Chapter 8 #2
He didn't pull away from my touch, which surprised me. Instead, he covered my hand with his own for a brief moment before releasing it and stepping back. "We need to gather what we can and leave. This place isn't safe."
I nodded, still dizzy. While Cypher carefully packed the codex, I moved around the room, searching for anything else that might be useful. In the corner, a small glass case caught my eye. Inside was a necklace—a thin silver chain supporting a crystal pendant.
I opened the case and lifted the necklace. The moment my fingers touched it, the crystal warmed and began to glow with a soft silver light. "Cypher," I called. "What is this?"
He looked up from the codex, his eyes widening when he saw what I held.
"That's a First Anchor," he said, approaching quickly.
"It's supposedly a shard of one of the very first anchor crystals ever used for portal travel.
Put it on. Keep it safe. First Anchors are incredibly rare and powerful. It could help us later."
I slipped the chain over my head, and the crystal settled against my chest, its warmth spreading through me like liquid light. I tucked it beneath my shirt just as a tremendous crash echoed from somewhere in the distance.
Tor's voice boomed through the chambers. "Captain! We need to move! NOW!"
We rushed back to the main archive room to find the others already gathering their packs. Cypher handed the codex to Vic, who secured it in a satchel.
"What's happening?" I asked Kora as we hurried back toward the entrance.
"Don't know. Something's coming. Tor said he can sense the vibrations through the stone."
We reached the main corridor just as another crash sounded, closer this time. Then I heard it—a horrible clicking sound, like hundreds of tiny claws scrabbling against stone.
"Run!" Cypher shouted, urging us ahead of him. "Get to the skiff!"
We sprinted through the corridors, retracing our steps through the maze of wards that now parted automatically as we approached. The clicking grew louder, echoing off the walls around us.
"What is that?" I gasped as we emerged onto the platform where the skiff was docked.
"Crawlers," Cypher spat, his eyes full of horror. "Get aboard, now!"
I caught my first glimpse of our pursuers. They poured from the archway, long-bodied insects the size of a person, with hundreds of legs propelling them forward at terrifying speed. Their heads were dominated by massive pincers that clicked and snapped hungrily.
"This place has too many monsters that want to eat us!" Kora shouted as she scrambled aboard.
"I second that!" I agreed, backing toward the skiff as the first of the crawlers reached the platform.
"Their pincers have paralyzing venom like the krell darts," Cypher warned, pushing me ahead of him. "One bite will leave you helpless."
Jask fired up the skiff's engines as we all scrambled aboard. The vessel dipped alarmingly under our combined weight. Tor and Knives took positions at the edges, firing crossbows at the advancing horde.
"We're too heavy!" Zoya shouted as the skiff listed to one side, threatening to tip over completely.
Cypher and I were still at the rear, the last to board. The skiff lurched again, edging away from the platform as the crawlers converged, but tilted too far over, causing us to have no choice but to leap off before it capsized.
"Go!" Cypher shouted to Jask. "Take off now!"
"But you're not—" Kora began.
"GO!" Cypher roared, and Jask had no choice but to comply.
The skiff pulled away, leaving Cypher and me stranded at the edge of the platform. We backed up until our heels met empty air, a vertical drop of hundreds of feet below us. The crawlers advanced, their pincers clicking in hungry anticipation.
"We're dead," I whispered, gripping Cypher's arm.
"Not yet," he said, pointing to the distance.
I followed his gesture and felt a surge of hope. The Night-Piercer was approaching, moving at full speed toward the tower. As it drew closer, I could see ropes dangling from its hull.
"Reckless fool… He could have ripped my ship apart this close to the smaller islands.We need to jump and catch them. It's our only chance."
I stared at him in horror. "Jump? That's insane! We'll miss and fall to our deaths!"
"Better than being paralyzed and eaten alive," he replied dryly.
The crawlers were mere feet away now, their antennae twitching as they sensed our fear. Behind us, the Night-Piercer drew steadily closer, but still not close enough.
"We won't make it," I said, panic rising in my throat.
"We will," Cypher insisted, his eyes fixed on the approaching ship. "Trust me, scavenger."
I didn't have time to respond. The crawlers surged forward just as the Night-Piercer pulled alongside the tower. Cypher grabbed my hand and pulled me to the very edge.
"NOW!" he shouted, and we leapt into the void.
Time felt wrong as we fell. It was both too fast and agonizingly slow.
The wind rushed past my ears, carrying away my scream as Cypher and I plummeted.
We hit the ropes hard. My shoulder wrenched as I caught one, the coarse fiber burning my palms. Cypher grunted in pain as his injured shoulder took the impact of his catch, but somehow he held on.
We dangled precariously, swinging in the void currents as the Night-Piercer pulled away from the tower.
"Climb!" Cypher shouted over the wind. "Now!"
Hand over hand, I hauled myself upward, my muscles screaming in protest. Above me, Cypher climbed despite his injury. When we finally reached the deck, Omri was there to help pull us aboard. I collapsed onto the wooden planks, gasping for breath.
"That," I panted, "was the stupidest thing I've ever done."
Cypher lay beside me, his chest heaving. "But we're alive."
"Barely."
The skiff docked moments later, the rest of our crew spilling onto the deck with expressions ranging from relief to horror.
"What were you thinking?" Kora demanded, kneeling beside me. "You could have died!"
"Didn't have much choice," I replied, wincing as I sat up. Every muscle in my body protested the movement. "It was either jump or become Crawler food."
Cypher was already on his feet in moments, though he winced with every step. "Get us out of here, Omri. Full power to the engines. Zoya, plot a course back to the portal."
"Aye, Captain," they chorused, rushing to their stations.
The Night-Piercer's engines thrummed to life, and we began our retreat through the shattered realm of Nytheris, leaving the Reliquarium behind. I watched it recede into the distance, its blue stone and golden crystal growing smaller until it was just another fragment in the ruined landscape.
Two hours later, we gathered in the galley, all of us worse for wear but alive.
Vic was tending to Cypher's bite wound, which looked even angrier than before, the skin around it red and swollen.
The captain sat stoically as Vic applied a fresh layer of salve, though I could see the pain in the tightness around his eyes.
Across the table, Zoya and Knives were cataloging the artifacts we'd managed to retrieve from the archives.
Besides the codex, which sat wrapped in protective cloth at the center of the table, we'd salvaged several smaller items: the crown, a collection of large, odd looking anchor crystals that Zoya had called 'Last Lights'.
They were some sort of powerful naturally forming crystal, different from anchors and more wild.
There were also several contraptions made of brass and iron, and a few scrolls written in the ancient Nytherian language.
"So," Kora said, as she looked directly at Cypher, "a prince, huh? Should we be bowing or something?"
I'd just finished explaining Cypher's confession, with his permission. Kora was less than impressed.
Cypher's copper eyes narrowed. "I haven't been a prince for thirty years."
"Once royalty, always royalty," Kora replied with a smirk. "Though I have to say, Your Highness, being of noble blood doesn't make you any less of an ass."
Jask choked on his drink while Knives didn't bother hiding her snort of laughter. I tensed, waiting for Cypher's anger, but to my surprise, a ghost of a smile touched his lips.
"Fair enough," he conceded.
"We're circling the area near where the portal should be," Zoya reported, changing the subject. "But its position has shifted since we came through. We'll need Juno's abilities to locate it precisely."
All eyes turned to me. "I need a little time," I said. "I'm drained."
"Take what time you need," Cypher said. "The portal isn't going anywhere."
"I can't stop hearing those damn crawlers," Tor said suddenly with a full-body shudder. "I've seen a lot of nasty things in collapsed realms, but those were something else."
"Nytheris had some of the most diverse wildlife of any realm," Cypher explained, wincing as Vic tightened his bandage. "When the collapse happened, the corrupted energy warped everything it touched. What survived adapted in ways no one could have predicted."
"And no one knows what caused the collapse?" Vic asked, securing the bandage with a small metal clasp.
Cypher's expression darkened. "There are theories. The official Assembly version is that Nytherians were experimenting with unstable portal technology and triggered a catastrophic failure."
"But you don't believe that," I said.
"No. My father was obsessed with portal safety. He would never have approved dangerous experiments." Cypher's eyes landed on the codex. "The truth is in there, somewhere. The royal archives contained records of everything that happened in the weeks before the collapse."
"Is that why you really wanted it?" I asked. "Not just to keep it safe, but to find answers?"
He looked away, not meeting my eyes. "I've spent thirty years wondering why. Why my realm was destroyed. I deserve to know the truth."
"And what will you do with the truth when you find it?" Kora asked.
"I honestly don't know," Cypher admitted.