Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8) - Shannon Messenger Page 0,244

on the other side of the door. I keep hearing thumping—don’t you?”

She hadn’t noticed it before, with all the other chaos, but now that he’d mentioned it…

There was a noticeable THUMP!

“Great,” Sophie mumbled. “Well… I’ll try levitating over them.”

“That could work,” Tam agreed, neither of them wanting to admit how impossible the plan was. “And if he catches you, we can try trading you for Lady Gisela. Maybe he’d go along, since it sounded like she’d made him other promises.”

“So Keefe’s mom is still…?” she started to ask, not sure how to word it.

“She’s alive,” Tam told her. “For now.”

And there was really nothing else to say to that.

THUMP!

“Okay,” Sophie said, “time to take on an army of angry dwarves! This day just keeps getting better and better.”

“Glimmer’s going to blast them with light when you open the door. It should blind them for a few seconds. And yes, you can trust her,” he added before she could ask.

Sophie nodded, glad he was willing to acknowledge how shaky their alliance felt. “I’m guessing you know more about her? Like… why she was with the Neverseen?”

And why Lady Gisela had said that Glimmer was more loyal to their cause than anyone she’d ever met…

“I do,” Tam agreed. “I’ll tell you more later. For now, I’ll try to keep all the dwarves away from you as you head to the door.”

“Thank you.” Sophie glanced at the pale, unconscious guy in her arms, reminding herself why they were sticking with this disastrous plan.

Keefe’s eyes were still open, staring at nothing.

His chest was still rising and falling too fast.

THUMP!

“Okay, here goes!” she said, and took off for the door, trying to pace herself, knowing she had a long journey ahead.

And the first challenge turned out to be the door itself.

It was huge. And heavy. And she didn’t see a handle anywhere. And…

She was so focused on the door that she didn’t see the dwarf crawling toward her until they had already lunged—and with Keefe’s extra weight, dodging was impossible.

The impact sent them tumbling, tumbling, tumbling—a tangle of legs and arms and fur—and Sophie tried to fight back, but she couldn’t let go of Keefe, and then she was pinned and—

“It’s okay, Sophie!” the dwarf shouted. “It’s me. Nubiti!”

“Nubiti,” Sophie repeated, needing another second for the panic and adrenaline screaming though her head to quiet.

Nubiti. Nubiti. Nubiti.

Except…

“I’m on your side!” Nubiti promised when she felt Sophie tense. “I know what King Enki did to you—if he even deserves the title of king—and I’ve been trying to—TAKE COVER!”

She grabbed Sophie’s shoulders, barely managing to roll their tangled group away before something black whisked over their heads and exploded in a shower of shadowy smoke.

“SHE’S ON OUR SIDE!” Sophie called out to Tam. “IT’S OKAY. HOLD FIRE!”

“Wait—he’s on your side?” Nubiti asked when she realized who Sophie was shouting to.

“He is. And so is the Flasher in the Neverseen cloak. Or, she says she is, and… I’m trying to trust her. She’s the one who broke Tam’s bonds so he could take on Lady Gisela.”

Nubiti sighed as she stood. “It appears we’ve both been misreading the situation.”

THUMP!

Sophie tensed again—and Tam and Glimmer went back to their positions.

Nubiti shook her head. “That’s not what you think it is. This is the problem with battle—you lose proper communication and…”

Her gaze focused on Keefe, and her voice trailed off.

“I need to get him to Elwin,” Sophie said, not bothering to get into the whole messy story because she’d realized something way more important. “You can take me to the better path! Glimmer said they used one that goes straight from here to the surface, but that I’d need a dwarf to take me down a level to use it. And since all the dwarves here were trying to kill us, I didn’t think it was an option, but now you’re here! Please tell me you know what I’m talking about.”

“I do,” Nubiti said, leaning closer to Keefe and waving a hand in front of his open eyes.

He didn’t blink.

“I can take you to that path,” Nubiti said slowly. “And I can distract the guards who patrol it as much as I can. But you will need to run very fast—and you’ll be carrying—”

“I can do it,” Sophie promised, refusing to share Nubiti’s worries.

She’d just been given a much better chance of getting Keefe to Elwin, and she wasn’t going to waste it because of doubt.

“I’ll run faster than I’ve ever run before,” she added, saying the words out loud to