“Run!”he shouted.
They sprintedahead, leaping over the rattling pool of bone already reforming itself intoknots and limbs.Another conjoined mass of skeletons leered at them from thedarkness, but Zaria lowered her polearm forward, spearing the tangle of bonethrough its center frame and dragging it along as she ran.More piles of bodiescame, wriggling and jerking.Bone splintered into chunks as the hyena keptcharging.Soon, the bones formed a quivering mass on the steel of her weapon,like the burnt head of a match, and the smaller bones began to snake their wayup the wooden haft, squirming towards her hands.With a snarl, she smacked theweapon into the wall, like she was ridding a broom ofdust.
“Isaac,what the fuck—”
“Keeprunning!”
Theysprinted through corridors and burial chambers, dodging pockets of bone,leaping over swarms, the masses sloughing into each other like droplets ofwater.There was no way to see ahead.The torchlight did not go far.All theycould do was run forward into darkness, reacting to whatever came ahead,whether it was a curve in the hall or a shambling ball of corpses.
All atonce, he saw the giant vertebrae.It continued on through an intersectingcorridor, the great sockets of bone sagging down like a pale nimbus of cloud,and the sight came so suddenly that Isaac almost ran straight through theintersection without spotting it.He stopped, stumbled, grabbed Zaria by thetail, eliciting from her a girlish shriek of surprise, and yelled: “This way!”
Now,following the bone, the tilt of the floor was obvious.They had been descendingthe entire time, feeding themselves deeper and deeper into the earth, and thecorridor they found themselves in now was almost a ramp leading into an openpit of darkness, mimicking the bend of the titan’s spine.His momentum built toan almost uncontrollable pace.Zaria stayed in the front, swatting awayclusters of bone whenever possible, ignoring the fingers and toes that leapedlike bugs.
Heswatted away a leering arm, dodged around the blade of a shoulder, keeping historch waving squarely at the shadows behind them, only to bring it out forwardand suddenly see a churning wall of bone in front of him, so thickly woven itmight’ve been a quarry of stone.With his downward momentum, he couldn’t stopin time.Zaria braced her shoulder and smashed through the thick layer ofslithering remains.Isaac barely missed the wide gap she made, slamming halfhis body into the broken membrane of arms and legs.
Hedropped the torch and stumbled to the floor.A giant slug-like mass ofskeletons fell from the ceiling, crushing him into the dirt.
“Isaac!”
Zariatried to turn, but an avalanche of bone poured from the loculi around her.Masses shambled in from the dark, full of bending ribs and chattering skulls.She swung, bashed, and stomped, lost in a swirling shower of bone.
On thefloor, Isaac wrenched his arms and legs, trying to break free, but the boneswere a sliding cocoon around him, squeezing tighter and tighter.They pressedinto his skin like beds of needles.All his training failed him, and he flaileddesperately, overwhelmed with terror.When he managed to free his arms, heflung them overhead.They got stuck.
Helooked up.
Justabove his head, there was an old, rusted sconce.It held no torch in its base.The centuries of darkness had reduced it to little more than a rusty blade ofmetal.When Isaac tugged, his restraints began to tear on the jagged edge.
Screaming,he pulled his arms with all his strength, sawing through the tangle of ropes onhis wrist.The mass of bones continued to stab and constrict around him,slithering up towards his neck.For a horrible moment, the sconce seemed readyto break from the wall, and the bones were nearly at his mouth, rattlingagainst each other in an overwhelming crescendo.
Aninstant later, his bindings tore through, and his hands were freed.
Quickly,with the ease and grace of training, he performed the mnemonics for wind,balling two hurricanes into the palms of his hands.He slapped his right handinto the ground, bouncing the wind off the floor, creating an upward geyserthat broke the cocoon around him.When a constellation of bone appeared above,he used his left hand to slash a lance of wind in a sweeping arc, flinging theswarm of bone like a volley of arrows.
Hejumped to his feet, already casting another spell.Ahead, Zaria caught herbalance on the edge of a loculi.She looked at him, surprised, and anexpression of fear crawled across her face.She watched with wide eyes as achurning ball of fire grew between his hands.She took a step back, trying tospeak.Her whisper was lost beneath the crackling flame.
“Getdown!”
Shedropped to the floor, and Isaac shot the fireball over her head.It roared downthe narrow hall, shadows racing across stone, twirling masses of bone flailinglike the collapse of a bonfire.Moments later, the fireball ended in a dyinglight, swallowed by the darkness beyond.Flames sputtered on marrowless bone.Things slid together.Slowly, a new mass undulated in their direction, itslimbs and faces smoldering with ember.
At hisback, the chittering became overwhelming, and Isaac turned to see a triangularwall of bone lurch towards him like a wave in the ocean, buoyed by a river ofarms and legs.He stumbled back, trying to create space, but the tide of bodiesgushed forward like a liquid, surging over the torch he had dropped.The flamewas sucked away.
Suddenly,there was no light.
Darknessreigned.
Therewas only the chittering of bone, the sliding of corpses, the rasping cries andhissing screams, the overwhelming rush of limbs and heads and bodies.
Isaacfelt something massive looming above him.
Mnemonics.
Now.
Now.
Now—
He wrenchedhis arm, and white light burned from his hand.The tide of bones above himlurched back, screaming in rage and fear.A hissing jet of steam erupted fromits dozen-skulled face, the old bone melting on its frame, dripping away likepus.Isaac poured more energy into the casting, intensifying the anti-necroticspell until it was blazing as bright as a lighthouse in the palm of his hand.When he stepped forward, the wave fell apart around him, the tide of bonescurrying away like a swarm of insects, all the pieces bubbling and steamingand bursting into flame.
