Page 5 of Their Trials
The stone of the wall that had now been revealed didn't show anything out of the normal. No hinges, no gaps, and no doorways. Just plain old stone. Callum stepped forward and pushed on a couple of random stones, which didn't budge.
“Okay. I guess that answers the question about whether or not we missed something,” I stated the obvious, trying to prompt a discussion of what to do now.
“Technically, it's just this area that doesn't have a door, but there's really no way we can clear the entire wall of vines to be sure. That would take too long,” Arryn replied, turning to face the direction we were initially heading, brow furrowed.
“What if I burn the vines away?” Callum asked him.
“We could, but I can't honestly remember if the poison is dangerous when burned. It could still cause hallucinations in its gaseous form,” Arryn told him.
“Then I could blow the air away from us or create a bubble of air for us to breathe from that's safe,” Baer chimed in excitedly, as a real plan started to take form.
Arryn continued to think about the ideas. “That could work,” he finally said, but didn't seem fully convinced.
“I say we should at least try.” I put in my two cents for what it was worth, considering I didn't know anything about this place or magic. I had to rely on these practical strangers to keep me safe. Despite what we’d already been through, I’d only known them for about a week. I sure hoped they knew what they were doing.
“Okay. It's better than wandering forever to find an end that may not even be there,” Arryn capitulated. “Baer, start a breeze pushing the fumes behind us.”
Baer did as instructed, and once we all felt the breeze on our faces, Callum focused and brought flames to his hands, which he sent toward the vines.
The vines didn't burn easily. A thick, gray smoke clogged the air coming from the moisture inside the vines. “At this rate, I'll burn out of magic. The vines are too wet,” Callum said to us.
“Let me try something,” Arryn said as he stepped up to a section of unburned vines and held out his hands. I watched the vines shrivel slowly as he pulled the water from the plants, his Earth affinity allowing him to manipulate the plants and pull the moisture from them. “Now try,” he told Callum after he had finished with a section.
Callum’s flames ate away at the dried vines a lot more quickly with less smoke and magic needed. “That works!”
Arryn just nodded and started to pull moisture from the next section of vines, Callum following behind to burn them away, and Baer pushing the fumes away from us.
We moved slowly like this for about thirty minutes, Lennox and I studying the cleared walls for any signs of a door, pressing on random stones as we followed. “Let's take a break,” I called out, seeing the fatigue starting to hit the guys from using so much magic. “I don't want y'all to burn out.”
“She's right, I could use a breather,” Baer said, prompting the guys to all pause and step away from the wall, sweat beading on their skin from the exertion.
Lennox and I observed the section they had just finished while they rested, but still, nothing had revealed itself. “What are we missing?” I asked myself, pushing on a random stone again in frustration. It shifted in my hands slightly. “Guys!” I called out as I pushed the stone again. “This stone is moving.”
The guys gathered around me. “Should I keep pushing on it?”
“It's definitely better than continuing on this way. I didn't want to say anything, but I was getting tired,” Arryn admitted.
I shoved again, but the stone only moved slightly, maybe about a millimeter. Callum came up beside me, his broad chest and muscles brushing against my arm. “Let me try?” he asked, somewhat nicely, to my surprise.
“Be my guest,” I told him as I stepped back and gestured my hands at the wall.
He took my place and pressed on the stone, managing to move it halfway out, his muscles bulging in delicious ways as I watched him work. He shoved again, and the stone clinked to the ground on the opposite side of the wall from us.
“What do you see?” I asked him, crowding closer to him and catching his leather and spice scent.
“Looks like just another stone wall covered in the same vines,” he said, frowning down at me. I could feel his confusion and frustration through our bond, especially this close to him.
“There's got to be more to it than this,” Lennox pondered out loud. “Can I see?”
Callum stepped back and allowed Lennox to take his place without a word. Lennox looked through the stone, and I crept up close to him, wanting to see as well, his smaller frame allowing me closer to the hole in the wall.
“I wonder….” Lennox said to himself as he reached his arm out carefully, so he didn't snag a poisonous thorn that still covered the other side, until his face was pressed up against the wall and his arm was shoulder deep. I could hear his hand grazing the stone on the other side as if searching for something.
I heard a snick, which caused a section of the wall to swing away from us. Lennox stumbled forward with it, trying not to fall into the vines that still covered the opening, keeping the door from opening fully. I grabbed him before he could lose his footing out of instinct and kept him from narrowly becoming tangled in the vines under his feet.
“Shit,” he hissedd, realizing how close he had come to being impaled by the poisonous thorns. “Thanks,” he said, looking back at me as I released him once he was stable again.
“No problem,” I responded to him. “What'd you do?”