79. Allie
Allie
“Take off your coats,” Ryker instructed. “Cover any crevices.”
The civilians followed orders and a pile of furs and wool quickly formed between the sculpted stone columns.
The crypt had felt huge and imposing when I’d first walked inside of it.
Now it reeked of sweat and fear, shaking with thousands of hectic steps.
I turned to the door and muttered another incantation. The wooden beams glowed with a blue hue, but it was frail and hazy.
It would buy us some time.
But not enough.
The warriors, Ryker, and I picked up coats and stuffed them underneath and on the sides of the door. They’d have to hold out the poisoned mist until we came up with a new plan.
“Any ideas?” I asked Ryker.
“Survive until we come up with some.”
We grabbed a handful of clothes and raced through the different rooms, shoving them between the planks of wood we’d used to barricade the small window openings. To stop arrows and weapons, not air.
We climbed onto the coffin alcoves, hoping their forever inhabitants wouldn’t curse us for daring to save our lives.
The healers fretted over the injured warriors in one of the secluded areas, moans and the metallic scent of blood wafting through.
Our group dwindled the more we ran, until only Ryker and I rushed forward. Deeper.
The air turned colder and mustier the further we delved inside of the crypt. The walls were taller and the stones weathered from the centuries they had endured. Not even the barrels of supplies which had been dragged here yesterday broke the eerie stillness.
More thumps erupted from the entrance. This time, they sounded like fists and swords banging against the door and scraping on the stone walls surrounding us.
Ryker and I froze, staring at each other, the same grim reality vibrating between us.
The masked attackers had reached the crypt.
We were surrounded.
We couldn’t go out into the mist or the poison would kill us.
I couldn’t both protect myself against the rain of arrows and call upon the winds hard enough to dissipate all the mist. I doubted I had enough power to accomplish that on any good day, let alone when I was depleted.
“We can hide almost everyone below ground. There’s not enough room for all of us,” he whispered in my mind, still protecting the secret of Solkar’s Heart. “The warriors and I can stay behind.”
I shook my head. “That would just be trading one prison for a smaller one. If the mist enters the crypt, imagine what it could do in a tighter space. And there’s no wind there for me to summon. Solkar’s Heart won’t help us without you there.”
If at all.
The crater hadn’t even hummed our way in weeks.
The metal scratches on the crypt grew louder. Some of the children began to wail, their cries beating against me.
I was scared, too.
My gaze rushed around us, trying to find a solution out of thin, still breathable air.
At the most, civilians could shield themselves in their ancestors' stone coffins briefly, if their souls could even accept that.
“What if we at least try?” Ryker said suddenly.
I gaped at him. “To trap everyone down there?”
Because there was no way, in this life or another, that I was leaving him and the warriors to face certain death alone.
“No.” He grabbed my hand, pulling toward his family’s alcove. “To summon.”