Page 92 of The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire
Her nails bite into my palm as her eyes dart between them. “It won’t get through the coal, and if we start a fight, there’s too many. You want to use it as a shield, don’t you?”
“We keep them at bay, cut a path,” I say.
“And get to the light.” Ceridwen finishes my thought.
I nod. “I think where we need to be—the source of all this—is just ahead.”
“Through another tunnel, no doubt,” Ceridwen agrees, “which means that eventually we won’t be able to have your iron pointing toward these… things.”
“Yes.” It’s barely more than a breath. “We’ll have to crawl fast. Someone has to wait behind.”
“You’re going out first.” Ceridwen raises her dagger, copying my stance. “You came looking for me. The least I can do is ensure that you get out.”
When I exhale, I can see my breath mixing its way into the black damp. “You were meant to be here. You were meant to enter these tunnels and win—and so was I.Weare supposed to do this. Together.”
Ceridwen starts offering half-formed protestations, but I squeeze her hand. “Besides, your mermaid will kill me if I leave without you.”
“You’re infuriating,” she says after some thought.
“It runs in the family.” I wink at her. It’s not something I’ve ever done before. I’m lightly horrified to realize I’ve picked it up from Neirin.
We step forward, and the crowd parts around the blades. I snap mine in an arc around us. They cannot come near, cannot touch us without burning. Still, they try. Ceridwen yelps when one reaches close enough to brush her arm, swinging her hand out to defend herself. The iron ring catches a corrupted limb. It jerks back, shrieking. I move the rapier erratically, but I can’t kill the creatures, and on some instinctive level they know it. With every step they draw closer, grow bolder. One that’s too burdened by heavy stone to stand grips Ceridwen’s skirt. She jerks it away. Someone paws at my hair. They want, without knowing why, to take us, drag us into their hive, make us one.
As we approach the end, the remaining creatures press back against the wall, scrambling over themselves to get away from the rapier. I refuse to stop walking, even as my arm shakes and my breath comes in rapid, heaving gasps. The point of my blade pokes a chest and pins it between the rapier and the wall. With a hiss of pain, the creature throws itself aside.
I stand face-to-face with the narrow tunnel, bathed in lamplight for just a moment, before I spin around, keeping my back to the rock and my sword pointed right at the mass of creatures as they re-form their cluster around us. Ceridwen sticks a hand into the crawl space.
“On you go.” I release her arm, now stiff with creeping, hardening coal.
Ceridwen blows a strand of red hair out of her face. She’s leaning heavily to one side, like her infected flesh is weighing her down. She meets my eyes, forces a smile. “You want me to go first just in case what’s on the other side is worse.”
I laugh reluctantly. “Yes, this is a long-winded scheme to finally kill you off.”
Ceridwen catches my shoulder, pulls me close and kisses my cheek. I lean in, though I don’t look away from the frontline I’m holding off. If I look at her, I’ll cry. And we’ll both be dead for it.
“You’re so brave,” she says. “You know that, right?”
I nod, though I’ve never felt less certain of anything in my whole life.
Ceridwen lets out a deep, racking cough. I push at her blindly, hoping she’ll take my meaning.
“I’ll be waiting on the other side,” she tells me, “with my hand out to catch you.”
The last thing I hear before I’m completely alone is my sister scrambling through the coal. The circuit is darker without her.
“I’m sorry,” I tell the creatures, as if that means anything. Then I sheathe my sword and scramble into the tunnel.
They surge forward. A cracked hand seizes my leg. I kick it loose, but the moment I’m free, another one takes its place, fingers locking around my ankle. The heart of Y Lle Tywyll lies ahead, and I drag myself toward it while its victims haul me back. The tunnel is impossibly long, impossibly narrow, but I keep going, pulling the strongest one with me.
I can hear its teeth snapping, and then they pierce into my heel. I scream, I can’t keep it in.
“Sabrina!”
A pale hand emerges from the gloom.
I wrench my arm up from my side, fingers barely brushing Ceridwen’s. But I can’t reach. I keep getting dragged back, the sharp walls of the tunnel ripping me apart, the creature behind me pulling harder than I can resist… until my sister’s hand shoots out and seizes my own. Ceridwen yanks me forward, both of us gasping and shouting from the effort, until I’m expelled from the tunnel, and I come crashing out, right on top of her.
Behind me, the small gap in the cave-in crumples, trapping the monster within.
