Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Mereden raises her hand. “What if we collapse the tunnel because we hammer too hard on the wall?”
I stare at her. By the gods, does she have to bring up something like that? “Then Hawk will come and rescue us,” I say promptly. “But if you’ve got a better idea of a place to dig, I’d like to hear it.” When no one speaks up, I gesture at the wall that the dowsing rod had singled out. “All right, then, let’s give it a try. And if you feel like the tunnel is about to collapse…say something.”
Kipp huffs at that, but he’s the first one to strike the wall.
I pick up my pickaxe and strike at the wall, too, though I don’t know how much good I’m doing. I can’t swing full strength because we’re all still roped together and standing close to one another. I’m also tired and hungry, and a little wary of hammering away at what looks like solid rock.
But we set to work anyhow, because a stick told us to.
It doesn’t take long before the solid-looking rock cracks under one of Mereden’s strikes. Then, like a fragile eggshell, it shatters in a dozen places as we poke at it. Soon we have a hole in the wall, and when Lark shoves the lantern toward it, we can see a chamber on the other side. “It’s hollow?”
I exchange a look with Gwenna. The dowsing rod wasn’t wrong. There really was something on the other side. “Should we go through?”
“Unless you just wanted to knock a hole through the wall and leave?” Lark retorts. “Come on. Get the rod again and let’s see what’s on the other side.”
“So brave now, are we?” Gwenna murmurs.
Kipp is the first one through, the slitherskin seemingly fearless despite this newest reveal. I step through after him, clutching my shield at the shadows around us. The tunnel behind us was smooth, but even with Lark’s bobbing light still on the other side, I can see there are a lot more shapes here. I squint at the shadows as something decidedly human looms in the darkness.
I step over someone’s pack, my heart pounding. Have we broken through the wall to the other team? Are we going to get into trouble now?
But then Lark’s light bobs its way onto our side, and with relief, I can see that the form isn’t human at all. It’s a statue of a man, the stern expression on his face and the headdress denoting it as Prellian. It stands nearly upright, a beautiful work of art amidst the rubble.
“Oh my gods,” Mereden cries.
“What?” Gwenna asks from the other side of the rock. “What is it?”
“It’s a body,” Lark replies, and her voice is hushed with horror.
I chuckle. “I thought the same thing, too, but it’s a statue. A lovely one.” I want to move forward to touch it, but the rope is taut between us, and no one seems to be stepping deeper into the new cavern except me. I can’t take my eyes off the thing, though. The face is expressive, the lines around the mouth conveying a stern disapproval even as the figure cradles a child with a circlet to his breast. A king and his heir, possibly? I’ve seen that in other Prellian art—
“Aspeth.” Lark moves to my side and grabs me by the arms. She points at the carving I’m so enamored with. “That is a statue.” She forcibly turns me and points at the ground. “That is a fucking body.”
I stare.
I thought I’d stepped over a backpack. That in our efforts to get through the new hole into the chamber, someone had discarded their pack and I’d simply moved over it, far more fascinated with the ruins in front of us.
But it is a body. Gwenna kneels next to it, peeling back an old, faded cloak that falls apart in her grasp. There’s nothing left of the body but a skeleton and some rusty bits of armor. At his side is a lump that might have once been a pack but is now just another rotted blob. Fuzzy greenish lichen grows over everything, and a worm crawls out of one of the empty eye sockets of the skull.
I scream.
Mereden screams.
Lark screams and bolts for the other side of the wall. We stumble after her, the rope tugging on us and adding to the sense of urgency. I’m dimly aware of Kipp racing at my side, of Mereden’s hand on my back as we run through the tunnel, following after Lark’s bobbing light.
“Where are you going?” Gwenna cries, her voice behind us.
“I don’t fucking know,” Lark cries back. “Away!”
Away sounds good.
I race with them, and the tunnels slope upward. No one points out that we’re heading toward Magpie and camp. No one needs to. Camp feels the safest right now. The tunnel walls seem to close in around us, the darkness and stale air oppressive, until I’m sobbing with fear, and I’m not the only one. I can hear Mereden’s thin whimpers filling the tunnels, along with Lark’s heaving breaths.