Page 109 of The Verdant Cage
Books blur past as we race through the library and toward the open basement door. Somewhere along the line I’ve ripped my stitches, and I’m leaving a trail of blood on the polished floor. I hope to the Wall and the Sun and the Water that my guess is right. Because if it’s not, I’m leading my friends to certain death. We scramble through the doorway, our footbeats echoing on the seventeen steps as we descend.
Behind us, the library door splinters open with a violent crack. “They’re inside!” Augustus shouts, racing back up the basement stairs, metal pipe raised. “Go! I’ll hold them off!”
“Augustus, no—” I yell. I see it happen as if in slow motion. Beautiful, fierce Augustus, wielding his length of pipe like a scythe. The first two Guardians to breach the top of the stairs fall, but there are more right behind them. Leo’s blade catches the light, then comes down.
Blood sprays across the stone walls.
My scream echoes. Strong arms drag me back—Gryphon, pulling me away as the Plumber’s body crumples. I think of Wendy, knowing too well the grief that’s soon to follow. I turn to see Sal looking wildly in every direction, searching the scroll-filled room for an exit, a weapon, any reason I would have led us down here to die like trapped rats.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she says. There’s no anger in her tone, only fear.
“Through here,” I say, finding the same indentation I saw David press to reveal the warden’s panic room. Boots hammer the stairs, Guardians leaping past Augustus. The bookcase flies open, and we rush into the huge secret room behind it. It’s gutted of goods. Either Jarek or the Record Keeper moved them, but it doesn’t matter. That’s not what we’re here for.
And we’re not alone.
69
Sal and Oscar succeed in shutting the bookcase behind us, but it’s only a matter of time until the Guardians break through it.
But I have eyes only for David.
He leans against the far wall, wearing a funny little smile.
“You figured out where the exit is, too?” He raps the stone behind him with his knuckles. “I heard it starting to shift, or I fear I never would have located it. I’ll share the treasure on the other side. You can have half—Suns, more. Just let me come with you.”
The Guardians snarl and pound at the bookshelf, hunting for a way to get to us.
“You’re a fool,” I say to David. “It’s not going to open to treasure.”
His face twitches. “You don’t know that.”
My eyes catch on the goblin’s gold near his feet. It needs a damp environment to grow, but this basement has a dehumidifying machine. It must be getting moisture through cracks in the wall invisible to the naked eye. I should have realized that when I first noticed the moss, but I’d been too deep in grief and shock and overwhelm.
“This isn’t an extension of her secret vault,” I say, stepping closer, eyes on the moss. Greed has blinded David to the obvious. “Why would she put treasure beyond her own reach? It’s the exit Korr was required to build, nothing more.”
His mask slips, revealing the rot beneath. “Whatever it is, it’s mine,” he hisses, pulling a knife from his belt.
Before I can react, Gryphon leaps forward and pinches David’s neck. The Record Keeper crashes to the floor, just as a tremor nearly knocks us all off our feet. Cracks splinter across the ceiling tiles.
Holy Sun.
“It’s opening!” Eero yells.
My heart pounds my ribs hard enough to bruise. The seemingly unbroken wall hisses, then begins to slide open with a deep, mechanical exhale. A smell washes over us, alien and indescribable. Not good, not bad, but…different.
The bookcase explodes as David’s pruno still flies through it. The Guardians have used it as a battering ram. We’re out of time.
“Come on!” I shout.
I yank Eero into the darkness with me, noting a lever just inside the entrance. Oscar grabs Sal’s arm, pulling them both through. Gryphon is the last to enter, backing toward us with his sword raised to fend off the Guardians surging through the breach. Steel screams when his blade meets the first attacker. He’s almost inside the chamber—just two more steps and I can slam the lever down—when Leo launches himself out of the blur of bodies and drives his foot into Gryphon’s gut. Gryphon stumbles, his guard dropping for a heartbeat.
“Gryphon!” I scream, but Leo is already raising his sword for a killing blow.
Oscar and Eero move before I can, flying at Leo as one, their small frames crashing into the man. All three tumble together, Eero and Oscar’s fists flying wildly. But they’re no match for a trained Guardian. Leo shoves Eero away and rolls on top of Oscar, pinning the boy’s shoulders to the stone floor. Leo’s sword gleams as he lifts it high above Oscar’s chest at the same time as a mechanical whirring fills the air, growing louder, closer.
Albert’s wheelchair shoots through the shattered bookshelf, tears streaming down his face as he screams wordlessly. He slams into Leonidas with a thud, sending him sprawling. Without slowing, he spins and rockets toward a second Guardian locked in combat with Gryphon, catching the Guardian square in the back. The impact ricochets Albert and Gryphon into the chamber alongside Sal and me, Albert’s chair catching and releasing the lever.
With a screech that cuts through the chaos, the door begins to slide closed. Leo scrambles to his feet, his eyes catching mine in a flash of hate and shock. He surges forward just as the passage seals shut, his outstretched blade scraping against the stone.
