The rumbling intensified.The ground heaved and roared.Above them, behind the giant pillar of the obelisk, there was an avalanchefalling from hundreds of feet in the air, boulders the size of palaces tumblingin a spray of dirt and stone.Isaac could see the remnants of the necropolisinside.There were split-open skulls, broken statues, a pelvic-shaped building,a shower of finger-like pavement, all of it coming down like a deluge of snow.
Beneath it all, the pelvis of the colossus began to rise.
“Run!”Zaria shouted.
They ran, weaving through the fallen rubble and splittingcement.Isaac ran until his torch was dropped, until his wounds were forgotten,until it barely felt like his feet were hitting the ground.He ran until all hecould see in front of him was a forest of festering ossein.Halfway to safety,there was a volley of cannons, barely heard.Isaac glimpsed the flash of amortar.The air was peppered with exploding iron as the Crookspur fleetunleashed a panicked fusillade at the rising colossus, the flare of the volleysso high above it felt like seeing lightning within a cloud.The heavens ragedwith a screaming of steel.
Isaac used the distraction to run even faster.
Zaria pulled ahead, racing directly for the bones.Withoutslowing, she sprinted towards a large mound of bony vines, braced her shoulder,and smashed her way into the tangle, disappearing beneath the canopy of fibers.Isaac dashed as fast as he could, but the ground flipped beneath him assomething utterly gargantuan slammed into the nearby cliffs, rocketing theground with such immense strength it felt as if the world had been momentarilyyanked away, like a rug beneath his feet.
The pirates had learned why they should fear the tomb.
Shadows filled the sky.
Isaac stumbled, diving headfirst through an open curtain ofbone.As he landed, he scraped the knives in his arm against the floor.Theworld became pain, blood, and gasps.He rolled himself along a thin, corrugatedsheet of metal, capable only of incoherent noise.It felt like ages before hewas able to breathe.
“On your feet, squire!”
He was yanked back to standing.A thick flail of copper wirewas dangling in front of him, dancing with the repeated shockwaves of thecolossus assaulting the pirate fleet.Isaac grabbed a fistful of the thin metallines, wobbling for balance.
He blinked through the shadows.
They had entered what could only be described as a metaltunnel.It was both tight and small, forcing Zaria to stoop her height, and itextended only a short distance ahead before ending in a small, bulging room.Sections of the metal had clearly been disassembled, leaving only a thin,skeletal frame.A few panels remained on the ceiling and walls, and they wereall veined with copper strands, much of it welded together with a thick, spongysubstance.
Despite the shade, Isaac could see a single word painted onthe wall of the bulging room.It was written in the old necromancer language.By now, he had translated enough of their language to immediately recognize theletters.
AIRLOCK
He had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
Outside, there was a roar.The frame groaned its age.Bonessplintered and snapped, draping the rays of a pale orange sun.Zaria grabbedhis wrist and yanked him deeper into the tunnel, bashing her way through metalsheets and entire bushes of ossein.Around them, the tunnel began to pitch andyaw, threatening to roll.She jumped into the bulging room, stood back to herfull height, and kicked the wheel on the circular door.It groaned against itsframe, barely opening through the dense layers of ossein, the fibers outside sothickly woven it had almost formed a solid bone.
Zaria kicked the door again.
“Cunt!”
She bashed her shoulder.
“Cunt!”
The tunnel rattled in place, a panel snapping off its frame.
“Fucking cunt!”
She reared back, ready for another charge, and, before shecould take another step, the dense accretion of ossein returned to life.Thefibers quivered, cracking as they moved.Like the pull of a curtain, the matrixof bone slithered away, pulling back into the larger canopy.Zaria kicked thedoor again.The metal swung outwards, and the sound of the cracking osseinreminded Isaac of the thralls breaking their limbs.
“Squire,” Zaria said, staring untrustingly at the open door.“Explain.”
“My father?He controls the bones in this tomb.”
“You sure about that?”
Around them, the bristles continued to squirm.Beyond thetunnel, a burrow was forming through the spindles of bone, clearly marking apath.Isaac remembered the souls aiding him in the obelisk.He thought of howmany bodies had fed this growth of bone.
Perhaps—
He was yanked again.
