Oathen (53 page)

Narjin scrambled to her feet, and together
they stalked out to rain death upon Dzur i’Oth.

~~~

Sanych’s trip through the edge of the dead
zone was anticlimactic. Nothing assaulted her while her eyes were
closed, and her fingers trailed the wall placidly, feeling nothing
more than its cool, smooth surface. After a minute of walking, she
heard Meena’s voice: “You’re through.”

Sanych didn’t need to hear those words; she
could feel that her magic was back within her. Its presence,
permeating every fiber of her being, thrilled her with its power.
She exhaled in relief, filling her palms with its light.

They stood in a small round room, dark but for
the glow from her hands. She released it into the air, forming a
hovering ball of light.

“Now what?” Geret asked, looking back down the
corridor. It was pitch black, but they could already hear the
encroaching Enforcers.

“There’s a small—” Meena’s voice cut of
abruptly. “Dragonfire,” she cursed. “What have they
done?”

Everyone else looked at the section of the
wall that Meena was frantically patting. It was perfectly
smooth.

“What are you looking for?” Ahm
asked.

Before she could answer, the floor beneath
their feet dropped away, and they all plunged downward. Sanych
yelped, feeling Geret’s alarm pressing against her own.

Then cold, deep water swallowed her. She
flailed her arms and found the surface, coughing. Geret found her,
treading water by her side in the dark. The trap door above them
had closed, and her magic light was alone in the upper
room.

She winked it out and created another in the
lower chamber, then looked around. The room was circular and domed;
they’d fallen in from the topmost point. Around the swimmers lay
four large tunnels of smooth, dressed stone. They arched high
enough to have plenty of breathing space above the water’s
surface.

Sanych’s nose protested the quality of that
breathing space; the air was positively sulfurous. The water she’d
gotten in her mouth had tasted terrible as well—not in a stagnant
way, but in a mineral way.

“This isn’t just a trap,” Salvor said. “It’s
connected to other areas.”

Meena grunted, splashing. “Thrice-damned book
is bulky.”

“Here,” Ahm said, swimming to her side. He
crafted a finely woven mesh sling that secured the book to her
back, allowing her to tread water and swim more easily.

“Is this part of the plan?” Sanych
asked.

“No,” Meena growled. “It most definitely is
not.”

Faint thuds echoed down from above, and Geret
looked up. “Maybe,” he said in a quiet voice, “that’s a good thing.
They’re pounding ahead like they’re still chasing us to the Heart
of the Dragon.”

“You have a point,” Meena conceded. “But if we
can’t get out of this trap, or if they’re already there waiting for
us, what’s the use?”

“Maybe we can find a faster way to the Heart
of the Dragon.”

The water in one of the tunnels rippled,
creating a wake. Everyone hushed and stared as it approached.
Sanych created an enormous glow of light under the water’s surface.
It illuminated a long, sinuous shape, undulating below their feet.
It jinked quickly and fluttered down to the submerged
light.

“Eel of some sort,” Salvor
murmured.

“It’s huge,” Sanych breathed.

“And it likes your light, Sanych. Turn the
upper light off and keep it occupied,” Meena said, heading for the
tunnel furthest from the enormous eel.

Sanych did so, then swam after Meena; the
others followed. She looked back as they entered the tunnel and saw
several other eel silhouettes exploring her underwater light.
Though her body already trembled from the chill water, she felt a
shudder of worry at the sight of them.

The water warmed as they swam away from the
deep pool; it also began to smell more strongly of
sulfur.

They came to a T in the tunnel after swimming
for nearly a mile; it led straight on, and also left, closer to the
center of the volcano. Occasionally they had passed under massive
tunnels leading straight up into the darkness of the
mountain.

Geret found a narrow ledge below the
waterline, along the side of the T, and sat down to rest on it. The
others joined him, though Sanych was short enough that she needed
to stand up on it to breathe.

“Let’s head toward the center,” Meena said,
once everyone had caught their breath. Just as she opened her mouth
to continue, Geret was pulled off the ledge and under the
water.

“Geret!” Sanych cried, lighting up the entire
floor of the T. An eel had her Oathen by the boot; the creature was
wrapping itself around his body even as he thrashed at it, trying
to draw his sword. Her mind was filled with his surprise, anger and
determination.

“Folly,” Salvor swore, leaping into the deeper
water with his blue-flame sword in hand.

“Sanych, turn down the light!” Meena ordered.
“You’ll draw them all to us!”

Sanych wasn’t listening. She waded to the edge
of the ledge, the water nearly at her waist. Her large light winked
out for a moment, leaving Salvor’s sword as the only light in the
area. Then she lit herself up like a torch. Her bright outline
burned in the darkness.

The eel abandoned Geret’s boot and pursued
her, allowing Salvor to haul Geret to the surface.

When the eel’s dark, darting head was mere
feet from her, Sanych blasted it with solid bars of light. She
expected it to be dead when she finished, but instead, the creature
slammed into her, biting at her thigh.

“What—” she yelped, before splashing under the
water’s surface. But before the eel could pull her off the ledge,
she heard several metallic thuds echo oddly through the water. The
eel began thrashing wildly. Arms pulled her from its snapping jaws.
Meena’s healing touch soothed the fiery bite marks in her
flesh.

Blinking water from her eyes, she created a
dim ball of light overhead and looked at the eel. A dozen metal
spikes pinned it to the ledge, and still it struggled to
attack.

Salvor and Geret clambered onto the ledge
again. Sanych thanked Meena and Ahm for saving her, then stepped to
the writhing eel. Staying clear of its jaws, she put her hands
directly on its slimy skin and shot a bar of light through its
head, killing it instantly.

“My fault,” she said aloud. “Water refracts
light.”

The Oathen bond let her know that Geret
grasped the magnitude of her embarrassment. He put a hand on her
wet shoulder. “You’re too hard on yourself, Sanych,” he said. “You
just killed the thing that was trying to eat me.”

Salvor smoothed his wet hair back to his braid
and squeezed it out. “We need to get out of here before the others
show up for the feast,” he said, kicking the dead eel.

Sanych shot a ball of light down each of the
unexplored tunnels, illuminating the way. The tunnel they were
already in continued on quite a ways, but the one to the left ended
after only a short distance.

Meena didn’t bother speaking; she leaped into
the deep water with the
Dire Tome
strapped to her back,
swimming toward the end of the left tunnel. The others joined
her.

It soon became clear, as they swam through
ever warmer water, that the tunnel didn’t actually end; it
descended.

“What now?” Geret asked.

“If I can have a light, Sanych, I’ll go take a
look,” Ahm said.

As soon as she agreed, he created a metal cube
with a handle, grabbed on, and let it sink through the water,
drawing him quickly downward.

“Ooh,” Geret said in admiration. Salvor
breathed a chuckle.

Sanych sent a tiny ball of light down with
Ahm. She watched it descend further and further from the
surface.

“That’s pretty deep,” Meena
commented.

The light rose, and soon Ahm surfaced, gasping
for air. Geret and Salvor steadied him while he caught his
breath.

“What did you see?” Sanych asked, seeing the
look of wonder on Ahm’s face.

The Scion leader’s face held wonder as he
answered. “Dragons.”

Oolat strode through the Labyrinth, following his eager
minions as they triggered hidden switches in the enormous stonework
maze. The pair of engraved metal doors at the end of the first maze
section swung open, and the Enforcers advanced in their pursuit of
Meena.

Though Oolat had years ago stolen a moderate
ability to repress pain, so much damage had been done to his body
that he dared not ignore the agony any longer, lest it kill him. He
had nearly blacked out twice already since he’d regained his magic
outside the dead zone. If he was to succeed in seeking revenge for
the theft of the
Tome
, he needed to take alternate
action.

“Polot, Trem,” he whispered. The two cultists
nearby jogged to him and lowered their eyes. He placed his hands on
their shoulders, leaning on them for support. “The Hand of Power
requires your sacrifice.”

“S-sacrifice?” Polot blurted, raising his eyes
to Oolat’s in shock. The young brown-haired man had not been with
the cult very long, and had yet to learn there were some things one
simply did not do. Like meet the Master’s eyes, and question his
will.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t have time to learn
those lessons.

Oolat gave them both a predatory smile and
called on yet another stolen ability. The two young men sagged to
their knees and collapsed on the dragon-tiled floor of the
Labyrinth as the cult lord absorbed their vitality, using their own
blood as an augment to the healing spell. His wounds closed over in
moments, and the cessation of pain brought a glazed look to his
white eyes.

Feeling stronger and more focused, Oolat
stalked after his remaining minions. The Heart of the Dragon was
close, and his plans would not be denied.

~~~

“Dragons?” blurted Geret. His surprise echoed
in Sanych’s mind. “I thought they were mythical!”

“Stone dragons,” Ahm clarified. “The
architecture down there is enormous, and so lifelike. I nearly had
a heart seizure at first.”

“So what’s below us? Statues?” Salvor
asked.

“It’s a joining of tunnels in an enormous
underwater chamber. They take many directions. The other tunnel
that led upward had light shining down from above.”

“Wait,” Sanych interrupted. “Why are there
enormous underwater tunnels in a volcano? Who made them? What are
they for?”

“Let’s go find out,” Meena said with a smug
smile. Sanych knew that look; she pressed her lips together in
frustration.

“You mean, let’s have the
rest
of us
find out,” Geret clarified, meeting Meena’s eyes.

She tsked. “You two take all the fun out of
knowing things ahead of time. Ahm, some weights please?”

Ahm created a heavy cube of metal for each of
them. They slipped beneath the surface and sank down to the depths.
Sanych created a few orbs of light around them as they descended.
Her ears felt the extra pressure as the water got
denser.

The chamber she and the others descended into
was truly massive. Far below her feet, dim in the distance, arching
tunnels led in various directions, each larger than those they had
already traveled through. Huge stone spirals and circles decorated
the walls, all the way to the top of the chamber. Stone dragons
melded with the chamber walls, cavorting and slithering, flying and
diving. They swept above human croplands, spraying fire; they mated
high in the clouds; they basked in the liquid stone of the volcano.
The watery room was built on a scale for such creatures; the
rapidly sinking humans were reduced to bits of flotsam by its
size.

Ahm oriented himself and pointed the way to
the other tunnel that led nearly straight up, to the mysterious
light beyond. Sanych dropped her weight and rose rapidly through
the water, trailing bubbles from her nose.

There was much gasping and coughing as the
five of them surfaced, although most of it was from
Salvor.

“All you Oathens have it easy, don’t you?” he
asked, once he could speak. “And Meena. Do you even need
air?”

Meena smirked and shook her head, and everyone
climbed from the pool onto a smooth bank.

Sanych looked around, blinking hot water from
her eyes. She had thought the cavern that housed the city of the
dead had been enormous, but it would fit into this one many times
over. Not only was there orange fungus growing overhead, lighting
the entire ceiling, but other orange glows rose from along the
edges of the room.

Salvor wrung out his braid again, smoothing
loose hair back from his face. Geret eyed him with a flat look.
“What?” Salvor asked.

“Who could you possibly be trying to impress?”
Geret asked. “You think some helpless maiden will be trapped down
here? Maybe you’re just trying to look the tastiest for the
dragons.”