Page 147 of Fate Calls the Elf Queen

“Stay close,” Caliban croaked over his shoulder. “The maze can sense when someone doesn’t belong. It will try to separate us.” The passageway ahead abruptly closed into a wall, and two pathways on either side opened with torches lining down as far as she could see. Another breeze carried with it the smell of something foul.

“Which way?” Hel snapped.

Caliban inhaled and looked back and forth between the two. After a moment he said, “I’m not sure.”

“Get sure.” Hel’s eyes turned menacing, and he gripped his arm tighter.

“The maze is built on the intention of the one given permission to enter and the maze shows them the way. It… must sense I am under threat. It’s not revealing the way to me.”

The groaning noise happened again, not of the shifting of bricks but something other… a beast? Was there a dragon down here to guard the treasure? The knots in her gut intensified. They could get trapped here in an endless maze spelled to keep them lost with a beast hunting them.

“How is the way revealed?” Hel demanded, getting in Caliban’s face.

Caliban’s jaw muscles twitched but he said, “It’s a scent that only a Drakonan can detect.”

“Heal him, right now,” Layala snapped. “Before we get stuck down here forever.”

The two paths ahead closed off, the torches died out, and suddenly there was nothing but four walls and darkness.This is not good.

A white orb lit up the space, floating above Hel’s palm. He sent it up to the eight-foot-high ceiling, revealing they were trapped in a possible ten-foot-by-ten-foot room with no doors, no windows, no means of escape.

Presco backed into a corner, breaths coming faster and faster. “Have I ever mentioned I’m extremely claustrophobic?” Dragon scales moved across his skin, and he began punching at the brick; sparks from the impact rained down at his feet; small chunks of stone came loose but he didn’t even make a dent. “I have to get out,” the growing panic in his voice increased with each hit.

“Presco, calm down. We will get out,” Layala said but she too was finding it harder to draw in breath. “This is magic, Hel, do something.”

“I can’t break through wards like this without knowing what they are.”

The walls began to move inward scraping and groaning with every inch. Presco shoved his palms against the wall and pushed but his shoes only skid backward. Layala rushed to the other side, letting her magic hum, turning her hand and arm to shadow, she tried to push through the wall, but it hit against the solid barrier. Their powers seemed muted here or the wards to escape were stronger. There was no walking through walls to get out. Hel rolled his neck and closed his eyes.

Are you meditating at a time like this?

I’m trying to get the ward to reveal itself to me.With a flick of his fingers, varied blue rays of light slithered along each wall, rolling like ocean waves. Hel’s mouth pursed. “This is even more complicated than I thought it would be.”

The walls kept moving in.

“Each variety of blue is a layered spell. Each has a code of its own, a different makeup. It would take me weeks to get through them all.”

Caliban coughed up a spray of blood.

“Then heal Caliban!”

“Fine.” Hel nodded and thrust his palm against Caliban’s side and a warm glow emitted from beneath it. In a moment, Caliban breathed easier, his face no longer contorted with pain. But the walls were still moving in, making the space between each other smaller inch by inch. They’d soon be shoulder to shoulder.

Caliban flung himself at the wall, pressing his palms to the stone, and chanted in a language she didn’t know. The blue waves Hel revealed began to vibrate and then darkened. The walls halted and began to retract again. Torches appeared and lit and a moment later, a corridor opened ahead. “It’s that way.” He sounded out of breath.

Turning to Presco, Layala gave him a reassuring nod. “You’re alright now. We’re going to make it out.”

His entire body trembled, and his blond hairline was soaked in sweat. Those gold-rimmed glasses were crooked on his nose. He fixed his spectacles, straightened his suit jacket, and together they trudged on.

Hel leaned closer to Caliban and said quietly, “If you betray us, I will heal you and hurt you over and over again and not let you die.”

“I won’t.”

After several hallway switches and pathways opening and closing, they came upon a monumental door labeled118. It must rise at least twelve feet tall and half that wide. It wasn’t made out of wood but a silver metal that looked to be ancient with a smattering of rust and dirt. There was no door handle or any visible means of entry.

Caliban swung his head from side to side as if he expected someone orsomethingto appear out of the tunnel behind them. That made Hel watch him with suspicion, and she knew he was showing much more restraint than he wanted to.He won’t betray us. He wants out of here too.

You’re too trusting,Hel said back.

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