Page 68 of Court of Lies and Deceit

A low whimper comes from her throat.

The pitiful sound, coming from someone as strong as Isera, stuns me so much that I whip my head towards her. But I canbarely see her face in this darkness. The others are still running up ahead, getting closer to the opening.

“Come on,” I repeat. “We need to?—”

Stone slams against stone.

And then all light disappears.

Isera lets out a strangled noise.

“Fuck!” Draven screams from up ahead.

I turn in his direction while still keeping my hand around Isera’s wrist. Her hand, and her entire arm, has started shaking uncontrollably.

In the thick darkness, I can’t see anything. But I can hear someone pound against a stone wall.

“The bastards blocked off our only way out!” Draven calls back to us.

Isera starts hyperventilating.

Then light returns as Alistair summons flames along his arms. Yellow and orange firelight illuminates the corridor, which has now become radically shorter. Stone walls box us in from every direction, and with the ceiling now in place over the corridor, we’re trapped in here.

“Can you break through it?” Galen asks, looking at Draven. “With your lightning or wind?”

“I can try,” Draven replies, dark storm clouds gathering around him. “But if the lightning hits wrong, it could cause the whole stone ceiling to collapse right on top of us.” He turns in our direction. “Isera, create another ceiling of ice above us to protect us in case that happens.”

But Isera doesn’t answer. She just stands there next to me, her eyes wide with terror, as she stares at the stone enclosing us. Her breathing comes in short shallow bursts.

Releasing her wrist, I gently stroke her arm instead. “Isera, can you?—”

A low rumbling starts. The sound of rock scraping and gears grinding.

Then the walls on our left and right start to move.

Fear drops like a stone in my stomach as the corridor begins toshrink.

Isera’s knees buckle.

“No, no, no, please,” she gasps out, throwing her hands up over her head and rocking back and forth in panic. “Make it stop. Make it stop.”

“Hold the walls!” Draven bellows.

Leaving Isera there on the ground, I rush over to the wall on my right and throw my weight against it. Alistair joins me while Galen and Lyra do the same on the other wall.

White lightning cracks through the air as Draven tries to break through the unmoving wall up ahead. The lightning bolt slams into the stone, leaving a charred mark on the wall, but doesn’t break through. He shoots a blast of wind at it.

My heart pounds in my ears as I press my palms against the right wall, but it just keeps moving inwards, making me slide across the sand. I try to dig my heels in, but the soft sand provides little support.

“Isera!” I call. “You need to create a block of ice between the walls to stop them!”

She just shakes uncontrollably while hyperventilating on the ground.

“Isera!” I scream. “Please! We need you!”

Lightning slams into the stone wall again, the sound ricocheting through the shrinking corridor. Draven shoots another bolt.

The stone cracks.

---