Crimson Heir: Rise Of The First Blood

3

CHAPTER 3

A MADMAN AND A DYING WOMAN

The staircase behind Rylan sealed itself shut, flesh knitting over stone until no trace of the entrance remained.

He stood in the familiar darkness of the undercity tunnels, breathing air that no longer tasted of iron and rot. His body felt strange, it was like he was in a new skin. The Seal of Flesh pulsed gently within him, a second heart waiting to be awakened.

But Rylan could only think of hiding this new found power.

He had survived a century by being invisible, this was no different. He pulled his tattered shirt tighter, covered his hands, and forced his expression back to the hollow, defeated look that had kept him alive all these years.

Then he walked toward the hollow corner at the entrance of the corner where he usually hid.

Mira was there when he arrived, sitting with her back against the curved stone. Her dark hair was matted, her eyes were glassy and a dark stain spread across her side.

"You're alive," she breathed before she coughed with a wince on her face.

Rylan crouched beside her. "The enforcers?"

"One of them caught me before I got away." She pressed her hand against her ribs as blood seeped between her fingers. "It's not deep, I'll be fine."

Rylan looked at the wound and he knew it was deep. But he said nothing. If she said it wasn't, then so be it.

"You shouldn't have followed me," he said instead.

"I didn't follow you, I ran. Same as you." She studied his face. "How did you survive the Catacombs? No one comes out of there."

"Luck," Rylan said. "The flesh-melders didn't want me."

Mira snorted, then winced again. "Luck… right."

Silence fell between them as the wound on her side kept getting worse. Rylan could see the flesh around it turning grey, a sign of necrosis.

But he still pretended like he wasn't noticing anything.

"I've been thinking," he said quietly. "About the nobles and the Empress."

Mira's eyes narrowed as her eyebrows drew. "Thinking what?"

"That they can be stopped."

She stared at him, then she laughed, a harsh, painful sound. "Stopped? By who? You? A Crimson with no blood-right and a deficiency that makes you weaker than a mortal rat? You can barely feed yourself, and you're talking about stopping the Empress?"

"I found something in the Catacombs," Rylan said carefully, trying not to reveal anything. "Something that could change things."

"What? A rock? An old bone?" Mira's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Rylan, I've known you for thirty years and you're not a fighter, neither are you a leader. You're a survivor, barely. And now you're talking like a madman."

"Maybe I am mad."

"Definitely." She shifted, and a fresh wave of blood soaked through her shirt. Her face paled. "But even if you weren't... the nobles have armies. The Empress has supreme power that controls the.whole dominion. They'll crush you in an instant."

Rylan said nothing. Instead, he pulled his gaze away and fixed it on the wall, a deep frown on his face.

No matter how much he thought about it, Mira was right. But impatience was riding on his blood. He wanted to bring the fall of Cassian.

Nights rolled by and Rylan and Mira remain hidden where they normally were. But Mira got worse by the dusk of another night.

Her wound was getting larger, her breathing was shallower and the greyness speed across her side. She looked down at her wound, and for the first time, fear flickered in her eyes.

"That's not good," she whispered.

Rylan watched her with uncertainty. The Seal of Flesh pulsed urgently within him, demanding action. But he held back. If he revealed his power now, she would know, and he wasn't ready.

Mira grunted in pain and the urgency of the situation dawned on him.

The realization hit him like a harsh wind. Mira, the only creature in the undercity who had never looked down on him, the same woman who had shared her scraps and warned him of danger… was dying in front of him, and he was doing nothing.

No!

That was when he made his decision.

"Mira," he said, his voice low as he reached for the injured area. "I need you to trust me, I can help with that."

"Trust you? You said you wanted to bring down the empress and now you're talking about helping with my injury. Are you sure something hard didn't hit your head in the catacombs? Because you're being delusional."

"Maybe. But I'm also the only thing standing between you and death."

Before she could respond, Rylan placed his palm over her wound and the seal of flesh activated within him.

Mira gasped as heat flooded through her. She tried to pull away, but Rylan's hand held firm as the torn flesh knitted together. The grey necrosis sloughed away, replaced by new, pink skin. Blood vessels reconnected and muscles wove itself back into place.

Seconds later, he released her.

To Mira's disbelief, the wound was gone. Gone, as if it had never existed. She stared at her side, then at Rylan. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

"What..." she finally whispered. "What are you?"

Rylan met her eyes. His grey irises that were once hollow, now burned with quiet fire.

"I'm the madman who's going to tear down the Dominion," he said. "And I've only just begun."

Mira's hand trembled as she touched her healed ribs. "How?"

"I bonded with a Seal, and there are four more." He stood, offering her a hand. "I need to find them, and I need information. Do you know someone who can help me with that?”

Mira took his hand slowly, still staring at him like she was seeing a stranger.

"You're not mad," she said quietly. "You're terrifying."

"That's the idea."

She led him toward the western tunnels, where an old map-seller supposedly knew the way to a hidden library. And to a scholar named Kaelos.