Chapter 96: The Benefits of Panic
A few minutes into the crisis and the hiss had grown thick enough to feel almost solid, and both of them were coughing so hard that every word took effort.
"Coats."
James had already torn a strip from the hem of his own, the wool still damp from their swim below. He wrung it out, then pressed it over his nose and mouth. "Same trick gunners use against powder smoke. It won’t last forever, but it’ll buy us a few breaths we wouldn’t have otherwise."
Mary copied him, her reply muffled behind the wet cloth. "That ’won’t last forever’ part’s carryin’ a fair bit of weight, Captain."
"Optimism’s cheaper than miracles lass."
Their way back was no longer an option, and neither of them wasted precious breath talking about it.
James watched the chamber. His eyes dropped to the floor, where the hissing vapor was the thickest. It clung close to the stone instead of rising toward the ceiling.
"Don’t like the look of that."
Even through the cloth, his voice came out ragged.
Mary followed his gaze. "What is it?"
"The same devil that’s killed more than one sailor sleepin’ below deck."
He pointed toward the floor. "See where it’s sittin’?"
She looked once, then nodded.
"Up, then?"
"Up we go."
The broken staircase waited at the far wall. Its lower steps had crumbled a long ago, leaving an empty stretch of bare stone before the remaining staircase began.
James laced his fingers together and dropped to one knee, bracing himself against the wall.
"Right then. We got this."
Mary eyed his cupped hands.
"I’ve dreamed of grander ladders."
"So’ve I. Climb."
She snorted and planted a boot in his hands, steadying herself on his shoulder.
James shoved upward as she jumped, sending her scrambling onto the first intact step. Stone scraped beneath her boots, and she muttered a curse he didn’t quite catch.
"Made it?"
"Barely. Remind me to complain about the landin’ later."
"I’ll write it down."
"Make sure ye spell my sufferin’ properly."
"I’d never do it the injustice."
He was already grinning behind the damp cloth.
She disappeared beyond the light of the torchlight, her boots scraping against stone overhead.
When she called back down, there was purpose in her voice. "I got an idea Captain. There’s old cloth here, brittle as ship’s biscuit forgotten in the hold and some vine grown through the wall thick enough to carry a man’s weight. Give me a moment to lash it together."
"Take yer sweet time. I’ll just stay down here breathin’ whatever poison we’re worth."
"What a gift for makin’ a woman feel guilty, Calloway."
"It’s a rare talent. Thought I might start chargin’ for it."
James set his torch as far from the thickening haze as he could. He had no intention of keeping an open flame near the floor where the gas pooled deepest.
Darkness swallowed the chamber beyond the glow of light, making everything feel smaller and far less welcoming.
He stayed low, breathing through the wet wool. Every breath burned worse than the last and his eyes watered until the room blurred. An ache spread through his chest that had nothing to do with the swim.
"Mary."
His voice came out rougher than he’d intended. "Whenever ye’re ready. No rush. Just... whenever."
"Nearly there. And don’t ye dare pass out on me, I’ll never hear the end of it if I bring ye back unconscious."
"Tell the lads I fainted like a proper gentleman. Very dignified."
A rope of knotted cloth and woven vine dropped from above moments later.
James caught it with both hands and hauled himself upward, climbing in a hurry. By the time he pulled himself over the broken stairs, his arms were shaking.
Mary caught him by the clothes and hauled him the rest of the way onto solid stone.
For some seconds they stayed where they were, kneeling side by side and coughing the poison from their lungs. The air up here had less of the foul smell, though it was hardly pleasant.
"Right."
James wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of one hand. "I ought to reward you sometime, else I’ll start to feel cheap."
"Bah, add it to my wages."
Only Mary’s torch remained, its flame throwing restless shadows over walls that seemed to close tighter around them with every turn. They pressed deeper into the ruins, following a corridor that forked again and again until James lost any sense of direction beyond the faint certainty that they were climbing.
Some passages ended at heavy stone doors whose seams had never yielded while others had long since surrendered to time, their walls split open by roots and crumbled masonry, leaving jagged gaps where whole sections had fallen away.
Those breaches became the only paths left to them, forcing them to climb over broken blocks, squeeze through leaning walls, and pick their way across floors littered with shattered stone.
Mary ducked beneath a cracked lintel and glanced back over her shoulder. "Never thought I’d be grateful for poor craftsmanship."
"Aye."
James followed after her, brushing grit from his sleeve. "This place fallin’ apart’s finally done us a favor."
The words had scarcely left his mouth before a low groan rolled through the ruins in a way James felt in his bones. It reminded him of a ship carrying too much sail into too much wind.
Dust drifted from the ceiling in pale curtains, coating their shoulders and the torch alike. Small chips of stone skipped across the floor as another rumble followed the first, louder this time, and somewhere deeper within the temple came the sharp crack of masonry giving way.
Mary slowed for half a step. "I don’t suppose that’s a good sign."
"I’d be disappointed if it was."
Another crack answered him.
A fracture raced across the wall beside them, scattering splinters of stone into the corridor. James caught Mary’s arm and pulled her forward just as a slab the size of a coffin lid tore free overhead. It struck the floor where she had been, exploding into fragments that rattled down the passage and filled the air with choking dust.
Neither of them waited to admire the damage.
They hurried onward as the temple continued to protest around them.
Every fresh groan seemed to come from a different direction, making it impossible to tell where the next collapse would strike. A doorway behind them vanished beneath a shower of falling rock, while another passage ahead narrowed as broken masonry spilled across the floor, leaving only enough space to scramble over before the passage disappeared entirely.
Mary hauled herself across the obstruction first and offered James the torch while he climbed after her. The stones shifted beneath his boots, sending several tumbling into the darkness below.
"Well," Mary puffed once he reached the top, "That would’ve spoiled me whole day."
"Aye." James handed the torch back with a smile. "Ye’re not much use to me flattened."
"I’d make a very poor conversation."
"Terrible navigator, too."
She laughed under her breath and started forward again before another shudder rolled through the ruins.
The corridor continued to climb, twisting through the heart of the broken complex until the stale air gradually gave way to something cooler. Each breath carried a little less dust than the last, and before long James caught the unmistakable scent of damp earth and growing things beneath the lingering smell of old stone.
A pale wash of green appeared around the next bend, faint at first, then brighter with every hurried step. Sunlight filtered through leaves somewhere ahead, spilling across the corridor in wavering patches that neither torch nor crystal could ever imitate.
Neither of them needed to say a word.
They broke into a run, vaulted the last tumble of fallen stone, and burst out in the open.
Vines covered a broad stone plaza the jungle had claimed centuries ago. Overhead, the canopy had split wide enough to reveal an open patch of sky.
James bent over with his hands on his knees, pulling in great breaths of air that tasted of living plants and warm sunlight instead of rot and poison.
The space shimmered before him before he’d fully caught his breath.
🏴 [TITLE ACTIVATED — Against All Reasonable Odds]
Did you honestly believe your impressive lungs were the reason you survived a chamber filling with poisonous gas? I find that oddly touching.
Also incorrect.
James let out a breath that became a laugh halfway through.
Beside him, Mary finally straightened, though her chest still rose and fell with heavy breaths.
Their eyes met across the ruined plaza, beneath the open sky, over the absurd fact that somehow both of them were still alive to see it.
She laughed first. It came without warning or reason beyond simple relief.
James joined her a moment later, and before long they were both doubled over again, though this time it had nothing at all to do with poisonous gas.