“Getbehind me!”Isaac yelled.
Zariastepped around him as he marched on.Ahead, the wriggling slugs of bodiesslithered away, their cries of fear echoing down the long, empty tunnels, andthose who could not squirm fast enough were burned to ash under his whitelight, all the acrid smoke rising in wisps and clouds.Another wall of bonepresented itself at a junction of corridors, forming a pulsing orifice oflimbs, and, without breaking his light, Isaac balled another hurricane into thepalm of his hand, smashing it like a bird’s nest.Splinters of bone flew pasthim from behind, and Zaria’s groans of effort told him there was still a tideat their back, only barely held at bay.
He tooka turn into an intersecting hall, still following the vertebrae.A few stepsin, he stumbled, having to lean his shoulder into stone.When he pressed a handto his chest, it came away shining red.The cocoon of bones had stabbed him allover his body.He wasn’t sure which would weaken him faster—the magic lightburning from his hand, or the blood leaking from his body.
He hadno scrolls left.He could not defeat them all by hand.Even now, he could hearthe dead of an entire city slithering through the halls.
Theywere going to die.
Zariapushed him from behind.“No slacking, squire!”
Hestumbled forward, a ragged gasp escaping his lips, continuing ahead withbrilliant light shining high above his head.Her presence, despite everything,gave him some comfort.They marched together as one.
By now,the vertebrae in the ceiling were a straight, curving line, but the paths thatfollowed them were circuitous and long, bending and turning, leading themthrough burial chambers, mausoleums, endless sockets of loculi.The spinalcolumn frequently disappeared from sight.Every turn was a guess, every room ahope, every vanishing a fear.
“Isaac!Behind!”
Heturned, and a vaguely humanoid shape sprinted at them from the darkness, fastand large and spiked with sharpened arms.He smashed it down to chunks with ablast of wind, and the separating bones boiled beneath his light.
Themasses were growing bolder, fiercer.He saw them try to angle themselves intoambushes, twisting into deadlier shapes, ones that could leap and slash andskewer.They were still circling the edge of his light, like wild animalsaround a raging fire.These creatures were intelligent.They were the extendedwill of a sorceress who had survived the fall of empire.All it would take wasone gap for them to exploit, a single slip of weakness.
But, ofcourse, their ferocity could mean something else.It could mean they weregetting close to the exit.
Theyhad to push deeper.
Hereached a four-way intersection of halls.Each of them looked the same—narrowwalls, stone loculi, a ceiling of dirt and stone.Bones hissed in all.
Zariabumped into him from behind.“Which way?”
“Anyway!”Isaac hissed.
“Pick agood one!”
“Ican’t see—”
Thebones sprung their trap.
Fromeach of the four halls, shapes and masses flooded from the darkness.They werecoordinated, their limbs sprinting, their bodies leaping and churning.He couldnot pick a direction to cast.
“Zaria!”
Abulbous mass of skulls leaped at him, but the hyena smashed it down fromoverhead, scattering the screaming faces across the floor.Isaac pressedhimself into her back, seeing a torrential rain of bone flying sideways down anadjacent corridor, and he just barely managed to encase the pathway with asolid wall of ice, trapping the body parts like flies in amber.In anothercorridor, cylinders of arms and legs spun across the ceiling, screeching andflailing, and Zaria managed to angle a vicious slash of her axe, cleavingthrough a knot of femurs.Isaac incinerated the uncoiling limbs as theydetached, watching the scattered pieces of bone burn to ash.
Hepicked a random direction, continuing on.
Hestumbled.
Hegasped for air.
Hegritted his teeth, continuing again.
Hecouldn’t sustain this pace for much longer.The arm holding up the light wasbeginning to shrivel, all the energy visibly sucking from the muscle.His legswere unsteady, and his vision was blurring.His body was draining so quickly oflifeforce that it was becoming a conscious effort to draw breath.
Hepressed a hand to his chest, and it came back dripping with blood.
And hewas back in the yard again, the morning sun shining on his face.He hadattempted to cast the warding light dozens of times, and he was now only managingsparks.He panted, leaned on his knees, and told his uncle that he could do nomore.If he tried again, he was sure he would faint.
Andjust when he expected the cane, his uncle had pursed his lip,and nodded, and kneeled beside him, and toldhim that he must try again, he must push himself beyond his limits, because thetime would come when he would be in great need of thisspell, and it would not be a time when he could falter.He was only challenginghis nephew so harshly now because he needed to be ready for the task ahead.
