Did heunderstand?
Isaachad looked at him, wanting all of it to be over.Instead, he had nodded.
Hisuncle had smiled.
Now,the light in Isaac’s hand began to flicker and fade.He no longer had thestrength to hold his arm above his head.Immediately, the swarms of bone seizedin, braying at the edges of the light, hissing and screeching.
Somethingwith seven legs and three skulls leaped like a frog.With a roar, Isaacstraightened his arm, concentrated the light, and shotit from his hand like a ballista of energy.It skewered clean through theflying mass, sending it flailing to the floor, its bones burned and flaked toash.Isaac turned and shot the light again, aiming at the crawling legionsbehind them, focusing the beam into a lance of shining brilliance.The corridorwas scoured.Bodies and creatures screamed as they burst aflame, the writhinglayers of bone scattering into swarms.
Heswept his arm across the intersecting halls, listening to the screech of dyingbone.He waited for a new opponent.None dared.
“Comeon!”he yelled.
Hisvoice echoed down the dusty corridors, his words carrying through a legion offestering graves.None made answer.
Hechallenged the darkness to fight, and he found the darkness afraid.
Hecontinued on, bathed in radiant light, marching past empty tombs and silentcoffins.Ahead, a crawling layer of bone retreated into the dark like the whitefoam of a wave.Twitching masses flung themselves to the ground as heapproached, falling over into their base components.Shrieks echoed from thehalls.Any shifting mass that did not retreat was burned to ash and smashed topieces with the heavy blade of a poleaxe.
Abovetheir heads, the vertebrae changed.They were no longer cervical—instead, theblocks of bone began to sport the articulation joints of thoracic vertebrae,each protrusion larger than the blade of a windmill.Gradually, the corridorswidened further and further until the walls disappeared from the edge of hislight.
Thecatacombs had ended.
Theyhad made it through the neck.They were almost at the torso.
Almostto the necropolis.
Almostto safety.
Hestumbled through a wide entryway.A large stone door stood at the end of acircular chamber, carved into the bulge of a massive sternum, which Isaac couldonly compare in size to the gate of a high-walled castle.Vertebrae acted asthe central pillar of the chamber, the floor around it carved with religiousreliefs and mythological figures.Giant clavicles curved away from the sternuminto adjacent corridors, the shoulders somewhere far off in the darkness.
Zariaran across the chamber, pieces of splintered bone falling from her leatherarmor.She bashed into the massive stone door as if she meant to knock it over.All she received in response was a puffing cloud of dust.
“Whatstupid idiot made a door out of stone?”
Isaac had only barely reached the vertebrae in the center of theroom.He had to lean on it for support.
“Isaac!Work your book-learnin’!”
Hepushed himself off the vertebrae and made to speak.An instant later, he wasface-down on the floor, and the light was gone.A frantic heartbeat rang in hisear.He tried to cast the spell again, but his arms were stiff and empty, andhe had to work the incantation like a wet campfire.When he got the lightshining from his hand again, Zaria was leaning over him, pulling him up tostanding.
“Fuckme, love, you’re bleedin’ bad.”
Hecouldn’t feel the punctures anymore.He knew that was a very bad sign.
Sheleaned him against herself as they walked, their difference in height bringinghis head parallel with a breast.“Exit, right?Door leads to safety?”
Isaacmanaged to nod.
“Well,come on, open sesame and all that.”
Heflopped his arm towards the side of the door.“Lever.”
“That easy,is it?”
Hegrunted into her fur.
Shemoved across the rest of the chamber, gently lowering him into a sittingposition at the front of the door.“Stay awake.Hey!”She snapped her fingers.“Breathe.In out, in out.”
