Keys to the Demon Prison (Fablehaven #5)(17)

"What a way to go," Seth mumbled.


"We're not dead yet," Tanu said.


Kendra ducked under the water and stared into the shaft. Mara was already out of sight. Kendra stayed down, watching hopefully. Mara shot back into view, returning swiftly. The water level began to drop! Kendra screamed with joy, the sound distorted in the water, bubbles rising from her lips. Mara hurried forward. Kendra glimpsed Berrigan behind her. Then the water was dropping fast enough that the side shaft passed out of sight.


Kendra surfaced. Trask and Tanu righted the canoe, and everyone grabbed hold. Mara dropped from the shaft, entering the water with her toes pointed and without hitting anybody. A moment later, Berrigan hit the water the same way, plunging through a tight slot between Vincent and Trask. Soon Mara and Berrigan clutched the canoe as well.


"There was a keyhole at the end of the tunnel," Berrigan said, holding up a smaller iron egg. "This place was designed by very cruel people."


The canoe dropped out of the shaft, and the water level continued to fall rapidly. Despite her excitement, Kendra's teeth began to chatter. The water was becoming truly cold.


"The water is flowing out faster than it came in," Mara said.


"Just what I need," Vincent griped, "to get sucked down a giant drain."


Kendra watched the walls, hoping a new tunnel would come into view. The water level kept plummeting.


"The water's getting really cold," Seth said.


"Too cold," Trask agreed. "Something is wrong."


"It's going to freeze," Mara predicted.


Trask heaved Kendra into the canoe. Tanu boosted Seth. Berrigan dropped the key inside.


"To the island," Trask ordered.


The island did not yet exist. The water level was still too high. Kendra watched as the others frantically stroked toward the center of the room. As the tip of the island came into view, a fragile skin of ice formed on the surface of the water. Tearing through the film of ice, Mara reached the island first, followed by Berrigan. The water level continued to drop, revealing more of the island. Elise scrambled onto the slick, black rock. Trask and Tanu followed, their bodies crashing through the thickening crust of ice until they lunged out of the freezing water.


As the surface became solid, the water level stopped dropping. The ice pinned Vincent. His head, shoulders, and arms stuck out of the frozen surface just a couple of yards shy of the island. As he tried to boost himself up, chuckling and gasping, the ice around him shattered. He disappeared completely under the water, and before he came up, the surface had refrozen.


Below Kendra, the canoe cracked, squeezed by the swelling ice. Mara sprawled forward onto the ice, over the place where Vincent had gone under, hatchet in hand, Berrigan gripping her ankles. The ice held her without cracking. She hacked at the surface, chopping chips of ice free.


After a moment she paused. Moving to one side, she wiped away stray wedges of ice and stared down. "It keeps freezing deeper and deeper," she reported. "Vincent is panicking. He keeps pushing off the ice to avoid getting trapped, which is driving him farther from the surface. There must be more than four feet of ice between us already. I can barely see him. Now I can't."


Kendra and Seth climbed out of the canoe onto the solid ice. Tanu, Trask, Berrigan, and Elise joined Mara in attacking the ice, using knives and swords. Seth drew his sword and chiseled at the ice as well.


Kendra had lost her sword. As the others diligently burrowed, she monitored their pathetic progress in shock, trying not to dwell upon the unseen tragedy happening below her feet. Was Vincent already encased in ice, trapped motionless? Was he conscious? Was he frantically diving deeper, seeking to escape the inevitable as his breath ran out? Were they even digging in the right spot? After passing out of sight, he could have moved off in any direction.


"This is like trying to dig through concrete," Seth growled in frustration.


"The ice seems unnaturally hard," Mara grunted, swinging the hatchet with urgent determination.


Kendra sank to her knees, feeling the cold of the ice through her wet pants. Minutes passed. Kendra shivered. Did the others really believe they would rescue Vincent? He was gone. Hopelessly gone. It wasn't fair, or nice, but it was true.


Scanning the room, Kendra noticed a new passage where one had not existed before. Despite the tragedy, all she could think was that they had to hurry and move on before Torina and the zombies showed up and Vincent's sacrifice was wasted. She felt numbly detached, watching the others scrape up ice shavings. With hysteria gnawing at her numbness, she wanted to stay detached.


At last Trask stood. They had barely carved their way two feet down. "Rescuing Vincent is a lost cause," he sighed.


"A new tunnel has opened," Elise said softly.


"We had better move on," Trask advised reluctantly. "None of us would want the mission to fail in a vain attempt to retrieve our corpse."


"I should have moved faster," Mara hissed, still chopping with her hatchet, eyes fixed on the slowly growing crater in the ice. "He was above the ice. He had almost made it. If I had reached for him an instant sooner--"


"You may well have plunged through the ice with him," Trask finished. "It happened too quickly and caught all of us off balance. I should have boosted him into the canoe with Kendra and Seth."