The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [33]
"Why do you live here then?" Meisha asked. With no chair in the room, she settled on the cold floor. "If the Delve is so old, aren't you afraid one day it will collapse?"
Varan chuckled. "From what I've been able to discern, the Delve has withstood far more than an old wizard's spells and come out intact. Now it is my sanctuary. The walls will hold." The wizard shrugged into a thick robe and plucked up a crooked staff as he spoke. "But we haven't solved your problem; you need sleep."
He ushered her out into the hall, spell-locking the door behind them. "When I can't find calm, I work until I'm weary, and I still have a task to finish before I seek my bed tonight. This task will weary both of us, if you'd cate to join me?"
Meisha nodded eagetly. Anything would be pteferable to tetutning to her boxlike room in the dark, even with the flame burning all night. The weight of the Delve still pressed down on her, but in Vatan's presence the feeling seemed to diminish.
She followed the wizard down a side passage typically forbidden to the apprentices. Meisha recognized the boundary of Varan's wards inscribed on the tunnel wall. They walked right past the sigil, led by the glow from Varan's staff.
They entered a wide-mouthed, bell-shaped chamber that Meisha saw was entirely submerged in water. The cavern's ceiling reflected unbroken across the clear surface of the water, making it impossible to tell where the bottom lay.
Varan released his staff, causing it to hover over the center of the calm pool. "Fresh water source," he said. "Something we're always in need of down here. Close, too, so I'm considering extending the watds."
"So other creatures won't intrude on the watering hole," Meisha surmised.
"Correct-ordinarily-but I've observed this particular watering hole is rarely used by wandering creatures," Varan told her. "Can you guess why?"
Meisha looked at him shatply, at the same time taking a step back. "What dwells in the water?"
"Very good," Varan said, "and to answer your question, something big."
"So I'm to be your bait?" Meisha asked sullenly. She'd thought Varan would let her attack the thing.
Varan laughed. "Hardly, little one. I am not an ogte, or a Red Wizard, with apprentices to squander-and a waste it would be, for the creature that lives beneath the surface would rend you unrecognizable. Besides," his eyes glinted, "I do not require bait."
"How, then?" Meisha asked, intrigued. The wizard s enthusiasm infected her. She trailed his steps around the rim of the pool.
"First, I'll need your aid." Varan twirled a finger, and his staff inverted, shining the light close to the watet's surface. "For all its might, the creature is shy and comes to ground only to hunt. It will need an inducement to reveal itself."
He waited, and Meisha realized he proposed a test. Varan wanted to see how she would solve the problem.
Meisha squatted next to the pool and placed her hands above the water. The words came to her haltingly. She envisioned the words dredged up from the bottom of the pool like so many butied coins, humming with powet and warmth. She spoke fastet, and the powet turned to heat. She felt the glaze of it along her palm, a blown-glass ball she shaped using only her mind.
A bubble popped on the pool's surface. Next to her, a small, blind fish with twisted horns floated to the surface on its side. Another followed, and still Meisha let the heat build. Her calves ached from holding the same crouched position, but she dared not move or risk breaking the spell. Steam brushed her face. She heard another loud pop, and the water churned. Meisha thought it was the spell, but suddenly a fleshy mouth broke the sutface of the water, followed by twin webbed claws.
Meisha threw up her hand in automatic defense, realizing she might lose the appendage in her foolishness. Spiky teeth closed around her wrist, but Meisha felt no pressure, no severing of bone or tissue.