The Black Necromancer-Book 4

Chapter 36

                “Excalibur,” Kayla exclaimed. “It’s absorbing the power from the vines! I knew it could do that, but I never realized that it could do that to non-humans…”

                “The next trap will be activated soon,” Troy warned. “Seeing as we’ve faced Dahlia’s fear, it stands to reason that we’ll be attacked by one of ours next, Kayla. What are you afraid of?”

                Kayla gritted her teeth, anger lurching in her stomach at Troy’s casual attempt to find out her secrets. She knew perfectly well that he had no malicious intent, but it was not easy for her to relinquish the truth.

                “It might just as well be another of mine,” Dahlia warned wearily. “No one has just one fear anyway.”

                “And we’ve lost our scout,” Kayla reminded her, grateful at the quick change of subject; Tamarak was particularly good at spotting concealed traps for his invisibility power enabled him to see camouflaged things with ease.

                Kayla was concentrating so hard on preventing the vines from tangling any of them that she almost walked past the other corridor. Troy spotted it first and called her name.

                “Kayla, there’s another corridor,” he said, gripping his sword. “It’s in the direction of the exit. We should try it. It can’t be any worse than this.”

                Kayla nodded as carefully as she could without upsetting her balance of her sword. Sweat poured off her face and her arms ached. Before Troy could step towards it, Dahlia grabbed his arm.

                “Chances are higher than it’s your fear or Kayla’s that we’re going to face next,” she said. “Let me go first.”

                Troy’s face tightened up, but all three of them knew perfectly well that now was not the time for a quarrel. Against his better judgement, he nodded, sucking in his stomach and stepping as close as he could to the wall without actually touching it to let Dahlia pass. She stepped gingerly into the tunnel…

                And nothing happened.

                All of them exhaled a mutual sigh of relief.

                “Come on,” Dahlia said, turning to face them. “It’s fine.”

                “Good,” Troy said, relieved. “Kayla-”

                He was cut off by Dahlia’s surprised scream as the floor beneath her feet gave way and she fell, shrieking at the top of her lungs.

                “Dahlia!” Troy shouted, panic evident in his voice and lunging for her. It was too late; she was gone. Before Kayla could stop him, he jumped after her.

                Kayla swore again, still cutting back vines. Her hands were shaking; it was clear that the hole into which they had gone into was a drop with nothing to hold onto. Heights were something that every Magician of Earth was afraid of, but unlike Dahlia’s fear earlier, she had no help of any kind from her friends, nor could she allow them to be separated. Hating herself, she twisted away from the vines and jumped into the hole after Troy.

                For a second, she free-fell, shrieking at the top of her lungs. The next second, she landed painfully on a slide- she was pretty sure that she would end up with a massive bruise on her backside- and started hurtling down it. Just below her, Troy was sliding deeper and deeper into the chasm, with Dahlia even further down, only noticeable by her pale blonde hair.