Before they could stop him, Lyle picked up a little bauble from one of the side tables and threw it directly at the force field. It bounced off, returned at high velocity, and shattered on the floor when the dwarf ducked.
“What are you doing?” Zaara hissed at him.
“He’ll hear us,” Justin added in a furious whisper.
“Relax.” The dwarf shrugged. “I think if he didn’t notice the guards dying with a fireball and the troll demolishing that door, he won’t notice this, right?”
“Your reasoning is somewhat flawed, but…acceptable.” He looked at the shards of glass. They didn’t seem to be burned. “Do you think it’s only a shield?”
“It looks like it,” Zaara agreed. “That’s what those sigils are—they anchor it.” She pointed to the four points on the wall. Each glowed a different color.
“Okay, so how do we take it down?” He approached the staircase cautiously and walked up to it until he was close enough to touch the barrier. All three of them winced when his fingers drew close to it, but it didn’t shock or burn him. It merely gave slightly when he touched it like the surface of a trampoline.
Justin unsheathed his sword, tried to brace himself on the stairs as well as he could, crouched, and drove the blade up. The shield gave but immediately snapped back and jerked the weapon out of his hands. It bounced hilt-first off the stairs a few times. He threw himself against the wall to avoid it and the sword clattered to the floor below.
“My turn.” Zaara marched up the stairs and motioned for him to descend. She readied herself, seemed to consider a few different options, and finally chose a jet of water.
A moment later, she turned to look at the others. Her hair and cloak were sopping wet.
“My turn,” Lyle said.
“You already tried.” She walked down the stairs, wiping her wet hair out of her eyes.
“Not with my fists,” the dwarf argued. He approached the barrier without slowing and began to punch it furiously. His fists bounced off, but he planted his legs and gave a war cry as he continued.
“He doesn’t do subtle, does he?” Zaara asked Justin in an undertone.
“He does not, no.”
“Good to know.” She folded her hands and watched their companion.
It took him longer to tire than Justin expected but eventually, the dwarf stumbled down the stairs with a sullen expression.
“Wizards,” he said and sounded grumpy.
“It turns out you can punch a spell, though,” he pointed out. “Which was one of your main objections at the start of this.”
Lyle harrumphed his displeasure. “Yeah, yeah, make your jokes. But I don’t see you coming up with any bright ideas.”
Justin tilted his head back to look at the barrier. Its surface was a deep blood-red that rippled slightly when he looked at it, and he sincerely hoped there wasn’t actual blood in it. He had to admit it was a strong possibility, however, as he turned to look at each of the sigils. They glowed the same pale gold as the lamps.
And beneath each, only faintly visible, was a dwarven door.
“It’s a puzzle,” he said and pointed to the doors. “Lyle, look. Four doors, four sigils. Behind each door must be whatever guards that anchor point.”
“Ahhh,” Zaara said, with satisfaction. She gave a longing look at the food. “I wish we could eat.”
“We can,” Justin said, “but not any of that. Everyone sit and rest for a moment. We have some fights ahead of us, I think.”
“What are you doing?” she asked as he pulled the book out of his inventory.
“I’m learning another spell or two,” he told her. “I think we’ll need them.”
Chapter Thirty
Without any indication of which door to select, they chose one at random. It was sticky enough that Justin began to doubt himself, but a particularly hard headbutt from Lyle opened it with a bang.
“You could have used your foot,” he told the dwarf.
“What’s the fun in that?”
“What, indeed,” Zaara said philosophically. “Also, I don’t mean to distract you two, but there appears to be something in the dark.”
When Justin looked closely, he discerned a faint blue glow in the darkness. He threw a fireball, which illuminated a giant, bear-shaped creature before it connected with the back wall and plunged the room into darkness again.
“Yes,” he told her, “I think you’re right.”
“Oh, for—” She gave him a look and charged past him at a sprint. “For Riverbend!” She drew her dagger, only recently