I sucked in a breath as I hit the stone floor, grimacing in pain.Analleia sprawled across my chest, clinging to me, her body trembling.I’d never been happier to have the security of a wide and solid surface beneath me.Our eyes met, our fear reflected in them, and neither of us moved, our labored breaths the only thing filling the silence.Her pale face scrunched as if in pain.
“Are you okay?”I asked, my voice little more than a husky whisper.
She jerked as if realizing where she was.Her limbs wobbled as she rolled off me, struggling into a sitting position.Cold air replaced the warmth of her.
“Not even a thank you?”I asked.“I should have let you fall.”
“It would have saved us both a lot of trouble.”
She brought herself to her feet but nearly doubled over, grimacing as sweat pebbled on her skin.
Concern creased my brow.“Are you hurt?”
She wiped the expression from her face, and I couldn’t tell if the pain was gone or if she was good at acting.I had taken the brunt of the fall yet she didn’t seem worried at all about my well-being.
And she shouldn’t be.
“You should be more concerned about asking if the floor is all right, the way you landed on it like that.”
I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to coerce the adrenaline in my system to calm down.
“What is this place?”
I groaned as I stood up, taking in the room around me and noticing the barred door first.“The room we were trying to get into but couldn’t.”
It looked like a storage room for all the leftover furniture in the palace, collected into one space with no rhyme or reason to anything.I unbolted the door, checking the stairwell, but it lay empty.With a jerk, I broke the lock to make sure we couldn’t be trapped again.
She said, “Messing with the wooden door isn’t going to help us when what we’re looking for ishidden in stone.”
“And I’d rather be assured we have a way out of here once we find what we’re looking for.”
My gaze roved over the walls.“What do you think it is?”
She grunted as she pushed a piece of furniture to the side, staring at the floor.“It’s hidden in stone.Does your palace have any secret passageways I should know about?”
None I would reveal to her.
I shook my head.“Not that I know of, but this is the oldest tower in the palace.I’m sure it has many secrets.”
“Then we need to uncover them.”
I set about running my hands over the walls, seeking any stone that would shift or turn beneath my touch.Analleia performed the same search on the opposite side of the room, but after fifteen minutes we both came up empty.
I studied the hearth and the stones surrounding it that made their way up to the chimney venting into the night.It was huge.Over half my height.I ventured closer, looking for anything that could signify a secret opening.Rising onto my toes, I ran a hand along the mantel, checking for any indentations in the stone.I caught on a little crevice barely big enough to fit my finger into.I pushed down.The stone moved with my finger, and a click echoed within.Whatever lay behind the hearth grumbled, a burst of dust and air puffed from behind the firepit as it rolled away.The grate leading into darkness creaked inward, opening up to whatever lay behind.
Analleia sidled up beside me, peering into the darkness.“You found it.I say you go first.”
I threw her a dirty look, finding a tinderbox to light one of the torches on the wall and then bending down to duck through the opening.When my torchlight hit the other side, it illuminated a passageway stretching into the tower.Analleia followed behind me, and I continued forward, freezing when my foot pressed into a stone and it sank downward.The grate behind us slammed shut, and I spun, torchlight illuminating an hourglass that flipped over, starting a timer.
Analleia grabbed the grate, shaking it violently as if to force it open, but it was solid iron.It wouldn’t budge.
“I think I know why they said it would take two people to complete.”The thought of being trapped again made my stomach roil.
She turned with a glare, snatching the torch from me and pressing on into the tunnel.
