Ricko Daggerheart's Arc

Chapter 12 of 18

The drain tunnel swallowed them one by one. Ricko dropped last, boots sliding on wet stone. The air turned cold and thick with rot. Above, moonrise had turned the guard rotation. They had their window. Kelli crouched ahead, a shadow against deeper shadow. T'Zaro slipped behind her, silent as always, his green eyes catching the little light. Ricko wiped slime from his palm and followed. The tunnels spread in every direction. Worn blocks arched overhead, slick with moss. Three passages forked from the first chamber. Then six more beyond. Water trickled somewhere unseen. Ricko stopped and stared at the branching dark. Without a guide, a man could walk these stones until he starved. "This way," Kelli said. She did not slow. She had walked here before, and she moved like she still owned the path. Ricko remembered the fighter who had beaten both him and T'Zaro in the dunes. She led now the same way she fought, close and certain. He stayed on her heel as she had ordered. The panther tested a side passage with a thrown pebble. It clattered far down into black. "Deep," T'Zaro whispered. "Wrong turn here kills us quiet." "Then don't turn," Kelli said. "Left at the broken pipe. Right where the water runs loud." She touched a cracked block, counting seams with her fingers. Ricko watched her choose. Left. Then right. Then left again. The loud water rose on their right exactly as she had said. They passed a flooded junction. Ricko's foot caught a loose stone and it splashed. Boots sounded above through a drain grate. All three froze. A guard's voice drifted down, then faded. Kelli raised one hand. Wait. Ricko held his breath until his chest burned. The boots moved off. "Keep moving," she breathed. "The rotation won't last." She led them through a low arch where they bent double. The ceiling scraped Ricko's back. Then the passage opened. A steep stair climbed from the water toward a sealed iron door. Faint gold light bled around its edges. Warm air drifted down, scented with incense, not rot. Kelli stopped at the foot of the stair. "The palace cellars," she said. "The jewel sits two floors above." She looked back at Ricko, cold and clear, as she had promised to be. For one breath her eyes softened. Then she sealed it away again. T'Zaro set his hand on the iron door. He pushed. It gave half an inch, then held. A bolt scraped on the far side. Beyond it, a key turned in a lock. "Someone's coming down," T'Zaro whispered. He drew a knife. Ricko pressed flat against the wet wall. The tunnels were behind them. The maze was beaten. But the door was opening from the other side, and they had nowhere left to run.