THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 7
THE NAME IN THE WATER 🫧
The broken-crown symbol opened like an eye, and the wheel kicked beneath their flippers.
“Hold it!” TurboTAD called.
Marno locked both flippers around his handle. Nibble braced against the second, and TurboTAD leaned into the third. The key shone between them as they turned.
Stone groaned below. Part of the upward current twisted sideways through channels beneath the floor. Pressure eased behind the inspection door; its split seam stopped widening.
Marno watched the map. “It’s diverting.”
“Towards the broken crown,” Nibble said. His detector flashed as the hidden route brightened.
Beyond the door, three heavy locks withdrew.
TurboTAD raised a flipper. “Nobody breaks anything.”
Marno lowered his hammer. The door eased inward by itself.
A narrow vertical gallery waited beyond it, lined with older First Builder stonework. One channel climbed towards the nursery roots. A walkway curved into darkness along the broken-crown route, with water rushing beneath it the other way.
Nibble lifted his detector. “Two flows. One climbing, one being pulled away.”
“Which feeds the nursery?”
He adjusted a dial. “The upward one.”
On the map, the third pool still flickered, but it had stopped dimming.
“We’ve bought them time,” TurboTAD said. “I want to know what this diversion does before we lose it again.”
“TurboTAD.”
The voice was closer. It came through the water, not along the walkway.
Nibble’s detector spun. “It’s travelling through the channel.”
Marno touched the stone. “The Builders may have sent warnings through these pipes.”
The broken crown pulsed. Markings appeared beneath it.
Nibble squinted. “I can’t read all of that.”
Marno could. His face tightened.
“What does it say?” TurboTAD asked.
“Crown Spillway.” Marno passed over a damaged line. “Closed after the first breach.”
A cold ripple travelled through the gallery.
TurboTAD looked down the dark route. “Then someone opened it again.”
The wheel clicked behind them. The key went dark. He removed it carefully and closed his flipper around the raised ring.
“Pressure’s holding,” Nibble said.
Lights awakened along the walkway towards the spillway. TurboTAD entered first, Marno following with his hammer ready and Nibble with the detector raised.
Around a bend, the gallery widened. A broken crown larger than TurboTAD was carved into its floor. Nursery water crossed the carving and slipped beneath a sealed circular hatch.
“You came back,” whispered the stone.
TurboTAD stopped. Marno stared at him, and Nibble’s detector fell silent.
He had never been here before. Something beneath the hatch believed he had.