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“I advise you to leave,” he said without looking back. “The tunnels areunstable.”
“No shit. You made them that way.” The way was clear so I took the girl’s arm and led her afterZav.
“It was not untilyouthrew explosives that the ceiling collapsed and my perch crumbled,” Zav said, still not looking back. “This was followed by three of your wheeled conveyances tumbling through from the thoroughfare above. One of them landed on me.” This time, he looked back, shooting me the dirtiest glare I’d seen fromhim.
“Maybe next time you invade an enemy lair, you won’t stand up on a railing like a pompous stump orator running foroffice.”
“I do not know what that means, but if you insult me, I will not save your lifeagain.”
“I saved your life, too,buddy!”
We’d passed through the last hatchway, and Zav reached the airlock chamber ahead of us. The dark elf who’d driven the submarine had been removed from the tunnel. Zav twitched his sword, and the lever to open the door threwitself.
I realized he was about to escape, and I’d been too busy arguing with him to ask him for the blood I still needed. If I didn’t get it, Zoltan might refuse to make the formula, and all of this would have been fornaught.
“Wait, Dragon!” I called as he stepped into the airlock and strode for the second door. “Zavryd-thingy,” I corrected myself the best I could. A cat hacking up a hairball would have a better chance at getting close to the pronunciation of the whole name. “I got your artifact for you. Will you give me a vial of yourblood?”
Zav opened the second hatch, and I swore when I realized he hadn’t thought to close the first. Water gushed into the tunnel, passing the parked submarine and flowing towardus.
“Hold your breath,” I told the girl and rushed forward. We would have to swim to thesurface.
Or not. The submarine lid lifted as I brushed against it. The water hadn’t yet risen high enough to flood theinterior.
“In.” I lifted the girl inside, pushing her behind the single seat. “Unless you know how to drive this thing, Shoreline, you get to ride in theback.”
Where will I ride?Sindari asked medryly.
Uhm, on my lap? Like a housecat?
I believe I shallswim.
He bounded out, and I was positive he would have no trouble meeting us above. I also would have opted for swimming if I hadn’t had the girl with me, but I didn’t know how well she couldswim.
Fortunately, the labels on the console were in English, not dark elven, and I spotted the big hatch button right away. I hit it, but it came down with ponderousslowness.
The water kept rushing in, rising even as it spread into the tunnel. A distant clang sounded, and I had a feeling one of those hatches had shut itself as part of some emergency system to prevent flooding. As if that mattered when half the complex hadcollapsed.
Finally, the lid was down all the way, sealing with a satisfying sucking sound. The water kept rising, and the sub bobbed, rising with it. The current pushed us farther back into the tunnel instead of out into the lake. I cussed like a drunken sailor, worried some of the dark elves would catch up with us, especially if we couldn’t getout.
Zav was long gone. Not only that, but I could sense that he’d changed from man to dragon, flying up out of the lake with his recovered artifact. He would probably open a portal any second and whisk it and himself back to his homeworld.
We were on ourown.
I found the controls for the engine and fired up the submarine. It hummed to life, and I did my best to turn it against the current. Thankfully, whatever thrusters powered it were strong. We pushed our way out into the lake, and the first hint of light reached us, city lights filtering down fromabove.
My first instinct was to try to find the kayak, but it only seated one, and the submarine was faster now that we were out in the lake. Besides, the east side of Lake Union would probably be chaotic, if cars truly had fallen through what would seem to be a huge sinkhole to the rest of the city. I sped toward the north. I could have Dimitri pick us up at Gas WorksPark.
We brushed against something on the bottom, a jolt going through the craft. One of the submergedwrecks.
I found the sub’s headlights and turned them on, their beams illuminating thousands of fish and the humongous kraken. The girl shrieked. I almost did thesame.
I pulled us to the left, hoping we wouldn’t run into the giant bulbous squid, its long tentacles flexing and shifting behind it like seaweed in a current. It and the fish were still feeding on the bait. Whatever it was had been dropped into a hole in the hull of a hundred-year-old steamboat tipped sideways on the bottom of the lake. I imagined those big blocks of compressed corn one could set out in the woods fordeer.
“It’s busy eating, Shoreline,” I said, hoping that was correct as we sailed past, far closer to those tentacles than I would have liked. “We’ll befine.”
“Jennifer,” she mumblednumbly.
“Yourname?”
