22. Wrong Chasm
"Corvin!" I screamed.
Tagger had already shot down the chasm after him, slicing into the dark water like a blade.
I seized the pale-blue orb, took in a deep breath, and plunged in headfirst.
This chasm was wider and more open, its mouth easily large enough for me to slip through.
My eyes stung and blurred from the salt water, but there was no doubt. Either my vision had improved from the mate bond, or desperation had given me strength. I prayed it was the mate bond because that meant maybe I could hold my breath longer.
The light pierced through the dark chasm.
There!
Corvin drifted limply ahead of me, dark hair fanning out. Blood trickled from a gash on his head and his wrist. His left leg twitched. Tagger circled him, pawing at his head and nudging up under his chin.
Panic surged through me. I swam faster, kicking down. The bag around my shoulder tugged against me, sometimes snagging on the ridges. I wriggled and twisted until I reached Corvin. Sweeping my arm around him as best I could, I dragged us up.
I was moving fast, but where were we supposed to go? Was I even going the right way?
Everything looked the same down here. The pale-blue light illuminated the chasm with its gnarled rock formations, but I couldn't tell what was a passage. And I had to find the second one. Except—no, we weren't in the right chasm at all, were we?
I struggled, kicking and fighting. My whole body screamed for air and space. I just held on to him and swam as Tagger zipped around us.
Then we broke the surface. A sharp pain struck the top of my head.
There was barely enough room for our heads above the water.
It was enough though, the air not the best but still breathable.
Spitting out the water, I hacked and gasped as I pulled Corvin up. The rough rocks pressed against my skull. The salt water stung all my cuts and scrapes.
Corvin choked too, but his breaths were still weaker. He almost slipped back under.
Tagger chittered anxiously beside me. We had to get Corvin out of here. But which way?
The runes.
I started fumbling about below the waterline. My fingertips found one set of runes. Two slashes and a circle.
I groped along to the next wall, searching wildly. Another set of runes, all wrong. How many were down here?
Tagger swam in tight circles around us, squeaking. He darted under my hand and then shot into the dark water.
I pulled Corvin with me along the gap that allowed us to breathe, struggling to support him and hold up the orb and feel for runes. My fingers ached. The weight of the water against my lungs hurt.
Tagger popped up again. He squeaked louder, then seized the orb from my hand.
"Tagger, no!" I tried to grab for him, but he had already dived under, taking our only light source with him.
This was it. The air here wouldn't last long anyway.
I didn't have any other choice.
I wrapped my arms around Corvin, urged him to take a breath, and then pulled us both under.
Tagger swam a few feet below. Even through my blurred vision, I could make him out with the orb. He didn't swim as swiftly now. But he kept a steady pace, just out of my reach. He darted up to a different passage.
I followed. Corvin wasn't even struggling. His left arm kept enough of a grasp on me that I knew he was alive. But his muscles trembled. His wrist bled into the water.
Tagger arched gracefully into the hole in the rock, treading water with the orb between his paws. His withered paw had to hug it a little tighter while the ordinary paw overlapped it.
He led us up to another air pocket, this one with a little more headspace but without any rocks beneath to serve as a rest point. Still, I appreciated the air. Corvin managed a few more shuddering breaths.
Tagger squeaked, bobbing his head up and down and splashing as he held the pale-blue orb.
"We have to get to the temple," I said wearily. I didn't know how much longer I could swim.
Tagger dove down.
Damn it!
Did he understand what I was saying? I gulped in another breath, warned Corvin, and then dove again.
It became a terrifyingly slow waltz swimming as Tagger led me into different passages. The fifth claw jammed into Corvin's wrist just as we reached the surface of another tunnel. He managed a weak groan.
"If you die on me, I'm never going to forgive you," I growled.
He murmured something nonsensical in response.
I groped around in the dark, feeling for the runes. None of them matched. How many passages were in this place?
Despair threatened to overwhelm me. It felt as if we had been in this place forever. My mouth was dry, my lips chapping, my body aching.
Then I glimpsed it. Another light. Brighter blue. It was coming from one of the lower tunnels.
Panic surged through me. I kicked faster, following Tagger to a honeycomb of passages. As we struggled up, I searched for any runes on the craggy rock walls.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong!
Tagger cut to the right where the passage branched.
The light faded, but there—there!
I'd seen it!
Three slashes and an arrowhead.
I struggled to draw Tagger's attention as I kicked toward the passage.
He swept around, squeaking and chirping. He rushed toward me in a cloud of bubbles as I gestured feebly at the passage ahead, my kicks getting weaker.
Tagger shot forward, clutching the orb close.
Higher. Higher.
A deep vibration pulsed beneath me.
I twisted around just enough to see shadowy movement at the edge of the light.
This was so bad. How much time did we have before they caught up?
We broke through the surface. Tagger chattered. He swam up to me.
A small hole looked as if it opened into another passage. The three slashes and an arrowhead were boldly carved above the mouth.
Still supporting Corvin, I swam toward that point and struggled up. "Tagger." My voice shook. "I need the orb." I held out my hand rather than trying to grab it from him.
With a few squeaks, he dropped it in my palm and then darted back in front of Corvin's face. He nuzzled his chin and started grooming him, making Corvin startle a little.
"Just hang on." I set my foot against a groove in the rock and pushed myself up high enough to illuminate the passage. It moved farther up, perhaps three feet or so. Then it opened. Cut deep into the side near the top was the rune with the three slashes and the arrowhead.
The temple. It had to be on the other side. "We're here!" I gasped.
Corvin mumbled. His stripes had gone entirely grey, his lips almost black. He wasn't going to be able to climb up easily.
We were so close.
"Just hang on," I said, gasping. My heart raged within my ribcage. I wedged him against the wall and started to climb.
It was a tight squeeze. I had to remove my bag and fit it into one of the indentations. The rough rock scraped my knees and elbows. My breaths filled my ears. And then I was through the slick rock, pale-blue orb held aloft.
My mouth fell open.
We weren't outside a temple. This passage opened up inside it. Cracked marble tiles covered the floor. The pearly white contrasted sharply with the black craggy tube I'd crawled out of. The temple itself had been carved from marble. Carved columns supported portions of the ceiling, though quite a few had cracked and fallen. Whole sections of the wall had shorn off, exposing the cave walls beneath, glistening with water. I recognized some of the markings on the pillars from Mama's book.
Wriggling out of the hole, I leaned back in and reached for the bag. My fingers narrowly hooked the strap. I tossed it up onto the marble.
"Corvin, we're here! We made it," I shouted. "Come on."
The passage was only wide enough for one of us at a time. Even then it was going to be an especially tight squeeze for him.
He struggled to open his eyes. "Mena, go on ahead. I'll—I'll catch up."
"No." I knew better than that. "Get out of the water. You've got to fight more. I can't carry you the whole way." He was too heavy for me to lift without some help. Especially at this level. The venom was shutting him down completely. The fact that he had survived this long was a miracle, but we needed another one fast.
He nodded, his breaths slow and uneven. Blood leaked from his wrist. Not a trace of yellow or green was left in his skin, and his lips and a fair portion of the surrounding skin had gone ink-black or spiderwebbed with dark veins now. His eyelids remained heavy. But he tried again, his muscles trembling and shaking as he forced himself forward.
Slowly he made his way up, leaning heavily against the wall as I reached down for him.
Bubbles churned within the water. A pinprick of light shone below.
Something was coming. And fast.
It wasn't hard to guess what.
"Tagger, up!" I snapped my fingers at him, using the sharpest tone I'd ever used.
This time, he didn't even squeak or protest. He shot up the tunnel and past me as if he had been greased.
I then crawled back down into the hole, reaching for Corvin. "Corvin, do NOT argue with me. If you've got any strength left, you've got to help me get you out of here. Otherwise, I'm coming back in, and we can both die together. Do you want that?" My fingertips grazed his shoulder. His right arm hung limp.
He struggled to turn and thrust himself up. He slipped.
I lunged farther down into the passage headfirst, hoping I didn't fall in. The rocks cut into my belly and thighs. I just barely caught his sleeve, grunting with pain.
He fought to stand again, his muscles clenching.
Salt's bane, it wasn't just his right arm. His leg was giving out too.
He swung his hand up into the passage, his claws digging into the grooves.
I tugged and pulled. His claws cut my arm, though he couldn't grip my arm back. His blood dripped down his wrist onto me, mixing with mine. The sharp pain sliced through me, but I couldn't let go. I wouldn't.
He struggled up a little higher, and I wriggled back, pulling him with me.
Inch by painful inch.
He was so heavy and weak that I could barely budge him.
"Just a little more!" I cried out, my muscles burning with effort.
Tagger chittered, darting around the opening. He settled on my back to help me balance. His loud chirps and squeaks filled my ears in counterpoint to Corvin's labored breaths. "Come on!"
His body blocked out all view into the chasm below. But whatever was coming up had to be close by now.
He groaned, his voice tearing into me as I clung to him. The muscles in his arms trembled.
"Almost there!" I wriggled back still farther and then gripped more of his arm. "You're more than halfway."
He grunted, all movement stopping. Alarm flashed in his eyes.
It only took me a moment to see the problem.
His shoulders were stuck, and something was coming up the tunnel.