He wrenched himself free of the professor and gripped the man around the chest, kicking for safety.They burst through the surface, and Dawson gasped in a breath.He was still trying to climb Adam’s body like a tree, and Adam fought to keep from sinking again.
“Take him, dammit!”he barked at a nearby sepoy, half choking on a mouthful of green water.
The soldier dropped his gun to dash forward and haul the professor from the pool.Dawson landed on the paving stones in a wheezing puddle.
Kalb barked overhead, and Adam ducked as a bullet whizzed past his face.
Soldiers ringed the gallery on both sides, using the pillars for cover as they worked to pin their enemies down.On the right, Singh Rao’s men had figured out that Subhas had to reload between shots.They charged.Subhas swung the antique gun at them like a club, but the men overtook him, pinning him down.
Another pair of soldiers pushed in from the left, emboldened now that Constance was out of knives.
From behind the monkey god statue, Neil whipped out his sword.Flames burst up Dyrnwyn’s length.
In the flare of light, Adam could just make out a dark opening hidden in the shadows of the wall at Neil’s back.
Borthwick eyed the fiery blade with avaricious interest.
The sepoys regarded the weapon with a less eager hesitation.
“Don’t just stand there!”Borthwick snapped.“It’s only a bloody sword!”
The men rushed in from both sides.
Constance braced her back against the wall, planted her legs on the statue’s rear end—and shoved.
Hanuman toppled from his platform.The massive stone figure rolled toward the soldiers, who stumbled back.
Then it crashed into the columns supporting the gallery.
The pillars burst into splinters, shards of rock flying like shrapnel.Adam flinched back, raising an arm to shield his face where he still floated in the water.
The dust hadn’t settled when a deep, ominous crack echoed dully off the walls of the well.Adam looked up—and watched the columns of the upper gallery pop like firecrackers.
Hands grasped the back of his braces and hauled him out of the water, sliding him onto the stones like a beached fish.Singh Rao’s face hovered over him.
“Back!” the subedar shouted with a furious wave toward the tunnel that led to the stairs.
The soldiers ran, shoving Subhas with them.Dawson hovered in their path, dripping wet and gaping as the floor of the upper gallery began to tilt.
Constance’s face blanked with shock.Neil paled with horrified understanding—then grabbed her and threw her into the darkness behind them.
“Adam!”Ellie screamed from the top of the well, where Jacobs held her back with an arm around her waist.
Singh Rao yanked Adam to his feet, shoving him into the tunnel.Adam half fell into cover as a crash roared through the well.
Dust rolled over him like a cloud, choking his lungs.Adam coughed as he staggered back to his feet and spun to see what had happened.
The back half of the upper gallery had collapsed.A mountain of stone covered the place where Neil and Constance had been.
Adam pushed toward it, and Singh Rao caught his arm.
“Wait!”the subedar ordered, holding him back.
Adam’s instinct was to fight, but before he could take a swing, another piece of the gallery fell, stone cracking against the floor of the well in an explosion of debris.
He forced himself to hold for a single, terrible breath as the rubble slowly settled, then wrenched himself free of Singh Rao’s grip.Fear pounded through his chest as he skidded around the well to the broken heap of stone.
Neil had taken Constance toward the door Adam had glimpsed from his position in the well.Had they made it inside?Had anyone else seen that shadow-cloaked opening in the wall?
