Library of Gold by Alex Archer

Author:Alex Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

She regained consciousness with a heavy weight pressing against her. The ceiling collapse had dumped hundreds of pounds of earth, rock and ancient brick on her. Only her helmet had kept her alive, preventing her skull from being cracked open like an egg. She tried to move and discovered that she couldn’t.

She couldn’t move at all.

You’re trapped.

You’re going to die here.

Suffocate to death all alone.

“No, I will not,” she said in fierce defiance.

She’d been trapped with her right arm thrust up over her head and her face tucked into the crook of her arm, creating a mini air pocket. That had kept her from suffocating.

Her head wasn’t pounding the way she would have expected it to if she were upside down and all the blood was rushing to it, so she concluded she must still be facing upward, toward the surface.

If there even is a surface.

She was not going to give in to panic.

Her main problem was oxygen. Or lack thereof. That air pocket would be used up very quickly. The carbon dioxide she was emitting must already have significantly reduced the amount of oxygen in that tiny space. Her brain was starting to feel sluggish, her thought processes slowing down. If she didn’t get more oxygen soon, she really would die here.

She couldn’t move more than a few scant millimeters, certainly not enough to dig herself out. But then again, maybe she didn’t have to.

Without moving a muscle, Annja reached into the otherwhere and drew her sword.

It sprang into existence, spearing upward from her outstretched hand and piercing the earth above her head. The tiniest whisper of air drifted down the length of her arm to reach her face.

It was musty and full of dirt particles, but it was air nonetheless.

There wouldn’t have been enough light for her to see even if she hadn’t been buried. But she could hear someone shouting and a strange rhythmic scratching sound. Like a giant cat scratching at the door to be let in.

Or someone digging into the earth nearby in an effort to rescue her.

“Here!” she shouted. “I’m here!”

She worked her wrist muscles, wobbling the blade in the channel it had created, sending earth cascading down toward her but widening the hole above her head, letting in more air. More sound.

Now she could make out the words.

“Hang on, Annja! We’re coming!”

She could feel them now, somewhere down around her midsection. Their proximity made her realize she didn’t need the sword anymore and being discovered with it would create its own host of problems. She let go of it and felt it vanish back into the nothingness of the otherwhere, ready for the next time she needed it.

That rhythmic scratching was much closer now, the sound filling her ears, and then she was being helped out of the mound of debris that had done its best to kill her.

She felt hands on her body, helping her sit up. There were lights in her face and cool water slipping past her lips.

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