I smile. Quinn is having fun, and her fun is always contagious. “I’m glad you have that cane,” I say.
“You know what? For the first time, me too.”
We cross several more rows this way, the air heating with our failures, but otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be any danger.
“I see the end!” says Quinn.
We follow her off the tile floor onto a dirt path beyond it. The moment that we leave the tile, the torch reignites.
“That wasn’t so bad,” says Ronan. “At least the puzzle was fair.”
“Changing from shadow to light halfway through was pretty cheap,” says Seth.
Light and shadow. Julia and Leander. Ronan and me.
We’re certainly in the right place.
“Where do we go from here, though?” says Quinn.
Ronan shines the torch around the chamber. The walls are the same as the tiled area, but there’s no obvious way forward. No door in the back wall like I’d expected.
“Probably another latch,” says Seth, approaching the wall and feeling around the stones.
“Or maybe a hidden button,” says Quinn.
“There,” I say, pointing to a stone near the middle of the wall. It has a symbol carved into it—an upside-down triangle with a line near the bottom.
Earth magic.
“Damn, we should have brought Larus,” says Seth. “Maybe we need one of everyone to continue.”
“My shadow magic wasn’t any good in the last room. What if we just try—” I press on the stone, and the sand collapses beneath us, sending us plunging below.
Chapter Thirty-Six
We land in a pile, our fall cushioned by sand.
“Is everyone alright?” calls Ronan, waving the torch. He sends out light magic orbs into the room, illuminating the small chamber.
Sand is pouring in from crevices up above, cascading into the narrow space in waterfalls of golden silt.
It’s filling the room.
“Where’s my cane?” calls Quinn.
“Here,” I say, grabbing it and tossing it to her. I pull the sickle out of the sand, grateful it didn’t impale anything on the way down. “Seth?”
He spits out a mouthful of sand. “I’m stuck on something.”
Ronan wades to him, digging near his waist. “It’s your belt. It’s caught.”
“We have a problem here. The room is filling up.”
I look around and see that Quinn is right. The level of sand in the room is increasing, and quickly. “Look at the walls. There must be another button or latch like the last room.”
“A little help would be nice,” says Seth. He’s trapped near the ground, buried up to his chest.
“I’m trying,” says Ronan. His frantic digging is having little result with the sand pouring in from overhead.
