Rhea didn't move,Vesper didn't breathe and Selendra's tail coiled tight behind her.
The voice spoke again. "Push it slowly...If they bolt, cut the slot."
Stone grated at the mouth and dust fell in a thin line with cold air that slid over the floor.
Rhea's hand came up, counting three fingers ,then two and then one.
Vesper snapped a bead between her fingers and a dull flash filled the pocket. No fire,only white glare and the men outside cursed. Rhea slid forward on her belly and drove her blade through the gap and a throat gurgled,the body hitting the tangle outside.
"Back,back,back," Rhea hissed.
The stone shoved harder and the gap widened a hand,gloved hand came in, feeling for leverage.
Selendra hooked the wrist with her tail and twisted,bones popped. The man yelled and Rhea cut again. The hand jerked back leaving bllood tracked across the rock.
"Smoke," Vesper whispered.
She cracked a second bead and rolled it into the gap,gray smoke poured out. Men outside shouted orders and someone kicked the stone and It shifted another inch.
"Not holding," Rhea said. "Options."
Selendra touched the side wall with her palm. "There's a seam here,it's thin but it drops."
"How far?" Rhea asked.
Selendra shook her head. "No idea."
"Better than this," Vesper said.
The stone at the mouth moved another inch and the gap now had two hands. A blade slid through, feeling the inside and Rhea smacked it aside with the flat of her own and cut for the fingers and the blade vanished.
"Let's go," Rhea said. "Now."
Vesper pressed her rings to the seam and the rock vibrated with fine dust raining down. A crack opened wide enough for a body to squeeze.
"You go first," Rhea told me.
I slid into the gap on my side and pushed with my feet,the rock scraped my back. The floor dropped without warning adn I slid down a narrow chute. It dumped me onto a ledge and I stopped with my boots over empty air.
"Next," I called up.
Selendra slid after me and braced with one hand on the wall. She caught my jacket before I tipped forward and Rhea followed. Vesper came last, then pressed a ring into the crack behind her and the seam narrowed. The pocket above sealed to a hairline.
Boots slid into the crawlspace we had just left and someone slammed a shoulder into the stone we had braced before. The pocket shook but the e seam held it.
We turned and the ledge ran ten steps to the left and ended at another drop. To the right, a narrow spine of rock crossed a black gap to a low tunnel.
"Right there," Rhea said. "in a single file and no talking."
She went first, side-stepping along the spine and I followed, chest to the wall, eyes on my boots. Selendra moved after me with easy balance and Vesper took the rear, one hand on the wall, one ring ready.
Halfway across, a shout came from above and the stone we had sealed groaned again with a crack opening. A torch stabbed down through it,smoke and heat spilled.
"Hurry," Rhea said.
The spine bowed under our weight but did not break,we reached the tunnel and dropped to our hands and knees. The roof was low and the floor sloped down,cold air moved past our faces and water dripped ahead.
We crawled for twenty body lengths and light faded. The only sound was breathing and the small taps of knees and palms on the stone. The tunnel widened into a crawlway with a shallow stream and Rhea switched to a crouch and moved faster.
A new sound reached us,it was not water it was metal on rock, from up ahead.
Rhea stopped and held a fist up and we froze.
Voices carried down the crawlway,not many, maybe two or three. But it was calm,too calm for lost the soldiers.
Selendra leaned to my ear. "Ambush."
Rhea slid forward a hand and peered around the bend. She pulled back. "Two at the turn,they have crossbows."
Vesper mouthed, "Can you blind."
"No, not from here," Vesper whispered. "it's too tight."
Rhea looked at me. "You still feel the dragon's mark."
"Yes."
"Can you make it flare without calling it."
"I don't know."
"Go ahead and try it," she said.
I pressed my palm to the charm. I focused on the line that said SIGNAL: ACTIVE. I didn't know what to do,I just pictured the glow in its throat,pictured the breath that hadn't burned me and I pushed at the memory.
The charm warmed under my hand and a thin light leaked from the cracks in the metal. The tunnel air shifted and the water ripples changed it's direction.
Selendra's eyes lit. "That's enough,don't push more."
Rhea nodded. "On my move."
She pulled two flat stones from her vest, slid them on the water and sent them skimming around the bend. Both crossbows fired at the sound and bolts cracked against rock.
Rhea was already moving,she slid low, cut the first man's ankle,slammed her shoulder into his knee and finished him with a short thrust. Vesper threw a ring at the second and It cracked and spat grit into his eyes and he fired blindly. The bolt ricocheted and stuck in the roof and Rhea took him as he wiped at his face.
We stepped over their bodies and moved forward. The crawlway emptied into a low chamber and rope ladder hung from a shaft in the ceiling with fresh chalk marks circling the base.
"Scout line," Vesper said. "They have marked the route."
"Up or down," I asked.
Rhea checked the shaft. "Up goes toward open ground and they'll expect it. So we'll go down."
A narrow runnel at the back carried water into a slit,we slid into it on our bellies and let the water pull us. The rock scraped my elbows and hips and tt felt like a long coffin. The slit widened a fraction and dropped us into a shallow culvert and We stood, crouched from habit, and kept moving.
The culvert emptied into a larger tube made of olld stone and cut by hand long ago. Vesper touched the wall and nodded. "Aqueduct…that's good, this one,It runs east."
Rhea set a jog. "Move..we don't have any time to waste."
We ran in a crouch for five hundred paces. Torches flared behind us with more voices that were close now. The aqueduct opened at regular gaps into grated mouths and one grate was already cut.
"They're using these," Vesper said.
"Lets keep going," Rhea said.
A grate ahead clanged and men dropped into the channel,three or four of them. One wore a captain's half-cloak. His face was calm and his eyes were bright,hee drew his sword but did not lift it yet.
"Captain Rhea Voss," he said. "Stand down."