Chapter IV: The Stables (Cont. IV)

Blackheart swiped, lopping off the ends of the advancing tendrils. A screech echoed within the tank. “Listen, I’ll go first. That way I can catch you if you can’t get a grip on the outcropping, all right?” Blackheart looked at the other two who were busy slashing away at panicked garms. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.'” Blackheart raced towards the tank and leapt. He hit the other sides wall with a clang and felt himself slide down the wall, snagging the canal’s outcropping when it reached his fingertips. He spat out a little blood from the initial impact and pulled himself up, “Looked further away than it was,” he muttered as he peered down the canal. Kiki was already far ahead, crawling happily away from the chaos. He turned around, “All right! Next!”

Adelia turned, several more tendrils had begun to emerge as the sand devoured the remaining garms behind her.

“We don’t have much time,” the assassin reminded sternly as he stabbed another scrambling garm.

Adelia swallowed and swung at the advancing tendrils. The first swipe slashing the end off two of the tendrils. She swung again and again, cutting the tendrils to tiny pieces. Before she could finish off the last few, however, a tendril swung, striking her sword out of her hand and sending it sailing down into the tank.

The sword imbedded itself a few feet above Blackheart’s head. “This isn’t good,” he groaned, snatching the blade out of the wall.

“It took my sword,” Adelia yelled, dodging a tendril trying to grab her.

The assassin reached in and lopped off one of the remaining tendrils. Another tendril swung down on him. He blocked quickly, cutting the tendril off a good length down and shattering his wrist blades. “Damn it,” he muttered. More tendrils began to emerge from the tank as the sand finished up the last of the garms.

“What now?” Adelia looked back at a garm who slowly disintegrated with a drawn out squeal of pain. “That’s not happening to me!”

The assassin stepped away from a the groping tendrils. “We need to distract the Garmut somehow. Taunt the tendrils so I can get through and I’ll help you get across,” the assassin said.

“Are you joking!? There’s no way I’m going to get through, you can’t even reach the tendrils from down there!”

The assassin drew his crossbow and pointed it at her. “Do it or think of something better,” he ordered.

Adelia looked at the searching tendrils and back at the sand which was only a foot away from her now. She stared at the crossbow point for a moment, “I’ve got it,” she said finally. “I’ve thought of something better,” she replied proudly.

“What,” the assassin asked lowering his crossbow.

Adelia lunged, pushing the assassin into the tendrils. The assassin yelled in anger, trying to raise his crossbow as the tendrils began to tighten around him and drag him into the tank.

“You bitch!” The assassin struggled to get free of the tendrils in vain as he was dragged into the tank.

Adelia smiled, “I can’t kill, can I?” She felt the sting of the sand biting at her heels and jumped into the tank. She sailed down, reaching the outcropping and pulling herself up. She knelt on the canal’s outcropping, beaming at the admiring Blackheart.

There was a moment’s whistle and Adelia yelped in pain. Blackheart reached out, dragging her into the tunnel as he saw the sand begin to pour down into the flames below. A scream echoed behind them as the two began to crawl towards the daylight far ahead. “You all right?” Blackheart looked back in concern as Adelia began to crawl slowly.

“Y…yeah,” she groaned. “That bastard actually got his shot off,” she said, fingering the crossbow bolt sticking in her left shoulder blade.

“Don’t worry,” Blackheart consoled, we’re almost home free.

“For a time,” Adelia said gloomily.