He waited with her, his strong body at her back, jaw against her temple as they both watched. A shadow moved at the end of the passageway and Aerax hauled her away from the door. Oh, and she’d been a fool to look. Better not to know what came after them, what was screeching now as it charged down the corridor, a body that had once been human but was twisted and emaciated and made of stone, with the click-click-click-click that was the sound its claws made, which were not of ice but still like knives.
They sprinted after the others, passing through a second blood-splashed chamber and into another long corridor. A crash behind them was followed by an echoing screech as the wraith followed through the welcome chamber.
Terror grabbed Lizzan by the throat, made every breath a tortured wheeze until she fought back the fear. She raced with Aerax to the next chamber where Kelir waited at the door, gesturing them in—perhaps hoping the wraith would not know what path they’d taken but not waiting to see if it did. Preter passed through another chamber, another, always turning through a maze of blood-splattered stone.
At the end of a long corridor they paused, gasping for breath.
“Stone wraith,” Lizzan told them, chest heaving. “I go last.”
Aerax began to shake his head.
“I go last,” she said again, reaching up to clasp her father’s medallion. “I have Vela’s protection. It cannot harm me with its claws.”
“It is stone,” Aerax snarled. “What if it crushes you with a heavy blow?”
“I hope not to find out. But if any of you can think of a way to kill a stone, I will gladly hear it, because I do not think my sword will do much or that this wraith will melt.”
If any idea they had, no one had time to tell it. A click-click-click-click faintly echoed down the corridor and they were off again, Preter at the lead and Seri and Tyzen behind him. Kelir and Ardyl guarded their backs, and Aerax didn’t let her come last but stayed at her side. It seemed forever before they stopped, with sweat dripping from their faces and breathing labored.
“It is quiet when it hunts us,” Aerax told them. “Then screeches as it chases. If it is screeching, do not stop running.”
“But how does it know each turn we take?” Preter held a hand to his side, pain etched on his face. “Does it smell us? Hear us? Is it because we are surrounded by stone and it senses us another way?”
“Does it matter?” Lizzan managed a breathy laugh. “It knows. It follows. And we are trapped, because we cannot go back the way we came without running straight to it.”
“Is there also a second way out of the monastery?” Aerax asked.
Preter nodded. “The sun chamber.”
“Which way is it?” Tyzen asked.
“Up, I should think.” The monk laughed and lifted his hands. “I will take every path that leads upward, and pray to Nemek that we find it.”
The wraith’s screech tore through the corridor and no more did they talk, racing, turning. Her every nightmare it was to Lizzan, and every time it seemed they’d passed into a part of the monastery where the wraith had never been, soon more blood they would see, more signs of terror, of doors barricaded and broken, the lingering stink of a siege, walls painted the red of a slaughter.
Running down a corridor with all her senses tuned behind for a click or a screech, Lizzan nearly plowed into Kelir, who had nearly plowed into Tyzen when he and the young monk faltered and slowed.
Her gaze snapped to Aerax, who wiped sweat from his face with a swipe of his hand while scowling at a door.
Fearfully Lizzan glanced behind. No wraith yet. No click.
“Why are we stopped?” Ardyl whispered.
Out of breath, Tyzen didn’t attempt to speak. Only pointed at the door. The stone all around it was scored with claw marks . . . but the door itself was untouched.
“Spelled?” Kelir said.
Nodding, Preter moved closer.
“Why did they not spell all the doors?” Seri said between gasps. “Can you lock one in this way?”
“It needs a special wood,” Preter told her, slowly regaining his breath. “And time to cast.”
“We have not much time now,” Lizzan told him. “Can you open it? If it can be locked again and we escape through the other exit, the