Reaching the ambush team in the middle of the vast Columnar had been a relief – throughout the long and grueling running battle with the Formorians and the Pharyes, Berenike and the rest had been my finish line. My lifeline. My trip back to the surface, to light and to life.
To arrive and find them already embattled ahead along the Traverse, our sole route through and out of the great expanse was a blow I found myself unprepared for. There were simply too many Pharyes vehicles and golems in the tunnels, far more than Ivaldi, Uldmar and Beyla had predicted. It was as if they’d known we were coming.
Fending off the Pharyes attacks had been doable – indeed there had always been the chance of misfortune in this stage of the plan – but with the scale of the attack it had taken time, time intended to be spent preparing for our own crawler and the rescuees it was carrying.
The plan was simple; the moment our crawler scuttled through, we would unleash a barrage of attacks at the weakened section of the tunnel ceiling where a huge mass of crystalline rock hung together like a great chandelier. Destroying the remaining pillars holding together the giant mass over the centre of the tunnel would drop hundreds, perhaps thousands of tons of rock and water into the path of any pursuers.
Planning the tactics it had seemed perfect – no-one needed to die and all pursuit would be made futile, our escape assured in the time it would take to move or circumvent an obstacle like that. In practice things were less certain. Arcadia lacked power tools, shaped charges and structural engineers. We had to work with spells and weapons alone, guided by the best judgment of the ogres.
Weakening the structure overhead had been done with great care as a result – one misjudged move could bring the formation down early – yet being overcautious could allow pursuers to pass through while we were trying to start the collapse.
What a time then, for us to have come under attack ourselves.
I hoped it was just coincidence, not some knife-twist of fate, but the thought played on my mind. Too many things had gone wrong, not just for me, but for everyone who called the Cyclopean Bones home, and even for the peoples living far beneath. Myr had a great deal to answer for already, but if his curse was going to endanger my friends too that was another matter….
Nefret and I swept down to land before Berenike on the tunnel floor, the giant harpy setting me on my feet in silence. My brooding might have made her uneasy, but she was surely tired anyway. We’d just returned with the rest of the Valkyries from driving off the final, most stubborn foes.
“The last of them have fallen back now,” she announced to Berenike, “they’re in full retreat. How is the plan, Captain?”
Berenike had stayed behind with the ogres, and a few others from Southtown who had skills suited to excavation, and she was huddled together in discussion with several of them as we arrived.
“Behind,” was her answer.
Her strong features were stony as the walls around her, but she was grim and bleak where they were aglow with moss and leaves, a match for my own sullen countenance – which darkened further at the discouraging update.
“We don’t have the time or the people to do this right any more. It’s going to have to be a guess.”
“An estimation,” piped up the ogre at our side. “Just wish I could have had more time to study the rock down here. It’s like crystal in some ways, and the strength is unpredictable thanks to the shifting grain.”
“But now you’re back you can help with the final preparations,” Berenike said, brightening up and clapping her hand on my shoulder, as if responding to the troubled look on my face.
I had to shake my head however.
“I think we’re out of time. I can feel another crawler coming up through the Traverse.”
“Ours?” Berenike asked.
She was trying to sound calm, but I could hear the edge to her voice.
“I’m sorry, I can’t be sure, right now I just feel a long trail of essence coming this way.”
As I spoke I was straining my senses, reaching out with my mind and trying to picture what I could feel, the form of the sources of energy approaching us.
“it’s fine, I can’t feel them at all yet.”
“Wait… it’s more than one I think. A lot more… and there are flares and bursts. They’re fighting!”
“That’s them. Places everyone!” the Valkyrie captain called out. “By the Goddess none of you better set off the trap until our crawler’s clear!”
The tunnel was a frenzy of activity in moments, harpies helping ogres down from precarious positions high overhead, others quickly clearing away the fallen piles of broken rock from the central road, then everyone retreating to the sides.
To the left and right of the road, where the interlocking stone shapes had been worn flat and smooth, the geometric pillars grew up in clumps almost like trees on the slopes of a valley, reaching up ever higher as they neared the walls, as if grasping towards the descending mates from above, until finally at the sides of the tunnel they fused into solid barriers. That gave ample options for even our largest members like Nefret to take cover, overlooking the road with anyone passing through thoroughly surrounded.
Those of us with ranged attacks of sufficient power weren’t focused on the path however. Berenike and the other archers and witches had their armaments at the ready, but to target the ceiling high above.
We were only just under cover as a dazzling crack of lightning tore around the corner ahead, gouging molten welts into the rock, puffs of steam and gouts of water gushing out like blood.
Sweeping around the bend a crawler came into sight, running flat-out, the giant machine just a long snake of metal as it powered along the open passageway.
A second smaller crawler emerged too, on the outside of the bend, and between the two there flashed lightning strikes and the flickers of shot – actually spears of metal large enough to slay an ogre. With brilliant showers of sparks they ricocheted off the triangular plates of the machines’ layers of armor, and lightning strikes sent power surging through the aulogemsic defenses, each side enduring a beating.
The second vehicle was actually gaining on the first as they sped down the straight towards us. It must have been unladen, or perhaps they dumped out their cargo to give chase – either way it was faster and strode higher than ours, weighed down as it was by over a thousand people.
Worse, the equilibrium of the duel was fleeting – more crawlers were rounding the corner in pursuit, adding their own attacks to the hail of fire targeting our allies, shots piercing into the hydraulic armor systems where pressure and power grew too intense.
“Support them!” Berenike called, rising to her feet from hiding. “Target the pursuer!”
The head of our crawler was nearing the towering weight held so precariously high above as flashes shone out from the slopes around, and then a barrage of spells and projectiles showered down on the vehicle chasing it.
The exchange of fire was brief, the powered armor plating of the opposing crawler rapidly overwhelmed under attack from all sides, and it slowed, peeling off in its pursuit, then moving into reverse. Many modules long, crawler trains were not unlike the trains of Earth, unable to turn without space and time, but with their legs as easily reversible as wheels the machine had no difficulty in switching directions, retreating towards the horde of pursuers charging down the road at us.
Our victory was fleeting, as with our positions revealed a hailstorm of bolts swept down from the massed foes, forcing everyone into cover as the metal spears tore up the beautiful rock formations, glittering shards of ancient stone pillars scattered all about.
It was a few seconds later that the final friendly module lurched by, clearing the radius of the trap, and as it did Berenike’s voice boomed out, amplified on a rush of air.
“Now!”
With a thrum of essence, wood and sinew her bow loosed, as did half a dozen others, more spells besides flying out too, my own among them.
Streaking through the air, dense with energy and packed with power, Berenike’s arrow alone sheared through layer upon layer of stone. My own attack was less impressive at such range – there was only so much damage I could do to rock with a fireball, no matter how it was – but together with the others it was enough. The last pylons holding up the gigantic mass cracked under the weight, and all at once the gigantic shape started to fall.
There was a cheer from our side as the titanic mass started to slide down, but just as suddenly as it had moved there was another, deeper crack.
A web of fractures spread out around the domed ceiling, radiating out from central pillar, like ice forming fresh snowflakes, and the colossal pillar seemed to seize and halt in its motion, the weight below freezing in place.
“What happened?! Why did it stop?!” I called out, asking no-one and everyone.
“It’s lodged!” one of the ogres shouted. “The breakaway went wrong; it’s trapped like a keystone in an arch!”
“Keep firing!” Berenike commanded. “Knock it loose!”
But even as she shot another arrow into the mass of stone she was forced to duck, a shot from a crawler raking the side of her arm and bloodying her feathers, the captain almost impaled by half a dozen more of the metal spears. The others too were dodging projectiles as they tried to bring the roof down, but their hastily aimed shots seemed like pinpricks to that motionless giant and they were taking potentially lethal hits in the process.
“This won’t work!” another ogres wailed, from lower down the slope. “It’ll never fall now, not unless we shatter the whole ceiling! They’ll be through long before a few arrows and spells knock it down!”
Looking ahead up the tunnel I could see he was right. We had mere moments before the Pharyes pursuers would flood through the gap we were trying to plug – thirty seconds at best.
Unless the collapse happened before that everything, all our plans, the raid, all the sacrifices and all the destruction, would all be for nothing. The massed Pharyes forces would run down our crawler and recapture their victims – or force us into a bloodbath to try to protect them. Even if we succeeded, there were certain to be many deaths.
“Everyone, get back quick!” I called out, “when it comes down don’t get caught in the impact!”
“Wait, Saf!”
Berenike reached after me as I stepped out into the storm of metal.
Looking back for a moment, I smiled, seeing the face of my friend so emotional on my behalf.
“l’ve got this.”
Kicking the ground stone shattered under me, my legs propelling me through the spear storm clouds and on, into the open air.
All too fast the roof of the Traverse loomed overhead, and I struck with a boom that shook the tunnel.
Rock exploded as I plowed into the side of the towering formation, and giant chunks broke free around me to tumble down towards the ground below, but the shuddering mass held.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Anchoring myself to arrest my fall, I leapt into the rock face again. Another kick shattered more of the beautiful stone pillars, geometric sides peeling apart and bursting into a tangle like so many enormous straws.
Still not enough.
Catching myself with one hand, fingers gouging into a hanging stalactite of stone, I gathered my essence, incanting the words to empower my next blow with magic as well as muscle.
On the road beneath I saw the crawlers advancing, visible even from the recess in which I stood. Any second now it would be too late – they would be beneath the trap as it fell, and hundreds of Pharyes would be killed in an instant.
That was unacceptable. I was through sacrificing other people’s lives.
The trap had to be sprung now, not a moment later, even if that meant bringing the roof down on my own head.
I jumped up, towards the centre of the jammed ceiling.
Electricity crackled about my body like a halo, surging over my skin. Focusing all of my strength and essence into my leading leg I felt the muscles creak under the tension, my whole body coiling like a spring, ready to unleash a lightning kick.
As I struck, unanchored, the impact exploded out all around, a detonation of energy shattering the surface rock and driving up through the layers above, punching molten holes into the stone, even as the recoil threw me back, down, towards the massed crawlers beneath.
Hopefully they wouldn’t be crushed alongside me.
Overhead a second eruption of power was surging out of the bursting dome of the ruined ceiling, a gargantuan release of roiling water, thousands of tons jetting out under pressure, breaking through the falling rock fragments, exploding instantly into steam and expanding out like white flames to engulf everything. In the midst of it all came the weight that was our original goal, but several times more material was falling with it, as the tunnel collapsed entirely.
I was moving faster, but the wall of boiling water and falling mountains spread out over me, promising to crush me wherever I might be hurled.
I braced myself for the impact with the ground. I might be able to just jump away in time.
Then something hit me, rising rather than falling, arms snatching me from the air.
“Berenike!” I exclaimed, clinging to her shoulder as she raced to get us both out from beneath the collapse.
We soared high over the enemy crawlers, themselves screeching to halt their charge and back away as the Traverse fell, and I saw to my relief that the collapse had claimed no victims.
“Safkhet, you fool! You would have been crushed!” the Valkyrie shouted over the cacophony of the rockslide and waterfall, her sharp nailed digging into my back as she clutched me.
“I’m sorry Berenike, there was no other way! I thought that, if I aimed just right, perhaps I could throw myself clear….”
“You should know by now, if you’ve got this then I’ve got you.”
“Thank you,” I said, just loud enough to be heard against the background of the waterfall still rushing down over the debris blocking the ruined tunnel.
We shared a moment of triumph at the sight.
“We really did it!”
“That we did, Saf. Good work.”
Something in the Valkyrie’s tone troubled me.
It was as I looked up and down at the incredible sight of the newly unleashed great river flooding into the Traverse that I understood why.
“We’re… on the wrong side of the collapse.”
“This was the only way to get us out from under it.”
“Then the others-”
“Everyone else retreated like they were told,” the captain said, flashing me a grin. “You saved them.”
“But what about you?”
“Us, you mean. We’ll have to figure something else out.”
Berenike spoke casually, as though this was just another setback on the road back to the surface.
Looking up I could only see miles of solid bedrock, permeated by vicious formorians and all manner of still more sinister monsters, our ride and our route blocked off, and with them, our friends too.
They were safe, and that was a blessing, but there was no way for us to get back to them. We had chosen the Columnar for that very reason – only the Traverse penetrated all the way through and up.
Even without further pursuit, even if the crawler was able to stop and wait for us to find our way around, they had no reason to. As far as they knew we were likely dead, either crushed by the rocks or swept up in the flood.
Amid the many people and faces, Echo’s was at the front of my mind. They had trusted in me to get us both to safety, but now we were separated, their helpless form being carried away from me on the crawler. I could only hope that Ivaldi would care for them, find some way to help them, even if I couldn’t. Just as I hoped they, Gastores and the others would help the people of the surface in my stead.
While they ascended I could feel myself falling, plunging back down into the nightmare realms of the Underworld depths, even as they were rising up to the light and life of the surface, the land of the living.
Indeed, with every moment the sky and sun were growing further away, as we flew through the tunnels, back in the direction of Northastr. My hopes had been dashed at the last possible moment, but that seemed the price of saving everyone else.
“Safkhet!”
The harsh, forceful voice shattered the illusions of despair that had clouded my eyes, and I saw clearly once more. We weren’t falling, we were flying. We. Berenike as well as me.
This was nothing like Grand Chasm. I wasn’t alone this time.
I squeezed her arm and hand as she carried me.
“Sorry, Berenike, I was just a bit shaken for a moment. But there’s no way this will be like last time, not with you here.”
“Glad to hear it, Saf, but I may need some help if we’re going to get out of this.”
Following her pointing tail down, my eyes bulged as I saw what she was talking about.
Our enemies had been thrown into a disarrayed retreat with the collapse, fleeing the rushing waters, clouds of scalding steam and tumbling rocks, but as they fell back they had organized themselves once more. The host of crawlers, hundreds, perhaps thousands of modules in dozens of trains, were all arranged below and ahead of us, all turning their bolt-guns, flamethrowers and galvanic cannons towards the two of us.
In seconds the air was thick with spears, torrents of fire and jagged claws of lightning, the Valkyrie captain spinning and diving to escape the initial barrage, all four wings powering us forward at top speed.
Trying to evade so many foes at once was bad enough, but Berenike hadn’t even had the time to use her lightening magic to ease my weight – unlike the flight to Southtown she was swooping through the caverns while bearing not just her own weight, but nearly the same again.
I did what I could with blasts of wind, water and conjured boulders, blocking and deflecting the incoming attacks, but there were too many sources, everywhere below. Already shots were grazing Berenike, tearing at feathers and drawing blood.
“What do we do?! We can’t fight them all!”
“We dodge,” the harpy said, grunting with the exertion as she cut a tight loop around a giant pillar that split the path before us. “Dodge and get away! We can find another route and meet the others on the surface!”
Already there were Varangians pouring out of the crawlers under us, whole nests of golems buzzing out around them to add to the storm of attacks targeting us both, the whole road carpeted with enemies, far too many for one harpy to evade with burdened.
“I’m slowing you down! Drop me, I can run while you fly!”
Berenike gave a barking laugh at the suggestion.
“And… and let my friend be swarmed and killed?!” she asked, panting. “Not again! We- we only just finished rescuing you from last time!”
“Then what do we do?! You can’t fly me all the way out of here while dodging all of them!”
“Don’t have to, just got to get there!”
Her tail jabbed down the length of the tunnel. Ahead the walls came together, narrowing to a tight gap just a fraction of the width of the open area of the ambush. If we could just make it through, perhaps collapse the pillars to slow the enemies down a little, we’d be away from the greatest concentration of forces. More were still coming, yes, but we’d have breathing room and only a fraction as many attacks to dodge at any one moment.
The Pharyes knew that too however, their crawlers gathered densest around the opening, a wall of fire flying up at us from the roadblock.
We were rocketing towards them, barely dodging attacks if at all, with just seconds to go.
Unable to anchor myself to catch or throw projectiles without stopping Berenike’s flight, and without the spells needed to deal damage at range, I could only keep blocking with walls of water and blasts of wind, and curse my uselessness as I watched the aperture rushing closer.
We were just a few hundred yards away, about to flash past the enemies and out.
From behind, I heard, felt the savage crack of thunder, and smelt ozone and burning.
I heard too the gasp of pain as we turned over and dove towards the ground. In the corner of my eye I saw flames eating through Berenike’s feathers, and the blood soaking out across her wing.
~~~
My legs pummeled the rock beneath us, cracking and powdering ancient geometric formations, as I plowed face-first through curtains of glowing leaves and clawing vines.
Countless plants and small beasts grabbed or bit at my chest and legs, swarms of flying insects buzzing up from dense moss patches to wrap about my wounds like a living carpet, but I couldn’t spare even a moment to drive them off.
Another shot rang out, a metallic, echoing sound that was clear even through the overgrown tunnel, and I hurled myself to one side as a barbed spear blew through, shattering the rock ahead and releasing a gush of water and a thick cloud of painful steam.
I hopped over the flood, following the twists and turns of the narrowing passage, but on my shoulders I felt Berenike shift, her tail and leg flopping down limply to dash against the ground and trail through the scalding water.
Both my arms were twisted back, desperately trying to support the taller woman, pulling her higher to get her legs and tail off the ground, but she was simply too big for me, and the horde of Varangians and golems at my back were relentless.
As soon as Berenike had gown down they’d focused on her, forcing me to pull my unconscious friend along while dodging for the both of us.
That was how they’d driven us down the first side tunnel, into a maze of dead-ends, tubes running at all angles, forcing me to backtrack and waste time over and over as I tried to escape.
The entire labyrinth might well be sealed off – we knew already that it didn’t pass through the Columnar at least – but staying out on the open road of the Traverse was suicide. I could only hope that retreating into these narrower passages, where crawlers couldn’t venture, wasn’t just prolonging the inevitable.
If there was a way back out, we would still be on the wrong side of the expanse of dense stone and superhot water of course, but with the intense heat from the walls I couldn’t be sure Berenike would even last that long.
She’d already lost a lot of blood, more of it slicking my back and waist, and now we were in tight confines like the bowels of some huge waterworks, natural stone pipes formed between the regularly –shaped pillars channeling water through the walls all around us, under intense pressure and horrendous temperatures.
Like this I couldn’t even try breaking my way through. I might be able to hold my breath long enough, and endure superheated water and steam, but no matter how much tougher the people of this world were, there was no way Berenike could survive drowning in thousand degree water.
Nor could I find any route up, out and away from the heat and the immense weight of rock over us.
My chosen path instead wound on downwards, narrowing still further without any branches or forks, the two of us descending ever deeper into the steamy Underworld jungle maze.
Focusing on my back, I realized that even the Pharyes seemed to have slowed their pursuit. The sensation of their machines’ essence was growing more distant, even the golems stopped as best I could tell.
The reason was simple – the passage was so narrow now that Varangians could only pass in single file. Even burning away the dense growth of plants, moss, vines and the like wouldn’t allow more than two to stand abreast.
Tiny skittering things scattered as I burst through another wall of leaves, then it was my turn to skid to a halt as I saw the bulbous cave into which I’d brought us, and the unusually thick, solid layer of pillars that made up the back wall. Totally impregnable, without a single crevice or seam I might try to squirm though, they roared with the sounds of rushing water, vibrations making the ferns and hanging sheets of green and blue sway.
We had nowhere left to run.
The Pharyes weren’t coming yet, but they inevitably would, once they realized their quarry – the hated foe who brought ruin to Northastr – was trapped.
This would be where we made our stand.
Heat was intense here too, within my comfort zone but too much for normal people. As I carefully laid Berenike down against the slanted pillars of one side wall I could feel the sweat under her feathers, and see it beading in her forehead.
Cool, sparkling water poured from my hands as I spoke the incantation to generate it, the ‘water of life’.
Berenike groaned as the flow engulfed her, enveloping her head and cascading over her shoulders and wings, but her expression eased as I kept it up. My magic would cool her as well as heal her, and while just dousing her in a regenerative flood was a crude solution, I had to make do with the woefully basic magical skills I’d mastered before my foolish trip to Grand Chasm.
Simple, uncontrolled healing water couldn’t repair internal injuries, restore lost blood or re-knit broken bones of course, but it was another drawback of the method I ran into this time – as I hosed my friend down with my hands I could feel the waters pooling at my feet, the level rising quickly.
So closely-woven and tightly packed were the pillars here that the water had no way to escape from the cave.
With no alternative, I ended the spell before the flood could reach my calves. I would have to let Berenike just soak in the pool, and hope that could do enough to get her back on her feet.
Back on her wings was too much to ask I feared, after seeing the deep burns and gashes in her upper right. Her bleeding was stopped, her wounds slowly closing over, but wounds like that would take a lot of time to be fully healed.
Even if she had days to soak in my healing hot spring it wouldn’t restore her waning vitality or do much to aid with any internal injuries.
It had grown quiet in the cave, no sounds of chase coming down the tunnel, the scampering creatures long since fled up it. Even the walls had fallen silent, the earlier torrent faded away.
It was just the two of us now.
Leaning back against the wall beside her I hugged my knees, feeling the waters wash around my filthy, sore, bedraggled body.
As many hits as I’d taken, I was far from done. Wounds from Northastr had already closed, and those of the more recent pursuit had been gradually healing even before my bath. I knew my own body too, at least well enough to understand that I was nowhere near the exhaustion I’d reached commanding the Sepulchre, or the physical limits I’d run into fighting my way out of Vitrgraf.
Why couldn’t Berenike understand that? The Valkyrie was so fast, agile on the wing in ways I still couldn’t match even with all my power and tricks. She could literally fly circles around her enemies, yet she’d weighed herself down trying to help me, coming back for me even though she knew it meant trapping herself too, then refusing to split up and leave me to fend for myself as we retreated….
Tears cut through the most recent layers of filth smeared across my face as I looked over at her immobile face by my side.
Agonizing over my guilt, I felt a twinge of frustration as I saw the look on her face.
Berenike seemed pleased with herself as she lay there, a cocky smile on her face despite her injuries.
I couldn’t tell any more if I was angry with her, risking so much for me, or just grateful, relieved that she’d stayed with me. That I wasn’t alone this time.
My hand found hers, and I squeezed her fingers tight.
“Please wake up soon, Berenike.”
The only answer was the pounding of my own heart, matched by another rumbling from below, and the shudder of the stone as boiling water flooding up past our tiny refuge once more.
~~~
I couldn’t say how long I waited there, lying against the harpy’s side, holding her hand in both of mine.
Likely just minutes, but it felt like hours.
The sounds of water had just died down again, and I shifted, reaching over to check her forehead and gauge her temperature, only to see her eyes open, a tired smile on her face.
“Saf.”
She spoke softly, but then gave a loud squawk as my arms closed around her and pulled her into a tight hug.
“Berenike! You’re okay! I was so afraid-”
“I was – easy girl!” she replied, her tail writhing as I squeezed a little too tight.
I released her quickly, looking her over for fresh hurts, but she just chucked and patted my head.
“I’ll be fine, Saf, thanks to you. Been hurt worse than this. I’m just… tired right now, weak. Nothing but a burden….”
She tried to rise, but there was no strength in her arms, and she splashed back against the stone at her back. The discomfort was clear on her face.
“Sorry about earlier. Me passing out must have put you in a rough spot. I thought I was saving you, not giving you an extra body to worry about.”
“It’s nothing to apologize for,” I replied quickly, gripping her hand once more. “You were saving me! Without you I’d have been crushed under the collapse, and probably killed or captured by now… or… trapped and lost down here alone…. I don’t know how to thank you… I couldn’t even get us out….”
Berenike returned the squeezing of my hand, her upper left wing reaching over to pull me in.
This hug was gentler, but just as emotional, her hand brushing the tears from my eyes.
“You’re a sweet girl, Saf. I wasn’t about to let my friend get lost down here on her own.”
We were quiet for a time then, until Berenike stretched her wings experimentally and winced at the sensation from the upper right, where she’d been hit. Even with the wound closed, the flesh was red and many feathers burned or missing.
I filled her in then on what had happened, how badly she’d been injured and how the pursuit had gone.
The Valkyrie made no criticisms against my judgment, even learning that we were trapped, my botched pathfinding leading us to this dead end. She also waved off my apologies for the burns and bruises her legs and tail had suffered.
“I’m alive thanks to you, Saf, I’ve no right to complain if we’re still in some trouble, or I’ve picked up a few extra scrapes along the way. Anyway, what matters now is what comes next.”
“The Pharyes are still up there,” I confirmed, in answer to her unspoken question. “Too many to fight through.”
“But they aren’t coming after us either,” she observed. “I guess they’re not interested in giving us a heroic last stand against incredible odds.”
“I guess they’ve heard about Thermopylae too. They probably saw the movie.”
Berenike stared at me, and it was only as I caught her gaze that I realized what I’d said must have been total nonsense to her.
“Sorry, uh… kind of a human joke, I guess it doesn’t really translate into Cycloan.”
The harpy gave me a look that told me just what she thought of my excuse, but she said no more about it.
Perhaps my friends were just used to this strange, inhuman human lying to them.
“Anyway… the point is that if they come at us here we can probably hold out indefinitely… at least until we starve. If they don’t retreat they’ll probably try to get us to just surrender instead.”
“I’m not giving them more prisoners,” Berenike said flatly. “Not that easily. I’d rather try to break through.”
“Agreed. Whatever they send at us, we can at least put up a fight.”
It was as I spoke those words that an immense boom shook the cavern around us.
Chunks fell from the roof, plopping into the pool in which we sat, but the rumble of crashing stone was far deeper and louder up above, from the top of the tunnel into which I’d retreated, and we saw lumps and fragments of shattered pillars tumbling down the winding path.
The rockslide petered out before it could pour into the cave itself and crush us both, but it was a small mercy – the Pharyes had collapsed the tunnel.
“No… no…,” I murmured, looking up at the blockage as the dust and debris settled, “they aren’t even trying to capture us, just trap us here to die!”
Berenike pulled herself up against the wall to get a better look, but she had nothing encouraging to offer either.
“This can’t get any worse,” I moaned, despairing to even think about trying to dig our way back out with all the enemies outside.
We were buried alive.
That was when the boiling water started to flood in.