Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 14 of 86

The tunnel shrank as they waded forward. Water climbed to Zach's knees, then his thighs. Ahead, an iron grate sealed the passage. Its bars ran floor to ceiling, thick and rusted. Zach gripped them and pulled. Nothing moved. He drew his sword and jammed the tip between two bars. The blade slid off. The grate held. "There's no room to work it," Zach said. The current pushed at his back. He looked through the bars and saw a lever on the far wall, past the grate. "I bet that lever opens it. Dammit, we're on the wrong side." He hit the iron with his fist. The water reached his waist now. Lyra held her small light high, her elf face pale. "It keeps rising," she said. "We can't go back. The hatch is too far." Zach searched the walls for another crack, another seam. He found none. He was out of ideas. "There's no way through," he said. "None." Raven stepped past him toward the bars. Her cat ears twitched. She had hunted them through this whole tunnel by sound and smell, the King's daughter turned tracker. Now she smiled at Zach, sly and calm. "There is one way," she said. Then her body folded down and shrank. Black fur spread over her. In a breath she was a small cat, slipping between two bars. On the far side she rose again, Raven once more, dripping. She grabbed the lever and hauled it down. Gears ground somewhere below. The grate shuddered and lifted into the ceiling. Water rushed through the open gap. Zach stared at her, then rubbed the back of his head. "You know," he said, "you could have told us you could do that." Raven's grin widened. "You never asked." Lyra laughed once, sharp with relief. They pushed through the open passage. The tunnel opened into a wide stone chamber. The floor rose above the waterline. Old pillars ran off into the dark. Zach climbed out of the channel and wrung water from his shirt. "The tower's base," Lyra whispered. "It has to be close." Then Zach heard it. A dry scrape. Bone on stone. From behind the pillars stepped a figure in a torn red cloak. Its flesh hung in strips off gray bone. One eye burned red in its skull. It raised a heavy sword, the edge dark with old blood. More rose behind it, a dozen dead warriors, weapons lifting. Raven crouched low. Lyra pulled fire to her hands. Zach set his boots and let the enchanted blade settle in his grip, heavy, then steady. The lead warrior charged. Zach met it. Steel rang off bone. The dead were between them and the tower now, and there was no way past but through.