Nerida Quickwave's Arc

Chapter 12 of 12

Nerida pressed her ear to the concrete and listened. The spinning gate's low hum was thinning. Outside, the iron arch slowed in slow, grinding turns, its bars flaking rust, thin crystal growths catching the last spin of light. The current that had saved her was dying with the tide. In a few minutes, the water past her door would go flat and open, and the beast would have her cold. She slipped out low and looked across the gap. A twisted purple coral crest rose from the seabed like a frozen tree, sharp ridges breaking upward. Beyond it stood a tall spiral watchtower of pale stone, its observation platform empty, its base half-buried in silt. Cover. Real cover. But between her and it lay a long stretch of open water, and the gate behind her was almost still. Nerida pushed off while the last weak pulse of current still moved. She kicked hard, broken pike tight in her fist, and aimed for the coral crest's shadow. The beast surged out from behind the dying gate, twelve arms unfurling. She did not look back. She slid behind the purple branches, ducked low, and kicked again for the watchtower's base. She reached the doorway as the beast struck the coral, snapping branches into drifting shards. Nerida pressed inside the spiral stair and climbed two turns up. The gate was finished. The open water was lost to her. But she had walls again, and height, and one point left to drive home.