Chapter Eighteen
Carmaz wasn't the only one who noticed the ever-widening crack. Saia did, too, and he pointed at it, saying, “Uh, what's that crack in the floor?”
Alira's gray eyes fell on the crack. “What in the world—”
Then, without warning, the crack became a chasm, tearing the floor apart underneath Carmaz's feet. He immediately fell and would have fallen into the darkness below if Saia had not grabbed his arm, jerking his fall to a stop. The stress on Carmaz's arm was painful, especially since it felt like the darkness below was sucking him in.
The chasm widened close to the seats where the rest of the godlings sat, forcing them to jump off their seats and run to the other side of the room as the chairs toppled over into the darkness below. Tashir and Malya, on the other hand, jumped over to join Saia. They helped him haul Carmaz back onto the solid ground, but that didn't make Carmaz feel any safer. He turned to look down at the swirling shadows below, uncertain what he was looking at or what was happening.
“Um, Judge?” said Saia, looking at Alira, who was now staring at the chasm in shock. “Is this also part of the Tournament or did Ooka get angry about something?”
“I have no idea what this is,” said Alira. She reached out toward the chasm with one hand. “But whatever it is, it is not in the Rulebook, so I must eliminate it. Stand back.”
Carmaz, Saia, Tashir, and Malya stepped back as far as they could, which admittedly wasn't very far, as two beams of light shot out of Alira's hand and latched onto either side of the chasm. The two beams began to pull the sides of the chasm back together, but then a shadow tendril rose from the darkness and cut both beams in half. It must have somehow hurt Alira as well, because she let out a cry of pain and staggered backward as if punched in the face.
The shadow tendril then flew toward Carmaz and the others, but Tashir drew his glowing sword and cut the tendril in half before it could harm anyone. Half of the tendril fell to the stone floor and dissipated in an instant, while the other half slithered back into the shadows below.
“Where are the gods?” said Saia, his voice higher than usual as he looked around. “Why aren't they here helping us?”
“Something must be preventing the gods from saving us,” said Tashir, never lowering his sword or taking his eyes off the darkness below. “I only wish I knew what, though I can guess that it must be related to this shadow.”
“If the gods can't beat it—” Malya said, before Carmaz cut her off.
“Then they're even more useless than I first thought,” said Carmaz. He looked at Alira. “Judge, we need to get the godlings out of the Stadium before this thing kills us all.”
“But the Tournament is not yet finished,” Alira protested. “The Rulebook says—”
“Do you think that what the Rulebook 'says' matters right now?” said Carmaz. He pointed at the other godlings, who were crowded on the other side of the room together. “Just get them out of here. And get the ones in the field as well, even if they haven't won or lost the challenge yet.”
Alira looked rather offended that Carmaz was bossing her around, but thankfully she was more reasonable than she appeared, because she gestured at the godlings and they all vanished. “There. I have teleported them outside of the Stadium, so they should be fine.”
“Hey, what about us?” asked Saia, looking at the shadows in the chasm. “Shouldn't we be teleported as well?”
“I was just about to do that,” said Alira.
She raised her arm to point it at them, but without warning another shadow tendril launched out of the shadows and slapped Alira in the face. The blow must have been powerful, because it knocked Alira flat off her feet and sent her glasses flying off her face. Her giant Rulebook fell with a loud thump by her side and Alira herself did not move or rise again.
“Oh gods,” said Saia. “It knocked her out.”
The shadow tendril then turned in the air, focusing on Carmaz and the others. Both Tashir and Malya held up their glowing swords defensively, while Carmaz and Saia stood there defenseless. It made Carmaz wish that he had some kind of magical weapon of his own, or even just a regular weapon, but unfortunately he had nothing he could use to defend himself or Saia. He would just have to use his wit and brains. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how useful either of those things would be against a shadow tendril that could knock out a pseudo-god like Alira in one hit.
Saia, meanwhile, slammed his fists against the exit and kicked it with his feet, but the door unfortunately still didn't budge. Yet Carmaz wondered if maybe it would eventually give now that Alira was out, seeing as she was probably unable to maintain the spell she cast on it while she was unconscious. It just might need some team effort, however.
“Tashir, Malya, you keep that thing busy,” said Carmaz. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the door. “Saia and I will try to open the exit so we can all get out of here alive.”
“Sounds good,” said Tashir. “But you must hurry. Without Alira to protect us, I doubt we will be able to hold this thing off for long.”
“Agreed,” said Malya. “But that doesn't mean that we can't try our best anyway.”
“Just do what you can to hold if off until Saia and I knock the door down,” said Carmaz.
The two makhimancers nodded and turned to face the shadows again, while Carmaz ran up to the door with Saia. Saia looked rather defeated now, leaning against the door rather than trying to knock it down.
“It's no use, Carmaz,” said Saia, shaking his head. “The door won't budge.”
“We need to work together to do it,” said Carmaz. He patted the door. “On the count of three, we'll slam into the door as hard as we can with our shoulders. All right?”
“Okay,” said Saia, though he didn't sound terribly enthusiastic about the plan. “But what if it doesn't work?”
“We worry about that when or if that happens,” said Carmaz. “Now come on. We don't have time to waste doubting.”
Carmaz and Saia stepped back a few feet from the door, while Tashir and Malya slashed at some shadow tendrils that had gotten too close. Carmaz ignored the shadows, however, in order to focus on the task at hand.
“One … two … three!”
Carmaz and Saia slammed their shoulders into the door with all of their strength. The door was solid under their combined blows. It did, however, groan, an encouraging sign that promoted Carmaz to shout, “Again!”
The two kept ramming the door with their shoulders again and again, each blow weakening the door further until it finally gave out and swung open. Carmaz and Saia staggered through the doorway, almost tripping down the staircase, but Carmaz caught himself and Saia as well before they could go stumbling head first into the dark staircase.
He looked over his shoulder at Tashir and Malya. “Guys, we opened the door! Come on!”
Tashir nodded, but said, “Just one moment.”
The makhimancer, showing more athleticism that Carmaz thought someone of his age should have had, leaped over to where the unconscious Alira lay and hauled her over his shoulder. Another shadow tendril came at Tashir, but he slashed it away with his sword. Malya jumped over to join him as well and hauled the heavy Rulebook under one arm, which again surprised Carmaz, as Malya did not look strong enough to carry something that looked so heavy.
The two of them quickly rejoined Carmaz and Saia, the latter of whom led the way down into the staircase. Carmaz made sure to shut the door behind them as they left to ensure that the shadow tendrils would not be able to follow them, although he wasn't sure how effective that was going to be. He could already hear the tendrils beating against the door, which prompted him to walk down the staircase after the others as fast as he was able.
But then, when they were several feet down the staircase, Carmaz heard the sound of the door breaking above him, probably the tendrils breaking through. He thought, however, that they could possibly outrun the tendrils before Tashir, who was in the lead and still carrying the unconscious Alira o
ver his shoulder, came to a dead stop, forcing the others to stop behind him as well.
“Tashir, what are you doing?” Saia asked, his voice higher-pitched than ever. “The shadows—”
“Have us surrounded,” Tashir said, without looking back at any of them. “Look.”
Carmaz looked ahead of Tashir and saw that he was correct. More shadow tendrils were making their way up the staircase toward them, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than the others. Still, the tendrils ahead had the staircase effectively blocked, as did the ones behind them.
Saia then looked at Carmaz with fear in his eyes. “Are we going to die, Carmaz?”
Carmaz didn't know what to say to that, mostly because he had the sinking feeling that the answer to that question was yes.
***