“Yes, Trax, grab it.”
“I have obtained the device.”
An ominous rumble surrounded us. Dust and bits of rock rained down from the ceiling.
With its prize given up, the chamber no longer had a need to exist, and the magic which had been keeping out the relentless barrage of the sea for five centuriescracked.
Seawater began squirting from the walls.
Twenty-Five
This end of the chamber was coming apart. Water was spraying everywhere. Cracks were spreading. We ran for it.
“Be careful of the traps!” I shouted as loudly as possible, but it was doubtful any of them heard me over the roar of rushing water. “You’ve still got to retrace your steps!”
Trax came out of the secret door carrying a metal chest that was casting brilliant beams of light as the lamp rolled about inside. On the wrong side of the deadly puzzle tiles, Trax had by far the most complicated path to freedom.
“I do not think it is wise for me to rush through the puzzle in reverse. Based upon our current situation, I could wait and then swim out when the chamber is fully flooded.”
That might work for Trax, but the rest of us were going to drown if we stuck around. One nice thing about Squalo thought-speech was that Trax didn’t need to hear me speak; I just needed to think hard and I knew he’d get it.Do what you need to do, but don’t lose the lamp.
“It might not survive being submerged. Here.”Trax tossed the box to me.
I watched the possibly fragile treasure fly across the room and just managed to catch it. “Oof!” Weighing about twentypounds and being hurled with Squalo might, the box bruised my arms and damned near knocked me over. Trax had a tendency to forget his strength.
The ground shuddered, and all of us stumbled. Krachma turnedImperviousagain, just as some rocks fell from the ceiling and bounced off his temporarily indestructible head.
Rufus Rudnik came running down the stairs, shouting unintelligibly. He reached the bottom and splashed our way. Heedless of danger, this was a dwarf on a mission, so focused that he didn’t even notice the chamber was falling down and flooding. With axe in hand and a wild look in his eye, he was yelling furiously, but for the life of me, I couldn’t understand what he was saying over all the noise. He was running fast and heedless of danger… right down the middle of the room.
“Rufus, wait!”
He didn’t hear my warning, but I finally understood what he was saying over and dover. “Treachery! We’ve been betray?—”
THUNK!
The ghostly arrow trap that had been about chest high on me, was head high on poor Rufus.
He stopped, blinked, looked at all of us with dimwitted surprise, and then slowly put his hand to his temple, where the fletching of a glowing arrow was sticking out. Then he dropped his axe and touched his other hand to the arrowhead… which was poking out the other side of his head.
“Huh…” Rufus said as he pulled on the arrow bisecting his brain. That caused our dwarf to stumble drunkenly to the side. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
He was lurching toward an area where I’dnothad a chance to check for traps. “Stop!”
“Don’t worry. It’s nothing a Clan Rudnik war mage can’t walk off.”
The next trap Rufus triggered must have been earth-based, because the floor came alive with two big chunks of stone rising around him… And then slammed together so incredibly fast that Rufus got smashedflat.We all got splattered by red droplets.
Azarin screamed. I winced.
The stone and Rufus sandwich sank into the floor, but there was no time to stand there in horror because the water was ankle deep and rising fast. The collapse was spreading. Other sections of the chamber were crumbling, allowing even more water to rush in faster. Rufus had suffered a terrible fate, but if we didn’t get out of here right then, we’d be joining him shortly.
We got to the bottom of the stairs. I made sure everyone was accounted for and went in last. Trax was the only one left behind, but he could breathe underwater just fine and didn’t need us, so we started climbing.
Everyone was still stunned by the loss of one of our own, but once we were a bit farther up the stairwell, the rushing water noise was muted enough we could hear each other better, but we still had to shout. The light leaking from the box made the enclosed space incredibly bright. Every little rusty pinhole in the box emitted an eye-searing beam of light. Even moving the box under my cloak didn’t help, as the light went right through the fabric.
Azarin was staring, wide-eyed. “Rufus popped like a grape.”
“Did anybody catch what he was shouting about?” I asked.
