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Scratching.

The noise was faint at first, little more than a fingernail against stone. Elowynn thought she might have imagined it until she saw Alyra's posture straighten. A few breaths later it came again, longer this time.

Something dragged slowly across the tunnel wall beyond the chamber.

Lora closed her eyes, bending her head into her propped up knees. "Oh, I hate that."

Alyra didn't take her attention from the doorway. "That makes two of us."

“It better be rats,” Lora hissed. “I can handle rats!”

The scratching returned before another joined it.

Elowynn felt her stomach knot. The sound carried an unusual sense of purpose that frightened her more than rushing footsteps ever could. Whatever waited beyond the chamber was going somewhere deliberate.

Korvel listened for another moment before looking back toward the group. Whatever he heard in the corridor seemed to confirm something behind his eyes.

"We need to move."

Not a single one of them argued. Even Caelyn didn't object.

He shifted carefully against the wall and pushed himself upright before Elowynn could stop him. The movement drained what little color remained in his face. Fresh blood spotted the bandages crossing his back, undoing much of Alyra’s work. His hand reached for the cabinet beside him for support.

Elowynn was on her feet before she realized she had moved. His teeth gritted, and he sucked in air to steady his breathing. "I can stand."

"You collapsed less than a bell ago," she whispered, concern evident in her eyes.

"I’m recovering fine," he said, forcing an attempt at a reassuring smile.

"You are impossible,” she breathed. The faint amusement that flickered through his eyes looked exactly the same as it always had.

Lora sighed dramatically from somewhere behind them. "It's genuinely reassuring that you two are exactly the same with your stubbornness."

A small laugh escaped Alyra, the sound having surprised everyone. She deadpanned when attention pulled toward her, and she cleared her throat.

Korvel had already opened the chamber door by the time Alyra reached him. He didn't step into the corridor right away. He only angled his body some, as though listening to the dark with the same controlled movements seen in Council chambers and ballrooms. Elowynn used to find that composure rather irritating. Now, beneath the threat of Blackwake, she understood how carefully maintained it was. His hand remained beneath his coat, and when the weak lanternlight caught against his sleeve, she saw the faint outline of a weapon hidden there.

Alyra noticed it too. Her eyes flicked toward the movement, then back to his face.

“You have a weapon,” she said.

Korvel glanced at her. “I have several.”

Lora made a strangled sound behind them. “Does everyone but me have knives?”

“You stole half a desk worth of resonance crystals,” Alyra said without looking away from the corridor. “I think that counts.”

“They are not knives.”

Elowynn poked Lora in the ribs. “No, but they are mine, you thief. And I do not have knives. I have the crystals you stole.”

Lora wiggled away from the poke before she considered Elowynn’s words. Looking down at the crystals tucked inside her robe, she shrugged. “True, I suppose.”

The shape of the moment almost invited laughter. Lora had always found levity where terror threatened to take root. But Caelyn leaned more heavily against her than he meant to, and the impulse to laugh died.

Korvel looked at Caelyn.

That glance was enough, for Elowynn saw the questions forming behind Korvel’s eyes. Korvel Thorne was not a man who ignored evidence merely because it frightened others. He had seen the frost. He had seen the blackness in Caelyn’s eyes. He had seen her touch draw whatever darkness had spread across the floor back into his skin. It was only a matter of time before the questions started.