"What is this?" Gio asked, looking down. "Geothermal?"
Max was starting to feel the inadequacy of her explosives. She had thought the satchel's contents would be enough for blowing up anything they might encounter, but she hadn't been picturing something this big.
"I'm not sure if I can collapse this place," she said. "Maybe if I can find the right location to plant the explosives, it'll bring the ceiling down. That might stop them from being able to use it, even if it doesn't outright destroy it."
"Bring the ceiling down, hmm?" Gio laid a hand on the wall. "I wonder ..."
"What are you thinking?"
"The other gargoyles I've met can manipulate stone," Gio explained. "The way Javic can. I don't think of myself as properly a gargoyle, but it seems as if the medallion has become part of me fully. I don't think it's separate at all anymore. So perhaps now I can too."
He concentrated, his eyes going half closed. To Max's shock and alarm, a glow became evident through his clothes. It wouldn't have been visible under any conditions other than this dim light, but she could tell that his tattoos were glowing. It put her uncomfortably in mind of Javic.
"Gio, do you feel all right?"
"I'm fine," Gio said, sounding distracted. "This place ..." He drew in a sharp breath. "It's different. It's strange. I can see why they did their gargoyle experiments here."
"Hey! You! Get away from there!"
One of the cultists had burst in from the entryway, which was some way around the catwalk from where they were now. He was waving one of those scepters around.
The catwalk under her feet began to tilt. "Gio!" Max said, alarmed.
The catwalk steadied and tilted the other way, tumbling her back toward the wall. She stared at the cultist in the entryway. Was he actively controlling the rock with that thing?
"Keep him off me if you can," Gio gasped.
"On it!" Max said grimly.
She fired a couple of shots. The cultist ducked and then a rocky extrusion extended toward Max, pushing her in the direction of the plunge down that long red-tinged maw.
Max ducked out of the way. The rock was now blocking her from being able to shoot at the cultist, but stony spires were extending out of the walls all around them.
Gio visibly concentrated, and the spires stopped expanding. There was a loud exclamation of surprise and outrage from the Black Robe she couldn't see.
Max remembered that she still had the scepter she had picked up back at the hacienda. Maybe she could use it here. She reached into the pouch on her harness where she had tucked it. The glass gems glimmered in the dull light coming up from the hole beneath them.
How in the world did you use a magic scepter? Max tried concentrating on it.
"Look out!" Gio snapped.
A rock spire, expanding fast, shot through the place she had occupied a moment before; it was only Gio's warning that had allowed her to duck.
"Come on, you—thing!" She shook the scepter.
It was no good. She just couldn't figure out how to use it.Maybe if I had a nice day, some rocks to practice with, and no one trying to kill me ...
"Hey!" she yelled around the extrusions. "You! I've got one of your—things!" She waved the scepter in the air.
"So?" the call came back. "We can make more!"
"Jerk," Max muttered. She opened her satchel. "We'll see if you like this better. How's it going with you, Gio?"
"I think I'm getting the hang of it." Gio's eyes were closed. "It's so odd—it's like trying to learn to use a muscle I've never used before."
"Are you close to knocking this place down?"
"I will be." He sounded frustrated. "I just need to find the right ... something."
