Page 68 of Obsidian Dream
Chapter Thirty
KHALIDA
Khalida glanced backat Talik as they traversed the uneven sandstone of the floor.She had returned as quickly as she could, but it had taken far longer than she had intended.Talik had slept, but his skin still held the flush of someone whose body was at war with itself.
She had shown him the small entrance she had found.They’d had to crawl along the rocky path for more than five hundred feet until it had opened up and was big enough to stand.Then it had been another mile of walking on rocky ground until they heard the trickle of water again.But this time, the trickle had turned into a gushing waterfall.
Her heart stopped, her hands suddenly clammy as the sound of every drop sent a shiver along her spine.She tried not to think about what they needed to do.Bodies of water terrified her, a phobia that had only gotten worse after Sidra—she pushed the thought away.
The straps of her backpack dug into her shoulders as she surveyed the area.
A dark look passed over Talik’s features as something within him shifted.Subtle, if she wasn’t so attuned to him, she never would have noticed.
“Talik?”
Silence greeted her.She gritted her teeth.Now was not the time for Talik to become closed off.
“We need to keep moving,” Talik gruffly said, his voice strained.
She didn’t argue.
This part of the tunnel felt older.The air was cleaner and crisper, reminding her of winter mornings.Along the walls, embedded into the sandstone, pale-green crystals flickered to life as they neared them, old Atlantean technology.The crystal veins ran through the walls, pulsating as they drew near, casting the pathway in an eerie glow.The light was bright enough that Talik didn’t need to use his flashlight.
This section appeared untouched despite the landslide.The walls were covered in scrawls and small markers in a language she wasn’t familiar with.It wasn’t Latin or Atlantean, perhaps something older, predating the Roman ruins above them.A layer of dust coated the walls and the floor.No one had walked through the area in a very long time.
There was nothing out of the ordinary, except the absence of anything else within the vicinity made her wary.The creatures they had fought appeared to be birthed from the dirt and had disappeared.Every step could be a trap.And she needed to be vigilant for both their sakes.
Talik silently followed her as she led the way.She wasn’t used to a quiet Talik—his presence always took up so much room and energy.This version of him was disconcerting.It reminded her of the days surrounding Sidra’s death.Those were days she would rather forget.So consumed with her own grief, she hadn’t noticed that Talik had withdrawn until it was too late.
Small rocks tumbled from the roof as the surrounding earth groaned and shook under them.It was the third time in as many minutes.The vibration wasn’t very strong, but it could do enough damage that it would hinder their way out.
“It’s happening more often,” Khalida said as she jumped over the small crack that had appeared in front of her.No bigger than a foot wide, they were becoming increasingly more common with each vibration, growing larger and wider.
Khalida’s heart raced as trepidation filled her with each step.She told herself she was walking slowly because Talik was injured, but it wasn’t entirely true.Each step brought her closer to the water.
“How much farther?”Talik asked.A hint of pain edged his words.
“We can rest here.”Khalida announced.They didn’t have time, but Talik couldn’t afford not to rest.
Talik shook his head.“Rest once we get out of here.I’d prefer not to spend more time down here than we have to.”
She would not disagree.“It is around the corner.”
Khalida stopped just past the giant columns that signaled the opening and stared at the watery grave in front of her.It should have been an uneventful stroll across a six-hundred-foot nearly empty canal, not something out of her nightmares.The water had barely reached her knees when she had walked through the first time, and now, she gulped, not wanting to think about it.Glancing around, she searched for any other option.They still had a rope.The domed ceiling was well over one hundred feet above them, but it was smooth like marble, as if water had created it.The walls surrounding them were just as smooth.There was only one way across—through the water.
Talik moved behind her, and she found herself leaning into him.She took a step back.It was beginning to lap the causeway they were standing on and had already covered the wooden ladder they had needed to descend to the ground level.She glared at the rising water.A coldness seeped through her as she closed her eyes.It was just an oversized swimming pool—not something she needed to be worried about.
Liar.Liar.
The water must be coming from below ground.It was the only way for them not to have heard it rising.The landslide must have affected the diversion tunnel and now the water was being redirected to where they were.Khalida clenched her fists as she took a deep breath.It was supposed to have been their way out.“Above the green crystal to your two o’clock—fifty feet above that is an opening to a small tunnel.It leads back to the catacombs, from what I could tell.”
It wouldn’t take long, an hour or so, before the entire causeway was flooded.And then they would have nowhere to go.
“I.Hate.Water.”Her words were even, emotionless, but there was no stopping the involuntary shiver that went through her.Part of it was because of what she was staring at, the other part was because she had said the words out loud that she’d refused to say before.She felt no relief from admitting the weakness.Just the guilt that always followed it—the thought that if she hadn’t been petrified of water, including the Nile, life may have turned out differently.Sidra may have survived.“But we can’t climb along the walls or the ceiling.We don’t have the correct equipment to create anchor points.”
There was nothing they could hold on to either.
