Page 115 of Elven Throne

The entire cavern of the Peddler’s hall rumbled around them.

The flames along the walls snuffed out, leaving only the tiny little hearth beside the old blind woman rocking away in her rocking chair.

Then walls trembled. The floor shuddered beneath their feet, rippling with a deep tremor that hinted at nothing but pure destruction.

A massive crack split the air, followed by another shuddering groan before the first massive chunk of stone cracked away from the wall and dropped from the ceiling, picking up speed.

Rebecca saw it from the corner of her eye, and all the world narrowed down to a single moment.

This woulddefinitelybe a sign to get the fuck out.

The others searched the darkened hall, holding their arms out for balance as the trembling rock bed beneath them bucked this way and that.

Rebecca opened her mouth, but Maxwell spun around and shouted it for her instead.

“Move!”

“Oh shit!” Rowan ducked aside, narrowly avoiding being crushed by another chunk of the Peddler’s hall raining down on top of them.

Everyone turned and fled, racing back down the long stone hallway in the exact path they’d walked. Back toward the heavy iron door wedged in the stone archway and the dusty antechamber beyond.

Giant pieces of stone ceiling the size of cars crashed down all around them, sending rippling shockwaves through the floor.

Rebecca dodged the next in front of her, coughed beneath a billowing cloud of dust and ground rock spewing up in her face, then caught a glimpse of Maxwell’s glowing silver eyes in the darkness.

Rowan shouted something unintelligible.

Maxwell growled and never stopped moving.

Maleine leapt away from another dropping slab, shouted when she smacked up against the wall, then shoved herself away from it with a hiss and kept running.

The creak of the old woman’s rocking chair echoed constantly behind them, joined by the Peddler’s wild, cackling laughter.

Without the flames along the walls, it was too dark to see.

They weren’t going to make it.

A strobing flash of blinding yellow erupted from Maleine’s outstretched hands before a spiraling line of silvery-white crackled off ahead of them toward the door, illuminating the last bits of impending destruction for all of them to see.

More enormous chunks of rock rained down all around them, scattering Rebecca and the others off course beneath the trembling force. The cavern’s rumbling only grew louder, punctured by the deafening crack and rumbling crash of splitting stone.

The Peddler’s laughter continued, following them out the whole way.

Shit. They’d be crushed down here before they ever got through that iron door.

It had closed behind them, and they had no idea how to open it again.

Rebecca watched that door loom closer in her vision as she pumped her legs beneath her, stumbling off-kilter every time another boulder dropped from above and nearly crushed her beneath it.

Six yards, four, two…

Before anyone reached it, the door to the antechamber opened all on its own, squealing open with another metallic shriek. It caught on several smaller rocks broken apart in their fall, but it had opened enough for even someone Titus’s size to slip through at the last second.

Maleine’s spiraling silver light showed them the way, darting through the door before another dropping chunk of rock fell and blocked it from view.

The elf woman reached the door first and disappeared behind it, Rowan close on her heels. Rebecca didn’t know if she slipped through first, or Maxwell, or if they’d squeezed through that uncomfortably narrow space together, but then they were in the antechamber.

Just not out of danger.

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