The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(13)

“Okay… I’m, uh, not exactly going anywhere,” Alex called back. He guessed it made sense that they couldn’t simply conjure a magical rope. If mages could just dangle magic ropes out and climb down them without repercussion, Caius would have needed to reassess his security measures. Plus, Alex doubted he’d be able to keep hold of a magical one anyway, given the way his anti-magic was prone to attacking magic.

Suddenly, something slithered beneath the dark water, rippling the viscous surface. Alex jumped to his feet and stepped back, seeing the flash of something moving beneath the black water. Whatever was living under there, it was big, and he was almost certain there was more than one. A splash a short distance away confirmed his chilling suspicions.

The next thing he knew, something was lunging toward him from the moat. Alex toppled backward, losing his footing on the wet grass. A huge black creature that looked part snake, part lizard surged from the black liquid, darting toward Alex at alarming speed, its amphibian nostrils flaring. It paused, sniffing the air, seeking something out.

Lying flat in the grass, feeling the blades tickling the back of his neck, Alex kept entirely still, hoping the creature wouldn’t see him. It lurched over him, giving him a closer look than he would have liked. Where eyes should have been, there were none—the beast was blind. With water that thick and black, Alex supposed eyesight wouldn’t make much difference. The beast’s head was horribly oversized, with two strange, three-pronged fronds above where eye sockets would be that twitched as the creature sniffed more insistently. The body was long and sleek, as it had seemed beneath the water, though the black color changed to a lighter, gunmetal gray when it turned its body this way and that. Alex wondered if it was camouflage of some sort—in between the coursing panic that the beast was about to make a meal out of him and the desperation to keep himself still and silent.

The monster curved too close for comfort, the dank scent of swamp and rotting meat making Alex gag as droplets of black water dripped from the slimy body onto his face. But he stayed still, not daring to move.

With a few final snorts, the beast slunk back into the water with a barely audible splash. Whatever it had been sniffing for, Alex guessed he wasn’t it.

Though he wanted to run from the moat’s edge, he waited a moment longer, just in case the creature decided to rear its ugly head again. Once he was confident it was gone, Alex sat up in the grass, wondering what the thing had been smelling for. Magic, perhaps? It would explain why it had left him alone, he mused, contemplating its presence in the moat. Was it just another deterrent to escape, the fear of climbing down the walls only to meet a grisly end down the throat of a giant amphibian? Alex shuddered to think.

Not wanting to get too close to the water’s edge again, he waited patiently for the makeshift rope to be lowered, though he realized with some trepidation that he was going to have to get into the moat again in order to reach the proffered mode of rescue.

As he looked up, he saw that Agatha was still peering out over the window ledge. It was hard to make out at this distance, but there was something odd in the way she was surveying him. Her head was tilted in contemplation, her mouth set in a grim line, but Alex couldn’t be sure how much was simply his own imagination as he turned back to watch the surface of the moat, praying no more beasts came out to attack him.

“Alex, we’re lowering the rope!” Ellabell called, reappearing at the window. It was a sight he was happy to see, now that he knew it wasn’t going to be the last thing he saw. Well, as long as a beast didn’t get him on his way out.

Finally, a rope made of countless bedsheets was lowered from the window. It seemed to take forever, and Alex waited with as much patience as he could muster, until the very tip of the last sheet dipped into the murky black water. Taking that as his signal to move, he dove into the icy moat, swimming for the bottom of the rope.

Grasping it tightly, he began to climb up, ever-conscious of the creatures lurking beneath the water below. He just hoped that it would hold, that the knots were tied tight enough, as he pressed on.

A quarter of the way up the rope, the ache of his muscles made itself known again. After so much suffering, he was surprised he'd even made it that far by himself. Staring up toward the window, his arms shaking with the strain of hauling his body up the rope, he realized he wasn’t going to make it under his own steam; he needed help, or he was going to fall again.

“Pull me up!” he yelled.

The bedsheets began to move in a jerky motion. It was a nerve-wracking ascent, the fabric straining as he got higher and higher, the knots above his head looking less and less sturdy with every foot he moved away from the moat. At one point, he thought he heard the sound of something ripping, the noise convincing him that he was headed for another nasty fall.

All he could do was cling tight and hope he reached the window ledge before the sheets gave way. It drew nearer, and he could see the relieved faces of his friends as they continued to pull. It was a relief to him too, and he smiled as he came within a few inches of the sill.

This time, the ripping sound was unmistakable as the last bedsheet tore away from the one above it. The relieved faces turned to expressions of panic. Alex felt himself falling again, before an arm shot out, lightning fast, and he reached up to grasp it. Agatha held him firmly, her hand gripped in a vise around his with surprising strength. Glancing down, he saw the sheet fall toward the moat, dancing on the breeze like a ghost. The sight made his stomach turn.