“Take it there. Take it below. Keep it out of their hands and we can plan. Flee now. Save us now.”
Lenk glanced at Kataria. She shot him an urgent look. He sighed, turning to Mahalar and nodding.
“Why?” she demanded.
“It’s what Gariath and Dread would want,” he said. “For us to not run away.”
“Gariath, maybe,” Denaos replied. “Dread, I think, would have a problem with us leaving him to be eaten alive. . or stabbed. . or otherwise dying horribly.”
“Well, we don’t have a lot of choice, do we?” Asper asked hotly, backing up as she reached for her sword.
“Oh, what? Because if we don’t, the world is doomed?”
“Because of that, you idiot!” she replied, thrusting the blade at the top of the stairs.
And that came barreling up the steps. Cresting up over the stairs, atop the back of her sikkhun, eyes wide and white and mouth full of a roar, Semnein Xhai came.
“QAI ZHOTH!”
“Stop her! Hold her back!” Mahalar howled to the Shen. “The door isn’t open yet!” He thrust a finger at Lenk. “You stay here! We can’t let the book get away!”
The door was rising too slowly. And Xhai was not deterred.
She hacked wildly into the cluster of Shen that rose up to stop her. The great wedge of metal split turtle shell shields, cleaved through spears, ate of green flesh and drank of red blood. Those warriors that strayed too close to the sikkhun were snatched up in its jaws, shaken wildly like toys.
“We should do something,” Asper said. “They’re dying.”
“Right, do something,” Denaos said, edging behind her. “Maybe we can throw ourselves at the monster and hope it chokes on us.”
“Or maybe we can let Kataria do everything again,” the shict snarled.
She drew an arrow back and let it fly. Its song was short and ended in a meaty thunk as it bit into the netherling’s leg. The longface looked up, spared a glare for Kataria, as though she were simply being obnoxious. It wasn’t until she looked over the shict and caught sight of Denaos that her face twisted up like a fist.
“YOU!” she roared. She clove through a Shen in a single blow, sent two parts of him flying into the water.
“What did you do?” Asper asked, backing away breathlessly. “What did you do?”
“Yes, blame me,” Denaos said, backing even farther. A small gap, barely larger than a child, had appeared beneath the door. “What the hell is taking so long?”
“The earth moves slowly, human,” Mahalar muttered, “it feels nothing for mortal-”
“No, Gods damn it! You had plenty of time to be poetic down there! Now we need results!”
“Then it’s just old as hell! I don’t even know if it will open all the way,” Mahalar snarled. “As soon as there’s enough space, move!”
There was not enough space to move yet. More concerningly, there was not nearly enough space between Xhai and the companions. Lenk watched as the last three Shen hurled themselves at her. Lenk watched as the last three of them fell in pieces.
Black shadows crested up behind her. The black-armored warriors, spears shining, came marching up to join a battle already finished. Lenk wasn’t concerned with them. Xhai wasn’t, either. The longface’s eyes caught a glimpse of the black book in Lenk’s hands. She snarled, spurred her beast forward. It cackled wildly, bits of flesh bursting from its mouth as it scrabbled across the stones and charged.
A snap behind him. A sharp shriek of metal. The arrow flew, caught the beast in its nostril. Its cackle became a shrieking whine. Its charge ended as it flew onto its hind legs, scratching wildly at its snout with its claws. Lenk blinked, felt an arm seize him.
“Move, idiot!” Kataria snarled, shoving him toward the door.
Denaos’s boots were just disappearing beneath the stone slab, Asper already gone in. Kataria tossed her bow under and slithered on her belly after them.
“Come on, come on!” she barked at Lenk.
“Mahalar! We’re moving!” he cried as he threw himself to the ground.
The elder Shen nodded, turned to hobble after them as Lenk tumbled the gap. He could see that the stone was just a cover to a wooden door, a series of groaning gears and chains slowly raising it.
“It’s just going to keep opening!” Asper shouted in the darkness beyond the stone. “Find a switch or something!”
“What makes you think there’s a switch?” Denaos asked.
“I don’t know, just find something!”
Lenk watched the desperation in Mahalar’s eyes, watched the dust fly from his mouth like spittle. He watched the Shen drag his body across the stones. He watched a brief smile flit across his face at the thought of his plan coming to fruition.
He watched the obsidian spearhead burst out the Shen’s chest.
Xhai appeared from behind, hoisting the weapon by a pale, ivory-colored shaft. She looked at the impaled Shen contemptuously, irritated that she hadn’t used it on something a little more impressive. Contempt turned to a wicked delight in an instant, though, as the spear’s head glowed an ominous blue.
The Shen’s flesh blackened as he writhed helplessly upon the shaft. The moisture and warmth left him, sucked into the spear by a great inhale. Even the dust left him as the spear swallowed it all.
He watched Xhai shake the weapon and dislodge a blackened, frozen husk from the shaft.
He watched Mahalar fall to the ground.
He watched Mahalar’s lightless, dark eyes stare back at him.
“Here! Here’s something!” Denaos called. “Quick, help me pull it!”
A clicking sound. The stone groaned as more black-clad warriors came up on the stairs, carrying something thick and heavy between them. The door slid shut as Xhai shouldered the spear and walked back to her mount.
And Lenk was left staring at the darkness.
THIRTY
“So. . what now?”
Lenk could hear Denaos clearly in the darkness. Just like he heard him the last six times. There was surprisingly little to do in a pitch-black room full of warm, stale air and the reek of decaying moisture.
They had spread out, searching blindly for another switch, for anything that might lead them out. The crude metal lever that had shut the door had been found nearly by accident and had promptly snapped in half shortly after. They couldn’t go back even if they wanted to.
“Uyeh!” a distant voice cried through stone.
“Toh!” five others sounded in reply.
The stone door shook as something smashed against it.
They most certainly didn’t want to go back and see what that was. Nor did they want it to come through. Not that such a thing seemed all that feasible. The door did nothing more than tremble. It was a comforting fact, Lenk thought, right up until he remembered it meant the sole route of escape was quite closed off.
Then it was back to groping.
He found nothing but cold stone. Still, cold stone was preferable to any number of options. One of which bumped rather harshly against him.
“Sorry,” Kataria muttered.
“It’s fine,” Lenk replied.
“Oh, it’s you.” She bumped again. This time with fists.
“Gods damn it, will you stop that?” he hissed.
“I should do worse,” she said. “Gariath would want me to do worse.” She struck him again. “How could you leave them like that?”
“Because we can’t run anymore,” he said.
He could feel her glare. “We ran in here.”
“In that case, because I wanted to die in one piece,” he snapped back. “Look, I know we should have gone back. I know we shouldn’t have even come up here. I wanted to sail away on a ship made out of skin but you-”