Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 16 (Day 5)
Following is Chapter 16 of the sequel to the Skirmisher Publishing LLC fantasy novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis!
Herein our heroes face the horrors of an underwater deathtrap and muster roguish skill, sorcerous prescience, and barbaric rage in an attempt to save themselves ...
Join alchemical rogue Paros, Elven barbarian Parthenia, transmuting wizard Pumayo, and moon priestess Selene in their Return to the Necropolis!
Read "Return to the Necropolis: Chapter 15"
Paros felt something press against his mouth and fresh air blow into it, causing him to open his eyes in surprise and see, floating in the water beside him, a figure that it took him a few seconds to recognize as Pumayo. He was holding up to Paros's mouth the magical lapis lazuli bottle they had found in the Anemoi tomb a few days earlier and, as the rogue exhaled through his nose and then sucked in a fresh draught of air, he scrutinized the wizard. With his fleshy features and dark, spindly body, Pumayo was suggestive to Paros of a humanoid frog, all the more so because he now had large pulsing gills on each side of his neck, webbing between his fingers and broad, flipper-like feet; his turban had evidently come loose in the water, revealing two small, dark horns projecting from his head. His familiar snake Kidna swam past behind him, its own tiny gills throbbing. Paros felt lightheaded and disconnected from what was going on around him, and half wondered if the appearance of phantasmagoric figure before him was the product of a hallucination.
Pumayo looked Paros in the eyes and then pointed and, when the rogue followed his gesture, he saw Selene standing there, her hair billowing out around the base of her Corinthian helmet. Her face was red with the strain of holding her breath and Paros understood when the wizard pulled away the bottle and held it to the mouth of the Half-Elven woman, allowing her to take a couple of solid breaths from of it. Pumayo then shifted over to Parthenia, who looked far calmer than she should have considering the circumstances, and let her avail herself of its magical stream of air. The wizard apparently did not need to use the bottle himself and seemed to be breathing as naturally as if he had been a fish.
Desperate as the situation still was, especially as none of the adventurers knew what lay beyond the door before them, Paros no longer had to struggle against a sense of overwhelming panic and resumed work on the lock. Pumayo gave him a fresh dose of air every thirty seconds or so and, while it was not a pleasant experience or something he would be able to do indefinitely, Paros was now sure he would have the time he needed to unlock the door. Being able to see what he was doing and even swap out a few of his tools made all the difference and, before long, the rogue was relieved to hear a distinct clicking sound as the locking mechanism disengaged. He reached forward, grasped the thick metal loop that served as the handle of the door, and pulled ... and it didn't budge.
"Shit!" Paros thought with a sense of resurging panic at the realization of what was happening. With tons of water pressing against the door there was no chance he would be able to pull it open and it had not really mattered that it was locked at all! He frantically made eye contact with Pumayo and Parthenia and saw from their nods that they both understood the situation — but that did not prepare him for what the barbaric Elf did next.
Taking the air bottle from Pumayo, Parthenia inhaled a large draft from it, handed it back, and, with a look of rage transforming her features, turned toward the door, grasped the D-shaped handle, and pulled ... to no avail. But she did not stop pulling and, grasping the heavy ring with both hands, leaned back, planted her feet against the wall, and then pushed with her legs as well. Her face was twisted in agony and discolored from her extreme, superhuman exertion, and as her thin lips parted to reveal her violently clenched teeth a torrent of tiny bubbles streamed out from between them. Nothing happened ... and then, almost imperceptibly, the door budged! Less than an inch, but it was enough for Paros to step forward and jam the tip of his crowbar into the tiny space so that it could not close again. Then, slowly, steadily, Parthenia pulled the door open, inch by inch, and the other three companions could see the water gushing into the open space beyond.
They could also see that her exertions would not be enough, even with Paros struggling alongside her, and that her act of rage had run its course and that she was now not doing any more than holding the door at the furthest point that she had managed to open it. Soon her strength would give out and the door would once again be pushed closed by the inexorable power of the water. Paros had an image of their bodies floating dead in the sealed passageway; even if Pumayo had somehow permanently become an aquatic creature, he could not escape the death chamber on his own and would eventually die of starvation if nothing else, alone and in the darkness.
The same thing must have occurred to the wizard, Paros thought, because he had swum over to the door and grasped the edge of it. His skinny arms, however, would do nothing to help them and the rogue was sure that Pumayo did not have any useful spells that he could cast underwater or he already would have. From where he floated above him, Paros could see the mage fumbling with some object, presumably something he hoped in his desperate mind could be used to help pry the door open and, when Paros saw that it was his friend's flimsy little wooden shield brooch, his fears were confirmed. Pumayo seemed to give up as well and, as he held the rectangular item above the crowbar, he let it go, and it drifted the last couple of inches and then settled onto the edge of the metal tool.
There was a flash of movement and a rending sound as the brooch resumed its true dimensions, that of a heavy tower shield, its three-foot width rapidly pushing the door open that far. The wooden bulwark split, wrecking it, but enough water had now flowed through the door that the pressure was equalized on both sides and there was no longer anything holding it closed.
Selene moved up to Parthenia and held the water bottle to her mouth, and then she and Paros each had a draught of it; all of their hearts were beating hard, especially the barbarian's, and they were at the limit of their exertions. With Paros leading the way, the companions stumbled through the door into the water-filled passageway beyond.
