Luthra descended into the mines, each step sending pain through his broken ribs. The tunnel sloped down at a steep angle, and the air got thicker with every foot they descended. It smelled like dirt and unwashed bodies and death.
Rebecca walked beside him, her hand glowing with a weak red light that barely pushed back the darkness.
"This place stinks."
"Yeah."
The tunnel opened into a massive cavern carved from solid rock. Wooden platforms and walkways crisscrossed the space at different levels. Mining equipment lay scattered everywhere, most of it rusted and broken.
But Luthra's attention went straight to the cages.
Dozens of them, built from iron bars thick as his wrist. Each one held people. Or what used to be people.
They were skeletal, their skin hanging loose on bones that showed through clearly. Most didn't even look up when Luthra and Rebecca entered. They just sat against the bars or lay on the stone floor, breathing shallow and slow.
'This is worse than I expected.'
