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“It’s too dangerous to go down. We have to wait until the storm passes.”
“We can’t wait. The storm is the problem. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but this alarm means the life-support system isn’t functioning right. If we don’t get down there now, my people are going to die!”
Vasily nodded once and turned his head to look at Luka.
The other dragon had already pivoted on his back foot, turning away. “I’ll go alert Evora and dig up the other mages. We’re going to need more help to get safely to the cave.” He’d barely finished speaking before he was gone, running across the camp.
“Do you need to pack any tools or supplies to make repairs?” Vasily demanded, his head whipping back around to Amaru.
“N-no. No! I already packed a bag for my next trip down.” That was supposed to happen tomorrow morning, when the earth dragons were going to start digging the tunnel.
Barely fifteen minutes passed before he was speeding through the water in Vasily’s arms with Luka right beside them, both of them dazzling in their dragon forms. The mages available at the campsite had been divided into two teams. Those who had full casting ability were left on the shore to provide a protective shield to hold off the lightning strikes from the water as long as possible. Those who were unable to do magic but could follow his instructions on fixing devices went to the cave. After they were fixed, Amaru could go behind them and give the device any kind of magical charge it might need.
As they surfaced in the cave, Amaru automatically flinched at the barrage of screaming alarms and flickering lights coming from each of the sleeping people. Shiiiiiiittttt! This was worse than he’d expected.
He ripped off his breathing bubble and clambered onto the stone floor out of the water. For a second, he stood frozen, taking in everything and trying to organize it in his head. There was no need to look at the devices to know what was happening—catastrophic failure of everything.
“Amaru, what’s happening?” Luka demanded.
He glanced over to find his mate had switched from dragon to human. More and more mages and dragons were climbing out of the water, poised to help him.
Amaru dashed from one panel to the next, looking at the readings in order to answer that very question. This absolutely should not have happened. He should’ve had several weeks more before anything like this occurred. But it didn’t take more than thirty seconds to realize lightning had struck precisely where it should not have.
“The lightning sent feedback through the sigils, overloading the devices, and they’re finally crashing. The system was designed on a web of independent spells and devices.” Which was Irany’s first giant mistake, but there was no time for that rant now. “The device that keeps everyone asleep is putting them into a deeper and deeper slumber, which means we can’t wake anyone up until it’s fixed. At the same time, the life-support system for each person is failing. If the system fails, they will die in their sleep.”
Spinning completely around to face the assembled helpers, Amaru lifted his voice above the alarms. “We need to repair the life-support devices.” He tapped a spot over his heart where they would find the device. “Each person go to a person whose device is glowing red. I’ll shout out instructions on how to fix it. Once it’s fixed, raise your hand in the air and I’ll give it the magical charge it needs.”
With those thin instructions, everyone took off like a shot. It wasn’t hard to find a device malfunctioning since it was just a long string of glowing red down the line. Amaru dove in, shouting out instructions and answering questions as quickly as he could. He might not like how Irany had designed the slumber system, but at least Amaru understood how it worked so he could patch it. Fixing it completely was an entirely different matter. He would need Irany awake and spearheading that task. Right now, his only concern was keeping everyone alive.
Thankfully, he’d spent the past few days working with the different mages, explaining how the Sousa brand of technology and magic functioned. Most seemed to be catching on to it and were following his instructions well enough. As he finished the first patch, he drew some energy from his golden core and pressed it into the device, giving it just the right amount of magic to keep it running.
As he lifted his head, six hands were in the air as Sam and the Jaeggi mages waited for him to run over to check their work and charge the devices. Amaru darted off, his feet slapping on the damp stone as he moved from person to person. The shriek of the alarms dimmed slowly as each Sousa mage and lightning dragon was saved.
