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We listened again.
There it was. A drip. Like the fall of water.
Eagerly, I held the grail out over the side of the stairs and we peered downwards.
Far below, there was a gleam.
“Water,” Draven said, squeezing my arm.
We picked up our pace, continuing our descent, anticipation building with each step.
When we finally reached a floor of solid stone, the grail’s glow revealed a scene so welcome, it took my breath away.
A wide, shallow, rectangular pool. Marble statues of fish and other sea creatures decorated each corner, frozen in lifelike poses. In the center of the pool lay a huge fountain. Somehow, even in this empty, abandoned place, the fountain’s streams continued to cascade downwards, filling the pool with fresh water.
We approached the water’s edge silently. I lowered my hand, dipping it into the pool. The water was cool. It smelled fresh.
“It knew,” I said, looking at Draven.
He nodded, then pulled out his flask and lowered it into the water. “Well, if it wanted us dead, there are simpler ways than this.” He took a swig from the flask before I could stop him.
“Really?” I narrowed my eyes. “Such as?”
“Such as leading us straight off a cliff,” he said cheerfully.
He tugged his tunic up over his head, then tossed it into the pool.
I glanced around nervously. “If you’re planning on taking a bath...”
“Oh, I am,” he assured me. “I certainly am.”
I eyed him as he began to shuck out of the rest of his clothes. “I’ll stand watch.”
He waggled his eyebrows at me. “If that’s what you want to call it. Go right ahead.”
I grinned. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t enjoy it.”
My hand was, in fact, on the hilt of my blade. Just in case.
The scene was tranquil as Draven dunked himself under the waters a few times, then scrubbed his shirt and wrung it out.
I switched with him quickly, refreshing myself in the pool and rinsing out the tunic I had been wearing before donning a clean one from my satchel and slinging the wet one over the leather bag to dry.
It was hard to say for sure, but it felt as if it were evening or thereabouts.
“Should we camp here?” I asked.
“It seems as good a place as any. Less exposed, for one.”
He had a point. The pool was a smaller, more enclosed room than most of the ones we had come through.
“Where does the grail want us to go next?” Draven asked as he drained a flask of water and leaned down to refill it again.
I lifted the light. The beam pointed towards an arched doorway.
I stepped closer towards it, peered through the arch, and groaned. “You’ll never guess.”
Draven came up behind me. “For fuck’s sake.”
