Terror Forty-Two - Rattle

Esme reaches out, grabs the gate, then rattles it about.

It doesn’t do much. “Well, that’s a bummer,” I say. “Is there another way around?”

“The gate at the other...” Esme pauses. Her voice is echoing in the cistern, the wide open space and tall ceiling perfect for noise to travel. She whispers the rest of her sentence. “There’s a gate on the other side too. We can’t just go around. Also, we’d be fighting the current.”

“Makes sense,” I say. “Any other entrances?”

“We could go back? I’m sure if you give me a day or two I could figure something else out?”

I shake my head. “No, we’re on a tight deadline.”

“We are?” Esme asks.

I can’t exactly admit to her that the goddess of Darkness will ride into Montele at the head of a never-ending tide of monsters if I’m not back home within the next six days. “Yeah,” I say. “Felix, can you spot a lock or anything?”

“There’s a padlock on the side there,” Felix says. She points to our right and up a bit. “Do you think you can, uh, take care of it?”

She probably means my squirters. They're great at smaller locks, which this might not be. Then again, how secure would someone want a grate in their cistern to be? “Let me see.” I pull myself up with the help of the gate’s bars. The opening between the bars isn’t wide enough for my head to pass through, but I can reach in.

Pinching my tongue between my teeth, I wiggle my arm through the gap, then smack it around while trying to find the lock. “Higher,” Felix says. “There’s a bar, and a hole in that bar with a loop, and that’s where the lock is.”

I reach up and find a flat piece of metal sticking out of the gate. It’s all rusty and rough. Following it with my fingers leads me to a big, old padlock. It’s bigger than both of my fists together, and the hole on the front is large enough I can fit my pinkie into it. “That’s going to be tricky to undo,” I mutter.

“So, we need to go back?” Esme asks.

“Not quite,” I say. I pulse my magic, and a few of my little friends start to squirm. Specifically, I can feel the squirters hiding under my clothes scuttle about. They’re clever enough to climb my shirt and along the length of my arm where they exit my sleeve. “Give me two minutes,” I say.

“Oh, are you doing magic?” Esme asks. “Anger could do it.”

“I’m not an Anger mage,” I say. “But, uh, yeah, I’m doing magic of a sort. I’ll have this open in no time. It’s just going to require a bit of concentration.”

Esme nods, then lowers her hand. “I’m going to let go of my light. We’re making noise already, and I don’t want to give us away.”

That sounds like a good idea, so I give her a nod while guiding my squirter friends into the lock. They make little squishing sounds, like stomping on a sponge full of syrup, but quieter.

I scritch one of my little friends on the back as it squirts away. Listening very closely, I can make out the faint sizzle of metal being eaten by squirter acid. They’re getting through!

“I think this might work,” I whisper.

“Great!” Esme cheers quietly while Felix nods.

There’s a cling and plop as the bottom of the lock comes apart and hits the water, and I reach out and barely manage to catch the rest of it before it falls into the water.

“Okay, okay, I have it,” I say. I squeeze my other arm through and lower the padlock down before letting it sink under the water. My little squirter friends have plenty of time to sneak back up my sleeve, though I don’t know how much juice they have left. The padlock being under water should disguise our entrance, I hope. If someone comes in after us, it’ll probably just look like it rusted apart—that is, if they even bother looking for it.

The gate squeals as I push it open. I wince and stop. “That’s really loud,” I complain.

“I can maybe help?” Felix says. “If I try, I can make the wind stop moving. That makes things sound muffled.”

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“Oh, that’s a great idea,” I say.

Felix grins, obviously--and rightfully--proud of herself. She focuses, and I feel the wind shift around us. It becomes a tiny bit harder to breathe, like walking into a warm room with no open windows.

I push the gate open again, and while it is pretty squealy, it’s not as bad, and the echo is muffled. “Nice work,” I say as I squish myself through. Esme and Felix follow me. None of us can hold back grins. We’ve made it!

“Let’s push the door shut,” Esme says. “Just in case.”

I nod, then while Esme isn’t paying attention, I send out an echo ahead of us and to the door leading into the cistern. It should be able to squeeze past and return if someone’s coming down.

Stepping up and out of the water is a drag. I didn’t realize how heavy my clothes are when wet, or the buoyancy I had when partially submerged. Also, my toes are freezing.

“Okay,” I say. “A small break to wring things out, then we get changed and we move on to phase two.”

Esme nods and sits on the edge of the platform to take off her shoes and empty them of water. I do the same, and squish my socks as best I can without removing them to dribble out the wetness. This is going to be gross.

“I have everyone’s uniforms,” Esme says as she opens her backpack. There are three white robes within. “We should probably dry off a little more before though.”

“Felix, can you help us with that?” I ask.

“Huh? I do Joy, not, uh... Fear is water, right?”

I nod. “I know. But if you can make the wind move in a tight circle around us, then we’ll dry off faster. Uh, but we should start slow.”

“Oh, I guess that can work. Like hanging clothes out to dry, but we’re wearing it?”

“Exactly!”

Felix giggles, then she spins around. The first time there’s barely any change in the air, but I definitely feel it the second time. I close my eyes as a quick wind whips up around us and I feel my cloak billowing wide. I catch it before it can fly off, and I notice Esme hugging her backpack close.

Felix spins round and round, her giggles getting a bit manic as a small tornado-like wind whips at us. Then she stops.

“Are you okay?” I ask. I’m not sure if I’m drier, but I’m certainly feeling giddier. Esme’s hair is extra wild too.

“Yeah!” Felix says. She stumbles. “Dizzy.”

Then she pukes all over the ground.

“Oh, yuck. Felix!”

“My lunch!” Felix complains.

“Wash your face off,” Esme says. “And your shirt.”

“That’s disgusting,” I say. At least I have something to empower any disgust magic with. “Your shirt’s all messy too.”

“Guess so,” Felix says. She looks at the... stuff on the edge of the platform, then shrugs and jumps into the cistern with a splash. She surfaces and shakes her head, then grins up at us. “Clean!”

I can’t help but laugh before moving to the edge and helping her up. “Come on. Now it’s going to take even longer to get you dry.”

“That’s okay. I can put the robes on anyway, I don’t mind.” Felix climbs up the platform and starts undressing while Esme does the same. I grab the robes that are meant for me, then move over to the edge and squeeze into them.

“Aren’t you taking off your cloak, at least?” Esme asks.

“No, it’s a special cloak,” I say. “I don’t want to leave it behind.”

“Oh, alright.” Esme says. She stuffs her things in her backpack and then shuffles into her robes. We look a bit silly, the robes not fitting quite right. Mine are lumpy, Esme’s are too big, and Felix is obviously very wet under hers.

It’ll have to do!

“Is there anything important in your bags?” I ask Esme.

“Just my clothes,” she says. “Nothing I can’t lose, and nothing that’ll trace things back to me, I don’t think.”

“Cool! We’ll probably be leaving from elsewhere.”

“You still haven’t told me the last phase,” Esme says. She crosses her arms. “Shouldn’t I know by now?”

“Don’t worry. It’s going to be spectacular!”

***