Page 69 of Trapped By Claws
I'd seen it!
Three slashes and an arrowhead.
I struggled to draw Tagger's attention as I kicked toward the passage.
He swept around, squeaking and chirping. He rushed toward me in a cloud of bubbles as I gestured feebly at the passage ahead, my kicks getting weaker.
Tagger shot forward, clutching the orb close.
Higher. Higher.
A deep vibration pulsed beneath me.
I twisted around just enough to see shadowy movement at the edge of the light.
This was so bad. How much time did we have before they caught up?
We broke through the surface. Tagger chattered. He swam up to me.
A small hole looked as if it opened into another passage. The three slashes and an arrowhead were boldly carved above the mouth.
Still supporting Corvin, I swam toward that point and struggled up. "Tagger." My voice shook. "I need the orb." I held out my hand rather than trying to grab it from him.
With a few squeaks, he dropped it in my palm and then darted back in front of Corvin's face. He nuzzled his chin and started grooming him, making Corvin startle a little.
"Just hang on." I set my foot against a groove in the rock and pushed myself up high enough to illuminate the passage. It moved farther up, perhaps three feet or so. Then it opened. Cut deep into the side near the top was the rune with the three slashes and the arrowhead.
The temple. It had to be on the other side. "We're here!" I gasped.
Corvin mumbled. His stripes had gone entirely grey, his lips almost black. He wasn't going to be able to climb up easily.
We were so close.
"Just hang on," I said, gasping. My heart raged within my ribcage. I wedged him against the wall and started to climb.
It was a tight squeeze. I had to remove my bag and fit it into one of the indentations. The rough rock scraped my knees and elbows. My breaths filled my ears. And then I was through the slick rock, pale-blue orb held aloft.
My mouth fell open.
We weren't outside a temple. This passage opened up inside it. Cracked marble tiles covered the floor. The pearly white contrasted sharply with the black craggy tube I'd crawled out of. The temple itself had been carved from marble. Carved columns supported portions of the ceiling, though quite a fewhad cracked and fallen. Whole sections of the wall had shorn off, exposing the cave walls beneath, glistening with water. I recognized some of the markings on the pillars from Mama's book.
Wriggling out of the hole, I leaned back in and reached for the bag. My fingers narrowly hooked the strap. I tossed it up onto the marble.
"Corvin, we're here! We made it," I shouted. "Come on."
The passage was only wide enough for one of us at a time. Even then it was going to be an especially tight squeeze for him.
He struggled to open his eyes. "Mena, go on ahead. I'll—I'll catch up."
"No." I knew better than that. "Get out of the water. You've got to fight more. I can't carry you the whole way." He was too heavy for me to lift without some help. Especially at this level. The venom was shutting him down completely. The fact that he had survived this long was a miracle, but we needed another one fast.
He nodded, his breaths slow and uneven. Blood leaked from his wrist. Not a trace of yellow or green was left in his skin, and his lips and a fair portion of the surrounding skin had gone ink-black or spiderwebbed with dark veins now. His eyelids remained heavy. But he tried again, his muscles trembling and shaking as he forced himself forward.
Slowly he made his way up, leaning heavily against the wall as I reached down for him.
Bubbles churned within the water. A pinprick of light shone below.
Something was coming. And fast.
