Eva and Tahl knelt down and started wiping. Their efforts revealed circles upon circles of runes coming out from the square table like ripples in a pond. When they’d finished, thick black dust covered Eva from head to toe. Looking at the circles within circles of runes made her head spin.
“Well, this just got a whole lot harder,” Tahl said.
Sigrid started walking around the table, following one circle after another.
“What does it say?” Eva asked.
“It’s all in riddles,” Sigrid said. “The left is the right if the sunlight you seek — that’s one line. In between that it’s just a bunch of jumbled letters. Here’s another one — Thrice to the right leads to the heart, but twice past the first leads only to dark. What in the sky?”
Eva repeated the lines under her breath. “I think I’ve got it!” she said. “The left is the right if sunlight you seek — one turn to the left will reveal a passage out of the mountain.”
“And thrice to the right, that must lead deeper into the mountain — to the Heart,” Tahl added.
Sigrid nodded. “It’s the last one that’s got me worried. “Twice past the first leads only to dark. Sounds like we want to avoid that one, but I don’t know which one the first one is…”
She heaved a sigh and ran her fingers through her disheveled braids and spiky hair. “All right,” she said at last, “Three times to the right it is. Nice knowing you all if I’m wrong.”
Tahl braced his legs and heaved. Ever so slowly, the table started to turn. Each time it passed over one of the sides, it made a loud clicking noise. At the same time, different circles on the floor started spinning toward the left. Eva and Fury jumped onto the platform beneath the table, the only part of the floor that wasn’t turning. As the bands began their slow rotation Sigrid’s eyes raced to read the runes.
“Wait!” she shouted, waving her hands. “It’s not the —”
The stone beneath Sigrid shattered, and she screamed, disappearing into darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eva rushed to the edge of the hole Sigrid had fallen through, heart racing. Complete darkness met her. Even with the Wonder, there was no way of seeing how far Sigrid had fallen — or was still falling.
Tahl dropped down next to Eva. “SIGRID!” he screamed into the hole. “I didn’t know,” he muttered. “I didn’t —”
“By thunder, will you shut up?” A strained, irritated voice drifted up to them from somewhere in the darkness.
“Sigrid!” Eva yelled. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not storming okay,” Sigrid answered. She didn’t sound too far away, but Eva had no idea how they were going to get her out. “Pretty sure my leg’s broken. Dammit all, I’m a fool. The lines in the floor were talking about the floor, not the table. The table was just the key to the alphabet.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Tahl said. “How far down are you?”
“Oh, I can see the two of you,” Sigrid said, “Probably about — aahhh — twice your height down. Got lucky. I think I fell on a platform of some kind. Doesn’t seem to be anything around me, though.”
“What are we going to do?” Eva asked Tahl. “We don’t have any rope.”
“You’re going to finish the puzzle that’s what!” Sigrid yelled up at them. “Because I’m sure as storm not going to die down here!”
“But what if we mess up again?” Tahl said. “Who knows what will happen?”
“You’re not going to mess up because I know what to do now,” Sigrid said. “How many times did you turn the table to the right?”
Tahl glanced up at the table. “Two.”
“Okay,” Sigrid said. “Turn it five slots back to the left. That will move the outer ring to the right three times, which is what we wanted in the first place.”
“But what about you?” Eva said. “If Tahl rotates the table and you get covered up, how are we going to get to you?”
“I don’t know.” She sounded grim.
“Then we’re not doing it,” Eva said. “We’ll figure out how to get you out first, and —”
“There’s no storming way to get me out without finishing the pattern!” Sigrid yelled. “Gahh — damned leg. Either do it, or we’ll all die down here!”
Eva looked at Tahl. “I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “I could lower you down to her, but then you’d both be stuck.
“All right,” Eva said, fighting back a rising sickness in her stomach. “Turn the table. I’ll keep an eye on her.
Lying on the solid circle of stone around the table, Eva stared down as Tahl set his feet once more and started pushing in the opposite direction. The first turn rotated Sigrid’s hole to the right, just like she’d predicted.
One more push, and Tahl brought the table back to its original place.
“Whatever you do, don’t go back the other direction,” Sigrid shouted. “I don’t want to find out what ‘twice past the first leads only to dark’ means.”
Tahl sucked in a deep breath and set his weight against the table again. The inner and middle bands rotated in opposite directions, each covering a piece of Sigrid’s hole.
“Don’t stop, don’t stop!” Sigrid sounded frantic. “There’s a whole bunch of counterbalanced pillars down here — if the table rests too long in the wrong place, they’re going to fall! Finish the rotation!”
The entire room started to shake and rumble. Tahl heaved, and the table moved once more…then stopped. He pushed harder, teeth gritting and veins straining in his neck and head but to no avail. The table remained firm, one turn short.
“PUSH, DAMN YOU!” Sigrid screamed.
Fury cried in alarm as bits of rock fell from the ceiling. Eva threw herself at another corner of the table, but it held firm.
“PUSH! THE PILLARS ARE FALLING!”
Eva strained with every muscle in her body. The table moved a fraction, or did she imagine it? Her entire world seemed to be shaking, rising, and falling.
And then it gave way, clicking into the final spot.
The rumbling stopped at once. Eva and Tahl collapsed to the ground, panting.
Eva looked around and saw holes throughout the rings, gaping pits leading to emptiness below. She sucked in a breath of air and shouted for Sigrid.
“I’m here; I’m fine.” Sigrid’s voice rose from the opposite side of the chamber where she’d first fallen. “There’s a staircase cut into the stone.”
Eva and Tahl followed the sound of her voice until they found the top of the stairs. They picked their way down the stairs to where Sigrid lay on a small platform surrounded by a bottomless chasm. When they reached her side, Eva and Tahl each took an arm and lifted her up. Together, they staggered up the steps like a drunken five-legged creature. At the top, Fury rushed to their sides, and the three started laughing.
“We did it,” Sigrid said. “We storming did it!”
“You did it!” Eva said. “That was amazing!”
“Not too amazing,” Sigrid said, grimacing. “You’re going to have to go on without me.”
“We can’t leave you here,” Eva said. “What if we can’t make it back to you?”
“Then I’ll crawl out of here on my own and take all the credit!” Sigrid said. She tried to frown, but a smile cracked her dirty, sweat-streaked face. “I’ll only slow you down.”
“I’ll leave Fury here with you,” Eva said.
Sigrid shook her head. “You’re wasting time.”
“She’s right,” Tahl said, taking Eva gently by the arm. “Come on; we can’t be far.”
“We’ll see you again,” Eva said, not sure if she was trying to reassure Sigrid or herself.
Sigrid nodded. “Be careful.”
Eva, Tahl, and Fury crossed the chamber, sidestepping the holes in the floor until they reached the new tunnel. Tightening her grip on the Wonder stone, Eva led the way.
The new passageway was wide enough for Eva and Tahl to walk side by side, Fury trailing close behind them.
They continued in straight line until Eva imagined she saw a light growing ahead. It grew stronger, revealing an end to the tunnel, bathed in orange light. They reached the threshold and stopped. If they’d learned one thing, it was to double check before they walked anywhere in the Catacombs.
Eva squinted into the next chamber. It was a stone’s throw wide with a narrow bridge running down the middle. A sheer, yawning abyss waited on either side. Eva had a feeling it was a lot deeper than the one Sigrid had fallen down. Crystal lamps lined the two walls running parallel to the bridge, the source of the orange light. On the far side, an archway led into darkness.
Eva raised the Wonder stone into the air, but its light revealed nothing other than bare rock. “At least there aren’t any more runes,” Tahl said. “We’d be doomed if we had to translate something.”
He stretched his toe forward and tapped on the stone in the threshold of the entryway. When nothing happened, he pressed his foot down, applying some weight. Still nothing.
“Let me go first,” Eva said.
Tahl grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Almost before Eva realized it, they were kissing. Her lips pressed against Tahl’s just as she’d imagine it a thousand times. For a few brief moments, the gloom and dread all melted away. Her head spun, but not from the dizzying drop just feet away. And then it was over.
“Just in case one of us meets a sudden and gruesome death,” Tahl said as they pulled apart.
In spite of their dire situation, Eva laughed and pulled him back. The second kiss lasted longer, until Fury forced himself between them and they parted.
With one last look at Tahl, Eva took a deep breath and stepped onto the narrow bridge. She tried to focus on the stone path before her instead of the gaping blackness on either side. Just thinking about it made her head spin and her legs wobbly. She’d never felt so exposed, not even on the back of a gryphon hundreds of feet in the air. A thought crossed her mind that it was not knowing what was below that made it worse.
“Let me cross all the way before you follow,” she yelled back at Tahl and Fury.
About four paces from the other end, a thunderous crack filled the chamber. Eva spun around and locked eyes with Tahl, frozen by fear. The bridge shifted beneath her feet, and the narrow length of stone started to sway.
Eva’s end of the bridge dipped, and Tahl jumped onto the other end to balance it back out.
“Fury, no!” Eva screamed in panic as the gryphon tried to follow Tahl. She feared the gryphon’s extra weight would topple them into the chasm.
Eva and Tahl crouched down to maintain their balance as the bridge started to spin and wobble.
“We’re going to have to meet in the middle,” Tahl said from across the bridge. As soon as they started inching toward the center, however, the rock shook, and they had to throw themselves down and wrap their arms around the edges to keep from being thrown off. On the far side of the cavern, Fury screeched, pacing back and forth along the ledge, desperate to reach Eva.
“It’s not going to work!” Eva yelled over the rumble. “I can’t come back across!”
“I’m not leaving you!” Tahl yelled back. He took a step forward, and Eva’s stomach clenched as the entire bridge dropped and teetered even worse.
“Stop!” Eva’s eyes met his eyes again, and she tried to recall the memory of them kissing to push away the terror building in her. “This is the only way. Take Fury, and go get help.”
Against her every instinct, she inched backward. The bridge sank, and Tahl had no choice but to do the same or send her plummeting to her death.
“I’ll come back for you, I promise!” he said.
They continued to scoot back, trying to match one another’s pace. Eva started to think they might make it when a sound like cracking ice filled the cavern. She looked at the middle of the bridge and saw lines racing throughout the dark stone, chunks of rock breaking in their wake.
“Eva, jump!” Tahl shouted over the rising din. “NOW!”
Eva twisted around and leaped. The edge of the rock connected with the bottom of her ribs, driving out her breath. She started slipping into the chasm and scrambled for purchase.
“EVA!” Tahl screamed. His voice sounded miles away. Eva clawed and kicked like a wild thing, fighting for any ledge, any crack she could find.
But the rock was smooth as glass, and she slid down to her elbows. Were it not for the strength in her forearms from years of swinging a hammer, Eva knew she would have gone over already.
Eva felt her arms inching backward. Her whole body burned from exertion, but she was helpless to do anything.
She fell.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Eva’s screams echoed throughout the chamber as the darkness rushed up to grab her. The air whistled by her, and she flailed, kicking arms and legs into nothingness. Soon the air left her lungs as her heart and stomach rushed up into her throat.
A screech split the air above her, and Eva felt a rush of wind before striking something beneath her. She felt feathers and fur and realized Fury had leaped after her. Although he’d managed to catch her, they continued to fall.
The air rushing past seemed to slow a fraction, and Eva felt the whoosh of his wings on either side of her. The thought struck her mind that Fury couldn’t fly and now they were both doomed. Even so, they seemed to be slowing. Eva tried to hold on and balance out her weight across his back — an almost impossible task given the gryphon wasn’t any bigger than a colt. Yet somehow they stopped. Eva felt Fury’s straining muscles beneath her and knew it took every bit of his strength to stay in the air. Afraid to move and upset her gryphon’s balance, Eva shut her eyes as they began to rise.
“Eva!” After several long, excruciating moments she opened her eyes. With the last of his strength, Fury pulled up to the opposite side of the chasm as Tahl. As soon as he reached the stone shelf, he collapsed, and Eva rolled off the gryphon.
“You flew!” Eva shouted, lifting his feathered head into her lap. Fury gave a weak chirp in answer, beak hanging open as he panted for breath, completely exhausted.
“Good boy.” Eva stroked the gryphon’s copper-colored head for several moments until Fury shook himself then sat up.
“Are you okay!” Tahl yelled across to her. “Maybe Fury can —”
“You’re too heavy,” Eva said at once. “He barely carried me. Go help Sigrid, and bring help!”
Tahl hesitated. “Be careful!” he shouted.
Eva committed the picture of him standing there to memory in case she never saw him again. She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come out. Instead, she pulled out the Wonder stone, the pale pink, gold, and blue lights a small comfort in depths of the mountain. She held up the light, and it grew, filling the chamber. He raised his hand to her, smiling and then, was gone.
A quick check revealed Eva’s sword and knife had somehow stayed on her. Fury stood and looked at her. The gryphon’s presence gave Eva strength, and she took a deep breath. The tunnel yawned before them, black and empty as the chasm behind them. She stepped into the void, Fury at her side.
The click of Fury’s front talons on the rock cut through the stillness. Although she hadn’t noticed any real turns, when Eva looked back after a while there was no hint of orange light from the crystal lamps in the bridge room. Outside of the reach of her Wonder’s light, the path ahead looked endless.
“I guess I owe you one,” Eva said to Fury in an effort to break the maddening silence. The gryphon looked at her and dipped his head. Eva laughed. “No need to be modest about it, I guess.”
They stared at each other, Eva’s light blue eyes meeting Fury’s deep yellow. It seemed like a lifetime ago since Fury had hatched, changing her life forever.
“No matter what’s ahead, I won’t let anything a happen to you,” Eva said. “We’re in this together.”
Fury chirped and nudged Eva’s hand with his head, filling her with courage. The Wonder stone grew brighter in her other hand, and they pressed on.
What seemed like hours later, Eva had no sense of time or how far they’d traveled since leaving Tahl. She felt light-headed and stumbled often. She had no clue how long they’d been down in the Catacombs and guessed it had to be at least morning outside. Realizing that, her stomach grumbled, and her throat burned with sudden thirst.
“Almost there,” she said, over and over. “Almost there.”
At long last, Eva spotted a light ahead, an orange flicker in the distance burning like a fire. Eva paused long enough to tuck her necklace back into her uniform. With a light ahead, she felt the need to remain hidden as much as possible. She couldn’t say why, but it felt like the end lay ahead. Placing one hand on the wall to guide her in the faint glow and the other on the hilt of her sword, Eva started walking again.
The orange light grew, and Eva realized the entrance to the room ahead was gigantic, at least twice her height and wide enough for several people to pass through side by side. She continued forward at a steady pace, eager to reach the Heart of the Mountain but dreading what she might find.
A few dozen paces from the end of the passage, a silhouette appeared, outlined in the orange glow. Fury hissed and shrank back. Eva stopped and drew her sword, heart hammering in her chest.
“Who’s there?” Eva said, trying to sound brave. When the figure didn’t respond, she took a hesitant step forward. Light reflected off the person’s bald head, and Eva felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. “Ivan?”
No response. Eva took a few more hesitant steps, and her worst fear came true. It was indeed the Scrawl boy.
If he recognized her, Ivan gave no sign. He stared straight past them, down the length of the tunnel like Eva wasn’t there. His arms hung limp at his sides.
“Ivan, we’ve got to go,” Eva said. “There’s something down here…”
The Scrawl boy still didn’t seem to hear, so Eva grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him down the tunnel. Ivan took two faltering steps and then yanked his arm out of Eva’s grasp. Fury hissed and stepped backward, but Ivan just stood there again.
Windsworn: Gryphon Riders Book One (Gryphon Riders Trilogy 1) Page 19
