Chapter 33
Chapter
Thirty-Three
The camp was a frenzy of chaos when Erinna returned. They were preparing for the inevitable. Even if they hadn’t seen the new Chancellor’s ship, it was only a matter of time before the academy was there.
Kane and Afton barreled out of the small guard station and into the center of the camp. The Minor Apprentice held a book in front of his face and scrolls beneath his arm. Kane barked orders to some of his men and sent them scurrying to their stations.
“There will be dozens of them inside,” Afton muttered, eyes darting from the doors to his scrolls.
“We don’t have time to wait,” Kane snapped, already heading toward the large iron doors.
“Oh dear,” came Raye’s low whisper, as if the ghost feared being overheard. “They will surely perish if they go in blind.” His gaze flickered between the two men, spectral features morphed in thought. “I take that back. They will live but perhaps be down a leg or two.”
“You’re supposed to be helping us,” Erinna hissed louder than she thought. Both men halted and turned as she neared.
“Who are you talking to? Where have you been?” Kane asked, scanning her from head to toe—searching for an injury.
“Never mind,” Erinna said quickly. “I may be able to get us around some of the obstacles,” she continued, forcing her eyes not to stray to the corner where Raye lingered.
“And how did you come across such information?” Kane asked, eyes narrowing.
She hesitated, heart thudding. “You can appreciate it when a woman wants to keep some secrets to herself.”
Kane took in a deep breath, clenching and unclenching his hands.
Erinna stared at the flickering light in her lamp.
As long as it burned, Raye could guide her.
Her stomach twisted when she saw Kane’s eyes flick to the lantern in her hand, sharp and searching.
Almost like he knew what to search for to see through her lies.
“Show us,” Afton demanded. “Now.”
A whistle sounded in the distance, high and harsh. Kane tensed and turned back to the doors. “Let’s go, before we all run out of time.”
Afton held up his hand, and the air around him hummed with energy.
Erinna did not spend much time with mages, but it was clear that Afton was in a league of his own.
Air and light warped around him, fissures made of sharp, stinging arcanum pierced through.
The doors opened in response to his call, and the three were met with a blast of stale air.
“Showoff,” Kane whispered beneath his breath, gesturing for two of his men to move forward with the gangplank. Erinna couldn’t suppress a small smile of amusement. Even with such tension and the prospect of calamitous ruin, Kane could still manage such banter.
The wooden bridge came crashing down with a harsh bang. The makeshift bridge rattled over the crevice. It fit, but barely.
“We can stay and keep it steady on this side,” one of the crew members offered, but Kane shook his head.
“Only the three of us. We need as many people as possible to deal with the academy if they come.”
Erinna tensed as fear thread itself through her nerves. Would they even survive an encounter with the academy?
One of the crew pressed a coil of rope into Kane’s hands.
Behind them, the camp roared to life—shouts, the clatter of weapons, men bracing for a potential fight.
The door slammed shut. Stone shuddered. Marble cracked and fell into the rift below.
Then—nothing. Just darkness, and the weak glow of Erinna’s lantern.
A burst of gold and orange. Flame roared to life in Kane’s hands, climbing up his shoulder in a blazing pauldron.
Erinna smirked. “Now who’s the showoff?”
Without another thought, Erinna put a boot on the rattling wood, heart lurched into her throat when it jostled against her weight.
“Wait.” Kane brushed his hand against her arm. Concern painted his features as he glanced down to the roiling water below.
She brushed him off, raising the lantern overhead. “I should go first.”
“I need to go first,” said Afton, placing his own boot down with a grimace.
“You two are going to kill yourselves,” Kane grumbled. He circled his arm around her shoulders and pulled Erinna back. She crashed into his chest, opening her mouth to protest until she felt it.
Rope wound around her waist with a tug. Kane had put her in a makeshift harness. A protective leash.
“I’ll go first, tie the rope to the other side and then the two of you can fight about who goes first.”
“But there are…” Afton started at the same time Erinna asked, “How will you get…” But Kane was already gone. The pirate disappeared in swirling shadow.
Erinna felt the tug of the rope against her waist. “What just happened?” she breathed.
“Oh, a shadow walker. How rare.”
Erinna sent a glare to the spirit. Shadow walker, gravewitch, Grace, she added it to her growing pile of important unknowns.
Flame erupted on the other side; a roiling inferno licked at old torches as it passed.
Some took to the flame, casting light in the long hallway for the first time in decades.
Dust swirled around his boots. Kane took the end of the rope and tied it around a large marble column.
She let out a shaky breath and stepped onto the gangplank once more. “Stay close to me,” Erinna whispered to Afton. The mage only gave her a sarcastic snort in response. He was clearly just as frightened to lack some snotty remark.
“You may want to hurry. I believe your pirate has set off another trap.”
Dread threatened to paralyze her on the shaking wooden bridge. “A trap,” she whispered and watched as the flame ended its life at the end of the hall. The last torch blazed to life at the far end of the hallway. Doors lined the far end. The wood caught, burned, and turned to ash.
“It’s a trap!” she cried.
“The walls will close in, take the middle door on the right. The rest are fake.” Raye’s voice was far too calm for her liking. That was the perk of being dead, she guessed; there wasn’t another way to die.
The makeshift bridge buckled beneath their weight.
Afton stumbled to his knees, and Erinna felt the tug of the rope against her weight.
It was going to break. Without a second thought to spare, Erinna hauled Afton to his feet and shoved him toward the ledge.
They were only a few steps away from safety.
The wood cracked and splintered beneath her feet. The mage staggered to the other side before the gangplank gave out and Erinna tumbled into the dark below.
Her fall was halted with shuddering force as the rope snapped taut against Kane’s hold. She swung aggressively over darkness, heart beating into her throat. If Kane hadn’t tied the rope around her, she would be at the bottom of the ocean, dead and gone.
They had made it to the other side, but Erinna wondered how easy it would be to return as she peered into the seemingly never-ending darkness below.
“That was a risky move, Yarrow,” Kane grunted as he pulled her back to safety. Worry and anger painted his features and likely mirrored her own.
“Well, I guess I owe you my life then. Right before you end us all.” She hurriedly undid the bindings and tossed the rope to the floor.
Kane looked around. “Seems fine to me.”
Raye flickered and shook his head in her periphery.
At first, the room was silent, save for their labored breaths.
Then the stone groaned, the sound rattled through their bones like the growl of a disturbed slumbering beast. One by one, the walls began to shift inward.
The room was closing in on them. Three of the walls scraped against the floor.
Their relentless, ancient mechanisms ground into motion after centuries of stillness.
Dust plumed from the crevices as centuries-old mortar crumbled.
Her previous frustration with Afton’s grueling, slow approach, trying to target the wards and traps, faltered.
Without Raye, she was sure the three of them would have been crushed to death, and still might be.
A dozen doors lined the wall to the right and one in the back.
It would have been impossible to guess which door to take, and if the wrong one was chosen…
she wondered how many bones had been ground to dust by this protection.
“Listen to me, the door in the middle on the right,” said Raye.
Erinna eyed their target door; it was a good distance from where they stood. “We need to take the middle door on the right,” Erinna relayed. They would need to move fast if they didn’t want to be crushed to death.
“I can take the slowest with me, but the other will have to run.” Kane looked from Afton to Erinna. He was sizing them up, she realized. Determining the slowest. Kane scanned Erinna from head to toe, and then his gaze landed on Afton.
Kane closed the distance to Erinna. “I can get us to the end…”
She pushed at his chest and pointed in the direction Raye told her. “There, we have to get there. If you’ll take anyone, take Afton. He may be needed to open the door.”
Raye interjected again. “He certainly will be. It’s magically sealed.”
Erinna grit her teeth and already regretted her choice in guide.
Kane’s eyes narrowed. “But...”
“No.” She reached out and shoved Afton toward the pirate. “Take him and open that door. I’ll be fine.”
Erinna launched herself forward. Or tried to.
Kane caught her midstride, one arm hooking behind her knees as he swept her up. Before she could snarl a complaint, darkness engulfed them, ripping the air from her lungs. Then she was on her feet, at the door, breathless and furious.
“This will be my last one,” Kane said, then was shrouded in darkness once more.
Raye shimmered into focus. “He still has room to grow, it seems.”
“What else do we need to worry about?” she hissed. If Raye had time to comment on Kane’s ability, he had time to tell her what to expect.