“Oh.” Oliver’s ruff drooped.
“Hurry,” Celeste said before turning around. She withdrew her enhancement, and the level of magic in the link diminished. With a sigh, Oliver took away his boost, too, and followed Celeste. Marcus had already turned away, drawing magic through me to keep Rourke aloft. The muggy air suctioned around my feet like molasses, as if it was trying to glue my feet to the tunnel. We both leaned forward, our steps exaggerated, and I was reminded of Oliver walking as if bracing against a hurricane-strength wind when he’d returned to the baetyl to help me pull Marcus out. Several yards later, the air element grew slick in Marcus’s grip, slipping and twisting under Rourke. After another four labored steps, Marcus lost control of it completely and Rourke smacked to the rock floor. I pulled magic from the link and checked his health. I didn’t know if I should have been thankful or worried to find it unchanged.
“We’re not close enough,” I said, but Marcus already knew that through the link. He gathered air again, but it slipped away before he had enough to lift the gargoyle.
“Maybe we can drag him,” I suggested.
“How much farther can you walk?”
Good question. I trudged past Marcus, and the glowball trailing me flickered and extinguished. I made it another dozen steps, each progressively more difficult. We were close, with the baetyl looming around the bend. Tentatively, I reached for it, then jerked back when a malevolent presence swiped at me. I was no longer welcome.
I turned around, steadying myself on the wall, and reached for Rourke, using the combined weight of Marcus’s and my linked magic. Air slipped from my grip again and again, and I couldn’t budge the gargoyle. Leaving the glowball behind, Marcus waded into the darkness with me, muscling himself two steps closer to the baetyl through brute force. The ominous weight of the baetyl tightened like a cat crouching, readying itself to pounce.
“Stop!” I gathered our magic into a quartz shield, prepared to throw all our strength into defending Marcus. He stopped, giving me an unreadable look in the dim light.
“It’s not going to let us any closer, and it doesn’t matter if we can’t bring the gargoyles with us,” I said.
He waded back to my side as if moving through waist-high mud, his exaggerated motions looking absurd in the empty tunnel. The baetyl relaxed but didn’t take its awareness from us. Grudgingly, I let Marcus disband my shield and attempt to pull Rourke closer to us. Magic worked no better for him than it had for me. Together, we slogged back up the tunnel. Each step grew lighter and easier, and I fought the urge to run back to the surface, knowing it was at least partially the baetyl’s compulsion.
“Now what?” Marcus asked.
“The plan hasn’t changed. We need to get the gargoyles as close to the baetyl as possible. Maybe if we get enough of them together, it’ll recognize them and let us take them in.” It was a slim possibility, but having something to do was better than giving in to the despair ghosting my thoughts. We’d come too far to stop now.
Celeste allowed herself one mournful whine when we told her we hadn’t been able to get Rourke into the baetyl; then she insisted on boosting us as far as the baetyl would allow so we didn’t fatigue ourselves carrying the gargoyles into the tunnel. Oliver was more than happy to back her up.
With their help, we were able to bring the curled-up fox and the owl-headed rabbit together, but the rest of the gargoyles were too large and had to be carried individually.
“It makes my insides hurt, like it’s trying to change me,” Oliver said after our fifth trip into the tunnel.
I whirled to face him. “Out. Now,” I barked, remembering the baetyl’s desire to snuff out his life and breathe its own pattern into him. I hurried Oliver from the tunnel, herding Celeste with him, and refused to let them back in when Marcus and I returned to the surface.
“I need to know you’re safe. Besides, there’s not much else you can do. We can carry the last gargoyle by ourselves.”
Oliver’s defeated posture and woeful eyes squeezed my heart, but I didn’t back down. He’d risked his life for me twice already today—once by entering the baetyl to begin with and again when he returned to help me pull Marcus out. I wasn’t going to let him endanger himself unnecessarily now.
Marcus and I carried each gargoyle as close to the baetyl as we could, physically pushing the lighter ones closer when magic failed us, but every time we were stopped by the baetyl before we reached the entrance. Where we were forced to drop each gargoyle didn’t follow a pattern; the baetyl let us carry the heavy wolf farther than the much lighter curled-up fox but not as far as owl-rabbit. The last, the sardonyx tiger, slipped from our grip just in front of Rourke.
Panting, I hobbled a few steps to the tiger’s side and draped an arm over her shoulders, resting my head on her motionless side while I caught my breath. I badly wanted to sit, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get back up.
I wondered if the gargoyles could sense the baetyl. Did they know they were mere feet from the magic they needed to revive them? I reached into the tiger with a probe of the elements—fighting to hold even a tiny bit of fire, air, water, and wood. The gargoyle felt no stronger than she had on the surface. Possibly weaker.
We needed to feed the gargoyles magic.
I straightened, seeing my horror reflected in Marcus’s expression as we both came to the same realization.
“How are we going to give them magic here? I can barely hold an element,” I said.