Page 36 of For the Love of the Quest

She thought of those strong arms holding her gently after she’d been shot by the arrow, of Thomasin’s long, powerful fingers combing through her hair, replacing her bandages with the utmost care. She thought of Thomasin pinning her to the ground while they sparred, holding her in place like it was nothing, of her hand wrapping around the back of Edith’s head when she swiped her legs out from underneath her, taking care to cushion her head as she fell. There was something about the gentleness with which Thomasin treated Edith, in stark contrast to the rugged strength of her, that made Edith’s insides melt.

Jay cleared his throat next to Edith, and she roused herself from her thoughts with a sharp shake of her head. Her eyes refocused on Thomasin, who was staring down at her with a bemused smile. “You still with me?” She was balanced on one of the L-shaped wooden pegs that supported the table, both her feet only just fitting on the narrow plank.

Edith forced her lips into a smile. “Nice work!”

Thomasin gave her a peculiar look, then nodded her chin toward the Round Table. “Now what?”

“Um … just look around for anything strange, a switch or lever, or … anything,” Edith finished stupidly.

Thomasin reached for the rose, pushing up on her tiptoes. Edith inhaled through her teeth when she wobbled. Thomasin steadied herself with a palm pressed flat into the table, her fingertips just brushing the outer edge of the rose. The toned muscles of her upper back and shoulders rippled as she stretched her arm up as far as possible.

“Careful!” Edith shouted as Thomasin shuffled her feet so that they were just barely hanging on to the edge of the peg.

Thomasin ran her fingers across the petals, searching for any oddities. Her hand stilled as it crossed the center. “It’s a button!” she shouted down at Edith, her voice breathy with sudden excitement.

Edith watched eagerly as Thomasin pressed the pistil of the rose. It gave with a soft click, and then the entire rose swung open like a door on a hinge. Thomasin reared back as the wooden circle swung toward her, knocking her off balance. Edith leapt forward, arms readying to catch her, as if that would do any good.

“Whew.” Thomasin’s shoulders dropped with a relieved sigh after she managed to right herself.

“What is it?” Edith asked, unable to contain her curiosity any longer. She couldn’t quite see what the rose had revealed from her angle on the ground.

Thomasin ducked her head under the rose. “It’s a tunnel,” she laughed. “It’s an actual tunnel.”

“A tunnel?” Edith echoed back at her. “Can you see where it leads?” She pushed up on her tiptoes, straining to see into the shadowed passage, while Thomasin leaned to the side, her weight precariously balancing on just the ball of one foot. Her fingers curled around the bottom edge of the newly revealed tunnel.

“It’s too dark to make anything out. It looks like it goes down, though.”

“No time to waste then,” Edith said, tightening the strap of her satchel around her body. “We just have to figure out how to get me up there.”

After the logistics were hammered out, and with an awkward maneuver, Thomasin managed to get herself not only in the tunnel but turned around so that her arms hung down.

“Take my hands!” she told Edith, who was currently wobbling from where she was perched unsteadily on Jay’s shoulders. His hands were locked around her shins, and he stood as solid as a pillar, but it had still taken a good five minutes, and much coaxing, to get Edith to actually stand on his shoulders in the first place.

Edith grasped for Thomasin, and the other woman’s hands closed around hers with an iron grip. Her shoulder twinged at the movement, the damaged skin tugging painfully.

“Okay, I’ve got you,” Thomasin said with an authoritative tone that Edith had become familiar with. The one that always seemed to work a little too well on her. “Now you just need to find a foothold that’s a little farther up.”

Edith forced her leg to obey, knee bending and foot lifting from Jay’s shoulder. Her balance careened sideways, but when her panicked gaze swung upward, Thomasin’s own eyes were calm, and her hold on Edith was steady.

Keeping her eyes locked on Thomasin, Edith searched for purchase with her foot. Her boot scratched along the stone until the tip of her foot wedged into a gap between the stones. “Okay, on the count of three, I’ll push off, and then you can pull me up!”

“This is going to kill your shoulder,” Thomasin objected, just as she had when Edith first told them her plan.

“There’s no other way to get me in that tunnel, and I’m damn well not waiting out here,” Edith said quickly. The longer her armwas stretched upward like this, the more it hurt. She was keen to get the worst part out of the way.

Thomasin sighed, seemingly coming to the correct conclusion that there was nothing she could do to dissuade Edith from her current course of action. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

Edith counted to three and then threw all her weight onto the foot she had propped against the wall. She launched herself with every ounce of strength she possessed at the same moment that Thomasin hauled her upward.

With great effort and clumsy movement, Edith ended up with her torso in the tunnel and her legs dangling out. Her knees were raw from where they had scraped against the stone, and her half-healed shoulder wound was screaming at her, but she was in the tunnel and that was all that mattered.

“Are you okay?” Thomasin was shoved flat against the wall of the tunnel, her body tilted sideways to make room for Edith. Though she was completely squished, Edith felt Thomasin’s hand pull aside the material of her tunic to check her wound. Edith doubted she could even see anything in this light, or from that angle.

“I’m fine.” Edith tried to meet her eyes, but she couldn’t quite make her neck turn that far.

Thomasin’s elbow knocked into her hip, and then the woman’s knee came dangerously close to her face. When Edith made a noise in protest, Thomasin’s body went slack. “You’ll need to go first. I won’t be able to turn around until you’re farther in.”

Edith dug her elbows into the dirt-packed floor of the tunnel and dragged herself forward until her legs made it into the passage.