Page 62 of From the Myths of Kings

Rook nodded as the chilled water inched up his ribs. His flesh went numb, but whether it was from the cold or from the terror of not knowing where the tunnel would lead them, he couldn’t say. Saoirse ducked her head under the water and swam into the flooded tunnel, her paddling feet vanishing into the darkness in a spray of bubbles.

Rook uncorked Sloane’s vial and swallowed the elixir. He’d expected to feel differently after he drank it?like he might sense his lungs expand or his airway close around what little oxygen he already held within himself?but nothing unusual happened. Perhaps the numbness of his body flushed out any other sensations. He prayed to the stars Sloane’s potion really worked.

Rook stood anxiously in the flooding chamber, trying not to panic as the water climbed up his naked shoulders and swept over his wings. He watched the tunnel opening, willing Saoirse to return. The water rippled over his clavicles and the hollow of his throat.

After what seemed like an eternity, Saoirse finally emerged from the aperture. When she surfaced, Saoirse swam over and treaded water in front of him. If she placed her feet on the ground, the water would now be well above her head.

“Tell me some good news, Princess,” Rook hissed as the water sloshed along the edge of his jaw and crawled up the nape of his neck.

“The passageway leads into another connected chamber. I found one of Grivur’s markers, so we’re heading in the right direction. But the next cavern is completely submerged in water. You’ll need to hold your breath until we can find another dry chamber. I think we can find a pocket of air somewhere.” Rook’s nerves lurched with fear, but he continued sucking in lungfuls of air.

He could do this. He had to do this.

“And it’s completely dark,” Saoirse continued. “There isn’t any glowing algae along the tunnel walls, so we’ll be swimming blind.”

She swam over to a slick wall and began scraping the bioluminescent sludge off with her fingers. The glowing algae looked like iridescent paint in her palms. She began wiping the substance on her cheeks, neck, and arms. Her body began to emanate a soft light. She raked her fingers across the wall again and brought a handful of the filmy paint over to Rook. She smeared the luminous slime over his face and neck, down his chest and arms.

Despite his fear, Rook couldn’t stop the joke that bubbled up in his throat: “When I imagined your hands all over me when we finally reunited, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

She smirked. “You imagined my hands all over you, hm? Even when you were angry at me?” she asked innocently. Her expression turned serious as she observed her handiwork. “This will at least allow us to see the other in the darkness. Are you ready?” The water was nearly level with his lips. It tasted like minerals and mold.

“No, but we need to go whether I’m ready or not.” He grabbed her hand and drank in one last swig of air, filling his lungs to capacity. He kissed her briefly. And then suddenly, they were both underwater. Saoirse slipped into the hole in the wall, and he followed her, blood pounding in his ears.

The channel was extremely narrow. He tried to tuck his wings against his back as much as possible, but they still grazed the rough walls. Though claustrophobia threatened to overtake him, his lungs weren’t straining to hold in the air like they initially did when they dove down to the first shaft. It seemed Sloane’s potion really did work after all. While he wasn’t exactly comfortable holding his breath, he didn’t have the incessant urge to inhale or soothe his burning lungs. Not yet at least.

True to Saoirse’s words, the cramped passageway was completely dark. The faint glow emanating from his own algae-coated skin illuminated the jagged walls of the shaft. His eyes burned as they continued swimming through the tunnel. Minerals and flecks of silt floated through the water and caught like dust motes in sunlight as their bioluminescent paint lit the passage. He kept his focus on Saoirse as she swam lithely in front of him. She moved fluidly with her legs tapered together at the ankles, every movement wave-like and smooth.

The last time Rook had been in the water with her, he’d just fallen from the sky bridge and was plummeting over a waterfall. He’d been unconscious the whole time, so he hadn’t gotten to see her in action. As they continued swimming down the shaft, Rook saw Saoirse in her element for the first time. She was truly at home in the water. Whether in a flooded tunnel network or in the ocean, she moved effortlessly. She was one with the water the way Rook was with the sky. His eyes traced over her graceful legs and settled on her feet. Her feet.

She’d abandoned her boots back in the first chamber, leaving her feet bare. Scars twined up her ankles and calves, eating away at the delicate scales that dusted her skin. The rigid indentions almost looked like burns, the knots of scar tissue similar to those on Raven’s hands. What had happened to her? Anger suddenly bubbled up in his chest as he took in the twisting scars. The thought of her receiving any kind of injury sent his blood boiling, but those lacerations looked particularly painful. He would ask her about them when he had the chance.

The narrow shaft suddenly ended, opening into a large cavern that dwarfed the first one they’d found. Just as Saoirse had said, the chamber was completely flooded and pitch black. The meager light from their algae-slick skin only reached a few feet in front of them, leaving a sea of darkness to swallow them whole. Glittering stalactites and stalagmites emerged from the shadows as their dim light passed by, jutting from the ceiling and floor like teeth.

Saoirse pointed at one of the mineral formations as they swam across the cavern. A small metal plate was embedded into the stalactite, depicting a torch with a plume of flame. It must be one of the markers indicating they were going in the right direction.

Saoirse spun to face him, eyes flashing in the darkness. She pointed to his ribs questioningly. “How are your lungs?” she asked in a warped voice.

Rook almost opened his mouth to answer, but then he remembered that he was still supposed to be holding his breath. Sloane’s potion worked so well that he’d forgotten that he hadn’t taken another breath in nearly seven minutes. Instead, he nodded and gestured at his nose.

Good, he mouthed without inhaling. A few bubbles escaped from his lips. Even though he wasn’t struggling now, he had no way of telling when the potion would wear off. It could happen at any time.

A sense of urgency draped over them as they continued swimming through the vast chamber. How many more interconnected caves would they need to traverse before they found their way out of the labyrinth of submerged tunnels? Were Hasana and Neia faring better than them, or Titans-forbid, had they drowned?

No, don’t think of that now, he scolded himself. Just focus on getting out of here.

As they neared the end of the cavern, the ceiling sloped downward and tapered into a hole that presumably tunneled into another connected cave. Until this point, there hadn’t been much of a current carrying them through the chamber, but the water suddenly pulled Rook forward as they neared the end. The water seemed to be spurred on by the slanted walls, forming a funnel-like corridor that sucked them into the aperture. Rook tried not to panic as the current seized him, his body pushed forward with increasing momentum. A torrent of bubbles rippled out from the tunnel entrance as the water surged into the passageway, stirring up clouds of silt that almost blinded Rook. The rotating current spiraled like water down a drain.

Saoirse twisted against the rushing water and grabbed his hand. “Stay calm,” she told him as the current swept them closer and closer to the hole. He could barely see her through the silt, but her muted voice warbled through the water like a siren’s call. “I’ll protect you. Let the water carry you. If a current has formed, there must be a dry cavern up ahead, or at least a fissure creating an air pocket. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

Rook nodded, though he wasn’t sure Saoirse could see him amid the swirling bubbles. Her hand clamped around his, her fingers squeezing reassuringly. The pressure of her warm palm told him she would make good on her promise to protect him. He had to trust her.

Rook’s body had been weightless in the water before, but as the current sucked them in, he felt impossibly helpless. They were pulled into the passageway like dead leaves through a sinkhole. He fought the strong urge to kick away and flail his limbs. He felt the instinctual need to scramble out of the tight channel as sharply as a blade at his back, everything in him screaming to gain control of the situation. But he resisted and focused on keeping his body still as Saoirse had instructed, letting the water pull him along. He hadn’t taken a breath in fifteen minutes now, but he could feel a burning sensation start to spark against his ribs. He didn’t have much air left.

As the water spun them around like soiled clothing tumbling through a wash basin, Rook was thrown against the passage walls, his bare skin and wings scraping along the stone. Each time he slammed against the wall, he thought the air might be knocked out of him. It took every ounce of focus and self-control not to open his mouth and gasp in pain. They tumbled through the darkness for what seemed like years.

The violent pull of the current pushed him against the tunnel wall once more. But this time, instead of making contact with jagged stone, Rook felt himself slip into another shaft. Saoirse’s fingers vanished. He was being lifted up through a tunnel.

Saoirse! He wanted to scream, but his tingling lungs would be done if he opened his mouth. The passageway must’ve split them apart, Saoirse being dragged down to wherever the tunnel led and Rook being forced up this fissure in the stone. Panic sliced down the center of his body as the water pushed him up like a geyser.

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