Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
I exchange a glance with Kirney. “Well, it beats walking in the sun,” he says just before he slips in through the crack and drops into the water below.
I take in a deep breath, bringing my legs over the side and lowering myself down, my muscles shaking from all the exertion of earlier, so much so that they give out and I fall the rest of the way.
My yelp echoes a second before I hit the water, my robes trying to pull me under. I quickly kick to the surface, taking in air while trying to get the robes off me. Andor and Kirney pull at them until I’m free and we let them carry on downstream.
“You all right?” Andor asks, treading water beside me. The current is already pushing us along at a gentle pace.
“I’m fine,” I say. “Just lost my upper-body strength for a moment.”
He gives me a sympathetic look. “I’m not sure if you remember what that’s like,” I add.
He grins. “Sorry, I don’t.”
Then he turns around and starts swimming.
We spend the next several hours floating in the spring water and letting the current usher us toward the convent. The longer we swim, the less the rock ceiling opens to the sky, and the darker it gets. If it weren’t for Andor having the foresight to have Steiner create a light cube out of crushed glowferns, we wouldn’t be able to see anything. Somehow the light makes it even worse, the water blacker in contrast, the walls of the cavern stretching into oblivion.
Suddenly the sound of a splash comes from behind us. I gasp and the three of us whirl around to stare into the darkness.
“What was that?” whispers Kirney.
“Could someone be following us?” Andor asks me, the whites of his eyes glinting blue. “Are there people that could live down here?”
I shake my head, dread creeping up my spine. “Not people…”
Another splash, closer now, and in the dim glow I see the shiny length of scaled skin before it slithers beneath the black water.
“What the fuck,” Kirney says, his voice going high.
“Get out your swords,” I tell them, reaching down through the water and grabbing my ash-glass swords from my belt. “I think it’s a freshwater dredger.”
“Are they…dangerous?” Andor asks, brandishing his sword, the tip only visible above the surface.
“If they weren’t I wouldn’t be about to tell you to kill the thing before it uses its—”
A strong tentacle wraps itself around my ankle and yanks me under the water before I even have a chance to finish my sentence. I scream, water filling my mouth, thrashing as I try to pull away, doing all I can not to let go of my swords. The snake tries to take me even deeper and I have no idea how far the water reaches here, but unless I free myself I’ll drown.
I try in vain to slash and slice at the snake, but it keeps contorting itself out of my reach.
Oh damnation.
This is how I’m going to die.
Dragged to my death beneath the Daughters of Silence before I even had a chance to get my revenge.
The egg of immortality doesn’t sound so frivolous now. I’d almost laugh but I don’t even have the strength to fight back anymore. The only thing I can do is hold on to my swords as I’m dragged to the deep, and even then my fingers are starting to let go.
I’m going to let go.
Of everything.
It’s already black so it’s hard to tell if my vision is going fuzzy, but then I see a faint glow.
The light cube around Andor’s neck.
Hope.
Suddenly the water fills with bubbles and blood and the serpent lets go of my leg.
Arms wrap around me, hauling me to the surface, where I burst through, spitting out water and gasping for air.
“We’ve got you,” Andor says from one side, Kirney on the other.
“Snake thing is dead,” Kirney says. “Andor sliced its head off. What were you going to say about them?”
I spit out more water and give him a steady look. “Just that it can kill you.” Then I give them both a sheepish look. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“Are there any other monsters you’d like to fill us in on?” Andor asks.
“No,” I say, my breath coming back to me as we tread water. “Though we better pick up the pace in case there’s another lurking.” I pause, a flicker of a memory in the back of my head. “Except, perhaps, the one about the dungeon.”
We start swimming faster now, helped by the current. We can’t be too far from the cistern now, and yet I’m starting to lose faith that we’ll get there.
“I’m sorry,” Andor scoffs, “there’s a dungeon here?”
“It’s an old convent,” I tell him. “What do you think happens in convents to those who stray from the path? Especially in the old days, when the Saints of Fire first settled in Esland. Punishment was a way of life.”