“Kaelen!”
“Shh, stop fighting me,” he rasps, in between coughs. “There’s a bit of a ledge. If I can steer you over there, you can hold on and rest for a minute while I get Bern.”
Bern goes under again, but one hand shoots up to tell us where he is. Kaelen quickly swims with me over to the side of what seems to be another tunnel, this one filled with rushing water, and helps me perch on a ledge. When he dives beneath the water to find Bern, I cling to theledge with both hands, holding my breath until I see the two of them surface. Bern is coughing, spitting water, and trying to breathe all at the same time. Kaelen tows him over to where I sit and pushes him up next to me on the small ledge. Then the prince raises himself out of the water with his powerful arms and swings around to sit on my other side.
“This is not how I wanted to spend my first day of freedom,” I rasp, coughing between every word.
Kaelen snorts. “You have a talent for understatement.”
Bern slumps over and rests his head on my shoulder, mumbling apologies. “S-Sorry, Lady Soli. Can’t quite catch my breath.”
When he lifts his head, I see fresh blood spreading on his shirt. Luckily, it’s not a huge amount, since I’m in no position to do anything for him.
“You never have to apologize to me,” I tell him sincerely. “You saved my life.”
“Lost your cloak, though,” he says blearily. “Had to cut the ties to free you.”
“It was too fancy for me, anyway.” I put a hand on his arm for support and to maybe catch him if he falls forward. Which is when I realize I can see my hand and his arm and face.
I can see Kaelen, too. But the pit was in total darkness when we fell in.
Like he’s reading my mind, Kaelen nods at my chest, and I glance down to see that the amulet is glowing again. No giant beams of light, at least not yet, but a strong enough glow that we can see what we’re up against.
“It’s like a magic torch,” I say, marveling, and then realize some of that pink haze must still be mucking up my reasoning abilities. “I feel kind of floaty.”
“I think you need to hold on to this,” he says and pulls the key out of his pocket.
It’s slender, the length of my thumb, and ornate. When I hesitantly take it from the prince, I find it’s heavy, too. But I don’t care enough about a key to examine it just now, so I shove it deep into my pocket and sit here, panting.
Kaelenputs an arm around my waist and, for a minute, we three sit like that. Huddled together, concentrating on breathing, glad to be alive. When Bern shivers against me, it wakes me up to another problem. The cold.
“We’re going to freeze to death if we don’t get out of here. InGarethan’s Compilation of Bodily Humors and Healings, he writes that—”
“Soli.” Kaelen closes his eyes and sighs.
“What?”
“You don’t have to quote your sources. Don’t you realize by now that I believe in you and your unbelievable wealth of obscure information?”
“Right.” I feel my face heat, which I don’t mind, since it’s the only part of me that’s warm. “We could get hypothermia. It happens when the core body temperature drops to a dangerously low level. The body loses heat faster than it can warm back up.”
“That’s bad, I assume.” His face is grim as he looks past me at Bern, whose entire body has started to shake.
“Very bad. We could die. And since we’re injured, it’s even more important we get warm.” I look up and up and up to the dimly lit opening of the pit. The draugr isn’t there, or at least he’s not leaning over and looking down at us. But the stone walls don’t have many ledges or even small protrusions. I don’t see how we could climb back up.
And beneath us, there’s nothing but icy, rushing water.
“On th-th-the bright side,” Bern stammers.
“On the bright side, what?” I tighten my grip on him when he wobbles.
“Th-th-there’s no bright side. I just wanted to say something hopeful,” the soldier mumbles. “Lady Soli, tell my nan—”
“No! We’re not doing that,” I snap. “No last words, no ‘in case I die’ monologues. This isn’t a bard’s song. We’re going to get out of here, and you can tell your nan everything you want to tell her yourself.”
He grins. Not much more than a twitch of his lips, but I decide to take it as an encouraging sign. “She’d like you. You’re as bossy as she is.”
“Bossy?” I’m not sure if I’m flattered or offended. I never had thechance to be bossy before. Freedom is changing my personality already.
