Page 68 of Trapped By Claws
I started fumbling about below the waterline. My fingertips found one set of runes. Two slashes and a circle.
I groped along to the next wall, searching wildly. Another set of runes, all wrong. How many were down here?
Tagger swam in tight circles around us, squeaking. He darted under my hand and then shot into the dark water.
I pulled Corvin with me along the gap that allowed us to breathe, struggling to support him and hold up the orb and feel for runes. My fingers ached. The weight of the water against my lungs hurt.
Tagger popped up again. He squeaked louder, then seized the orb from my hand.
"Tagger, no!" I tried to grab for him, but he had already dived under, taking our only light source with him.
This was it. The air here wouldn't last long anyway.
I didn't have any other choice.
I wrapped my arms around Corvin, urged him to take a breath, and then pulled us both under.
Tagger swam a few feet below. Even through my blurred vision, I could make him out with the orb. He didn't swim as swiftly now. But he kept a steady pace, just out of my reach. He darted up to a different passage.
I followed. Corvin wasn't even struggling. His left arm kept enough of a grasp on me that I knew he was alive. But his muscles trembled. His wrist bled into the water.
Tagger arched gracefully into the hole in the rock, treading water with the orb between his paws. His withered paw had to hug it a little tighter while the ordinary paw overlapped it.
He led us up to another air pocket, this one with a little more headspace but without any rocks beneath to serve as a rest point. Still, I appreciated the air. Corvin managed a few more shuddering breaths.
Tagger squeaked, bobbing his head up and down and splashing as he held the pale-blue orb.
"We have to get to the temple," I said wearily. I didn't know how much longer I could swim.
Tagger dove down.
Damn it!
Did he understand what I was saying? I gulped in another breath, warned Corvin, and then dove again.
It became a terrifyingly slow waltz swimming as Tagger led me into different passages. The fifth claw jammed into Corvin'swrist just as we reached the surface of another tunnel. He managed a weak groan.
"If you die on me, I'm never going to forgive you," I growled.
He murmured something nonsensical in response.
I groped around in the dark, feeling for the runes. None of them matched. How many passages were in this place?
Despair threatened to overwhelm me. It felt as if we had been in this place forever. My mouth was dry, my lips chapping, my body aching.
Then I glimpsed it. Another light. Brighter blue. It was coming from one of the lower tunnels.
Panic surged through me. I kicked faster, following Tagger to a honeycomb of passages. As we struggled up, I searched for any runes on the craggy rock walls.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong!
Tagger cut to the right where the passage branched.
The light faded, but there—there!
