“Hurryup—cutthroat.”
Zariaraced over to the lever.It was located in the range of his light, but he couldnot see very far.His vision was growing narrow and dim.Back the way theycame, the chittering continued to churn.It seemed to be growing louder.
Heheard some wrenching sounds off to the side, followed by a snarl.“Is anyblasted bit of metal gonna work right?”
Hecould hear the bones coming again.The sound was heavy, full of cracks andscrapes, punctuated with raspy screams and grinding roars.The chamber theywere in held many doors along the opposite end of the sternum.There were manymouths of darkness.Every one of them seemed to twist and boil.
Zariawas next to him again.“It’s not budging.”
Heconcentrated on breathing.
“Isaac!It’s stuck!”
“Idon’t—” He swallowed some saliva.“I don’t know.Do something.”
Zariastared back up at the massive stone door.
“Dosomething,” he said.“I’ll cover you.”
“Youcouldn’t cover piss in a blanket.”
Hegrabbed the belt of her leather pauldron and pulled himself to standing.Hisfists clenched, and the white light grew brighter.“I will cover you.”
Shestudied the door, apprehensive.“I suppose I am the brute, between us.”
“Ifwe’re to die,” Isaac said, “I want you to know.”
Shelooked at him.
“I hateyour snoring.”
Shesnorted.
“Yes,like that,” he said.“Fuck off.”
With atoss of her poleaxe, Zaria walked up to the door, cracked her neck, bracedagainst the stone, and began to push with all her strength.Dust rained fromabove.The sternum itself seemed to shake.Slowly, the door began to scrapealong its ancient path, moving inwards at a glacial pace.
A roarcame from the darkness.More joined it, warbling and torn, and the chitteringrushed into a frenzy of movement, like a thousand crackling fires combininginto an inferno.The roars became a chorus, a synchronized cry of battle.
Isaacperformed a new spell.
Theycame through the entryways like a horde of beasts, sprinting from alldirections.He pointed his finger at the largest mass of bones he could see.Agust of energy snapped through his arm, and the mass exploded in a burst of rawsound.The noise was deafening, slapping his eardrums, and the shockwaveblasted through the nearest beasts like a blackpowder bomb.The shrapnel ofbone hit the back ranks, shredding many to their base components.
Hepointed again, shooting the raw sound at points of maximum effect, tearingapart entire lines of galloping masses.Shattered bone flew through the air instreams.But they were coming from every side, pouring out of every chamberentrance in gushing tides, and they had staggered their lines, coordinatedtheir charges.He couldn’t cast fast enough.There were too many to kill.Theyclosed the distance at rapid speed.
Heperformed new mnemonics, losing even more ground in the casting time, andslammed two balls of hurricane into the floor.A tidal wave of wind eruptedfrom the ground, knocking back the edges of the horde like a solid wall offorce.The masses of bone were slapped into showers of arms and legs.For amoment, their advance was halted.But the front lineswere replaced with new bone immediately, the new corpses almost stumbling overeach other in their rabid fervor.Isaac cast the wind again, sending constellationsof bone spinning through the air, but the lines only grew thicker with thesprinting dead.It felt like beating the ocean with a broom.
Behindhim, Zaria had managed to push open a crack in the doorway.Yellow lighttrickled through the gap.
Isaacfell back, increasing the strength of his own light.The first swarm of beastsimmediately burst into flame, melting into puddles and ash at his feet.Arestless mob of skulls and fingers and limbs grew at the edge of the spell,hissing and screeching.They swiped into his aura, bit at it with teethlessjaws, each thrust into the light boiling the skin of their bones.
Thelight began to dim.He had reached the ends of his strength.As the casting radiusshrank around him, the horde closed in.He could see vacant skulls and sharpribs and twisted legs, piles of bodies squirming like slugs, entire waves ofbone splashing at the backs of creatures only vaguely shaped like livingbeings.They came in, closer and closer.Dozens of arms grasped for his flesh.
Zariahad widened the crack in the doorway to a small gap.He saw glimpses ofstatues, buildings, roads.
Theywere almost at him.The light was nearly gone.Each swipe of claws barelymissed his chest.The horde was frenzied, smelling blood and life.
And,all at once, Isaac felt a sense of calm.There was a feeling of rightness, asense that he had achieved his place and purpose.Everything he had ever known had built up to his moment.As he pulled thelast bit of lifeforce from his body, a single sentenceflared in his mind.
