CHAPTER 2 #3
“Lirah, your arm.” Lana stood poised with her mattress, her gaze on my wrist. Scarlet blood oozed through the gash, dripping onto what remained of the floor.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, pushing the pain into a lock box to deal with later. “Keep looking.”
Lana tossed her mattress aside, her voice wobbling as she said, “There’s nothing here. It’s pointless.”
“Keep trying.” I gritted my teeth, eyes flicking around the room in search.
The wooden chest had been camouflaged earlier.
Maybe the key was hiding in plain sight?
Several tiles had broken free near the wall, and I took a running jump to clear the empty space, stumbling as I landed.
I ran my hands across the eggshell surface, ignoring the twinge in my forearm and my ribs as I moved.
Wait – my ribs?
My fingertips faltered on the walls and then they were running the length of my torso, because there was definitely something digging into my ribcage. I had thought it was the impact of falling onto the floor and the boning of the cuirass stabbing into me, but…
My fingers felt for the slits in the boning, the ones I had thought might be good for storage.
“Lirah, watch out!” Lana yelled. Through the daze of my realization and the quivering of the room, I hadn’t realized that the floor where I stood had begun fissuring, my weight speeding things along. “MOVE!”
I flung my entire weight to the side, landing awkwardly on my elbow, My arm protested in pain as I pushed myself to a seating position. There was no time to spare to think about my brush with death; I scooted away from the latest patch of tiles to my right that had begun trembling.
Nowhere in the room was safe.
I fumbled along the cuirass once more, my eyes nearly shuttering with relief as my fingers grazed cold, hard metal. I pulled the key out and Lana’s eyes widened. She rummaged along her own gear, pulling out the twin to my key.
“It was on us the entire time. Those fucking bastards,” she breathed.
I would have laughed, had the tiles right before the front door not begun to vibrate.
“We have to go. Now.”
Lana did not hesitate. She jumped across the open space, landing with a grace I would never possess. She hurried to the door, dropping to her knees and shoving the key into the lock. She twisted the knob, and I heard the most satisfying click as it swung open.
Lana crossed the threshold and shouted, “It’s just a hallway out here!
It looks safe.” She glanced back at me as I scrambled across the room, dodging tile after broken tile.
The patch before the door quivered ferociously, hairline cracks coalescing.
My heart plummeted to my feet. I wasn’t going to make it before they fell. I was going to die.
Panic clawed at my lungs, but still I raced for the door, watching horror-stricken as the floor before it finally gave way, plunging into nothing.
“You have to jump!” Lana called.
“It’s too wide. I won’t make it,” I managed to get out, my voice high-pitched with fear.
Lana gripped the doorframe, her other hand outstretched toward me. “I’ll catch you.”
My eyes caught hers. Even though we had just met, intrinsically, I trusted her. Aside from not having an alternative choice, a cold fire gleamed in those blue eyes, steely and determined.
My feet met the edge of emptiness, and I lunged, legs kicking wildly.
My fingers grazed hers. Gravity pulled hard, but Lana’s hand wrapped around my uninjured wrist. I reached for the doorframe, my nails digging into the grooves.
My knees dangled hopelessly beneath me, torso wedged against the threshold.
Lana yanked and my fingers scrabbled, every ounce of my willpower focused on swinging my legs to the side.
Lana grunted as she wrenched my arm, and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from screaming at the excruciating pain in my shoulder joint.
Instead I concentrated on using the momentum to swing my legs once more.
My foot mercifully found purchase on the lip of the threshold.
Lana tugged once more, finally hauling me over the edge. I scrambled forward, just as the entire room gave a final shudder and the rest of the floor fell at once.
Tremors racked my body, my breaths coming out in pants. Lana sank to the floor beside me, quivering hands scrubbing her face.
“Are you okay?” she heaved, breathless from the exertion.
As the adrenaline of the last few minutes subsided, I became acutely aware of the throbbing in my wrist, the cramp in my calves and the ache in my shoulder. But I was alive. “I’m okay. Thank you. For saving me.”
“Lirah and Lana,” she said shakily. “Our deaths need to be far more poetic than falling through a floor.”
I gave her a weak smile. It turned into a flat-out grin, one she returned. “We made it.”
A soft cough, sounding a lot like someone clearing their throat, resounded through the passage.
I looked away from Lana to survey the hallway we now sat in.
Green vines snaked along the walls, illuminated by warm lights, nestled into sconces spaced evenly along it. At the end of which, an elven stood.
“You haven’t even begun to make it yet,” Blondie said.