Arc 3, Chapter 34: The Shatter of the Hourglass

  Ash stood in front of the last monkey that had laughed. Its carved stone face remained frozen in the same mocking prayer as the others.

  The grinding of stone filled the chamber. The spiked ceiling lowered steadily while the floor rose to meet it. The distance between them shrank with every passing heartbeat.

  *One monkey had thrown its head back. Eyes fixed on the ceiling. Another angled downward. Eyes on the floor. This one stared straight ahead.*

  *Up. Down. Forward.*

  He closed his eyes.

  "Do something!" Rowan's voice cracked across the chamber.

  Rowan stumbled toward Anna. His whole body shook with frantic energy. "We're running out of time! You need to get us out—aren't you supposed to know what to do?"

  Voss roared from the far corner. "Be quiet! I can't hear myself think over your whining."

  Rowan spun toward him. His face flushed red. "This started when you lost your temper and kicked that statue!"

  Anna stepped between them. Her palms pressed flat against the air. "Bickering won't help us."

  Vera collapsed against the wall. Her voice broke into sharp wails. "I'll die here without ever holding them again!"

  Pell pointed a steady finger at the door, then shifted his gaze to the weapon at Anna's waist.

  "That blade—use it. Cut through the door. Drive it into whatever's waiting."

  Voss rounded on him, his jaw tightening as he stepped forward. "Are you insane? That thing will—"

  Anna's hand was already moving. Her fingers closed around the hilt. The leather grip creaked under her palm. "Maybe he's not wrong."

  Ash intercepted her before the steel could clear the scabbard. He clamped his palm over her knuckles and pinned the weapon in place.

  "No."

  Pell lunged forward with a shove. Ash pivoted smoothly. Pell's momentum carried him past into the empty air. His boots scuffed against the stone as he fought for balance. He recovered with a snarl. His face twisted as he turned back. "Since when do you issue the orders?"

  Voss's voice cut through everything. "All of you need to be SILENT!"

  Orin's whisper slipped into the brief lull between gear turns. "We are all dead. Every last one of us."

  He climbed to his feet, his movements jerky and uncoordinated as he wandered toward a statue tucked between the laughing monkeys.

  With one finger, Orin reached out and traced the cold masonry. "My sister had a toy like this. I brought it home as a gift for her."

  Orin's shoulders hunched. Sharp, rhythmic bursts broke from his throat in quick succession. The sound resembled a frantic cough more than laughter. He pressed both palms against the wet stone. The noise vibrated through his chest until his face flushed deep red and his eyes watered from the strain.

  "She broke the thing in less than an hour. She snapped the arms off and ground the gravel into the floor under her boot."

  Ash studied the stone faces one more time.

  *What kind of person hands a child something like that as a gift?*

  Beside him, Anna spoke with a tone that stayed strangely calm despite the rising panic around them. "Seriously, if anyone gave me a present that ugly, it would have gone straight out the window."

  Rowan scrambled backward. His palm slid into a recessed slot in the masonry. The stone gave way under his weight with a sudden, heavy click. A shriek of tortured metal followed. Five jets of water erupted from the wall. They hammered the floor hard enough to kick up thick mist.

  The deluge surged across the stone. It soaked their boots and climbed toward their ankles in seconds.

  Pell lashed out. His fist buried itself in Rowan's side. "You idiot!"

  The three monkeys unhinged their jaws at the same moment. Mechanical grinding laughter returned. Louder than the roar of the water. The sound pounded against the inside of Ash's skull.

  Anna leaned closer to Ash. Her voice cut through the roar. "If you've got an idea, now is the time to use it."

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  Ash looked up at the inscription carved above the door.

  *The old order must not be disturbed.*

  His eyes shifted to the laughing monkeys.

  *Anna said she'd throw it out.*

  Ash's gaze moved to Orin. *Orin's sister broke hers.*

  He looked back at the laughing statues.

  *The inscription wasn't a warning—*

  *statues were—order*

  *Disrespectful.* The word rose in his mind.

  Ash lunged. The monkey statue sat angled toward the floor, its cold masonry biting into his palms as he gripped the stone shoulders.

  The trap's vibration hummed through the pedestal and up into his marrow. With a sharp wrench backward, he forced the base to give way.

  Stone snapped.

  He drove the stone downward, slamming it against the rising platform. The impact shattered the monkey into jagged gray shards that sprayed across the wet floor.

  The grinding beneath their feet shuddered. It lost its steady rhythm.

  "What are you doing?" Pell yelled.

  Ash ignored him. He scrambled for the monkey that pointed toward the ceiling.

  The mechanical laughter pounded through his bones as he moved.

  He ripped the stone free and put every bit of strength into an upward heave. The statue collided with the descending iron spikes.

  Metal shrieked as the spikes punched through the stone head, pinning the broken remains against the rafters.

  The heavy groaning of the gears above ceased.

  "Ash!"

  Anna's gaze followed the falling stone.

  Her rapier hissed from its sheath, catching the dim light in a single silver motion. She braced herself in a low stance, eyes pinned on Ash as she waited for the next move.

  Ash grabbed the final monkey, the one that stared straight ahead. He spun and hurled the heavy stone across the gap.

  Anna pivoted.

  Her arm became a silver blur. The steel struck the flying stone with a speed that outpaced Ash's sight, leaving only the sharp ring of the impact to mark the hit.

  The statue split. Both halves tumbled into the rising water.

  The noise stopped. The floor stayed still under Ash's boots.

  Above him, the spiked ceiling hung motionless.

  The chamber fell quiet.

  Orin was the first to speak, his words thin and wavering. "That's it...isn't it? We're safe now?"

  Vera gripped her tunic. Her breathing came fast and shallow. She stared at the door, words tumbling out in a whisper. "I'll see them again. My girls—I'm going to hold them."

  Voss walked toward Ash. The rigid line of his shoulders finally eased.

  "You stopped it." He looked at Ash. "I—thank you."

  He turned to face the group. His hands hung open at his sides. "I was the one who kicked the statue and set the ceiling in motion. I nearly buried us all. I am sorry."

  Pell stood over a pile of rubble. His face scrunched in confusion.

  He gestured at the stone shards scattered across the wet floor.

  "You kicked one of those things earlier, Voss. Tried pulling it down. All that did was drop the ceiling on us."

  He looked at Ash. "So why did it work when he did it?"

  Ash looked at the broken statues scattered across the wet stone.

  "You attacked when they were silent." He glanced at Voss, then back at the rubble. "They only break during the laughter."

  "The monkeys violated the order. Destroying them restored it."

  Anna stepped forward. Her eyes moved between the three destroyed positions.

  "It wasn't just timing." She pointed at the ceiling.

  "One looked at the ceiling. You threw it up."

  "One stared at the floor. You drove it down."

  "The third faced forward. You threw it straight."

  Her gaze shifted to Ash. "Their eyes. When they laughed, they looked in those directions. Up. Down. Forward."

  Ash gave a slight nod.

  Rowan let out a shaky breath, his shoulders sagging.

  "So we had to wait for them to mock us, figure out which ones broke the order, and smash them the exact way they pointed while the ceiling tried to crush us?"

  Anna's mouth pressed into a thin line. "Apparently."

  Vera wiped at her face, smearing dust across her cheek. "But it's over now. We solved it."

  Orin looked toward the far end of the chamber. The wooden door stood as solid as when they'd first entered. "So... what now?"

  Pell moved toward the door. His hand reached for the handle. "Let's just get out of here."

  "Don't." Ash's sharp command froze him mid-reach.

  "Why not? The puzzle's solved."

  "The door killed Bram," Ash said. His voice stayed flat.

  Pell's arm dropped. He retreated from the exit.

  Near the back of the room, Anna stood with her arms folded, her eyes fixed on the tunnel behind them.

  "We should wait. See what happens."

  Silence settled over the chamber.

  Ash waited while the water gathered around his boots.

  Rowan shifted his weight, the sound of his boots scraping against wet stone unnaturally loud.

  Seconds stretched.

  Then minutes.

  A heavy vibration pulsed through the soles of Ash's boots.

  Noises came from the entrance.

  A granite block slid from the ceiling and dropped.

  THOOM.

  The impact shook the floor and punched a shockwave through his chest.

  Vera's breathing turned into panicked gasps. "We're trapped."

  A dry hiss started overhead. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling.

  Ash looked up.

  Fine gold grit spilled through the gaps. The sand struck the pooled water and sent up tiny splashes. The streams widened. Grains poured faster until the sound of cascading sand filled the chamber.

  Ash watched the gold grit pile against the walls. The constant hiss of the falling grains began to pulse in time with his heartbeat, louder and more insistent until the sound felt like a physical pressure against his eardrums.

  The world tilted.

  The sharp lines of the stone walls began to melt, the gray masonry running into the gold of the sand like wet ink. He blinked to clear the smear, but the distortion only deepened.

  "Your left eye," Pell said. He took a step back. His face went pale. "It looks... wrong."

  Ash pressed his hand to the skin below his eye. His fingertips came away slick with a black, viscous fluid that felt colder than the surrounding air. The liquid smelled of old copper and stagnant water.

  Then the agony arrived.

  A searing heat ignited behind his eye, scorching the nerves before the pain sank deep into the bone of his skull.

  The pain radiated outward. A thousand stinging needles stitched their way through his neck and down into his chest. His lungs locked. Every muscle in his torso tightened until his ribs felt ready to snap.

  He fell back. His shoulders hit the masonry. The rough stone scraped through his tunic as he slid toward the rising sand.

  A violent tremor hummed through Ash's bones, forcing his fingers to curl into rigid, aching claws.

  Corrupted mana erupted from his body.

  The energy stung his flesh while tearing into the open air.

  Pressure mounted behind his eyes. The pulse in his temples hammered like a mallet against bone.

  His knees buckled. He leaned against the wall to keep from sinking into the rising sand.

  The world went black.