Chapter 24 Alar
ALAR
I was taught many ways to kill and twice as many strategies to survive, but none of those lessons mattered when I heard Ravel shout and realized that Kailin was in mortal danger.
In that instant, I understood that all my training had only one purpose: to protect the people I loved and couldn't bear to lose.
—From the journal of Alar Tekum
One moment, I was climbing the narrow staircase behind Kailin, my hand at the small of her back, and the next, Ravel was shouting and slamming into us like a battering ram.
The world spun, Kailin cried out, and I caught a glimpse of stone rushing up to meet us. Then we were falling, tumbling down the steep staircase in a tangle of bodies and limbs.
Training kicked in, and I twisted, trying to shield Kailin and cushion her fall, taking the impact on my shoulders and back.
The explosion came mid-fall, and the blast sent us flying. The concussive wave felt like a giant hand shoving us from behind.
Stone rained down. Chunks of masonry bounced off the walls, off the steps, off us. One piece hit my temple hard enough to make lights flash across my vision. Another caught my shin, and pain exploded up my leg.
Then we hit the bottom.
Bodies piled on top of me, driving the air from my lungs. For a moment, I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but lie there stunned while my ears rang and dust filled my mouth and nose.
Gradually, sound returned. Groaning. Coughing. Someone cursing in Elurian.
Codric. He was alive.
I pushed at the weight on top of me, trying to make sense of the tangle of limbs. Someone's elbow was in my ribs. A boot was pressed against my thigh. Pain was everywhere.
"Is anyone hurt?" Ravel's voice was rough and commanding even through the chaos.
"Kailin!"
Terror cut through the pain and confusion. Where was she? Was she beneath me? Had I landed on her? Had she been crushed?
I struggled to move, to find her, my heart hammering.
Ravel lifted a glow stick, and suddenly I could see. I found her pressed against the wall where we'd finally stopped tumbling. Her face was pale, streaked with dirt, her eyes wide with shock, and her hands were bleeding, but other than that, she appeared unharmed.
Relief flooded through me so intensely it made me nauseous.
"I'm okay." She coughed. "I think. You're bleeding!"
"It's nothing." I reached for her even as I registered the warm trickle of blood running down the side of my face. I found her arms and ran my hands over them to check for broken bones and injuries. She seemed intact.
Thank Elurion.
Around us, the others were extracting themselves from the pile.
Morek sat up, blood streaming from a cut on his forehead.
Shovia cradled her wrist against her chest, her face twisted in pain.
Codric seemed mostly unharmed, just dazed.
Saphir was already sitting up, somehow looking composed despite the dust covering his formerly pristine robes.
Ravel was favoring his left leg.
I pulled Kailin closer, needing to feel her warm and alive against me.
She was trembling. "Someone tried to kill us," she whispered. "Again."
I couldn't refute her claim. I might not have extensive military training, but I had enough to recognize a well-placed explosive when I experienced one.
Someone had known where we'd be and had planted a bomb designed to bring the stairwell down on our heads. A trip wire must have been hidden under the layer of dust covering the stairs, and the dim light from the glow sticks hadn't been enough to reveal it.
"Help is on the way," Ravel said. "Onyx is organizing a rescue. They'll have us out in no time."
I knew that it wouldn't be as quick as that. We were trapped underground with who knew how many tons of stone between us and the surface. I fought down the surge of claustrophobia that threatened to overwhelm me.
Focus, Alar. Assess and adapt.
I had no serious injuries. The cut on my temple was superficial, and the bruises would make themselves known later, but nothing was broken. Kailin was unhurt. The others had minor injuries that seemed manageable. We had air, light from the glowstone, and most importantly, we were alive.
If not for Ravel's quick response, we might not have been so lucky. Then again, he must have been the one who had tripped the wire. He should have been paying more attention.
"Someone tried to kill us," Kailin murmured. "Someone knew we were down here."
"They were after me," Saphir said. "No one outside the six of you, Nyxath, and General Lesten knows about the prophecy. Why would they want to kill you?"
"I'm the Hero of Elucia," Kailin said. "They tried to kill me during my leave."
"How did they even know we would be down here?" I asked. "Things like this take time to plan."
I kept my arm around Kailin as she pressed close to me, still trembling. Usually, she was more resilient than this, but she was still physically depleted and emotionally fragile from her incredible prophetic dream and the previous assassination attempt.
There was a limit to what a young woman like her could take without falling apart.
"We're going to be okay," I whispered in her ear. "Rescue is on the way."
She nodded against my shoulder but didn't speak.
The wait was agonizing.
We could hear sounds from above—muffled voices, the rumble of equipment, the occasional clatter of stone being moved. But down here, time seemed to stretch endlessly.
Morek had torn a strip from his shirt to bind his head wound. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but the makeshift bandage was already soaked through. Shovia kept testing her wrist, carefully flexing it, which probably meant that it was sprained rather than broken.
Codric sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, but he wasn't asleep. Knowing my cousin, he was trying to solve the puzzle of how someone had known to plant an explosive device at the right place and the right time.
I was trying to solve that puzzle as well, but my brain was foggy either from the dust I'd inhaled or from the impact of what had just happened. Someone had attempted to kill the woman I loved.
Again.
Kailin was still trembling. I rubbed her arms, trying to warm her even though her chill was internal rather than external. Thanks to the geothermal effect, it wasn't cold down here.
It was the shock and fear and the aftermath of adrenaline.
"Talk to me," I said.
"Someone knew about the prophecy," she whispered. "That's why they tried to kill us."
"We don't know that."
She pulled back to look at me. "Someone knew exactly when we would be coming up those stairs. They knew we were down here."
I couldn't argue with her logic, although I couldn't reconcile the timing with what made sense as far as the chain of events. No one could have done that in the hour or so that we were in the chamber.
"Let's focus on getting out first," I said. "Then we'll worry about the who and why."
Who had known about this meeting?
Saphir had orchestrated it without telling anyone, separating us from the other cadets with minimal explanations given. As far as I knew, no one else had been told where we were going or why.
This couldn't have been planned in advance.
Someone had to plant the explosives while we were inside the secret room with the door closed. That someone had to have followed us, which meant that the traitor Ravel suspected in the Dragon Force must be close to us.
The excavation proceeded with agonizing slowness because rushing could bring more stone down on our heads, but understanding didn't make the wait any easier.
Eventually, a small hole appeared at the top of the pile of rubble.
"Shaman Saphir Fatewever and company, can you hear me?"
"We hear you!" Ravel shouted back.
"We're digging out a passage. It'll take time because we have to be careful not to cause another collapse. Can you hold on?"
"We're not going anywhere," Ravel said.
With excruciating slowness, that hole grew larger, and fresh air began to filter through.
"Almost there!" the voice called. "The opening is small, but we think you can crawl through it."
"Morek, you go first," Ravel said.
I watched Morek climb the unstable pile and squeeze through the narrow opening. Then Shovia, wincing as she tried to protect her injured wrist. Codric went next.
"Your turn," I told Kailin.
She looked up at the narrow tunnel our rescuers had carved out of the stones and swallowed hard.
"You can do this. I'll be right behind you," I promised.
She nodded and started up. I stayed close, ready to catch her if she slipped. Her hands were shaking as she pulled herself up over the broken stones, and more than once I had to steady her when a rock shifted beneath her feet.
"That's it," I encouraged. "Just a little further."
When hands reached down to pull her through, I felt a weight lift from my chest. She was out. She was safe.
I squeezed through the narrow opening behind Kailin and squinted against the light.
People and equipment were scattered across the temple floor, and multiple dragons waited just beyond the Circle.
A medic tried to check my head wound, but I waved him off. "I'm fine. It's just a surface scratch. Tend to the others."
I walked over to Kailin, who stood wrapped in a blanket, and pulled her into my arms.
"We're okay," I said. "We're safe."
She pressed her face against my chest. "We were lucky."
She was right. We'd been lucky. Next time, we might not be.
I glanced at Ravel, who was conferring with Captain Odinah. His jaw was set in a grim expression and his eyes kept sweeping over the personnel, probably searching for suspects.
He knew what I knew, what we all knew now.
Someone in the Citadel wanted us dead, and they were willing to blow up sacred temple ground to make it happen.
A few minutes later, he walked over to us.
"You're coming with me," he told Kailin. "I want to keep you close until we figure out what's going on."