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This isn’t just a crate. There are no vent holes here, no lid to be pried off. We are buried.
What is this place?I ask, gazing around us as I wrap my arms around myself. The worms are pulsing inside the rock over our heads, unmoving.
I don’t know. But we were given a gift. We should take it.Lo’zar gestures on ahead of us.Let’s go.
I look down into the darkness, then behind us again at the sealed-off hole, and images flick past of infinite days trapped in the crate, swaying with the boat. But we have no choice except to go forward.
We set off down the narrow tunnel, Lo’zar walking behind me with the torch held up. I’m not surprised to find more markings on the wall with the same strange humanoid shapes as before. As the path descends even deeper, I try not to let the seed of fear in me grow into something bigger. But the walls are closing in around me. Will I ever see the light of day again?
As if he knows what’s happening in my mind, Lo’zar puts a gentle, reassuring hand on my shoulder, and I become stronger knowing he’s with me. No matter what happens, if Lo’zar is at my side, I’ll be safe.
So we walk, down and down, and I wonder if it will lead us straight to the center of the earth. What lies this far beneath the surface? Perhaps this tunnel was dug by one of the great worms I read about, and then taken over by whoever built all of this.
Luckily, soon we reach an equilibrium—and after a while further of walking, the path tilts back toward the surface again.
It will be all right, Rimi, Lo’zar says, stroking my back as we walk, and I’m immensely glad we haven’t lost our connection to one another yet.
How did you know to push that stone?I ask as we follow the tunnel. How far does it go? I hope it’s a way out, and not a tomb.
No, I can’t think like that.
It was just a feeling, he says.How did you know to throw those worms?He grins and elbows me.That was slick.
I told them what I desired.Whatever was inside those worms, the magic that was imbued in them...Magic,I say as the realization strikes me.I think what we found back there was magic. And it’s very powerful, at least it is in all the legends we have in Yusala. We could do all sorts of things with it once upon a time, for better or worse.
We?Lo’zar asks.
Sure. Trollkin and humans both, at least back then.I hum thoughtfully.I thought those were all just stories. But maybe magic was real.
That’s when, up ahead, I see that the path abruptly ends. I reach it and look all around us, but there’s no other way to go.
We’re stuck!As I imagine the collapsed pyramid blocking our way out on the other end, my breathing speeds up. We can’t be trapped down here in the darkness, where there’s no difference between sleeping and waking. I can’t die like this, squeezed in from all sides.Lo’zar,I whimper,we’re—!
Hey. He stops me with a hand on my waist.It’s all right. Look up.
I let his voice bring me back, and obediently glance upward as he holds out the torch. High overhead the stone wall continues up, with indents that look like hand-holds.
We have to climb out, he says. He sets down the torch, then picks me up and lifts me toward the hand-holds.Grab on.
What about you?I ask.
I’ll be fine. Go.I hook my hand onto the nearest cleft in the stone, but my grip is weak and my fingers are tired from holding tight onto Lo’zar’s neck on our run through the jungle. I struggle to hang on, so he pushes me up further. Finally, I can get my feet into the lower indentations, too, and begin crawling my way up the wall. But I can’t see what’s ahead of me, not with Lo’zar holding the torch down on the ground.
I continue to climb up into the darkness, hoping against hope that our way out hasn’t been sealed over. What if so many hundreds or thousands of years have passed that it’s no longer an escape?
Suddenly, my head bumps into something, and I flinch.
There’s something here,I tell him.I nudge whatever it is with my head again, and it gives way. I carefully remove one hand from my tenuous hold on the wall, and reach up to push. I feel soft earth, and as I claw at it, some of it falls.Watch out!
Then the ceiling collapses, and I have to hang on as piles of dirt fall on top of me and past me. Down below, I hear Lo’zar curse something in Trollkin, and the torch goes out. But that’s not a problem now, because fresh, real sunlight is streaming inside from above. My heart leaps at the sight of the sun, my oldest friend.
Light!Lo’zar says.That must be the way out!
Frantically I reach up and grab the edge of the hole that’s appeared over my head, then pull myself as hard as I can. My fingers are scrabbling at the mud and branches, but I bunch up my muscles as tight as I can and then, I’m climbing out. I fall onto the jungle floor, panting, bathed in warm daylight.
I finally get back up to my feet, but before I can look back down into the hole, Lo’zar springs out of it, and I shriek and fall backwards. With a laugh, he reaches down to help me up.
Sorry. I throw my arms around him and he pulls me in tight. Lo’zar kisses my hair, then tilts my face up so he can look in my eyes.We made it.
