Aelion led Aveline to where the monsters were kept, and the place was even worse than she had imagined.
It was not a proper holding chamber so much as a dungeon. The air was damp, stale, and thick with the sour smell of old stone and something fouler beneath it. The corridors seemed to swallow what little light remained, leaving everything shadowed and miserable.
Even the guards were absent, having gone off to the festival like everyone else, and the silence they left behind felt more disturbing than their presence might have been. It was not peace. It was neglect.
Aveline slowed as she looked at the cages.
