“Whoa, that’s hot!”Darion yelled.“Nice job!”
“That won’t stop them for long.”
I’d been sure of the layout of the catacombs when we’d entered, but the army of bloodthirsty rodents on our tail jumbled my memory.Ahead of us, the corridor forked left and right.The wrong choice could lead us to a dead end,deadbeing the operative word.
Garrick’s voice echoed in my mind:Sometimes memory can falter under pressure.I could almost hear him gloating.
As the intersection approached, I went with my gut.
“Left!”I yelled.Without a moment’s hesitation, Darion followed me down the corridor.It wasn’t a dead end, so that was something.
With the immediate pressure off, I dug deep and retreated into my mind.I was finally able to block out the wretched noises and the screaming in my head.I had only a moment of clarity, but that was all I needed for the map to come into focus, and I charted the twists and turns to the queen’s tomb.
“Right!”I yelled at the next intersection.
“You really know your way around down here,” Darion panted.
“I studied a map,” I said.
“Youmemorizedthe whole thing?”
I shrugged.If he only knew how close I’d been to forgetting everything I’d learned, he might not have been quite so impressed.
We twisted and turned through the tunnels for what felt like an eternity.An occasional rat appeared in front of us, and Darion skillfully slayed them all.He was a wonder with a sword.Twice, the rats advanced on us from behind, close enough that we could smell their stench.Each time, I threw a fireball vial at them.
“That’s my last one!”I yelled as the inferno blazed behind us.It would take only a few moments for them to overtake us again.This was not the way I’d imagined my end.
“How far can you jump?”Darion yelled over the squeals.
“Pretty far.”
“Left at the next intersection,” he said.
That was odd.Did he actually know where we were?Apparently he knew these catacombs better than he had let on.I had planned on turning right, the most direct path to the queen’s tomb.I did some shuffling in my mind.We could still get there if we went left, but that path would take us well out of the way.
Darion said, “Trust me.”
Trust.I almost laughed.People who told me to trust them usually deserved the opposite.I barely knew him, but somehow I had allowed my judgment to become clouded, and now my life was at risk.Then again, what was the alternative?Let the rats overtake us and hope we could fight them off?I had no choice but to put my faith in this near-stranger.
I nodded, and we raced to the left, my fate in his hands.
It wasn’t long before the narrow corridor opened up into a large room resembling a chapel with rows of seats hewn from huge slabs of rock, all facing a large dais.On it was a massive stone tomb, its cracked top half open, with large chunks of stone surrounding it.At the far end of the room, the corridor continued.
I desperately hoped Darion knew what he was doing by leading us here.
We raced down the center aisle, Darion first.The rats entered the chapel behind us, spreading out, their claws scraping against the stone.The sheer number of them was hard to fathom; they fought each other, crammed down the aisle, and climbed over the rows of benches, spreading like a virus.
Darion leapt over the tomb with the grace of an acrobat.Dust, he was beautiful to watch.As I followed him, I stole a glance into the stone casket.A shriveled corpse dressed in rusted chain mail stared at me with empty eye sockets.
“Get ready to sprint, then jump,” Darion yelled as we cleared the dais and approached the end of the room.
In an instant, I understood.A wide and jagged chasm had opened in the ground, taking a good section of the chapel with it.The exit was on the other side.This would require quite a leap.
My lungs burned, but I stepped up my pace to a near sprint.Darion and I ran side by side until we reached the edge.I kicked off and leapt, sailing through the air as the ground disappeared, my legs pinwheeling to take advantage of every bit of momentum.The chasm extended into darkness below me, farther than the light from my vial could reach.
My feet hit solid ground.
No problem.
