The Icon Unbound

Chapter Twenty-Seven, Part A - Saiph

Whew! Hello again, lovelies! First round of edits are almost complete. Work is hard-core time consuming so I am doing a half-chapter at a time these days. Soon I will catch up on my reviews and edits. :) Now for Saiph. --Elizabeth, UPDATED 07/27/2017 

Despite all their promises, all her reassurances, his one true love had managed to leave him...again. She had died with all the honor of her office, saving a member of her community. Watching her face just before her heart had vanished from her hands had been the culmination of all his nightmares. Her desire to be with him could not compare to her fear of failure. Saiph felt like the world spun without him, or around him, events passed before he could comprehend their meaning.

A shot rang out, and that mad, green drakys slithered out into the darkness.

Doubled over in pain, his mother looked like she was in the middle of a fit of some kind. One that Rigel shared.

"Rigel!" Meissa and a redheaded girl were struggling to pull his brother back to his feet.

"This is your fault." Ru'a screamed pointing a bony finger in his direction.

How could Rigel have missed the woman? He would have cut out her heart straight away.

All she cared about was getting to the stars, to do that, she had to get to that thrice damned ship. He stepped away from Mirrah's light. He had throwing knives, the ceremonial dagger, and his sword. She only had one place to run, and that was into the chamber with the ship where the drakys waited for her, with Saints alone knew what resources.

All around them, the earth started to shake as the water continued to drain faster than the tunnels could siphon it away. A piece of the ceiling broke onto the floor and someone in the group of courtiers, his cousins he supposed, screamed. Perhaps what Corwin and the Queen had attempted on the floor had some dire consequences. Saiph hoped they choked on them.

Most of the guards threw down their weapons and ran into the tunnels. They no longer mattered, they would be dead or twisted before they made the surface.

The surface, as if any of them would be coming up for air.

Ru'a took that moment of confusion and ran out of the room, the same way the drakys had gone.

Saiph did not follow her, he knew he had to kill her, but felt as though he'd been clubbed on the head.

The others must have realized the shortness of time. Everyone panicked and shouted, but not Nadir. The drakys came and sat beside before the body in the posture of a mourner sitting with the soul of a loved one.

"You loved her too," Saiph said almost bowed under the bitterness of his heart. Acknowledging that anyone else shared her made losing her that much more painful. When Honor tried to join them, he glared at her. "You know what you have to do. Fix this. Now."

"I can't. I'm no Icon, and I haven't practiced the Chosen ways in years."

Meissa tugged on her mother's sleeve. "Mother please, you have to remember the stories! Who do you think taught us? It was the drakys."

"How do you know? And...and..." Honor wrung her hands. "She's so close, her soul will be near her body for a few minutes. It will take a great sacrifice. More than I've ever worked with."

A great sacrifice, Saiph could think of two.

Rigel limped over to them, a plump red headed girl on his heels.

"Meissa, you're going to have to help me draw the circles for mother. Antares, find us a way out of this hellpit... or make us a way out. If we get flooded, this was all for nothing." Rigel turned to Saiph with a look that could have been made from flint. "Remember what has been requested of you, War Master." Rigel tossed Saiph the long, curved knife. "You must bring the heart of the person responsible. Hurry, every second counts."

Mirrah. If there was even the slightest chance for her, he had to take it.

"Saiph..."

"What?"

"If you see a chance take it. Don't let her distract you."

"Impossible."

In all the stories, when they talked about heroes, they never mentioned the heat, or the hunger, or the adrenaline so strong it crippled more than helped. Everyone in the room became a blur again as he focused, as every thought disappeared but what he would have to do.

Saiph ran even though his tired muscles protested every step. Sentinel's oaths would be little advantage over Ru'a, whose fought with power on terrain she knew. He only hoped that her drakys would be distracted or disinterested in protecting her now that he had gotten what he wanted or this would be a short fight.

Inside the chamber, a place that smelled like a wet corpse and rotten iron, Saiph had to pause to allow his eyes to adjust to the level of gloom.

Once he saw it, he had to suck in his breath.

The ship was colossal.

Looking like a dart made out of silver, carved all over with strange designs, like the ones the Chosen used. Only one door was visible on the ship, situated near the nose, hundreds of feet in the air. Saiph looked up, wondering how it would make it to the surface, much less the stars. A drakys claws might have no trouble accessing it, but Ru'a, and any other human, would have to find another way.

Another way... Saiph growled. Everything was so, infuriatingly dim. After a thousand years and more under the dark water, the strange, radiant quality of the stone was all but gone. He needed to see more than the tracks ahead. All he could see was that the ship was supported by some sort of gear works and movable platforms, on a scale that he would not have imagined. Most of the ramps dangled in the air, their rusted chains unable to support their weight.

"Watch out, Saiph! Dark water puddles on the floor! Would you like to be twisted? You might be stronger for it." Ru'a cackled as if the thought where the funniest thing in the world. "You cannot harm me."

"I'm going to cut out your heart."

Ru'a leaned over the rail. "No you won't. Not unless you want to kill your brother too. He is my shield now."

"You...lie."

"I'm rather famous for my shields, grandson. Ask your mother."

She wasn't the only thing moving in here. Odd shapes slithered along the walls and walkways. His mouth went dry. He had to get to Ru'a and avoid those creatures. Something told him they would not be docile after a thousand years of drowning undeath.

By the stars, she was close, just a few yards above him. Getting up there would be a hard climb, but the ramps might not support both their weight. Putting the knife between his teeth, Saiph found a chain and started to climb. Ru'a was using the old walkways, because she couldn't climb the way he did and over this distance he would have the advantage.

Twenty feet, fifty, seventy five.

Ru'a had to backtrack several times because so much of the apparatus was unstable. Faster. He had to catch her. There might still be time to save Mirrah. He had to focus, keep the woman in sight, or he would lose her.

"Saiph, Saiph it doesn't have to be this way! This ship will hold the entire family, and all the supplies we'll need for years until we find them. We can put the madness of this planet behind us for good. How could you think that I would allow any harm to come to my grandchildren? You don't want to hurt me, do you? I had nothing to do with the death of your Icon!" Ru'a sounded desperate and out of breath. Saiph kept climbing.

When he didn't answer she cursed. Not invective, but a chant of some sort, like the kind he had heard in the Bone Temple, and from Corwin. That could only mean one thing.