Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Holy fuck, the water was freezing. It was the kind of cold that sucked the thoughts out of your brain and stabbed needles of icy hot pain right into your nerves. Thomasin focused on Edith’s tight grip on her hand as she wrangled her limbs into order, forcing them to stroke through the water.
The wild current made by Edith’s flailing didn’t help anything. Thomasin was practically dragging the poor girl into the depths, kicking her legs to propel them downward, arm tugging Edith, who finally managed to adjust to the cold enough to swim alongside Thomasin.
On the third stroke, she expected to find the bottom, but met only more water. Her eyes stung, but she kept them open, scanning the dark, boggy pool for any sign of a hidden compartment or trapdoor. Eventually, they had no choice but to come up for air.
They hauled their frozen bodies out of the pool and onto the muddy shore that had once felt icy against her toes but now felt warm in comparison.
Thomasin resisted the urge to rub her face in it.
Edith collapsed next to her, chest heaving, white tunic soaked through and sheer.
The sight of her like that warmed Thomasin much quicker than the mud.
“Are you sure the clue is in there?” Thomasin stuttered out through chattering teeth.
“I’m positive,” Edith chattered back. “The dragons were asleep at the bottom.”
“Well, you were unfortunately very right about how deep it is.” Thomasin dragged herself up to her hands and knees, water dripping from her hair and clothes in big fat rivulets.
“Let’s try again,” Edith said. It was true that sometimes Edith needed a little push to get moving, but once she got going, there was nothing that could derail her.
They stood up, positioned themselves once again, this time shaky and all too aware of the shock they were about to receive.
Thomasin reached for Edith’s hand, but Edith batted her away.
At the look of confusion on Thomasin’s face, Edith said, “I slowed you down last time. We’ll swim faster if we use both of our arms.”
Thomasin nodded, stretching her arms. “Straight to the bottom.” Grim smiles were exchanged, and then they dove once more.
It wasn’t any better the second time around.
In fact, it was probably worse because Thomasin’s arms and legs already felt like they’d been stretched out and tenderized.
But she swam as hard and as fast as she could and felt Edith doing the same just a few strokes behind her.
Thomasin had the advantage in the length-of-limbs department.
Thomasin was on the verge of giving up when her outstretched fingers finally collided with spongy ground.
She fluttered her feet behind her, muscles screaming.
Her hands scrambled across the bottom of the pool, searching for anything that felt man-made.
Nearly out of breath, she swam headfirst into the edge.
When she reached for the wall to push herself back down, not ready to quit just yet, her fingers knocked into something hard.
At first she thought it was a rock, but the shape of it felt too artificial.
She closed her fingers around the thin, cylindrical stone, slimy with algae, and pulled.
The thing didn’t budge. She tried again, this time yanking it upward.
As she pulled, the stone slab that it was attached to, almost entirely concealed by mud and algae, rose as well, revealing an underwater passage within.
Thomasin followed the noise of Edith’s paddling, hand outstretched and searching until her fingers finally closed around Edith’s arm. She pulled her toward the hidden door.
Being underwater simplified things. There was no time for discussion or planning.
Thomasin just held the door up for Edith, who swam through, and then Thomasin followed behind her.
The door fell shut behind them with a muted thud, its descent slowed by the water.
Thomasin only spared enough time to make sure that there was also a handle on this side of the passage, which thank God, there was.
Thomasin and Edith paddled as fast as their frozen bodies allowed them to. Black spots began to pop in and out of Thomasin’s vision. She had no choice but to keep swimming, hoping desperately that air would be closer ahead of them than it would be if they were to turn back.
Her chest was on the verge of caving in on itself when she noticed the tunnel must be at an incline, because the water level appeared to be sinking.
Finally, they could surface just enough to get their faces out of the water.
She gulped in breath after ragged breath, water splashing her cheeks, the top of her head bumping into the stone ceiling.
Edith’s face was bright red, and Thomasin imagined hers must be as well.
She was so cold she couldn’t feel any part of herself.
The smile she forced onto her trembling lips didn’t convince Edith, because the other woman said, “We need to get out of this water before we freeze to death.” The words were wobbly as they tumbled from her mouth.
Luckily, the water level kept dropping. Soon, it was only up to their knees, and then it was sloshing around their ankles as they trudged forward, their legs dragging.
“At least there are no spiders this time,” Edith called over her shoulder.
“Don’t jinx us,” Thomasin laughed.
The tunnel opened up into a vast, expansive cave.
Thomasin’s steps faltered. She had never thought that such a large space could exist beneath the earth.
It rose above them like a dome, the faintest cracks of light trickling down from the surface.
In the scant light, she couldn’t see how far the cave went on for.
Edith’s hand slipped into hers as they advanced carefully.
There was a pedestal a few paces ahead of them.
On it was a rough, triangle-shaped rock.
“Flint,” Thomasin commented, as Edith picked up the stone.
She curled her fingers around it as they continued on.
After a few moments, they came to what looked like a stone fence, but the top was carved inward, creating a crescent-shaped groove.
Edith rested a hand on the fence but drew her arm back suddenly.
She brought her fingers up to her face to examine them, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together.
“Give me a dagger,” she said to Thomasin, who knitted her brows together, but gave Edith the dagger nonetheless.
Edith held the dagger over the fence, and then struck the flint against it just like Thomasin had taught her. Sparks flew, and in a great whoosh, the crescent-shaped divot burst into flames.
Oil, Thomasin realized. The fire roared across the length of the fence, igniting the oil. As the flames raged onward, the cavern was revealed in a brilliant orange-and-red glow.
The fence stretched across almost the whole length of the cave, forming half a rectangle. The fire turned a corner, and then stopped at a pillar, which marked a break in the fence. Thomasin could just make out where the fence started up again.
Edith walked past Thomasin, dagger and flint at the ready. There was a matching fence on the right side of the cave. She struck the flint, and they watched as the second half of the rectangle was lit up.
Before them, between two pillars, was a gap between the fences, wide enough for someone to walk through.
There was nowhere else to go but through the entrance and into the fenced enclosure.
The stone barriers went right up to the cave walls on their left and right, leaving them no path around it.
This wouldn’t have been a problem, except for the fact that the fire had not revealed a normal cave floor, but instead a strange checkerboard pattern built into the stone.
Stranger still, there was an animal etched onto each tile.
Thomasin took a step forward, but Edith grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
“Haven’t you learned your lesson about booby traps?”
Thomasin grimaced apologetically, her eyes flicking to Edith’s shoulder, the bandage visible through her wet shirt.
She shuffled to the side, letting Edith take the lead.
Thomasin watched as the gears turned behind her eyes, and then as those gears ground to a halt.
“I have no idea,” Edith seethed, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.
“Maybe we just need some good old-fashioned trial and error. Do you think the booby traps are deadly?” Thomasin asked, leaning over Edith’s shoulder to study the stone tiles.
“Obviously!” Edith snapped. “The whole point of booby traps is to kill you. If they weren’t deadly, they’d just be practical jokes.”
Thomasin smothered a grin. “You’re cranky when you’re stumped.”
Edith grumbled with indignation but didn’t contest the claim. Thomasin was bending over to press a kiss to Edith’s enraged cheek when she saw it out of the corner of her eye: an etching of a hedgehog in the first row of tiles, just a few squares down from the entrance.
“Merlin’s prophecy,” Thomasin said aloud.
“What?” Edith said, clearly not paying attention to her.
“Merlin’s prophecy,” Thomasin said again, louder this time.
Edith glanced at her, their gazes snagging on each other, and understanding dawned on Edith’s face.
Thomasin continued, “Merlin predicted that a series of animals would conquer the others, and then be vanquished, one by one, until finally the red dragon rose victorious. We have to follow the course of the prophecy!” Thomasin exhaled, having been too excited to stop and breathe.
Now that she’d thrown her theory out there, she was a little worried Edith might feel slighted, like Thomasin was infringing on her territory, stealing her moment.