I turned, temporarily forgetting the danger, forgetting the collapsing of the dungeon happening all around us, to face that voice. But while I expected to see a familiar face running towards us, instead, I saw a monster.

Burrowing its way out of a tunnel which I wasn’t sure had existed only moments before, casting a snaking shadow across the walls of Olsgolon’s chamber, teeth gnashing and arms working like frantic machines, was a worm-drake, advancing quickly on our position.

Confused, sure that what I had heard had been a hopeful hallucination, I knew I needed to run, to get out of the monster’s way before it invalidated all our progress. But I could only stare at it in disbelief as it approached. How had it gotten here? Had it followed us?

As I stared, a detail began to resolve itself in the flame-cast light. Something was sticking out from a point on the worm-drake’s back, only a little ways behind the head. I squinted, trying to make it out, and happened to catch a glimpse of something appearing from nowhere just to the side of the worm-drake’s head. The worm-drake snarled and turned away from it, whatever it was, quickly changing its direction. Then another appeared on the other side, straightening the worm-drake’s path. In the fire’s light they looked only like dark squares.

Just before my nerves had finally had enough, just before my flight response overtook my shock, my eyes made out what I was looking at.

It was Cadoc. He was riding on the worm-drake’s back,

A smile overtook my features. I waved at the rider as he steered his steed to just beside us. It took him a very long time to stop. More boards of wood - as I now saw they were - appeared around the mount’s head in succession as Cadoc manuevered it into position - finishing with a board directly in front of it, some few feet ahead. The worm-drake tried to stop before hitting it, but couldn’t - the board fell before it crashed through, but another board was a few feet behind that one, and this repeated once more, the worm-drake slowing down at each stage. It’s was an ingenious braking system.

The worm-drake seemed to shake the earth as it settled into place, but I’m pretty certain that was only the earthquakes.

And there was Cadoc, now plain to see. He straddled the massive creature, feet braced against the folds of the worm-like body. In front of him was a sword, which he had clearly driven into the back of the monster, only its hilt and a little of the blade still above the surface of the skin.

“Hail, friends!” Cadoc yelled, beaming. “I am overjoyed to see that you all yet live. But there is no time to waste. Point me towards the core, and let us meet our glory!”

He had another sword - his own - and he drew this from his belt and raised it towards the ceiling.

I didn’t know what to say - couldn’t stop smiling - but luckily Naomi spoke for me, yelling up at where Cadoc sat. “Miles already destroyed it, you idiot! Why do you think the dungeon is falling apart?”

Rather than be discouraged, Cadoc’s grin only widened. He turned his head towards me. “Truly, friend? This is joyous news! Only, I feel somewhat foolish, having ridden here expecting a great battle, and having arrived too late.”

“You’re just in time,” I said. “We need a ride out of here.”

“Yes!” Cadoc said. “Let us ride to safety. And quickly. This thing does not like to back up, but it won’t stay still forever. Here, grab this.”

And he summoned a stick in his hand, which he lowered down. I grabbed onto one end, and, after a struggle, with me scrambling up and him pulling, we were able to get me onto the back of the worm-drake.

Next, Cadoc and I both helped Amaia up. When she was mounted, she first grabbed Cadoc and embraced him in what looked to be almost a violent hug.

“What was that about?” Cadoc asked when Amaia had released him and squeezed into a spot in front of me and behind Cadoc.

“I saw Naomi do it,” Amaia said, shrugging. “Thought I’d give it a try.”

“Hey!” Naomi yelled from below. “Forgetting someone, yeah? Let me up!”

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Cadoc and I raised Naomi up as well. She didn’t hug Cadoc, but rather said, “I never thought I’d be so happy to your dumb face, Cadoc.” And it was said as warmly as you could imagine.

“Alright!” Cadoc yelled. “Each of you, grab hold of the one in front of you, and do not let go. If you do, it is very unlikely I will be able to stop this steed in time. Ready?”

I wrapped my arms around Amaia, surprised not for the first time at her surprisingly sturdy frame. “Ready!” I yelled.

Amaia, in turn, wrapped her arms around Cadoc. He had to pry her hands off him and make her hold just a little less tight - otherwise, he said, he’d be left with bruises. “Ready,” Amaia said.

I heard Naomi shout from behind me. “Couldn’t I just stick a knife into the worm-drake and hold onto that, like you are?”

“No,” Cadoc said. “This is a very delicate operation. Stab the thing too many times, and it eventually either bleeds out or worse. Believe me, friend. This is not the first dragon.”

Naomi sighed. “I’d almost rather let the walls collapse on me.”

I snorted. “You were pretty keen on grabbing onto me a second ago.”

“What was that?” she yelled, hitting my back with the underside of a closed fist.

“Just grab on!” I said.

“Hmmph,” she said, but finally did so with the loosest grip imaginable. One bump and she’d be tossed aside. “Ready!”

“Alright,” Cadoc said again. “We ride!”

He grabbed hold of the protruding hilt before him with both hands, then pressed down, driving it another inch into the worm-drake’s back. It roared, then lurched forward. As it gained speed, I felt Naomi behind me tighten her grip around my midsection. I didn’t comment on it at the time. If I had, I half expected she would let go and die, just to spite me.

I gave Cadoc directions, half-screaming over the noise of the worm-drake and the collapsing dungeon. As we entered the tunnel - which was luckily tall enough for us not to hit our heads on the roof of it - I cast my eyes back at the scene I’d left behind.

The fire had started to subside, having already burnt up most every flammable treasure in the pile. The chamber, once centered on a pyramid of wealth, now looked like a battlefield, the gold and silver smudged with ash, obscured by smoke, and mixed among the bodies of the fallen Kalamuzi - some of which had begun to regain their senses, it seemed, and made their way out into various tunnels attached to this central room.

And in the middle of it all was the broken core. I smiled again. I had done it. And, now that I had a chance of not being buried, I could enjoy it. For a moment, I simply took it all in.

“You’ve got a really dumb look on your face right now,” Naomi yelled.

“Way to spoil the moment,” I said.

Ahead of us, we passed even more Kalamuzi. Many of these were the Talkers, who we overtook, each slowed down by arms full of treasure or gilded weapons. But among them were regular Kalamuzi as well, streaming in and out from the numerous branching paths. They seemed to know that it was time to flee their home.

I knew that there were other paths to the surface, and maybe there were even quicker ones, but I stuck to the path that Lot had laid out, directing Cadoc. It was not the time to start exploring.

“Did you get the money you needed?” Cadoc shouted back at me. “Perhaps we could turn back for some more treasure, if you need.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Naomi yelled. “Do not turn this thing around, you moron! We’re barely going to make it as it is.”

I was touched that Cadoc had even remembered. “I got what I need, for now,” I told him.

“Happy to hear it, friend.”

We continued our ascent. The tunnel had a steep angle which the worm-drake climbed with ease - if we’d been unassisted, however, we likely would have been screwed. I thought about the Kalamuzi trying to escape. Would they make it? Would the surface suddenly be flooded by desperate Kalamuzi refugees? In the short term, I thought, I might be partially responsible for a lot of bloodshed.

Whatever.

I won, my friends are safe, my payments are made, and my mother isn’t homeless. Everyone else can go pound sand.

The number of Kalamuzi we passed - or bowled over, in some cases, crushing them underneath the weight of the worm-drake, or else watching as the drake gobbled them up like snacks - the number of these Kalamuzi diminished over time, until finally the tunnel was empty. Which was to their benefit, because the tunnel had narrowed such that they’d have been unable to dodge out of our path any longer.

“Look!” Naomi yelled, pointing over my shoulder. “Is that light?”

Amaia nodded, and Cadoc laughed wildly. But I noticed something else, something that worried me.

“Are those people up there? Ahead of us, there.”

“I’m sure they’re Kalamuzi,” Cadoc said.

“Run them over!” Naomi shouted.

“No, wait.” I squinted at them. There were four, and while one certainly looked like it could be a Kalamuzi, I thought I recognized it.

“That’s Lot!” I yelled. “Stop the worm-drake! We’ve got to pick him up!”

“Stop?” Cadoc yelled back. “I don’t believe I could stop this in time, Miles. And look, it is a Kalamuzi. Can’t you see, friend?”

“I know he looks like a Kalamuzi, but trust me, he’s a friend! He’s the one who told me how to get out of here. And look next to him! Those aren’t Kalamuzi, they’re human women.”

“You’re right,” Cadoc said in a grave voice. “But I can’t brake this dragon in time.”

“You have to,” I said. “We have to.”

“The only way to stop this dragon faster,” Cadoc said, drawing his sword, “Is to kill it.”

And then he thrust this sword into the back of the creature as well, and the worm-drake roared again.

Amaia took out her sword and did the same, but I had a better idea. I took the staff off of Amaia’s back.

“Naomi,” I said, but she interrupted me before I finished.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” she said. “Fine. If it means getting my staff back.” I handed it back to her.

We were coming up close to the four figures now, illuminated by the cavern roots and the distant light of the surface. One of the women turned, saw us, eyes widening, and screamed. The rest turned. Lot looked up, a look on his face that could have been resignation.

An orange light glowed behind me, which I could see in my periphery.

“Wait!” I said, realizing something. “You need to cut off the front of it. If you cut off its tail, it might live.”

And so, complaining all the time, Naomi scrambled over me and Amaia and Cadoc, all of us struggling to keep from falling. Cadoc and Amaia quickly understood what we were doing. Leaning over Cadoc’s shoulder, Naomi shot out a flash of yellow from the staff.

“Brace yourselves!” I yelled.

The magic severed both the head and the arms of the worm-drake at an angle. The momentum carried the new carcass forward for a moment, already dead, but the arms got tangled up underneath it and drove it off course. It smashed into the wall of the tunnel, and we were all thrown from the back of the monster. We soared through the air, crashing back to the ground on a pile, just before Lot and the rescued prisoners.

We just laid there for awhile, groaning. One of the four people cautiously approached us.

“Miles?” I heard Lot saying. I looked up at him.

I was laying on my stomach, Amaia below me. We were in a dog-pile, Cadoc below her, and an already half-asleep Naomi pinning me down.

“I did it, Lot,” I managed to say, the pressure of the weight on my back making it hard to speak. “I killed Olsgolon.”