Aurelia pushed the children onto the rocks that had collapsed and out of the direct path of the falling dirt. Over their heads, I noticed a rusty ladder, partially attached to the wall. If they could reach it, and assuming I could create a hole above us, that would be their escape.
I started forward to join them, but another large chunk of earth fell, landing on my back and bringing me down with it. The water level wasn't so deep yet, except that my legs, still chained together, slipped out from beneath me and my head went completely under. I struggled to set my legs upright, but my manacled arms were little help. I tried rolling to my back long enough to take a breath but the weight of the chains fought me.
I finally got one foot braced against a sunken rock, allowing me to come up long enough to look for sky above. Had I broken through? I hoped so, because I didn't know how I'd find the strength to try again. But to my dismay, I saw nothing but more falling dirt before I was thrown back underwater. I hadn't caught a breath this time, so when I breathed in, water came with it, flooding my lungs.
Then a hand grabbed my arm and dragged me to the surface. I began choking for air as I came up again. Aurelia had waded back in and gotten me balanced on my feet. Still holding my arms, she yelled, "I don't have the key. You'll have to break your chains."
The water was past my waist now, creating a swirling current that threatened to pull me under again. But Aurelia kept hold of me while I closed my eyes and focused on the manacles. Because of the magic I'd just emptied into the room and the injury to my arm, it was so much harder than the ropes had been, but I braced my right hand on the wall, and with my left arm, split the chains around my wrists.
"There's a hole above us!" one of the children said. "But we can't get there."
I looked up. The children had climbed as high as the ladder allowed them, but the water would soon reach those on the lower rungs. Nothing other than some dangling roots were there to get them over to the hole in the ground, and we had no way of knowing if they would hold the weight of the children. If they tried to cross and fell, they'd land back down here in the water.
"Help them," I said to Aurelia.
"What about those chains on your legs? They might be harder to break."
She said it as if she didn't have everything to do with that fact. But I bypassed the argument and told her again to help the younger ones get out. Once she left, as carefully as I could, I waded through the water, at my chest now. But I only got a short ways before I gave up. I needed my legs free, but it also took all my concentration to hold my balance. I didn't want to go under again.
"This isn't worth it, Nic." Radulf's voice in my head was so calm that it seemed out of place with the rest of the chaos literally spilling into this room. "The water's pressure will open the doorway anyway, so there's no point in making things harder on all of us."
"There are children in here!" I yelled. "Stop this!"
"He can't hear you out there," Aurelia called down to me. And maybe he couldn't, but I had to say something. She didn't know how his words thundered between my ears, whether I wanted them there or not.
Anger began filling me, crowding out every other sense of fear, guilt, and despair. I was consumed with fury at what Radulf was doing, and a desire to prove Aurelia wrong in every possible way. It was enough that even without concentrating on it, my next step forward broke apart the chains. The pull threw off my balance and I fell sideways into the water.
Or I thought I was sideways. I thrashed my hands through the water, but that sent out more magic, which pulled chunks of dirt and rock down from above. I vaguely heard the children yelling at me to stop what I was doing, but I didn't know how. One large rock fell from above, landing on the dangling chain of my left hand and locking me to the bottom of the room, far below the water.
I struggled to break loose, which cost me the last of my air. My lungs burst apart and I flailed around for my life. Finally, I broke enough of the chain to push up off the ground and spear my way to the top.
I came up long enough to choke out some of the water, and to see the hole had widened, making it easier for the children to climb onto dry earth.
When Aurelia saw me surface, she called my name and started to say something else, but I went under again. So much dirt and rock had fallen that the water was now a thick, blinding soup. At least the ones who were innocent would get out. Unfortunately, the list of innocents did not include me, which was something I would have to accept. Maybe this was what I deserved for my crimes. As I sank to the floor again, I put both hands on the bulla, letting it warm me.
"Why aren't you fighting?" Radulf said to me. "Foolish boy, it is not in you to give up so easily!"
I ignored him. This wasn't giving up. I just needed a rest.
"You will fight!" Radulf said. "Put your feet on the bottom and push yourself up to the air!"
In my years as a slave, I had received thousands of orders, directing my every move. It wasn't up to us to think, only to obey. And though I always bristled against those orders, this time my fight had to be for obedience. I righted my body in the water, then found the cistern floor and pushed hard against it. I shot upward and quickly found air. But this time, as I began sinking again, something went around my neck and one arm. I grabbed hold of it and realized I was caught inside the bow Aurelia had been carrying. I rolled in the water and saw her in the water with me, one arm locked around the ladder, and the other dragging me toward her.
When she was closer, she grabbed my arm and then pulled me with her onto the ladder. She lifted the weapon off my head and then cursed. "That figures. You broke it!"
Still trying to catch my breath, I noticed her bow, which was cracked where I had held it. I should've felt sorry, but I didn't. With a good bow, and her temper, chances were she'd shoot me once we reached the surface. If she handed me her knife, I might try breaking that too.
She dumped the bow back into the water, and then told me to start climbing. It seemed so far to the surface that I couldn't understand how any of the others had already
made it. My lungs ached, and my entire body was drained, but she yelled, "I can't get out until you do. So move!"
Forcing myself to climb was a test of willpower rather than strength. But with every rung, I came closer to the hole I'd opened up. At the top, I found some exposed roots poking through the dirt, which slid through my wet hand. I grabbed them again, wrapping the thinner tendrils around my fingers. Useless as my injured arm was, it served me no worse than my other arm, drained by the magic.
Radulf seemed to sense it too. In a warmer voice than I'd heard before, he said, "Magic is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger you'll be. You're already stronger than you were. Come with me, Nic. I can teach you everything."
Was this how he had lured others into his web? "Never," I whispered. I had no idea whether he could hear me too, but for that one word, I hoped so.
Finally, I was topside and reached back to help Aurelia climb safely to the top as well. The twelve other children who had been underground now sat around me in the field. It seemed to be very early in the morning, long before even the farming slaves would be awake, so we all lay out to rest.