Thalric Deepcurrent's Arc

Chapter 12 of 12

Thalric swam fast through the dark passage, the crown in his upper hands and the burned gate tucked tight against his side. The voices above grew louder. He kicked harder, four arms driving him deep, until the channel ended at a wall of huge stone blocks jammed and fused together like a collapsed doorway. The council had bricked this place shut. He pressed his palm to the seam and felt cold water leak through a crack. He braced his lower hands against the stone and shoved. The mortar cracked. A block tilted, then another, until a gap opened wide enough to slip through. He pulled himself in and the dark swallowed him whole. The chamber on the other side was round and quiet. A domed ceiling arched above him, ringed with thick glass that had gone green with growth. This was no council room. It was older. A small worktable still stood at the center, and on it rested a glass vial half full of liquid that shifted through every color as the crown's glow touched it. Someone had been working here when the council came. They had left in a hurry and never returned. Thalric tucked the vial into his belt beside the gate. The voices behind the broken wall had stopped. He had bought himself a breath, maybe more. He turned and looked for another way out, deeper into a room no map had ever recorded.