They swarmed me, tearing at my clothes, my skin, my hair, as I sank like a stone into the soup. I dropped the oar I was still holding, then drew my other knife and kicked toward the surface. The headlamp’s light gleamed off the slick black bodies that slithered and roiled around me, shining into red eyes lit with hunger and desperation. Panic surged, but I did my best to contain it and broke the surface, gasping for air. The ellul had formed an impregnable fortress of teeth and determination around me. I spun in the water, slashing with my knives, trying to keep the bastards at bay, but they were also underneath me, biting me, tearing at my boots and down into flesh.
If I didn’t get out of this water, I was dead.
But with the air refusing to answer my call, I either had to try to force my way through the writhing wall of flesh that surrounded me or call to the storm that now raged in the outside world. A storm I could feel even in this place of deadness. I had no idea if it would or could answer; no idea if it would even be able to breach the defenses of this place, wherever this place actually was. As a general rule, lightning couldn’t strike deep into the heart of the earth, instead discharging along thesurface of the ground. At best, it vaporized moisture from the ground, causing small craters or even explosions. A kilometer deep into the earth might well be beyond a god’s power, let alone a godling’s....
In desperation, I reached for the stream of energy that danced through the skies high above.
It answered, and with such power that it smashed a hole through the cavern roof, sending a smoldering rain of burning rock blasting through the cavern as it punched down into the water, close to where I bobbed. Fiery fingers of deadly light spread out from the impact point, a net of power that surrounded me, not touching me, but sizzling everything within a twenty-foot radius.
A sea of dead ellul floated to the surface, their red eyes staring unseeingly up at the cavern’s ceiling and the stink of burned fish coating the air and my throat. But there were more beyond that protective circle, more that slid through the deeper portions of the water, where the lightning couldn’t reach. Waiting, watching, ready to attack.
As the fingers of fiery heat began to dissipate, I sheathed my knives and swam, as fast as I could, for the shore. Thankfully, the ring of energy moved with me, protecting me even as it retracted closer and closer to my body. The ellul weren’t attacking me yet, but the wash of their movements was once again increasing. They weren’t stupid; they were waiting for the ring to fade before they started tearing into me again.
My fingers scraped stone. Relief surged, but I wasn’t clear yet. I pushed upright and ran on, lifting my knees high above the water in a vague effort to increase my pace, my eyes on the stalagmites that lined the shore and the promise of protection beyond them.
Something snapped at my leg; the lightning flickered, and the eel screamed, a sharp sound that was swiftly silenced. Thering might be close to extinction now, but what remained still held power. I drew my knives again and ran on. The water fell from my knees to my calves, then my ankles, and then I was racing up the stone shore toward the stalagmites.
The lightning didn’t follow. I was on my own.
Water splashed behind me, then a sleek body hit the stones to my left and slithered toward me. I didn’t stop. I ran on. I was close now, so close, to safety....
More bodies slapped onto stone. Desperation spurted through me, and I leapt high over the barrier, landing awkwardly on the other side and stumbling forward for several steps before finding my balance and turning around.
The ellul were slithering along the stalagmites, looking for a way in and not finding it.
The relief that surged was so damn fierce, my legs went from underneath me. I dropped to the ground, sobbing and shaking, all the while knowing it was not over yet. I would have to do it all over again to get out of here.
That’s when I remembered the rope. My gaze darted down; it was still attached, but did it remain in one piece? I rose, grabbed the rope, and reeled it in. Slowly, ever so slowly, it rose from the depths of the dark water. Despite everything, it remained intact. Hope of survival remained... if Lugh could reel in the rope fast enough, and if I was able to call down the lightning one more time.
While the force of it hadn’t flowed through me this time—I think for the very first time—weariness still ate at me. I tugged on the rope once to let my brother know I was okay—or as okay as you could be when you were bleeding from a dozen different bites—and then let it fall back into the water. The ellul ignored it. Maybe they only wanted flesh.
I shivered, spun on my heel, and walked up the rest of the hill to the altar. It was pretty basic in construction: a square stonebase that bore no inscriptions, with a top—or mensa, I thought its official name was—that was a single piece of thick stone. Both were made of a quartz-like material that flooded the immediate area with its gently luminescent light. The harp lay in a nook in the base of the mensa, its strings still and its music no longer crawling through the air. Whether that was in response to my presence or an indication that our thief wasn’t currently using the pectoral, I couldn’t really say.
I walked around the altar’s base, looking for anything that might set off a secondary trap. Nothing. Both the knives and the Eye remained silent, but that wasn’t a guarantee the area was problem free, given they’d basically been mute throughout this whole fucking ordeal.
After a slight hesitation, I drew the blade and placed it flat onto the surface of the mensa. Again, no reaction. I walked around to the rear and squatted in front of the small, and surprisingly simple, golden harp. I warily touched it with the knife’s tip. Another big fat nothing.
Could it really be this damn easy?
I doubted it. I really did. But maybe Aamon figured if you survived the ellul, you were probably deserving of a prize. Or maybe it was something simpler—with the pectoral thrown into the gaming ring by its god, the magic protecting this place was no longer active.
I’d find out soon enough which one was true.
I sheathed one knife, then, after a rather long hesitation, carefully brushed the top of the harp with my fingers. Its strings briefly rippled, though no music sounded. I glanced up sharply, scanning the shadows and the ellul that still milled beyond the stalagmite fence. No magic stirred. No new threat appeared.
Which was really disconcerting.
I picked up the harp, then rose, my gaze darting around, still awaiting a response, my tension ramping rather than easingwhen nothing came. But maybe Aamon didn’t think it necessary when there was still the swarm of ellul to get through.
I unzipped my protective suit, tucked the harp underneath my sweater, then did up the suit again. Now all I had to do was get out of here.
I took another of those deep breaths that did absolutely nothing to ease my tension or the rising tide of fear and slowly walked back down the hill, the rope a wet snake that trailed behind me. The closer I got to the stalagmite fence, the more frantic the ellul became, but they didn’t try to leap over it. Which, considering the height some of them had gained leaping out of the water, was surprising. Maybe there was more to the fence line than what I was seeing.
I stopped close, wound up the rope, and clipped it onto my harness. The last thing I needed when Lugh was hauling me back to safety was the trailing ends getting caught in the damn rocks.
With all that done, I raised my face to the ceiling I’d shattered and once again reached for the power that still raged in the world beyond. As lightning punched through the ceiling, I tugged three times on the rope, quickly leapt onto the nearest stalagmite, and then jumped toward the water. The rope snapped taut, and I was pulled forward hard, body slamming into the black soup, and instinctively gasped in shock. Water rushed into my mouth, leaving me coughing and spluttering and barely able to keep my face and shoulders above the water. I swore and turned onto my left side so I could breathe a little easier. The ellul swarmed, but lightning now lit the water around me, striking at the bastards as they tried to reach me. A stinking trail of half-cindered ellul filled my wake. Then I was being pulled up the rocky shore and back through the thick black wall.
This time the plastic seemed all too happy to let me pass unhindered, and I slid to a halt at my brother’s feet.
