Page 49 of Claiming Glass

My lungs squeezed, the stones and dirt, homes and people above pressing down. Somewhere in the subterranean labyrinth, cold death closed in, but in the dark, twisting passages, I could not tell how close or many they were. Despite our ragged breaths and pounding hearts, the scraping of their uneven gait filled my ears.

“Which way?” Koshka whispered at a crossing, her arms spread to feel the way.

A tiny mage light appeared between me and Dimitri. He held it over the compass until the needle stilled, pointing over my shoulder.

“Ahead. The palace has an exit and our own guards. If you see an opportunity to get away, take it. That’s an order. There’s no shame in running from impossible odds.”

He looked at each of us in turn until we nodded, one by one. I tried to forget my guilt.Did he know I’d forced them to run earlier?

The tick of the tiny clock around his neck filled the silence, reminding us we were out of time.

Yahontov took the lead, Koshka followed with a hand on his shoulder to guide her, then Dimitri, and me last, hopefully I would sense if the dead behind us closed in.

Despite knowing we were hunted, we moved as if alone with Dimitri sometimes pausing to give directions when the path branched.

As we took a right turn, a white glow as pure as the priestesses’ robes filled the air. A seemingly natural cave covered in tiny white five-petaled flowers spread before us. Flowers I recognized.

In the half-light, Koshka reached for one and I lunged past Dimitri to pull her back.

“It’s—”

The curse’s invisible fingers closed around my throat. I had not meant to reveal secrets, only to warn her. The identical flower was drawn in the letter, its writer claiming the ones that caused the illness.

Dimitri took in my terror-stricken face and seemed to understand. “Touch nothing. We go straight through.”

Could breathing the air poison us? Did you need to dry them? Eat them?I had no idea but could not risk it. Could not risk him.

The others were already moving. Behind, the coldness of death closed in.

I pulled my coat up over my mouth and nose as I hurried in front of my companions, careful not to step on the flowers and waving to get their attention in the low light.

“Don’t breathe the air,” I said when they paused. “Don’t touch anything. Burn your clothes when you can.”

I might not be able to say why, but I could hopefully keep us safe.

At my words, Yahontov slowed, giving the flowers and me suspicious looks.

I shivered, as Dimitri’s head snapped around and a breeze lifted his hair.

“They’re here.”

I spun, squinting further into the cave. Something moved silently over the moss and flower covered ground, barely a shadow. Then another. And another.

Every child of Tal knew falling into the Taliell in midwinter was a death sentence. Winter clothes pulled you down. Brittle ice lined the shore. Even if someone sacrificed their own life to save yours, the shock and shivers would take you. As the dead closed in on all sides, I felt the water closing, the cold plunging into my bones, the ice separating us from the world of life and warmth.

Ten. Twenty. More.

Had we been herded here like cattle or only stumbled upon this otherworldly chamber of death by chance? Not that it mattered. Nothing would change the outcome.

Life taught me to be a thief, a dancer, and actor, taught me enough self-preservation skills to run. I had thrown Dimitri across his own room on instinct, but I was no warrior. Even the knife that never left Lumi’s side would be beyond my skill set.

Yahontov, having lost his sword in the first enemy’s chest, pulled a knife the size of my forearm from under his coat. Wisps of green light wrapped around the bones on Koshka’s armor.

Dimitri shoved his book into my hands and hung the clock around my neck before drawing his own blade, air spinning around him.

“Get us out of here,” he said, his eyes carrying words we would never exchange, and stepped between me and the animated corpses.

The dead did not rush like the living would have, they had no coordination, no intelligence in their burning eyes. With the inevitability of a closing noose, they came.

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