Horacio Ashmont

Horacio Ashmont's Arc
Chapter 8 of 12

Horacio Ashmont's dream is saving enough coin to rent a permanent room above a tavern.

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by @zanyzora
Chapter 8 comic
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Chapter 8

Horacio returned to the storm cellar the next morning to check his work. The pallets looked solid. The food was stacked neat in the alcoves. Everything was ready. He walked the perimeter, testing the walls with his palm, and stopped when his hand met something that wasn't stone. Brick. Newer brick, set in mortar that crumbled when he pressed his thumb against it. The wall curved inward at the far corner of the cellar, forming a shallow arch that someone had filled with fresh brickwork. He scraped away loose mortar with his fingernail and found a symbol carved into one brick near the base—a cross, simple and deep. A mason's mark. The old-timers who'd taught him the tunnels had never mentioned this passage. He pulled a rusted chisel from the alcove where he'd stored tools and worked at the mortar joints. The bricks came loose easier than he'd expected, tumbling onto the floor with hollow thuds. Behind them stretched a passage, narrow and black, with timber supports overhead. He held his candle through the gap and saw notches cut deep into one beam, marks that looked like tally marks or dates. The wood was black with water stains so old they'd turned the grain to iron. Horacio stood there holding the candle, mortar dust on his hands, and felt the weight of what he'd found. Another passage meant another route, another shelter if Scrooge came sniffing. But it also meant risk—unknown territory, unmapped ground that even the old-timers hadn't trusted him with. He set the chisel down and stared into the dark. Tomorrow he'd move his people into this cellar. Tonight he'd find out where this passage led, and whether it was salvation or just another hole to hide his mistakes.

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