Kerra tucked her legs in and hoped the water was deep enough. It felt like stone when the hit the pool below, and the bottom came up too quickly for her comfort. She kicked off from the rocky bottom, but felt her ankle caught in a crack of stone. Icy water swallowed her scream for help. Where was Niles?

  A thick arm wrapped itself around her waist and pulled. She could feel the force of it twist her ankle. Their heads broke the surface.

  “Kerra,” said Niles. “Are you alright?”

  She coughed up water. “My ankle.”

  “Shit,” he swore. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Worry about how we’re getting out of here.” Kerra didn’t know why she was scolding.

  Their candle was gone, lost somewhere between the drop and the rushing neck-high water, stranding them in total darkness. Niles held her up with his left arm, and pawed at the wall with his right.

  “Here,” she said, shifting her weight to move behind Niles. It was hard to resist the current, and she felt her warmth being sapped away by the second. Kerra wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms across his shoulders. “It should be easier for you this way.”

  “Thanks,” he sputtered. “You don’t know how to get out of here do you?”

  She shook her head, “No. But I know this eventually flows into the river.”

  “So follow the water...” Niles grumbled. “What do you think that thing was?” His voice echoed off the walls like shouts. The water had come down a bit, no longer a risk of washing over his head.

  “I’m not sure,” said Kerra. “It looked like a man.”

  “It didn’t move like one.” Niles’ voice was grim and a shiver ran down his spine. Was that just the cold? “Its arms.. I thought I saw it’s arms bend backwards to gut one of those men.”

  How had he seen all that? In the chaos she’d hardly known what was going on before they jumped.

  “Whatever it was,” said Kerra. “I don’t think it followed us. I didn’t hear anything else drop in with us.”

  Kerra had no idea how long they continued on like that, in the cold darkness. It might have been completely silent if not for the rushing water pressing against their backs and their occasional gasps when their heads got washed under. But still they moved forward, feeling for a way out.

  She found herself remembering her mother. Mother carried Kerra on her back, though she had been much smaller then. Under clouds of incoming storms, the sky was almost as dark as in these tunnels. Hadn’t mother been singing something that night? What was it?

  “Mamare evu sa sanim.”

  The singing started low and quiet, hardly more than a whisper Kerra herself wasn’t sure she’d heard.

  “What’s that?” Niles asked.

  “A song to call out the stars.”

  “Down here? You think that will work?”

  Kerra’s answer came in song, “Vaniri sama bru Zere nelim.” She continued on. Once she’d begun, the words came back to her quickly. The melody itself was a simple thing, and soon even Niles was humming along, but the words... The more she sung the more the words burned in her mind, too hot to hold there and screaming to be let out. In the tunnel the echoes seemed almost like a chorus.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Niles stopped. “Kerra, do you see that?”

  Kerra lifted her head and stopped singing. “I don’t-”

  And then she did. As the echoes of her song faded, there was a twinkle of light receeding into the deep in the darkness ahead of them. She sucked in a breath, and quickly began the song again from where the echoes left it.

  The light flickered, and Niles let go of the wall. He let the current carry them forward while Kerra sung. Closer and closer, the light grew brighter.

  “I think we’re going to make it Kerra,” he sounded like Niles again. “Don’t stop singing.”

  She didn’t. The light grew brighter still. This tunnel must open to daylight. Had they really been down here long enough for the sun to come up?

  But then the light began to move. Slowly at first, it inched towards the ceiling, its ascent speeded the closer they came. As it moved, she caught a glint of something on the left wall.

  “Niles,” Kerra said.

  “I see it,” he replied.

  Beneath her, Kerra could feel the man shift his weight and push towards the tunnels other wall. The current was stronger in the center of the flow, and they were rushed along much faster than she anticipated. If it weren’t for Niles’ quick reflexes and outstretched hand, they would have missed their mark and been swept away. All the while, the light receded further up the shaft, illuminating bars of iron in the stone to create a ladder.

  “Can you climb?” Niles asked.

  Without another word, Kerra slipped from his back and pulled herself up the first few rungs. Above the light was fading. Kerra sucked in a breath. She sang as she climbed, rung after rung, note after note chasing after the twinkling light above.

  Soon there were no more handholds and she reached out into open air. Looking up, the light had gone, retreating down a tunnel.

  Niles grunted as he pulled himself up behind her. “Do you smell that?” he asked. “Like rot. I’d thought we’d be at the surface by now, breathing fresh air.”

  Still, lacking options they followed after the light. Here in this tunnel, the beautiful chorus was accompanied by a the sound of scraping stone, but she had no time to investigate without breaking the briskest pace the song would allow.

  Something stepped in front of the light, casting a vaguely mannish silhouette. Kerra gasped and the light went out behind the thing. Only they weren’t left in total darkness. Behind the vague outline of the creature she could see a beam of light and hear the trickle of water.

  The thing whipped its head back, let out the most wheezing, tortured bellow she had ever heard, and charged in a three-limped lope. Echoes from the creature’s screams chilled her to the bone, staying her feet. This was the thing that tore Milyen’s men apart. It was nothing more than a shadow in the dim light, but to Kerra it moved like a marionette made of a man’s parts.

  “Kerra!” Niles said, pulling his sword from it’s sheath.

  Her own hands flew to the dagger at her left side, and pulled it free of its scabbard. The thing approached, and in the narrow tunnel she wouldn’t have much room to maneuver. She would have to be quick.

  It lunged at her. Kerra dodged left, towards the wall and thrust out with her knife feeling it sink into flesh as her back slammed against the wall.

  Only the creature didn’t howl in pain. It ignored the dagger and flung one of its arms up to catch Kerra in the chest, knocking the wind from her. With one arm, it held her against the wall by her shoulder, and she struggled to breathe.

  Niles screamed, and she felt the creature shake. Kerra heard the whipping of a sword through the air and the sound of it ripping into flesh, again and again.

  The air whizzed just before her face and the creature’s grip went limp. Niles grunted and the thing fell away. Without another thought she ran towards the grey light. Ankle deep water splashed with every step as she hurried towards the exit, towards daylight. Behind her, she could hear grunts and cuts and the sound of blows echoing out of the darkness.

  Turning the corner, she could see the daylight and the bases of the trees outside. The opening was narrow, probably some natural cave somewhere along the riverside. She turned back to listen for Niles, but the echoes had stopped. The only thing behind her was silence.

  A figure shifted in the dark. She could hear the soft sounds of leather scraping against stone, and a shadowy figure, hunched over, lurched forward out of the dark.

  “Kerra,” said Niles. Blood poured down his face, and he wore a stupid grin on his face. He looked ready to faint in her arms. “It’s okay, I killed it.”

  “Good,” said Kerra, holding him up under the shoulder to take the pressure off his injured foot. Clumsily the two of them splashed their way out into the early morning light. “I’ll take your word for it.”