Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
The deafening roar of the Tiger made the deep dark of the tunnel rattle around me and I threw up my hands to shield my head as small stones fell loose from the roof above.
I almost ran straight into another dead-end, cursing as the Dragon bellowed in fury and flipped around, its feathers brushing against my cheeks as I ducked to let it turn then sprinted after it down a new path.
This place was endless. A maze with no heart and barely enough air to breathe.
The other Champions rushed through the passages, their boots echoing all around me making it impossible to tell which direction they were coming from, the cries of all of the spirits mixing into a tumult which had my skull ringing.
A figure burst from a tunnel ahead of me and I raised my slingshot before lowering it again as I recognised Devlan.
The older Champion had the Phoenix he’d taken from Princess Drava’s corpse racing along behind him, lighting the way with beams of sunlight which almost blinded me.
The Stag clopped along at his back and the Carp was flopping feebly in his arms.
I backed up, uncertain of where we stood with one another now. We’d been allies of sorts in the start of this and we were both human. But we each had three spirits and if either of us killed the other then we’d have six. That was almost certainly all that would be needed to win the boon.
Devlan pointed a dagger at me awkwardly around the heavy body of the spirit of puddles then cursed as it was almost knocked from his hand by the Carp’s flailing fin.
“Humans shouldn’t be fighting against one another in this nightmarish place,” he grunted, bobbing his chin towards a tunnel on my right.
“I say we work together to end this fucking curse and see this thing done. I dare say the Fae will be happy to cut our throats either way and maybe we can give ourselves something of an advantage as one.”
I hesitated for a heartbeat, the Unicorn pressing close behind me and peering over my shoulder at the man who I hadn’t really gotten to know and could hardly say I trusted.
But he was right. We were better off together and I was hardly in a position to fight him regardless.
He was a warrior and I was not. But he was offering me an alliance.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Lead on.”
However I may have felt about an alliance with him, I wasn’t fool enough to give him my back. Devlan grunted in agreement, eyeing the Dragon which gave him a menacing snarl before he took off down a new tunnel, still clutching the Carp to his chest.
I broke into a run again at once, not bothering to offer any opinion on the tunnels he chose as each appeared exactly like the last. I had tried asking my spirits for guidance too but none of them knew their way through this maze.
We raced down a long passage and almost crashed into the wall at the end of it, cursing and whirling back to run the other way.
A deep roar echoed through the darkness in that direction and I stumbled to a halt but we had no other choice, nowhere else to turn.
Devlan swore, hoisting the Carp higher in his arms and jogging down the passage despite the thundering footfalls which seemed to be closing in on us.
The Dragon coiled in the shadows behind me, the Unicorn nudging its nose to my back to keep me moving.
“Please check the way ahead,” I breathed to the Raven and the bird swooped past us, darkness closing in around it so deeply that I could hardly see my own hand before my face.
I exchanged a glance with Devlan and we kept going, stepping into the shadows despite the fear which warned us not to.
A shriek from the Raven came a second before the Tiger leapt from the darkness, claws spread, teeth bared, a roar bellowing from its throat. The spirit’s striped coat was alive with movement as small mammals and birds clung to its skin, its job that of protector to the beasts of the forest.
The Unicorn knocked me aside and it looked as though the Carp attempted to do the same for Devlan, its wet tail slapping him across the face as it bounced wildly in his hold, but it did him no good.
The Tiger’s teeth closed over his skull with a crunch that ripped right into me as I screamed his name.
Islasees appeared from the gloom, swinging his sword at my Raven as it tried to claw at him and causing it to spill away into shadow to avoid the blow.
The Fae’s eyes locked on me, the certainty that I was his next target paralysing me with fear.
But the Dragon had no intention of allowing my end to come so easily.
The great spirit bellowed as it threw itself at me, its talons wrapping around my body as it hoisted me from the ground and exploded into movement, knocking Islasees and his Tiger aside so that it could carry me to safety.
I craned my neck to look back, watching with a sense of sinking horror as Islasees stooped to snatch the amulets for the Carp, the Stag and the Phoenix from Devlan’s decapitated body, stealing them for himself.
He had five amulets. And I still languished with three. My heart broke open at that truth. That murderous bastard had seized the advantage at the last moment and my only chance of seizing it from him was to try and kill him.
I’d come into this place knowing that I wouldn’t ever win through battle or bloodshed, brawn or vigour.
Taking those amulets from Devlan had been my last chance at winning this thing.
And now I might never be able to rescue my sister from this ruinous place and everything I’d had risked in coming here would be for nothing.