“Where did you get that?” Lynn said.
“That’s the one. That’s the book I found,” Landry replied, grabbing his bow and a small quiver of arrows to hang over his shoulders. “Right before the ground started to shake.”
Lynn appeared stunned. “That’s the tome! The one I was telling you about!”
She grabbed the heavy book without a second thought, its pages warped by years of water damage and rot, before sliding it into a satchel which she slung from her shoulder.
“Time for that later. Let’s get out of this place,” Lynn said.
Tomas did not waste a second looking for his stuff, instead grabbing the first sword he could see. A set of knives were sprawled next to the sword, too. Tomas took one, pushing it down into his belt at his hip, and took another to give to Lynn.
Despite his confusing feelings towards the woman and his inability to separate her from Rilan’s death in his head, Tomas could not allow Lynn to go unarmed during their escape.
“Here, take this,” he said, holding out the dagger in his hand for the strange woman.
“Are you serious?” Lynn said. “I don’t know how to use that.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re gonna need it.”
Lynn, uncertain, took the dagger. She was not going to waste a second arguing over it.
Just as he felt set, Tomas caught the glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Something familiar, resting on the table. Something he had somehow forgotten about.
A small chain with a key around it.
His key, which had been confiscated from him after Rilan’s death and his subsequent arrest. Finally, he had found it.
With a sigh of relief, Tomas grabbed the chain and hung it back around his neck. Right where it belonged.
Over the sounds of steal on bone and the screams of Gharland’s men struggling to stay alive, Tomas heard more bursts of loud hissing. He spun around to see more steam shooting out once again from the cracked floor and mounds of broken marble. Just like before.
“Oh, shit,” Landry gasped, backing away.
“There’s more coming,” Lynn said. “They know we’re here. They’re coming for us, for the tome.”
Tomas moved in with Landry and Lynn as they began fleeing for the main doors of the sanctum, fearful of what was going to come next.
Lynn grabbed the handles of the door before bolting through and holding it open for the boys. Tomas went out first but turned when he realised Landry wasn’t following.
“What are you doing?” Tomas said, turning back. He waved for the squire to follow. “Come on!”
Landry refused to walk, staring Tomas straight in the eye. “I… I’m not coming,” Landry said solemnly.
“What?!”
In the sanctum, steam continued to burst from the ground as more ghouls rose. The men who had survived shrieked as they fought with desperation. Ref and Styna continued to brawl with the monstrous beings but were steadily being swarmed.
“I…” Landry stuttered. “I can’t leave them. I have to help them.”
Tomas shook his head. “Are you kidding me? If you stay, you will die-”
“I don’t have a choice, Tomas. It’s my duty.” Landry drew his sword from the scabbard on his belt. He wasn’t going to argue about it, it seemed.
Tomas felt his gut ache and his muscles tense up. He refused to believe Landry was being serious.
Lynn pulled Tomas’s arm back. “We have to leave!”
“Go,” Landry said. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Landry, wait-”
But Tomas couldn’t finish his sentence before Landry was running back into the library towards the melees, sword held high.
Tomas shouted out after him to no avail, feeling his chest tighten upon realising he was going to lose the only friend he had left.
Please, no! Not again!
Lynn pulled Tomas back through the door, before slamming it shut behind them. The muffled screams and shrieks of the monsters echoed through the dark corridors of the Repository as more crawled from below and attacked those still living.
“Come on, Tomas! We have to get out of here before they find us.”
Tomas shook his head, wiping his stinging eyes as he accepted the truth. He ran after Lynn who was already making her way towards the exit of the Repository. Then, Lynn unexpectedly rounded a corner into another corridor, away from the main doors.
“Where are we going?” Tomas asked, following her.
“We won’t make it outside, not in this cold with no supplies and those things after us,” Lynn said.
Tomas heard smashing against the inner sanctum door not far behind them. Someone, or something was trying to break through. More shrieks resonated from within.
“We can make it, Lynn,” Tomas said.
“Don’t you see?” Lynn barked. “Those aren’t some mindless animals up there. They came here to kill us… they were sent here to kill us.”
The statement made Tomas gasp. Lynn could be right. Those ghouls were unlike the beasts that had attacked them in the camp that night. It didn’t appear to be by luck that they had crawled out of the ground at the exact spot they were, right after Landry had found the strange tome.
The Grand Repository had come under attack at least twice. Was it targeted?
“So, what, then?” Tomas asked.
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
Tomas’s eyes went wide. Trust you?!
The girl in the tricorn hat raced through the confusing maze of corridors, her red hair flowing like a horse’s main behind her. She slid to a halt, grabbing Tomas’s arm to slow him down as well.
“Here,” she said, pointing to an iron drainage grate in the floor.
“And what about it?” he asked, confused. He recalled seeing other grated pipes when they had first entered the Repository.
“The Repository has dozens of these pipes all around, to drain excess water when the snows get inside and melt,” Lynn huffed. “We can
