Horacio Ashmont's Arc

Chapter 4 of 12

The cough had stopped spreading, but the damp hadn't stopped rising. Horacio woke each morning to water beading on the brick walls, trickling down to pool in the corners where the floor dipped. The chamber kept them warm enough, but breathing the wet air all night left everyone's throats raw. He needed to find something drier, and he knew the tunnels well enough to try. Past the wine merchant's vault, there was a passage he'd never fully explored—the old-timers had warned him off it years ago, something about unstable ground. But unstable was better than drowning in damp air. He took a lantern and went alone, following the main tunnel until he reached the ornate iron cover that marked the vault entrance. Twenty paces beyond it, the passage narrowed and turned sharply left into darkness. The air changed first. Horacio stopped and breathed deep, tasting dust instead of wet stone. The walls here were different too—drier brick, no moisture seeping through. His lantern caught something ahead: heavy wooden doors set into a stone archway, half-buried in old dirt and moss. He pushed hard and they swung inward with a groan. Beyond them stretched a storm cellar he'd never seen before, its floor solid and its air almost warm. On a shelf near the entrance sat a dusty brass instrument in an ornate wooden case, its glass tube and metal fittings still intact. A hygrometer—meant for measuring moisture in the air. The needle pointed low, far lower than anything in the brick chamber. Horacio stood in the doorway and looked back toward the vault. This space could hold them all, and Martha wouldn't have to breathe wet air anymore. But moving everyone meant revealing this passage to twelve people instead of the careful few he'd always trusted with the tunnels. His code said to keep the network small, to protect it by limiting who knew. His lungs said Martha would die if she stayed in that damp hole much longer. He picked up the hygrometer and carried it back toward the chamber. The choice was already made.