I heard the sound, the scrape of boot leather losing traction, the sharp intake of breath, the metallicclinkof her knee hitting the stone.
"I’ve got you," Kaelen said instantly, the sound of fabric rustling as he moved to help her.
"Let her walk," I commanded without turning around.
"Thane!" Kaelen’s voice sparked with dragon fire. "She fell."
"And she needs to get up," I said, my voice flat, devoid of the rumble that usually colored it. I stared into the darkness ahead, counting the seconds. "If you carry her, her circulation slows. The stagnation encourages the transformation to lock. Movement creates heat. Heat delays the freeze. Get up, Aria."
There was a silence, heavy and shocked. I knew how I sounded. Cruel. Distant. Like the beast I had been accused of being.
"He's right," Aria grimaced. I heard the grit in her voice, the stubbornness that made her who she was. There was also thescraping sound as she forced her rigid leg to cooperate, hauling herself upright. "I can walk. I have to walk."
"Good," I said. I started walking again.
I didn't offer a hand or words of encouragement. The only thing I could think of to do was to lead, to help us get where we needed to be as fast as possible.
We descended for twenty minutes. The tunnel widened, the basalt walls growing slick with condensation that wasn't water. It was an oily, iridescent sheen that didn't reflect our lights.
Then, we hit an obstruction.
The tunnel opened into a large, circular chamber, but the path forward was blocked. Not by rubble, and not by a door.
A waterfall blocked it.
But water didn't move like that.
A cascade of liquid light poured from a fissure in the ceiling, crashing down into a chasm that split the floor in two. It wasn't water, and it wasn't magma. It was pure, concentrated magical runoff, iridescent and white, glowing with a blinding intensity.
But as it fell, it changed.
Mid-air, the liquid light seemed to hit an invisible barrier of cold. It froze instantly, crystallizing into jagged, chaotic shards of black material before shattering against the bottom of the chasm.
"Void-glass," Elias breathed, shielding his eyes from the glare of the source. "The Devourer’s influence must be leaking into the Forge’s ventilation."
The shards piled up, creating a treacherous, shifting bridge across the chasm. It looked like a drift of black diamonds and sharper than obsidian, not to mention more than a little unstable.
"We have to cross that?" Flynn asked, eyeing the lethal glass. "One slip and we’re shredded."
"It is the only way," I said, analyzing the structure of the chamber. The walls were smooth, unclimbable, and the chasm was too wide to jump, especially for Aria in her current state. The pile of void-glass was the only bridge.
"It will cut us to ribbons," Kaelen said, stepping up beside me. He looked at me, his brow furrowed, searching for the brother he knew inside the stone facade I was presenting. "Thane?"
"My armor will hold," I said. "Yours is divine alloy; it will suffice. Flynn is fast enough not to break the surface tension. Elias can manipulate his own gravity."
"And Aria?" Kaelen challenged, his voice low.
I turned to look at her. She was leaning against the wall, clutching her left leg. The grey had swallowed her hand on that side, turning her fingers into iron claws. Her face was pale, sweat beading on her forehead from the effort of simply existing.
"She is hardening," I stated simply. "Her skin is becoming metallic. The glass will not cut her as easily as it would flesh."
Kaelen looked as though I had punched him. "That is your tactical assessment? That she is turning into a monster, so we should use it?"
"It is the reality," I said. I walked to the edge of the chasm. "I will go first. I will compact the path. Step where I step. Do not deviate."
I stepped onto the pile of void-glass.
Crunch.
