Page 29 of Season of Naga: Volume 2
The naga pauses at the entrance to the alcove, glancing back over his shoulder. For a moment, I think he might answer. Instead, he makes a chittering sound that I realize is laughter.
"Your concern for the traitor is... amusing," he says. Then he slithers away, leaving me alone with pain and fear and the steady drip of water from an unseen source.
I scramble to my feet and wrap my fingers around the cold links, following them to where they disappear into the wall. The metal pin securing them looks ancient but unyielding, embedded deep in the stone. I brace one foot against the rough wall and pull with everything I have, the chain biting into my palms. The pin doesn't shift even a hair's breadth. My shoulders scream in protest, wrists bleeding where the cuffs have rubbed them raw.
"Save your energy."
A voice cuts through the silence like a blade. I whirl around, vision swimming, my heart slamming against my ribcage. There, where only shadows existed a moment before, coils a figure, as if conjured from the gloom itself.
"Basilyx lead is unyielding unless you wield the same fire element as your sister."
I recoil instinctively, chains rattling as I press my back against the cold stone wall, as the female naga glides forward. Unlike my gray-scaled interrogator, she moves with fluid grace, her golden eyes narrowing as they meet mine through the tangled curtain of my dirty hair. Her nostrils flatten as though my human scent offends her.
I meet her gaze, too exhausted for fear, too tired for defiance. Whatever new horrors she brings, they can hardly be worse than what I've already endured.
Without warning, she flicks her wrist, and something small arcs through the air. It lands with a soft clink at my feet. The key is metal worn smooth with age and use, a simple shape that promises freedom.
I stare at it, uncomprehending, certain this must be some new form of torture. Hope dangled before me only to be snatched away.
"Follow the rightmost tunnel," she whispers, her voice hushed but clear, devoid of the harsh contempt I've come to expect from my captors. "It leads away from the TrueCoil labyrinth and toward the surface."
She turns away, her russet scales flashing like liquid copper in the dim light as she glides toward the shadows beyond my prison.
"Wait," I call, my voice raw after days of screaming. "Why?”
She pauses, and for a moment, I think she'll ignore my question and disappear, leaving me with a key and no explanation. Then she glances over her shoulder, her amber eyes meeting mine.
"Your sister incinerated a human assassin. He had a gloomroot-tipped arrow aimed for Varok's back. One heartbeatmore and—" She makes a soft hissing sound, "Varok would be dead from the lethal poison of which there is no cure.”
My mind races back to Halvane's words, the hushed conversation I'd overheard. Leira burning a man to ash. Not a rumor, but the truth, confirmed by this naga female who has no reason to lie.
She fully turns to face me now, something softening in her reptilian features. "Varok is like a son to me. I served as his guardian after the death of his clutch-mother. I have watched him grow from a hatchling to Sovereign Flame. The Sundering took my entire family, and Varok is all I have left.” Her clawed hand gestures toward the key. “I owed your sister a debt for saving his life.”
I drop to my knees and collect the key with shaking fingers, cool metal pressing into my palm."Lurok," I say, clutching the key tighter. "Is he alive? Is he here?"
“My debt is now repaid.” Her expression hardens. "What you do with your freedom is your choice. Choose wisely."
She turns to leave, already slipping back into shadow.
Panic surges through me. “Wait!” I blurt. “If the worms succeed. If my father and the general finish what they started, Leira's saving Varok will be for naught. Vessan-Kar will fall, and everyone will be buried beneath it.”
She pauses mid-slither and goes perfectly still, and for one terrible heartbeat, I think I’ve said too much. That I’ve sealed my own fate.
"Do not concern yourself with the worms," she says over her shoulder, her voice carrying a confidence that seems almost impossible given what I know. "Varok received your warning. The Sovereign Flame has already dispatched the Talons to hunt down every explosive. Vessan-Kar will not fall.”
With that, she slips away, her russet scales fading into shadow as she disappears down the corridor beyond my alcove.Relief crashes over me so hard my knees nearly give out, but uncertainty curls beneath it.
I'm left alone with the key heavy in my palm, blood thundering in my ears, and a choice that seems impossible. The right tunnel to freedom, or somewhere in this labyrinth, Lurok, wounded, captive, and dying. My fingers close around it, the edges biting into my palm. The smart choice is clear. The correct choice is less so.
If Lurok is still alive somewhere in this labyrinth, wounded and shackled, then I cannot leave him to die. I lift my head, my resolve as hard as the stone around me.
The key is small but intricately made, its teeth forming a pattern unlike any human lock I've seen. Sweat drips into my eyes, blurring my vision as I try to steady my trembling fingers. The metal scrapes uselessly against the lock once, twice. I bite my lip, forcing myself to breathe. With the third attempt, the key slides home. I turn it with agonizing slowness, feeling each tumbler reluctantly surrender until the final, beautiful click. The shackle falls away, and I feel the first taste of freedom in days.
I move cautiously to the entrance of the alcove. The corridor beyond stretches in both directions, identical pathways illuminated by the same eerie biotech veins. Right leads to three tunnels, the rightmost away from the labyrinth, toward freedom. Left leads deeper in, toward voices that murmur too faintly to distinguish words but clearly signal danger.
The smart choice is obvious, but I turn left instead.
Something pulls me in that direction, some gut certainty that Lurok still lives, still breathes somewhere in these twisting passages. The tunnel curves ahead, biotech veins flowing along its length like glowing arteries. I press close to the wall, placing each foot with deliberate care to minimize sound. The stone is cool against my shoulder, grounding me as I move deeper into danger.
