“I can get us back here, now that I've been here,” Circe said.
“And if it's spelled so you can't?”
“Maybe we should call in some backup,” Circe said. “Don't we have all those people in the amphitheater waiting to help?”
I'm an idiot.“Of course. Can you open us a portal? But wait just a minute. Let's look behind all the doors first,” I said.
I moved to stand in front of the fourth door, painted black.
Axoular opened it, and I gasped. The room behind it was a nursery, and it was full of babies in beds, ranging in age from infant to probably nearly three years old. I lurched forward. “Linna?” I called.
Anthony grabbed me from behind. “You can't go in there yet. The room smells of a trap.”
“Whatever you do, donotclose that door. Will you hold it open?” I asked Circe.
She nodded and took the handle from Axoular. “Do you see your baby in there?”
I searched, but there were several cribs that I couldn't see inside unless I entered the room. “Not from here. Those babies shouldn't be in there alone!”
“It strikes me odd that none of them are crying,” Circe said.
I stopped, about to walk to the fifth door, and looked back into the fourth. “You're right. They're all asleep or cooing gently. That's not normal behavior for babies, not for all of them to be content at the same time.”
“All the more reason not to enter that room,” Elias said.
I sighed and nodded to Circe so she could close that door. “Open it back up,” I said once it clicked closed. She shook her head, probably thinking I was crazy, but I couldn't stop myself. That room had babies in it.
“We're wasting time,” Axoular said. “That room is just a trap for you.”
“No!” I said, striding forward and jerking the door open. I had to make sure she wasn’t in there. It was the first door I'd actually touched myself, and as soon as my skin touched the handle I was sucked through a portal, the feeling of water washing over me.
I felt a hand grab my shirt, but instead of being jerked back into the cave, I was pretty sure whoever grabbed me was pulled forward with me.
We stepped into another cave, hopefully in the same area as the one we'd left, so we weren't too separated from the rest of the group.
I found Anthony beside me. “I couldn't let you go alone,” he said.
“You were halfway across the cave from me, ready to open the next door.”
“I moved quickly.”
The cave was well lit, with torches hung along the wall. It was massive, so deep I couldn't see the other side.
I turned in a circle, the part behind me just as massive. “I guess it's up to us now since I fell for their trap.”
“Indeed, you did, Ms. Effler,” Dumadi's voice came from the shadows. “I suspected you would make it past my Valkyrie and warlock. Though I'm sad to know they're both dead.”
He thinks I killed them both. Good. No need for anyone to know Kára is alive. Maybe he'll release the children.
I gave Anthony a look and hoped he knew not to correct Dumadi's mistake about the Valkyrie.” What do you want, Dumadi?”
“My son surely told you. He was always visionless and spineless. I was saddened but not surprised when he ran to your ridiculous council.”
His voice seemed to come from a different direction every time he spoke.
“Where is my daughter?”
“My granddaughter is being spoiled rotten as we speak. I would not harm her for the world. This attack is unwarranted.”
