Page 44 of Rune Assassin

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

I couldn’t go firstbut I could stay close by Tegan’s side as he ventured over to the askew door. The blast from my blood had left it battered and broken and the hinges were the worse for wear. Tegan pressed his hand against the end closest to the hinges and creaked the door open to reveal the innocent-looking outdoors. My magic has blasted all the sand off the porch and left a wide path the same width as the doorway clear to the slope upward out of the depression.

Clara followed behind us and Tegan paused at the doorway to look over at her. “What preparations do you have left for the trial?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I need to be there to command the brooms.”

I blinked at her. “Command the brooms?”

She glared at me. “Stop wasting time and start moving.” She emphasized her point by pushing past us and marching onto the porch.

“Wait!” Tegan shouted.

Clara took one step on the sand and a strange vibration shook the ground. Tegan’s feet pounded across the porch boards and he wrapped his arms around the woman. She screamed as he lifted her off the ground and swung her back onto the porch. At the same moment, the sand where her foot had been was pushed up into a cylindrical shape before it flattened.

I hurried over to the pair as they both gaped at the ground. “What the hell is that?!”

Tegan shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Release me at once!” Clara demanded as she thrashed in his hold.

“Gladly.” Tegan opened his arms and she scurried out of his grasp but not off the porch.

Tegan stepped up to the edge and knelt to study the sand. He looked about us and his eyes fell on some splintered wood near my foot courtesy of the wrecked door. “Hand me that bit of wood,” he commanded me.

I picked it up and handed it off. Tegan returned his attention to the sand and poked the end of the short stick into the beach. The sand rose as before but this time something shot out and wrapped around the wood. Tegan immediately released the stick and the wood was slurped into the sand like spaghetti before the whole thing sunk back into the earth.

We stared in silent horror for a long moment.

I cleared my throat. “Is it some kind of sandworm?” The pair looked at me as if I’d gone mad, but I just shrugged. “Hey, it could be possible.”

Clara leaned over the porch and wrinkled her nose. “It isn’t magic, whatever it is, or I’d have smelled it.”

“Then it must be a natural creature of sorts,” Tegan mused as he looked at our ‘hostess.’ “Do you have any more of those brooms around here?”

She shook her head. “They’re all being used, even my precious one.”

Tegan’s attention dropped to me. “And you still can’t whistle?”

I furrowed my brow before I puckered my lips. A few feeble and shaky notes emanated from my mouth before I gave up. “Nope. What about you flying us out of here?”

“I could take you both but I would crush the hut,” he admitted.

Clara’s eyebrows crashed down. “Don’t you dare or I’ll put a curse on your entire family!”

A smile touched the corners of his lips. “I don’t think my transforming would be a good idea, anyway, because I would break the floorboards beneath me. Whatever is in the sands might grab me or either of you before we have a chance to lift off.”

I leaned my arm against one of the posts and folded my arms over my chest. “So what now? We wait for help or do we starve to death?”

“It’s more likely that any help that would come would themselves be taken,” Tegan pointed out as he stood. “As things stand, I’m not sure how we’ll get out of here.”

Things looked dire and smelled even worse. The scents of the contents in all the broken jars and vials wafted out the door and over the sands. I clapped my hand over my mouth and gagged when my stained fingers exuded the same stench.

“What did you have in those jars?” I questioned Clara.

“Nothing a good witch can’t go without,” she retorted.

Tegan’s eyes widened. “That’s it!” He spun around and looked up at the herbs that hung from the rafters. “Could you make a concoction that could penetrate the soil?”

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