by Linsey Hall
Getting out would be a problem, but we’d deal with that when the time came.
Water sounded in the distance, which increased the likelihood someone had once built something here.
“We’re close!” I shouted at Aidan, who ran at my side.
Suddenly, the trees thinned. Nothingness loomed before me. I skidded to a halt and looked down. A waterfall poured into a crystal pool about twenty feet below. The water sparkled, blue and inviting, surrounded by boulders and ferns. It looked deep enough to jump into.
“Oh no,” I breathed.
“Where is it?” Aidan asked.
The thunder of the trolls chasing us grew louder.
“In there!” I pointed to the pool.
“What do you mean?”
I freaking hated this part. That water was going to be icy. “It’s the entrance.”
“So we jump?”
I liked that Aidan took it in stride. I personally wanted to bitch and moan for a little longer. Swimming in my boots sucks, but there was no way I’d leave them behind.
But I ran out of time. A roar ripped through the forest, and I looked back to see two trolls burst from the trees. They were well over fifteen feet tall and looked like they were made of stone. As if the mountain had come alive and spit them out. They each carried an enormous club.
“Jump!” I threw myself off the cliff, my stomach threatening to leap out of my mouth. Wind whipped by as I plummeted. I crashed into icy cold water.
Pain.
It was so cold my muscles froze up, and a pounding headache speared through my head. I kicked for the surface.
When I burst through, Aidan was beside me, his dark hair plastered to his head.
“Where to now?” he asked.
“Below. Swim down and look for a hole in the rock, probably. Then swim along until we get inside.” Inside what, I wasn’t sure. But I’d been in three tombs like this before, and I hoped this would be the same. My job didn’t involve a whole lot of certainty.
The trolls above roared and I flinched. I treaded water and glanced up. They leaned over the cliff, glowering at us. Their roar made the leaves on the trees tremble.
“We can—”
The trolls leapt, crashing to the ground beside the pool. They’d jumped! I knew they couldn’t swim—rock sinks, after all—but they had long enough arms that they could grab us.
“Now!” I sucked in a breath and dove, the icy water enveloping me. It was beautiful and blue as I swam down, kicking as hard as I could. A dark patch in the rock caught my eye, and I swam for it, praying the tunnel wasn’t too long.
I grabbed a rock near the tunnel entrance and pulled myself toward it. There was only blackness beyond. It led into the mountain. This was it.
Aidan swam beside me, but he let me go in first. I kicked forward, my lungs burning and my boots making me slow. I really needed to practice my breath-holding. For a treasure hunter, this was pathetic. Lara Croft would be ashamed of me.
The tunnel was only about four feet in diameter. Don’t think about the size. Tight spaces had never gotten me before. I hated them but I always won. I kicked and pulled myself along the rocks—anything to reach the end.
But the end wouldn’t come. It was still dark and closed in. My lungs were on fire. If I wasn’t halfway there by now, I was dead.
I scrambled around, ready to retreat. My number one rule in cave swimming—if you only have half your breath left but can’t see the end, abort. It’s your only chance at living.
I pushed at Aidan, expecting him to turn and swim back out. He didn’t move. Fear surged in my chest. I wanted to scream at him. Though I knew I could make him hear me through the water, I couldn’t let go of my air like that. I kicked myself forward, pushing. I couldn’t get around him—there wasn’t enough space. Didn’t he know my lungs were smaller than his?
Suddenly, he pushed me forward. Panic clawed at me. I fought him, but he pushed me faster. I was flying through the water, completely disoriented.
Was I going up? What was—?
I broke the surface and sucked air into my burning lungs. It was dark all around me. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, deafening in the dark. Where was Aidan? I fumbled in an inner pocket of my jacket and pulled out a charmed lightstone. I shoved the ring onto my finger. It was too clunky to wear as jewelry, but the addition of the ring band made it easy to carry in situations like this.
I relied a lot on charmed objects like these. When I held it up, its glow illuminated the giant cave. An underground lake with a domed ceiling of stone soared above.
I spun, then jerked back, splashing. A creature with a smooth head and narrow snout looked at me.
Holy crap, a sea lion. A haze of gray light obscured the sea lion’s head. When it faded, Aidan treaded water in its place.
“Seriously? A sea lion?” My voice echoed in the cavern.
“I don’t like becoming a fish.” He shuddered. “The gills.”
“For magic’s sake!” I shouted. “You weirdo. You scared the crap out of me!”
“We didn’t exactly have a chance to talk about our plan back there.”
“Yeah, I thought I was going to drown!” I splashed him, then kicked off for the ledge of rock at one side of the pool.
“There were trolls at the other end.”
“I’d rather fight a couple trolls than drown,” I wheezed as I pulled myself out of the water. “Then I could have gone and rented scuba tanks like a normal person. How did you even know there was an exit?”
“Once I changed, I could sense it.” He heaved himself gracefully out of the water and stood beside me. I ignored him as I stomped my feet and shook myself off. I patted the knives at my thighs, grateful to find them still there. Though I collected loads of weapons, these were my favorites. The others were more like art to me. These were my workhorses.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” he said.
I scowled at him. But he did look genuinely contrite. And we had made it down here.
“Fine. Just next time you’re going to push me deeper into an underwater cave, warn me first.” I shivered. “Freaking freezing in here.”
“I know how to warm you up,” he said. His gaze was hot enough to heat me to my core.
“If you’re going to say body heat, don’t even think it.” But he’d made me think it.
“The offer’s there.”
Yes. I really wanted to take him up on it. No, idiot. I shook the tempting thought away. No matter how good he looked—and with his shirt plastered to his muscled chest, he looked really good—that was a bad idea. He was a powerful mage. He was the freaking Origin. If he hung out with me too long, he’d eventually sense what I was.
I’d have to ditch him as soon as this job was over. More than likely, I’d have to destroy the scroll as well. How I was going to do that without him noticing, I wasn’t sure. But I’d figure it out when I got to it.
I dragged my mind away from that miserable thought and looked around the cavernous space. Shivers wracked me, but as with everything that scared me, I tried to ignore it.
“If you’re not going to take advantage of my kind offer of body heat, let me at least dry you off the boring way,” Aidan said.
My gaze darted to his. “The boring way?”
He held out a hand, and a flame burst to life in his palm.
“A Fire Mage,” I said. They were strong. Suspicion hit me. “All four?”
“Yes.”
Whew. Figured he could control earth, wind, fire, and water. That was super rare. Someone who could control all four was called an Elemental Mage. There were probably only a few in the world.
Was there anything average about this guy?
“But not all are equally strong,” he added. “Fire and water are my strengths.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a freaking weakling. Thank god I’m not in a cursed temple with you as backup.” I edged closer to the flame he held in his hand. It was warmer than a normal flame, and I could feel it drying
my clothes.
“You know, you could just use your powers and duplicate this.” He nodded at the flame.
“Why, when I can let you do all the work?”
“True. But I can feel your powers. You’re not as weak as you say you are.”
“But I’m lazy,” I said, my heart starting to race. He could feel my power, at least the strength of it. But he hadn’t mentioned feeling that I was a FireSoul. I latched onto that hope.
Was I going to have to use some of my powers around him just to convince him that I wasn’t hiding something? But if I did, I’d blow something up for sure.
I shrugged off my jacket, which was probably ruined, and turned so that the flame could dry my back. It was a quick process, and the heat of the flame soon moved lower.
“Are you drying my butt?”
“It looked cold,” Aidan said.
It was, so I decided to ignore how close his hand was to my rear and focus on getting dry. I also tried to ignore the tingling low in my belly, but I wasn’t as good at that.
When I was mostly dry—save for my feet—I turned back around and searched the dark, holding up the hand that wore the lightstone. I could make out most of the cavernous space—three sides, with the fourth still in darkness. We stood on a ledge that extended to the right, into the dark. The rest of the cavern was flooded. The water was dark and murky. Sea monster water.
“I am so not looking forward to getting back into that,” I said. I glanced at Aidan. “But next time, could you turn into a dolphin? I’ve always wanted to swim with dolphins.”
“I’m not a petting zoo.”
“I didn’t say I’d pet you.” Damn. That sounded dirty.
“Now that you put it that way, I could turn into a dolphin.”
I scowled to cover my laugh then turned and set off down the rock ledge. My dragon sense was pulling me that way, and I was grateful for it. Aidan joined me.
Soon, my light illuminated three long shapes on the water. I squinted through the dark and approached slowly.
“Boats,” Aidan said.
“Viking boats.” I took in their sleek symmetry. There were three, their sides shallow and low to the water, the bows and sterns curved gracefully up in S-shapes. They were beautiful. I might have stolen ancient magic for a living, but I couldn’t help but respect the amazing things that were created hundreds of years before I was born. Whenever I wasn’t raiding or shopping online, I liked to read up on the history of the places I visited. “This design is at least a thousand years old. Viking.”
“The monks did mention the Viking raids. But I didn’t realize they meant the scroll.”
“Neither did I.
“After a thousand years, the boats are still floating,” Aidan said.
“Magic.” We approached. There were no oars. “Definitely magic. This is how we get to the next part of the tomb.”
“All right. Which one do you like?” he asked.
“The big one.” We stepped on board. The deck was flat, but the boat was broad enough that it didn’t rock much. I walked around, looking for anything that could ignite a spell that would propel the boat. A carving, a lever, anything.
There was nothing.
“Can you make the water move?” I asked. “Push us along?”
“You can’t do anything?”
“I could, but I want to save my strength.”
He looked at me suspiciously. “I thought there was something odd about how you don’t use your power, but now I know there is.”
“You’re imagining things. Now let’s get going.”
“I’m not,” he said. “And I’ll get you to tell me what your deal is.”
Not in this lifetime.
I glanced pointedly at the water. It swelled slightly behind the stern, pushing us along.
“Thanks,” I said.
The boat drifted along the ledge as I walked to the bow. I held out my lightstone. It illuminated a dark tunnel entrance ahead of us. We glided beneath it. The air smelled staler, the fresh water and stone scent of the cavern fading.
I shined the light on the tunnel walls. Intricate carvings of swirls and knots decorated the space. Carvings of dragons swirled amongst them. Viking, definitely.
Something bumped the boat. I stumbled.
Another bump, this one harder. The water on the port side sloshed, and I peered into the murky depths. My heart pounded as I waited.
The boat careened as something huge crashed into it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Aidan leaned over the side and peered into the water. “Sea monster.”
I looked over in time to see a scaled back pierce the surface of the water, gliding sinuously along with us. Shiny silver scales glinted in the dim light.
“Do you think they’re—”
Two hard bumps threw me to the deck. The bow swerved right. One of Aidan’s waves rose up and pushed us back on course before we crashed into the stone wall.
Icy water splashed me from above, and the scent of rotten fish made me gag. I tilted my head back. A gaping mouth filled with dagger-teeth was crashing down upon me.
I rolled, scrambling along the deck. The sea monster’s upper half hit the deck and slithered back into the water, bringing with it a chunk of the caprail.
So they were going for blood.
I climbed to my feet.
“My magic woke them,” Aidan said.
“Yeah.”
A huge head broke the water, razor sharp teeth flashing and blind eyes seeking. The monster plowed into the bow. Wood splintered and cracked.
I pulled my knives from their sheaths.
The grotesque head surged along with the boat, teeing up for another head-butt. I flung Righty at the sea monster’s blind eyes. The obsidian drove deep into one milky orb. The creature thrashed and hissed, falling back into the water and sending up a wave that rocked the boat and splashed me with icy water.
Quickly, I nicked the back of my hand with Lefty. A second later, Righty flew out of the water, and I snagged it out of the air. I glanced at the tall, curving bow to see if we were taking on water. The wood was splintered several feet above the waterline, but we didn’t seem to be taking on much water, if any.
Another bump crashed into the stern, nearly sending me to my ass again.
I turned to see another sea monster falling back into the water.
“Make us go faster. I’ll hold them off,” I said.
A deep green sea monster lunged out of the water, its gaping jaws aimed for my face. I flung Righty again. It pierced the skull of the beast, and it crashed beneath the surface.
I swiped my blade over the blood on the back of my hand and caught Righty when it flew back to me.
Aidan turned to the stern and directed his hands toward the water. Blue light flowed from his palms, and his magic prickled over me, at once disturbing and pleasurable. The waves that pushed us grew, and the boat shot forward.
A sleek, scaled back raced alongside us, aiming for the bow. I threw my blade at it. The shining obsidian landed in the monster’s neck, but the thing kept surging forward. They were so big I had to land a headshot. I called Righty back as I flung Lefty, this time nailing the beast between the eyes. The sea monster thrashed and sank beneath the surface. I called my blade back.
Thank magic my blades were so sharp. Since I refused to use my own power, I’d be up a creek without my enchanted tools.
My heart pounded in my throat as I waited for more. It was eerily silent, just the sound of the waves lapping at the tunnel walls. The bow cut smoothly through the water, carrying us farther into the dark.
“I don’t sense them anymore,” Aidan said.
I nodded. “There may have only been three.”
It was a good number for magic, though I wasn’t sure why. Enchantments and protections sometimes came in groups of three because of it.
A shiver shook me. “It’s getting colder.”
“And the magic is thicker,” Aidan said.
H
e was right, and it was the kind I didn’t like. It prickled over my skin like gnat bites. The scent of rotting fish didn’t fade. I’d been wrong—it wasn’t the scent of the sea monsters. It was dark magic. The kind that was meant to harm, not just protect the treasures within this place.
I sure hoped whoever had created this place was dead.
I moved to the bow, holding out my light. There was nothing ahead of us but more tunnel. At least it was silent. The journey was tense, but the tunnel eventually widened into another cavern. This one was smaller, but there was another stone ledge to climb out at.
And another boat.
As Aidan steered our vessel alongside the dock, I jumped onto the stone ledge and ran to the other boat. It was empty, but the deck was wet.
“I don’t think we’re the only ones here,” I said. My heart beat against my ribs. This was bad. Were they after the same thing we were? I couldn’t let anyone else get ahold of it.
Aidan tied our boat to a stone pillar and came to my side. “I agree. I thought I smelled blood in the water before the first sea monster attacked our boat.”
“You can smell that well?” I asked.
“It was a lot of blood.”
Great. “Let’s go then.”
Only one tunnel led away from the water, so we followed it. I hurried ahead, holding my lightstone aloft and moving as quickly as the uneven ground would let me. My belly churned at the idea that someone else might have the scroll.
Fortunately, the tunnel was narrow and short, opening up to an enormous cavern.
“Whoa.” I tilted my head back to take it in. “It’s like the Super Dome.”
“With obstacles,” Aidan said. He’d walked ahead of me and created a ball of flame that he’d sent high into the air to illuminate what my light could not.
I joined him.
The ground dropped away in front of us. “Oh, crap.”
An enormous pit stretched out ahead, piles of stone dotting it all the way to the other side, where it rose up to a cliff that was the same level as ours. The eerie orange light of Aidan’s flame set the rocks aglow.