Page 52 of Red Ruin

Strange energy prickles between my shoulders.

It’s not a Sentinel’s power.

I wouldn’t even say it’s threatening. Kind of like…a hum with pauses?

Wary, I peer inside, then muffle my gasp.

The glow rises from an array.

A massive spell circle covers the cavern floor. Complex patterns are drawn in glowing, 3D lines that could be made from poured-out salt or powdered chalk.

The flicker comes from the eight crystal pillars spaced around the stone circle at the center of the array.

I don’t dabble in formations myself, but I’ve seen enough kinds to recognize the reinforced lines of an imprisoning seal.

And based on that eerie flicker?

It’s weakening.

Fast.

Before humans were strong enough to fight the monsters, the best they could do was seal away the ones they couldn’t defeat, hoping later generations would find a way to save themselves.

I’ve jail-broken plenty of lost-and-found monster prisons with Kevan. Never one this big.

Or this strong.

I don’t dare hang around to investigate what’s trapped below.

I spot another tunnel across the cavern.

Using my glaive as a walking pole, I pick down the slope to the cavern floor. There’s a gap between the wall and the outer ring of the array.

As long as I slink around without disturbing any lines, I shouldn’t have problems getting to the other side.

The thought carries me as long as thirty optimistic seconds.

That’s when I find the source of the weird, stuttering hum.

Not a hum, Iris.

It’s a snore.

From above, the sub-circles in the array pattern looked like they were filled with piles of the same fluffy, white powder used to draw the lines.

Turns out?

They’re fluffy because they’rewolves.

Many, many, curled-up-in-a-ball wolves. They’d be cute if they weren’t monster, car-sized array guardians, and I wasn’t trespassing in the formation that they exist to protect.

So, that’s a fun new thing.

I don’t move and neither do they, but it’s safe to assume theyet.

I didn’t run away from my narcissistic mother and emotionally unavailable ex just to die alone in a cave.

Vhex and Remy need me, and if I can’t save them, Faervaine’s northern border is boned.

---