Yann crouched in the tunnel listening to the Darklings thundering in fury out in the cavern. Anríq’s club pounded through the walls. He would bring down the whole cavern if this kept up.

The Darklings kept rushing the tunnel entrance right in front of Yann’s face. They snapped and snarled trying to get him.

When that failed, they snaked their tentacles down the tunnel to snatch him.

He slashed a dozen tentacles off as he backed away out of range. He was finally safe—for now.

The sound of Anríq’s club hammering away down there drove Yann farther away. He had to get the captives out of here and fast. He only prayed he could rescue them in time for Anríq to escape, too.

Yann waited just long enough to make sure none of the Darklings’ tentacles could stretch this far. Then he turned away and extended his glaive’s glowing blade farther down the tunnel to see where he was going.

He would have given just about anything for a scrap of magic to locate the captives in this Dark maze.

That was never going to happen, so he just had to do it the old-fashioned way.

He picked up his pace, but he got lucky this time. The tunnel turned out to be one long, unbroken tube just like the last one. Simion Mihaili wasn’t very creative.

Yann crouched under the low ceiling working his way deeper and deeper into the tunnel. He didn’t know how far he’d have to go before he found the captives….and then he saw them.

The light from his glaive picked out some shadowy shapes ahead, but they didn’t look like people.

He raced down the tunnel much faster after that…and stopped dead in his tracks when he found the captives.

A dozen people lay embedded in the rock wall. That was the best way Yann could describe it.

Their bodies stuck a few inches out of the surface. They had frozen in attitudes of twisted agony with a thin layer of stone covering every inch of their skin. None of the captives could move.

The stone even covered their mouths so they couldn’t make a sound. The rock left their eyes exposed, but their eyes didn’t move, either.

Yann studied them one after the other and even touched the rock while he tried to find some vulnerability. How could he free these people with only his glaive?

He didn’t want to use the blade to crack the stone. Anríq’s enchantment gave the only light for Yann to see what he was doing.

It would also give him the only light to get these people out—if by some miracle he found a way to free them from the rock.

God only knew how he would get them through the cavern. He could just imagine the nightmare of trying.

These people might be just as frozen and immovable outside the wall as they were in it. They might weigh too much for him to carry even one of them. Then he’d be sunk and so would they.

He found Amala. None of these people seemed to be wearing any clothing. The rock outlined their bodies with nothing in between. Would they come out of the rock stark naked into the bargain?

He pushed those thoughts away. Freeing them was much more important.

He rotated his glaive around and drove the wooden shaft end into the rock next to Amala’s arm. She didn’t react or move in any way. She didn’t even move her eyes to show that she knew he was here trying to rescue her.

He slammed his glaive shaft into the rock a dozen times, but the blows didn’t even chip the rock.

His frustration escalated to fury. Now what?

He glanced up and down the tunnel. He was just making up his mind to use his glaive blade after all when he heard….the silence.

The booming smashes of Anríq’s club no longer thudded through the tunnels. Anríq must be dead down there—which meant Yann had absolutely no hope left of ever getting out of here alive. Forget about rescuing these people.

No wonder Mihaili gloated over Anríq. Mihaili must have seen straight through Anríq. Mihaili must have realized that Anríq would never give up until he found the captives.

Then Anríq would fall into Mihaili’s trap and Mihaili would continue to hold Amala and her relatives down here forever. Costico would never find out what happened to Yann, Anríq, or the captives. It was the perfect plan.

Yann’s shoulders slumped. He turned back to study Amala. If he had no other option, he might as well use his glaive blade. His situation couldn’t possibly get any worse.

He turned his glaive around and cocked back his arms to strike, but at that moment, someone grabbed his arm.

He jumped out of his skin when he found Anríq standing next to him. “Don’t do that,” Anríq told him. “You’ll damage the blade and it won’t break the surface.”

“You scared the crap out of me!” Yann hissed. “Don’t sneak up on me like that! Jesus!”

Anríq furrowed his brow. “I didn’t sneak up on you. You looked up the tunnel right at me. I was right there.”

Yann turned away gasping for breath. “Just get us the hell out of here. How do we get these people free?”

“They’re under a curse,” Anríq began.

“I can see that,” Yann snapped a lot more harshly than he should have.

Anríq passed down the wall and ran his hands over the rock. “I’ll have to break the curse.”

“Will these people be able to travel once they get out of the wall?”

“I don’t know, but we can’t leave them here. Step away, Yann.”

Yann backed away from the wall. Anríq laid his flat palms on the surface and shut his eyes. Yann was really starting to hate seeing Anríq do that.

He shuddered and then gritted his teeth. He compressed his lips in deep concentration, bowed his head, and another deep trembling shudder spread through the rock.

The vibration gathered in strength, traveled all the way down the tunnel until it covered all the captives, and in one sudden rush, all the rock covering them sucked inward into Anríq’s hands.

It blasted him off and sent him flying into the opposite wall next to Yann. Anríq landed hard on the floor and lay there writhing and groaning in agony.

Yann knelt over him. “How bad is it?”

Anríq bared his teeth through shivering lips. He kept his eyes shut and didn’t answer.

Yann glanced up and his heart nearly stopped when all the captives stepped out of their places in the wall. They all looked perfectly healthy, and even better, they were all dressed.

They reappeared wearing the same clothes they must have been wearing when Mihaili captured them.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Amala wore a beautiful, full-length gown studded with pearls. Some of the men wore extremely fancy dinner outfits. Three of the women wore handsewn dresses like the women must have come from country towns.

The captives stepped down to the floor and looked around them in obvious confusion. Amala glanced up and down the tunnel and then frowned at Yann and Anríq. “Um…..where are we?”

Yann straightened up to face all the captives. “It would take too long to explain. We’re here to get you out of here and take you home. We just need to figure out….”

Another groan from Anríq interrupted him. Yann squatted down next to his friend and tried to turn him over. “How bad is it?”

Anríq didn’t answer for the second time, but at least he tried to sit up.

“You’re the only one who can fight your way through the cavern,” Yann told him. “If you can’t do that…..”

“I have….I have…..I have to…..”

Anríq choked multiple times, hauled himself to the opposite tunnel wall, and propped himself up on it. Then he retched onto the floor.

Yann kept his hand on Anríq’s shoulder. Yann really didn’t care anymore about the Servants’ rule not to touch people. Anríq did it plenty of times to heal people.

Yann would have traded his own life for the ability to heal Anríq right now. Something told Yann that keeping his hand there would be healing for Anríq even though Yann couldn’t explain why he thought this.

Amala and the others gathered around to stare at Anríq. “He’s a Barbarian!” Amala murmured. “What is he doing here?”

“He’s a Servant,” Yann explained again. “Your father asked us to come down here and rescue you. Now we have to go through a cavern full of Darklings and then find our way through the Layers back to your home country.”

“How do we do that?” one of the men asked.

“Does any of you have any magic?” Yann asked.

The former captives exchanged glances. Yann’s heart sank. So much for that brilliant idea.

He turned back to Anríq. “Can you do this?”

“I have to….” Anríq croaked again.

Yann didn’t contradict him. No one among the captives would be big enough, strong enough, or powerful enough to fight those Darklings. Anríq would have to do it or no one would.

Anríq dragged his bleary eyes up to Yann’s face. “You need…..you need….to use…..your speed….Yann….”

“You don’t worry about me. You’re the one we all have to worry about.”

Yann opened his mouth to bring up the other elephant in the room.

He and Anríq might, by some distant miracle, find a way to get these captives through the cavern. Yann might be able to stretch his imagination enough to actually entertain that as a viable possibility.

After that, only Anríq could get the party through the Layers. He would need all his strength and magic to do that.

Yann wouldn’t be able to help him at all. Yann would be just as defenseless as these other people.

Yann didn’t say that. He concentrated on dragging Anríq to his feet.

Anríq’s weight sagged against Yann. Anríq’s bulk nearly cracked Yann’s spine, but he turned away and hobbled down the tunnel getting closer to the tunnel opening.

Yann didn’t look behind him to make sure the captives followed. They would have to pull it together real quick when it came to running across that cavern.

He wouldn’t be able to rely on them leaping from Darkling to Darkling the way he did. How the hell was he supposed to get them across alive?

Anríq propped his arm against the wall while he unhooked his club. He didn’t seem strong enough even to hold it up, much less use both it and his axe to fight the Darklings a second time.

Yann glanced over at him. Anríq didn’t look up. He stared down into the pit far below. Would he make it out alive? If he didn’t, none of the rest of them would, either.

Yann finally worked up the nerve to turn around and face his group of captives.

“All of you will need to run your fastest to get across. We’ll skirt the cavern on that ledge over there. You need to be ready to improvise and use any alternate route available to you to keep out of the Darklings’ reach—even if it means stepping on the Darklings themselves.”

“But…this is impossible!” the first man exclaimed. “We’ll never make it across before they attack!”

“Anríq will distract most of them. Then it will be up to us to get across as fast as we can. I’ll do what I can to defend you, but I won’t be able to do much with only one weapon. You’ll have to fend for yourselves and rely on speed and agility.”

Yann tried not to look at Amala’s dress. She wouldn’t be relying on any speed or agility in that.

She surprised him by nodding. She was one of the first to set her expression in a hard mask of grim determination.

She gathered up her billowing skirts, wadded them into a load in the crook of her elbow, pulled them up to her knees, and dipped her chin at Yann. “I’m ready,” she told him. “Let’s go.”

“NO!” the first man countered. “Are you insane?! We can’t go out there! I mean…look at this place!”

“The rest of us are getting the hell out of here,” Yann told him. “You have a choice. You can run across there and get into that tunnel over there….or you can stay here. It’s up to you.”

The guy gaped at him in horror, but Yann was all done babying these people.

He knew one thing for sure now. He would be sending Anríq to certain death down there. Anríq wouldn’t be able to fight the Darklings in his condition.

Yann laid his hand on Anríq’s shoulder for the last time. “Are you ready?”

Anríq nodded without looking up. Yann couldn’t wait any longer. He pushed Anríq forward and yelled, “GO!!”

Anríq didn’t run and launch himself into the middle of the cavern. He jumped straight off the edge into the thickest knots of Darklings.

Yann lost sight of him, but that didn’t matter anymore. He yelled out one more time, “GO!!” to the people behind him and raced onto the ledge.

Amala followed right behind him, but she had to stop when he ran into his first Darkling.

He rushed in with his glaive flying. He didn’t hesitate for a second this time.

He stabbed, slashed, and impaled without really looking at what he was doing or where he was going. He gouged eyes and gutted Darklings at every turn.

He sent the first one flying off into space and ran a dozen more yards before another Darkling landed on the wall in front of him.

He had to stop again, but at that moment, another bone-crushing smash resounded through the cavern from down below.

Yann didn’t take the time to see what Anríq was doing. Yann already knew. Anríq was using the last of his strength to buy Yann and the freed captives just a few more precious seconds to get across the cavern.

That one explosion distracted the Darkling into looking down. Yann struck without mercy, slashed his glaive across the Darkling’s face, and then contracted every muscle of his core to drive his glaive down into the Darkling’s head.

The skull cracked and Yann used the glaive shaft to cartwheel over the Darkling’s head.

It started to topple off the ledge. He had to work fast to yank his weapon free. Then he waved to the people behind him. “Come on!” he yelled. “Come now while you have the chance!”

Amala rushed into his arms and he practically hurled her into the other tunnel—the one leading to the surface—or what he hoped led to the surface.

The others followed one after another. Three men had to divert from the ledge to avoid Darkling attacks.

One of the men really did take Yann’s advice and jumped from Darkling to Darkling across the middle of the cavern the way Yann did.

The freed captives rushed into the other tunnel. “Keep going!” Yann told them. “Get out of range from their tentacles!”

He pushed the last women through the opening and rushed after them. They took off running up the tunnel.

He stopped again and held his breath to listen when he heard silence coming from the cavern behind him.

It wasn’t silence, though. The Darklings kept roaring, but he didn’t hear any thumps or booms or explosions.

He turned back and advanced to the edge to look down. The Darklings swarmed all over the place, especially on the floor.

Anríq lay on his back down there with his glazed eyes staring up into space. Darklings pounced all over him, but they couldn’t get to him.

He didn’t move, but he projected a glistening dome of protection around himself to hold them off.

Something switched in Yann’s mind. He got the freed captives across the tunnel. Now they needed Anríq to take them the rest of the way. Yann couldn’t do that.

Some hint of recognition in Anríq’s dull eyes connected with Yann across the cavern. Anríq saw Yann watching him.

Yann’s fear and hesitation vanished and he stepped off the ledge. Gravity stripped him downward at nose-bleed speed.

He didn’t even look at the Darklings. He kept his eyes locked on Anríq all the way down.

Yann hit the dome and it caught him enough to break his fall. He floated the rest of the way to the floor and knelt down next to Anríq.

“Make yourself light, Anríq!” Yann yelled in his face over the Darklings’ thunderous noise. “Make yourself light enough for me to carry you out of here!”

Anríq didn’t respond.

“You’re the only one who can get the captives through the Layers!” Yann bellowed. “It has to be you! Come on, Anríq! Make yourself light enough for me to carry you!”

Anríq blinked impossibly slowly. Then he gulped. “I can’t…..Yann…..” He barely spoke above a whisper. “I….I don’t have…..I don’t have the….the magic anymore…..”

Yann stopped himself from even comprehending those words. No way could Anríq lose his magic.

Yann bent low over Anríq’s face, seized two fistfuls of Anríq’s vest, and tried in vain to drag Anríq off the floor. “Give me the curse, Anríq!!” Yann roared. “Give me the curse so you can take these people to safety! It’s the only way!! Come on, Anríq! Don’t give up on me!”

Anríq squeezed his eyes shut. A tear streaked down the side of his face and he gulped again.

“Come on, Anríq!” Yann heard his voice crack. “You know you have to do this! We both do!”

Anríq didn’t open his eyes. He hauled one arm off the floor with a massive effort, and still keeping his eyes shut, he clamped his muscular hand around the back of Yann’s neck.

A brutal jolt of power hit Yann in the brain when Anríq tightened his grip….and then a sickening flood of poison poured straight into Yann’s deepest being.

It spread through his body in seconds infecting every pore with rot and corruption. Yann whimpered in terror. He couldn’t handle this, but it just kept invading him more and more and more.

He struggled against Anríq’s grip, but Anríq only tightened it. He held Yann in a death clamp as Anríq unloaded the whole horrible curse into Yann’s being.

Yann collapsed onto the floor—or he would have if Anríq hadn’t caught him.

Yann would have toppled across Anríq’s chest, but Anríq shot off the floor at impossible speed.

He grabbed Yann by the back of the shirt and Anríq blasted upward in a headlong streak for the tunnels.

End of Chapter 44.