. The glow stones were still active, torches on every pillar lit. The dungeon was alive, its inhabitants active, though Shiro couldn’t see any of them.

The corpses he and Ali had made had been cleaned, the arrows gone.

There isn’t even any blood.

“The monsters take care of the dungeon,” Jessamine said in explanation. Shiro eyed her askance, wondering if she could hear his thoughts.

He needed to be careful. He knew very little of Jessamine—did not fully understand her motives or intentions.

“This dungeon,” she added, “Akarilion. It’s my prison.”

Am I imagining that she’s responding to my thoughts? Iie, that can’t be.

“Your prison?” he asked.

“Yes. Now turn here,” she said, pointing and leading the way down one of the corridors he and Ali hadn’t explored.

“Why are we going this way? The exit is that direction.”

“This is quicker.”

“If this dungeon is your prison, how do you know how to get out?”

“The lamp,” she said. “It prevents me from wandering too far.”

“You cannot pick it up?”

She shook her head.

“Who put you down here?”

She made an amused noise. “Why don’t we make our way out of this dark festering pit of mummies and Spiders before I tell you these things?”

“Mm. Hai.”

So, she wanted to keep secrets, he thought. She’s not being completely honest with me.

“It’s not that I’m trying to avoid telling you, Shiro,” she said—Shiro eyes widened slightly, but he schooled his features—“but the denizens of this place work for the one who put me here. Strictly speaking, I’m not allowed to leave, and you’re not allowed to be here. They fear me, but they also know I can’t leave on my own. I’m hoping that because of Akaralion’s death, they will allow you to leave peacefully, especially since…”

“Since I have your lamp?”

She looked at him and nodded. “Just being in your possession, you now have access to some of my magic gifts.”

“Will you give me three wishes?”

She giggled. “Fairy tales, my sweet Shiro. Fairy tales.”

“Oh,” he said, completely ignorant and willing to let her tell him what a jinni was capable of. He supposed he trusted her on this?

As they made their way down the corridor, a Snake, or rather a demi-snake of the Snakes slithered out.

Shiro came up short.

“Ignore him,” she hissed quietly. “You have a right to leave now.”

The Snake glanced at Shiro, clearly seeing him as he touched his katana sheath hanging on his back, but he didn’t move to draw the blade and continued walking, the snake slithering along in another direction.

Shiro’s heart was racing.

He wasn’t afraid of one demi-snake, but if they tried to stop him from leaving, he didn’t think he would make it out without Ali.

“I wonder where that scoundrel went off to,” Jessamine mused. “Now here,” she said, taking Shiro into what looked like a lift. There was a lever. “You must press this. “I can touch physical objects, but I cannot touch that. It has a spell on it to prevent my kind from interacting with it.”

Shiro nodded, pushed the lever. Internal gears started working and the lift jerked to life, then started taking them up.

“I lost my stone,” he said, more to himself than to her.

“No need,” she said, uttering something in a language he didn’t understand and a small orb of light appeared with them in the lift.

Shiro smiled.

“Surprised, are you?”

“Let’s just say that… I’m not used to being around magic often.”

“Hmm,” she noised, smirking at him, some private thought unbeknownst to him. But then she said, “That’s about to change, Shiro. Now this lift will take us to the surface, and from there, we can go to wherever you wish.”

He nodded.

Nowhere too private, I hope.

Shiro jerked upright. The words inside his head, again were loaded with innuendo and in Jessamine’s voice.

He looked at her. The smile on her face—a knowing one, was clear for him to see.

We have a lot of work to do, my sweet.

“Y—you… YOU CAN SPEAK INSIDE MY HEAD?!”