Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

CHAOS MAGE Chapter 19: The Might of the Insurgents

The remaining guards weren't summoners either. With Hynn's daemon striking them with its paralysing poison and Kaim stealing and smashing them over their heads with their own weapons, they progressed rapidly into the next chamber. Kaim tested his grip on the steel sword in his hand. Judging by the way he slipped through the Daemonium guards' defence and made quick work of them, Kaim was either former military or well-trained in combat. Seiren made a mental note; if he decided to turn against them, she and Madeleine didn't stand a chance in a fight.

Seiren's flash shattered Madeleine's lock and she hopped out, head turning in every direction for reinforcement.

"What happened—?" Madeleine's eyes almost popped out in horror, staring at Seiren's tattered robes and the brown blood stains. "Are you—"

"This way," said Kaim, gesturing at a hole at the bottom of the wall.

"I'm fine." Seiren turned to Kaim, wrinkling her nose. "The sewers again?"

"Too good for it? It'll be one of the last places the Daemonium searches. It's like a maze down there and lots of the impoverished stay there for safety from time to time. The royal guards don't dare go in small groups. It's our safest bet."

Madeleine nodded and glanced at Seiren in concern. Grimacing, Seiren snapped her fingers and dissolved the edge of the metal frame and bars so Kaim could slip it out of the tunnel. Kaim allowed the girls to slide in — Hynn leading the way — and Seiren found herself soaked in sewer water and tearing down a dark, slimy chute away from the royal palace.

Seiren flew through a tunnel of light and darkness, water spraying her face from all directions. To her horror, she swallowed a few mouthfuls and more went up her nose, making her choke. The wind whistled in her ear in an apparently never-ending orchestra.

The chute gave way beneath her. Suddenly, Seiren was airborne. A gasp rose in her throat and constricted her airway. Her stomach rose into her chest. Her arms reached up, grasping nothing.

And then she plummeted. She struck the water beneath in a huge splash. Her feet kicked, but there was no ground. Her clothes dragged her down, clinging to her limbs, weighing on her outreached arms. Water swarmed over her from all directions until she couldn't tell which way was up or down. No matter how much she flailed, she only sank.

Hands grappled her from either side. Her head broke through the surface. She gasped, sucking in sweet air. She waved her arms for a surface, anything solid but this endless pit of water. Someone grabbed her and pulled. Her hands ground solid ground — thank the runes! More hands pulled her until she lay there, gasping and coughing up all the water she'd inadvertently swallowed.

"Didn't realise—you can't—swim," gasped Kaim, bent over.

Madeleine crouched beside Seiren, brushing her hair out of her face and rubbing her shoulders. Seiren wanted to swear at him but was overcome by a coughing fit.

"Come on," Kaim said. "When you can walk, we need to get out of here, as far as we can go. If you don't have any other places to go, we'll take you in — for now."

Hynn said something to Kaim, but Seiren didn't catch it through her watering eyes as she bent over from another coughing fit.

****

"We are insurgents who support Prince Magus Tophalis's claim to the throne," said Kaim, several hours later.

They sat on the third floor of a tavern. Kaim had snuck them in from the back door, hosed all of them down in the private garden, and they'd changed into typical Hannan attire before trooping through the kitchen and up the back stairs. The hour spent traipsing in the maze that was the waterways beneath the palace at Falnash ensured the chill set into Seiren's bones, despite the dry summer air, and the mouldy scent of sewer water persistently permeated into her nostrils. She and Madeleine sat on the round wooden stools around the table, cups of steaming milky tea before them. Madeleine re-braided Seiren's hair before fixing her own. Seiren was sure they both looked like drowned rats, even in their plain magenta robes with yellow waist ties and black, chunky boots. Hynn sat as if she were some noble, legs crossed with a natural delicate air, sipping her tea daintily.