Bosh’s stubby digits reached in and pulled the two nauseous riders out into the light.
“You must stop that,” said the golem. “It tickles.”
Glissa looked up at Bosh then leaned over his hand and threw up once again.
“Thanks for the warning,” she said. “What did you do?”
“We can cover that ground later,” interjected Bruenna. The wizard hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “Right now we’ve got a bunch of angry vedalken to outrun.”
Bosh lifted Glissa and Slobad onto his shoulders and took off along the tunnel.
Glissa clung tightly to the seam in Bosh’s neck. The fresher air and the light were helping her to regain some equilibrium, but she was still a little queasy. Slobad looked even worse off. Every few steps, his limp little goblin body threatened to fall from the golem’s shoulder. He hung on with all his might, his knuckles turning pale against his rumpled flesh. Every time one of Bosh’s feet landed on the ground, Slobad let out a little moan.
Bruenna hovered behind them. “You two going to make it?”
Glissa looked up, shrugged, then nodded.
“Good, because once we get up the Pool of Knowledge, we’ve still got to get out of Lumengrid.”
Glissa grabbed her head. “I’d forgotten about that. I’m not sure if I can make it.”
Slobad gagged. “Me neither.”
The company continued up the lacuna. The mossy stuff on the ground began to give way to simple metal, and the tunnel grew darker. The vedalken warriors were nowhere in sight, though Glissa knew they couldn’t be too far behind.
“We’re nearing the top,” exclaimed Bosh.
The giant metal golem came to a halt. On the floor, the edge of the tunnel rippled. An opalescent oval broke the regular metallic sheen before them-the bottom of the Pool of Knowledge.
Glissa looked at it. “I didn’t like this on the way out.”
“It’s easier on the way in,” said Bosh.
The golem lifted his two passengers off his shoulders then knelt down. He poked his finger at the floor, and the silvery substance gave way, letting the golem’s whole hand pass through. Waves rippled off in every direction, as if a drop of water had hit a puddle.
“That all serum, huh?” said Slobad.
Bruenna nodded.
“But how does it stay there? Why doesn’t it just drain into the lacuna?” asked the elf.
The human wizard shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say magic.”
The sound of booted feet coming up the lacuna echoed up the tunnel.
Slobad dashed for the silvery wall. “Good enough for Slobad,” he said. The goblin dived upward into the serum.
The wall wavered but none of it came into the tunnel.
Bruenna levitated into it as well, disappearing from view after a bloop, bloop.
Glissa looked after her friend. “I don’t know, Bosh-”
“Time to go,” interrupted the golem and shoved the elf into the serum.
Glissa slipped through the wall, her mouth still open from her last word. The world around her was thick and slow. She felt the weight of the pool on top of her, and her chest seemed empty. Her ears felt as if someone had his hands cupped over them, and everything had gone silent.
Opening her eyes, Glissa looked up. The world was blurry. The top of the pool looked like the wall she had just passed through, only it was a long way away and wasn’t in focus. Ahead she could see a small, frantic green thing that looked like a child’s drawing. That must be Slobad, she thought. Behind him, a fluidly moving blue streak raced toward the surface. Though nothing was recognizable, Glissa knew this must be Bruenna.
Turning around, she watched Bosh transform from a disjointed reflection beyond the wall to a ghostly blob as he slipped into the serum. The golem moved toward her in a rush. Grabbing Glissa by the arm, he forced her up to the surface.
Kicking her legs, and with Bosh’s help, Glissa rose through the thick liquid. Her lungs burned, and her mouth was full of serum. She wanted to spit it out and take in a big breath. Looking up again, she tried to focus on getting to the surface. It seemed such a long way away. The pool hadn’t seemed so deep on the way down.
Glissa kicked harder, pulling free of Bosh’s grasp. Still, the surface came no closer. Reflexively, she tried to take in a breath, but there was no air, and all she managed to do was collapse her cheeks. She felt trapped, panicked. She might drown in this pool. Her heart pounded in her ears, and her limbs ached with fatigue.
She felt Bosh’s hand again, and the top of the pool dropped toward her. She could see the surface clearly now. There were lights, and where they hit the serum, a star formed. There was something else-dark figures moving around the edge of the pool. She couldn’t make out what they were. She squinted, but it was no use. Whatever they were, they slipped from view as her head breached the surface.
Glissa spat out serum and sucked in a huge breath. Blowing it out, she took another gasp.
“I didn’t think I’d make it out alive,” she shouted, wiping the serum from her eyes.
“You won’t,” said someone in a gurgling voice. The words sounded as if they had come from underwater-far away and muffled.
Dragging her hand over her face once again, Glissa looked out over the edge of the pool.
A dozen vedalken guards filled the room. Two of them held Slobad by the arms, while another pair pointed their glowing halberds at the wounded Bruenna.
“Get out of the pool,” said the same far-away voice.
Glissa couldn’t tell which one was talking because all of them wore heavy helmets filled with what looked like water or blinkmoth serum.
“I said ‘out,’ ” commanded the voice.
“All right, all right.” Glissa began pushing herself toward the edge. From underneath, she felt a large pulse, as if a huge bubble rising from below had hit her legs.
Then she was airborne.
Serum trailed from her limbs as she rocketed toward the ceiling. Waving her arms in a circle, Glissa managed to keep herself upright. As she reached the apex of her upward arc, she drew her sword from her belt and glanced down at where she had been. Below her, the pool writhed and bubbled, as if a hundred deadly fish were fighting over the carcass of a zombie. Bosh’s head had burst through the surface, and he rose like a piston-climbing to a height with tremendous speed then falling back under the serum.
Waves lapped over the golem’s shoulders as he slipped back into the pool. The elf came down atop a vedalken guard. Her boot heel smashed through the creature’s face mask, spilling the liquid underneath. The guard dropped his halberd and clutched at his face.
Glissa turned on the next vedalken guard. This one was ready with his halberd. Angling in, the four-armed warrior brought the head of his weapon down on the elf.
Glissa just managed to get her blade around in time, blocking the vedalken’s strike. Had she missed, she would now be missing an ear. Twisting away from the blow, the elf stepped in, pulling her sword free.
The guard was defenseless, unable to bring his long weapon in so close, and he backpedaled, but it was too late. Glissa cut a long gash across his belly, opening his robe and abdomen in the same stroke. Pink and purple blobs of flesh poured from the warrior’s open stomach. Glissa assumed they were vedalken entrails, though she’d never seen the inside of one before.
The guard went to his knees, scooping up his guts in both arms and trying to stuff them back in. Glissa turned away, sure that he’d cause her no more trouble, at least for the foreseeable future.
Four halberd blades descended on her at once, blocking each of the cardinal directions.
“Drop your weapon,” came another gurgling voice.
Glissa bashed away one of the great spears, dodging through the hole as she did so and coming around behind the circle of guards. As she spun, something caught her foot, and the world spun with her. For the dozenth time in as many minutes, the elf landed on her head and saw stars.