Chapter 20
Farah
I flung myself like a wet kitten over the edge of the river bank, gasping for air with a burning throat and aching lungs.
Fear filled me, but it was not the same as before.
I didn’t care about drowning myself when Zeidon was stuck and about to run out of air.
I felt fear and panic, but none of it was for me.
My body was roaring with adrenaline, my heart raced in my chest, pumping my blood into my muscles.
I felt no fatigue, no pain, just determination as I rolled onto my back and fished the core of blue light from the pocket of my soaked pants.
It was stuck and I growled in frustration until the fabric tore with a rough yank.
I raised that thing high over my head so the cameras in this room could catch sight of it.
Then I rolled to my knees and made it clear I was about to shatter that thing on the hard stone floor.
“Open the hatch! Release us! Or this thing is going to end up in a million pieces. You don’t want that, do you? Vrash?”
There was only one reason this was happening, the robot.
We had not defeated it entirely and this was his payback, drowning us or starving us to death inside this room.
Well, not on my fucking watch. I was done playing nice in so many ways that it might have frightened a younger me, but I didn’t even care.
He did not get to kill my mate; I was not letting him get away with this petty revenge.
“You hear that, Vrash? This is what you want, isn’t it?
I’ll leave it behind if you let us go. Now release us!
Open the doors!” I held my breath for a second as I waited for a reply, I expected his creepy voice to come through a hidden speaker somewhere, but maybe there just weren’t any. Maybe he could not hear my words.
I glanced at the camera again as I gave it one last shot, enunciating my demands clearly while I held that core up for him to see.
The thought that he didn’t know my language flashed through my brain, and I felt a hint of failure creep up on me.
Zeidon was running out of air, if that door didn’t open now he was going to drown.
Sign language was not my strength, but I pointed at the hatch and then up, and then I made another threatening motion with the core.
When more long seconds ticked by where nothing happened, I wondered if I needed to go to the computer bank and screens next to the door.
It would take me away from the water where Zeidon was fighting with the hatch for his life, it felt like the wrong choice but the longer I dawdled about making that choice, the worse it would get for him.
Just as I climbed to my feet to go, I heard a hissing and my skin broke out in goosebumps beneath my wet things.
The river was slowing down, the water levels lowering as water escaped through the only partway closed hatch, while the one on the other side had closed all the way.
With a rush, and horror striking through me, I saw the upper hatch shoot up and water rushed out of it with renewed fervor.
“You fucking bastard!” I shouted, and I raised my hands and prepared to throw that core onto the ground for real.
It slammed against the stone and skittered across it, still intact but with a crack zigzagging through the casing.
I brought up my leg for a good hard stomp but froze when the still-blaring alarm suddenly fell silent.
The rushing tidal wave of water slammed through the turbines, bending some of the blades with its force.
It slammed into the hatch that pinned Zeidon and I cried out as I imagined what that was doing to his body.
“No!” I shouted but then it happened, the hatch raised and the water eased up, but Zeidon did not rise to the surface like I half expected him to.
I was going to have to go in after him, I could not let him drown because I was too scared of a little swim.
The water was a roaring mess, churning and foaming from its speed and force.
This was no little swim, and I was not a strong swimmer anyway, but I had to do it.
There was no one else here to do it for me, and Zeidon needed me.
Leaving the cracked core where I was, I went to the edge of the water and dove in.
The wild water would have swept Zeidon away, I had to move fast to find him.
Don’t fight it, I told myself as the cold water closed around me, let it take you where it wanted to go, that’s where Zeidon was going to be.
Tossed and thrown, I had no control at first. The water swept me through the opened hatch and out of the large underground chamber into the tunnel.
I couldn’t see much in this darkness, but when I managed to push myself to the surface I could hear Buzz’s distinct chirp-kee-kee greeting.
Blind in the dark, I was not prepared for the sudden rock I slammed into, but I scrabbled for purchase and hung on.
There had been a little light before, one that Zeidon carried to light up the tunnels we’d traveled through; it was gone now.
I had to use my hands to search the rock I was clinging to just to find out what I was dealing with.
Not just a rock, a wall. The pull of the water told me it could find a way out of here beneath it, so this was not a dead end.
Had Zeidon been swept under it? Or had I been swept past him and was he still stuck somewhere below the currents near the hatch?
I nearly came out of my skin when I felt a nudge against my side, but it was followed by a gruff snort; Srazz.
With my fingers I reached out to touch him, a small dog-sized chubby wet form, reminding me more than anything of a capybara right now.
On his back clung Buzz who butted against my fingers with an affectionate chirp.
“Where is Zeidon? Did you see Zeidon?” I asked them, not expecting an answer.
I could only hope that he’d been swept against this rock wall like me and wasn’t out of my reach.
Scared that the currents would pull me under, I still forced myself to search as fast as I could.
If he was still underwater, his chances of survival were dwindling with every second.
My chest felt so tight and painful at the thought of losing him.
“Zeidon, where are you?” I sobbed in the dark, “Please be alright!”
He was the one who loved the water, he was the swimmer of the two of us.
He’d swam to the bottom of an icy lake to retrieve me; he had to be alright.
Then my fingers brushed along something cool and slick that definitely wasn’t rock.
Light flared green but muted, softly pulsing in the dark along the path of his tail.
It trailed deeper into the water but also along the rock wall away from me.
Under my eyes, the light seemed to grow dimmer and I rushed forward, using my fingers to guide my way.
I found the belts still clinging to his hips, his ridged abdomen, and a limply swaying arm.
He was on his back, his face tilted to the ceiling when I reached it; he was breathing.
Those breaths were slow and far too few in between, they were weak and they were slowing, just like the glow of his mating marks was fading.
That couldn’t be good, but I didn’t know what else to do than cradle his head against my chest and hold it up so he could keep breathing.
How did you perform CPR in the water? You needed to lay somebody down on a flat surface, didn’t you?
“Come on! Wake up! You need to wake up, Zeidon.” I ran my hand over his chest, then vaguely recalled this trick about rubbing the sternum.
It was painful but harmless, and it could wake a person from a slumber.
It felt cruel when I bent my finger and pushed and rubbed against his sternum roughly but it worked.
I couldn’t believe that it worked, but he spluttered and then blinked open glowing green eyes.
“Blazing suns,” he groaned, “No more Abseal for me.” His words were nonsensical but when his eyes focused on my face, recognition flashed through them.
“Precious Farah…” He groaned loudly but I could see the lights along his body flaring brighter with each deep breath he pulled into his lungs.
He lunged up suddenly, his arms curling around me and pulling me close, “You are in the water! Are you alright?”
I laughed wetly, another sob escaping me that was closer to happiness than the grief and fear that had filled me before.
He was alright, and why did it not surprise me when his first concern was about me?
I threw my arms around his neck and clung, my ear pressed to his chest to listen to the steady thud of his heart.
It was a miracle that he’d recovered the way he had, and that he had ended up floating face up rather than face down.
I was certain that it was that luck that had saved him.
“Alright. I’m okay. Are you? You were crushed beneath that metal hatch.
I was certain you drowned!” I had never been more scared in my life, not even that panic attack could compare to how his near-death had made me feel.
That was the second time I had nearly lost him, and I swore never again.
I was going to tie him to my side if I had to, but he was not getting any more of those.
He growled, but that growl morphed into something that almost resembled a laugh.
“Drowned? Now that would be something; a Water Weaver who drowned… I am fine, my mate.” He held me tighter and I took that as a chance to run my hands over his chest and back to search for any sign that the door had injured him.
He hissed when I brushed over his ribs, definitely sore, but I could not find anything obvious.
My mind flashed with images of internal injuries but that wasn’t something we could do anything about. I still worried.