Chapter 120
I swam toward the altar and reached it a few moments later. The fragment was, just like the first one, firmly embedded in the stone, its surface mapped with shallow depressions carved in runes identical to those on the compass.
I placed the compass on the altar.
It clicked immediately. The centre of the compass opened to reveal a small recessed space, and the fragment slid neatly into it as though forged for that exact purpose.
Carefully lifting the compass from the altar, I turned toward the surface. I had barely taken a few strokes when the lake changed.
The entire cavern trembled.
The water around me lurched so violently that the compass nearly slipped from my grip.
I tightened my hold and looked around. The water, which had been still and strangely peaceful moments before, had begun to churn.
Then I noticed the vines-long, green tendrils that had been draped harmlessly over the ruins-were moving.
Toward me.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
One shot through the water and wrapped itself around my wrist.
I twisted away and tore it free, kicking upward as another whipped past my face.
Something brushed against my ankle, and when I looked down, I saw another tendril curling around it.
I blasted it with magic, forcing it to recoil before kicking toward the surface again.
The current suddenly shifted. Instead of carrying me upward, it dragged me sideways through the ruins. I fought against it, kicking as hard as I could, but the water seemed determined to pull me somewhere else. Another vine caught my ankle and tightened when I tried to yank myself free.
"Seriously?"
I blasted it again, and this time it released me. I kicked upward. The surface was close now, moonlight shimmering above me and growing brighter with every stroke.
Then I felt another pulse of magic.
Familiar magic.
My eyes widened.
Rhaevan.
I looked toward the surface, where his silhouette appeared through the disturbed water, swimming straight toward me. Relief hit me first, followed almost immediately by disbelief. What was he doing?
The lake had already rejected him. He knew that. So naturally, his solution had been to enter it again. Apparently, common sense had finally abandoned both of us.
I shook my head violently and waved at him, trying to signal that he needed to go back.
He ignored me. Of course he did.
Within seconds, he reached me and slid an arm around my waist, pulling me toward him.
The moment he touched me, the water seemed to convulse.
The pressure around us increased so suddenly that I nearly lost my grip on the compass.
Rhaevan tightened his hold, strain visible on his face as he fought against the current.
The vines began tearing themselves free from the ruins. One shot toward my ankle, but Rhaevan caught it and ripped it away. Another wrapped around his arm, and he tore that one loose as well. I pointed toward the surface again, silently telling him to leave.
He looked at me.
Even underwater, I could read the answer in his expression. He was not leaving without me.
I grabbed his arm and tried to swim upward with him, but a dozen tendrils suddenly shot through the water and wrapped around his wrists and ankles, locking his limbs in place.
Another coiled around his waist and began pulling him downward.
He struggled against them, trying to tear himself free, while I seized one of the vines and blasted it with magic.
It recoiled for half a second before another wrapped around his arm.
There were too many.
Rhaevan tried his own magic, but nothing happened. He tried again, and still nothing answered him. The lake was disrupting it.
I fought against the current beside him, tearing at the vines around his waist and arms, but they only seemed to tighten the more we struggled. Rhaevan caught my arm and shoved me upward.
I refused to leave him.
Something beneath us had begun to change.
The water was moving downward. At first, I thought it was another current, but when I looked below us, my stomach dropped.
The water was spiralling.
A circular depression was forming beneath us, pulling everything toward its centre. Loose stones lifted from the ruins and began spinning through the water, while broken branches and strands of vines were dragged into the growing vortex.
The whirlpool was rising.
Rhaevan saw it too. He pushed upward against the current, but the vortex followed us, widening rapidly and pulling the water around us into a violent spiral.
Then the vines around him jerked, dragging him backward.
I lunged for him.
Rhaevan immediately tried to push me away, still struggling against the vines, but they tightened around him every time he moved. I grabbed one and tried to tear it loose. It barely moved.
I blasted it with magic, but before I could reach for another, a tendril wrapped itself around his arm. More vines twisted around his body, pulling him steadily toward the darkness below.
Panic clawed at my chest.
I grabbed the front of his robes and pulled with everything I had. "Come on!"
The vortex was getting closer.
Rhaevan shook his head and pushed me upward again. I fought him, reaching for the vines around his waist, but he caught my wrists and held me back. For a moment, we stared at each other through the rushing water.
Then he released one hand and placed it against my cheek.
His expression softened, and he smiled.
It was not his confident smile or the teasing one he used whenever he wanted to annoy me. It was small and reassuring, the kind of smile someone gave when they were trying to convince you that everything was going to be fine when they both knew it wasn't.
My eyes widened.
I shook my head violently.
No.
He pushed me upward.
I grabbed his wrist and held on. He tried to pry my fingers loose, but I tightened my grip. He shook his head. I shook mine harder.
Then the current caught him.
His body was dragged downward.
The current carried me upward. I fought against it, reaching down toward him as the vines dragged him toward the growing whirlpool. His fingers slipped from mine.
The vines carried his body deeper, toward the ruins and the violent spiral beneath them, until he disappeared into the darkness.
Something inside me snapped.
No.
I wasn't letting him go.
I clutched the compass tightly and forced myself downward. I did not think about the current or the vines or the danger. I could only see Rhaevan being dragged away from me, and the thought of losing him became unbearable.
I needed to reach him.
I needed to save him.
Something inside me answered.
Magic surged through my body, raw and wild, but this time it did not feel like the frightened bursts I had experienced before. It felt as though something had been pulled awake by the sheer force of my desperation.
Light began to gather around me.
It spilled from my body in a sudden, brilliant wave, expanding through the water until the entire cavern seemed to glow from within.
The lake shook.
The vortex stuttered.
The current stopped.
The vines froze in place.
For one breath, everything became completely still.
Then the magical light pulsed outward once more, and the water settled.
I turned.
Rhaevan was drifting several metres below me.
I dove without thinking, reached him, grabbed the front of his robes, and pulled. This time, nothing stopped me.
We broke through the surface together.
I dragged him onto the stone beside the lake and rolled him onto his back.
"Rhaevan."
Nothing.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
"Rhaevan."
Still nothing.
I tilted his head back and checked for breathing.
Nothing.
"Damn it."
I pressed my hands against his chest and started compressions. "Come on."
Nothing.
I pressed harder. "Come on, you idiot."
Still nothing.
Panic crawled up my throat.
"I am not letting you die like this." My voice shook despite my best efforts.
Rhaevan suddenly coughed.
I jerked backward so violently that I nearly fell onto the ground. He rolled onto his side and coughed again, water spilling from his mouth. I pressed a hand against my chest, trying to convince my heart to stop attempting to escape through my ribs.
He coughed again, and I immediately moved closer, supporting his shoulder.
"You absolute idiot!"
He dragged in another breath. "You were supposed to stay on the shore."
He looked at me through wet strands of black hair.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then his hand moved weakly toward mine, his fingers closing around them.
"I couldn't," his voice was barely audible. "You were gone... too long."
I stared at him.
He was still struggling to breathe, but his eyes remained fixed on me. He had known the lake would reject him. He had known it was dangerous, and that following me could get him hurt. And he had gone after me anyway.
I squeezed his hand. "You really need to learn how to follow instructions."
The corner of his mouth lifted.
It was barely a smile, but it was enough.
I looked down at the compass still clutched in my other hand. "We have the fragment."
Then I looked back at him.
"And you owe me an explanation for why you thought drowning yourself was a reasonable rescue strategy."
He closed his eyes briefly. "I'll explain."
"You'd better."
I glanced back at the lake. The surface was perfectly still again, as though nothing had happened. I narrowed my eyes at it.
"I hate this place."
Rhaevan opened one eye. "You called it marvellous."
"It can be both."