Cautiously, Sonder and then Luna emerged. Sonder looked around. ‘Where did they go?’
‘Further in,’ I said. Suddenly I felt very tired.
‘Oh,’ Sonder said, and scratched his head. ‘Well … I guess that’s better.’ He walked forward, rummaging in his bag. ‘You know, I think I’ve seen this layout before …’
Luna waited for Sonder to get out of earshot, then looked at me. ‘We’re going to run into them again,’ she said at last.
I didn’t answer. I led Luna and Sonder into the corridor Rachel and Cinder hadn’t taken, and together we headed deeper.
13
The hands on my watch pointed to 2.13 a.m. As I stared, they blurred and seemed to swim until I was no longer sure what I was looking at. I forced my eyes to focus, knowing I couldn’t afford to sleep.
We’d been inside the tomb for four hours. The closer we spiralled in towards the centre of the facility, the more lethal and hard to bypass the traps and security systems were. Our progress had slowed to a crawl — worse, the number of paths was steadily diminishing, forcing us closer to the others hunting the fateweaver.
Cinder and Rachel were the easiest to spot, and I stayed away from them, not wanting to find out how long our truce would last. More of a concern was Khazad. He had split from the others and was searching the corridors on his own, and in the last hour we’d been forced to hide from him three times. Each time we let him pass, he reappeared again a short while later. I was starting to worry that it wasn’t a coincidence and that he was actively hunting us. I could vaguely feel his presence through the futures of our meetings, somewhere behind us and to the left. Having to stay constantly on the alert was wearing me down.
I shook off my fatigue and looked up at Sonder. ‘Which way?’
Sonder had held up better under the strain than I’d expected, but was looking tired as well. He’d managed to piece together a sketch map in his notebook, extrapolating from the parts of the facility we’d seen and from the designs of other Precursor structures he’d read about. It wasn’t perfect, but it was getting better. ‘Left, I think. It shouldn’t be trapped.’
I glanced ahead through the futures. We were standing at a T-junction. ‘They’re both trapped.’
‘There’s supposed to be a corridor. It might not be easy to open the other end, but … The right way is open, but I think the traps are denser.’
I sighed and slid down against the wall. ‘I need to rest. Try and figure out which path will get us through.’ I closed my eyes and made myself relax.
I’d been sitting only a few moments when a voice penetrated my thoughts. ‘Alex?’
I opened my eyes to see Luna looking at me. She was crouching in the room’s far corner, the crystal cube held absent-mindedly in her fingers, as though she’d forgotten about it. Luna had been quiet for the past two hours, her thoughts and manner more distant since the encounter with Cinder and Rachel, and I knew she’d been thinking about it.
When she spoke, though, the subject came as a surprise. ‘These traps and barriers. This isn’t normal, is it?’
I gave Sonder a glance and he shook his head. ‘No. We’ve found defence systems before, but nothing like this.’
‘I’ve been thinking about it too,’ I said. ‘All I can think of is what Abithriax said. Fateweavers were supposed to be very powerful. If what he said was true, his might have been the only one stable enough to be preserved.’
‘Why, though?’
I frowned. ‘Why the traps? To make sure no one could get it.’
Luna shook her head. ‘No, I understand that. I mean, why would they seal it away and not keep it for themselves?’
I opened my mouth to answer and stopped.
‘Maybe they thought it was too powerful?’ Sonder said doubtfully.
‘No,’ I said with a frown. ‘She’s right. If it was that useful, there’d have to be one hell of a good reason for them to give it up.’
Sonder suddenly got a thoughtful look. ‘You know …’ he began, but as he did my precognition flashed a warning. I looked into the future and my fatigue vanished as I pulled myself to my feet. ‘Damn it.’
Luna scrambled up, pocketing the cube. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Khazad again.’ I looked through the futures, calculated. ‘We’ve got less than five minutes. Sonder, which way?’
Sonder hesitated. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Then we go with your first guess.’ I turned left and started down the white corridor. Luna followed me without hesitation and Sonder hurried after.
We reached a crossroads. A doorway led into a long hall, while the corridor went further, bending out of sight. Behind, I could feel Khazad following in our footsteps. He was moving faster now and I wondered if he had some way of tracking us. ‘Into the hall,’ I said. ‘We’ll seal the door behind us.’
‘But we’ll be trapped!’ Sonder protested. ‘The door at the other end’s sealed too!’
‘We can open doors faster than Khazad can.’ I glanced back; I thought I could hear footsteps. ‘Out of time. Let’s go.’
Luna stepped through and with only a moment’s hesitation Sonder followed. I stepped inside and touched the control crystal on the wall. The area across the doorway darkened and became an opaque wall of force. The sound of distant footsteps cut off abruptly and everything was silent.
‘Can he get in?’ Luna asked absently. She was playing with the crystal again.
‘Eventually,’ I said, reaching out with my senses to search ahead. ‘We just have to …’ I trailed off. ‘Someone’s here.’
Luna and Sonder turned, their eyes flicking. The hallway was crowded with square pillars, providing plenty of cover. I reached into my pocket for a weapon. ‘Show yourself,’ I said, my voice echoing around the columns. The silence stretched out, tense.
Movement, footsteps. A man leant out from behind a pillar and stopped, staring. ‘Verus?’
It was Griff. I searched the hall quickly and verified no one else was inside. ‘Master Griff!’ Sonder said in relief.
Griff walked closer and the four of us stood still for a moment. Only Sonder had relaxed; Griff and I were watching each other closely. Luna had hidden the cube away, and I kept my hand in my pocket.
Then Griff spoke. ‘You okay?’
I nodded, and the tension eased suddenly. ‘You?’
‘So far.’ He looked at the door. ‘You closed it?’
‘Khazad’s outside.’
‘Shit.’ Griff ran a hand through his hair. ‘I was hoping I’d lost him.’
Now that Griff was closer I could see that he looked on edge. There were rips in his clothing, and he had the look of a man who’d been fighting hard. ‘What’s at the end of the hall?’ I asked.
‘Locked door. I was trying to get past when I heard you.’ He looked at Luna. ‘You got that cube? Maybe that’d do it.’
The four of us came together, Luna staying a little back. I took my hand from my pocket but didn’t drop my guard. ‘What happened at the entrance?’
Griff grimaced, his hand creeping towards a rip along the side of his coat. ‘Khazad and that bastard Onyx tried to take my head off. Didn’t miss by much, either. If they hadn’t been in such a hurry …’
‘No one else made it in?’ I asked
Griff shook his head. ‘We’re all there is.’
Which means it’s either you or Sonder. ‘Let’s have a look at that door.’
The hallway bent right and left and right again, ending in a sealed door. I studied the door for a second then nodded and walked up to the controls, pulling out a tool. ‘I can open it. Griff, I’ll need you to throw up some barriers. Khazad’s going to be in the hallway before long.’
Griff gave a glance at me and Luna, then nodded. ‘Will do. Sonder?’
Sonder jumped eagerly. ‘I’ll help!’ The two of them disappeared back around the nearest corner.
Luna watched them go, then looked at me. ‘You think it’s one of them.’