Veins of yellow light pulsed through the trembling rock, weaving across the walls of the cramped storeroom and out into the passage beyond, like shimmering streams branching from a river. A deafening rumble tore through the cavern seconds before the ground jolted beneath Oralia’s feet with such force it nearly threw her off balance. She steadied herself, straining to listen over the rampant beat of her own heart as another section of the pass gave way farther down. Rasp’s magic was the only thing keeping the rest of the cavern intact. Judging from the way the yellow light pouring from his body flickered and waned, it would not hold for long.

Oralia’s gaze dropped to Faris. The faun was crouched on the ground beside Rasp, doing whatever he could to ensure the witch’s concentration did not slip. Oralia had stayed back with the pair to see that they were not left behind once the rest of the party had gotten through. It was a mistake she would not likely live to regret.

“We have waited long enough,” Oralia said. “Anyone who is getting through the pass already has. We are leaving now.”

“You hear that, Dingle? Time to go.” Faris threaded his arm under Rasp’s shoulder and attempted to heave him upright.

“Don’t touch me!” Rasp snapped, shrugging Faris off as he kept his palms planted against the floor.

“We have to go,” Faris insisted.

“You have to go! I can’t.” There was a waver in Rasp’s already strained voice. It was a sad, undulating note that felt unrelated to the fact he was holding up a mountain pass through sheer willpower and determination alone. “It’s slipping, Faris. I can’t hold my magic and run. Go without me.”

“But—”

“Go!”

Faris swiveled his head in Oralia’s direction. His pale eyes were wide with terror and pleading for something he dared not ask aloud. “Then let someone else do the running for you. We’re not leaving you.”

How generous of Faris to volunteer her. As the faun did not appear to possess the ability to carry a full-grown human on his own, Oralia suspected the honor would be left to her.

To the seventh realm of chaos with it! With the mountain coming down over the top of them, she didn’t have time to argue. Oralia crossed the buckling storeroom in two short strides and stooped to throw the stubborn witch over her shoulder, when a second shockwave tore through the chamber, jerking her footing out from under her and knocking her to the ground.

The storeroom rattled as a hairline crack split open across the ceiling, raining loose pebbles and debris over them. Oralia rolled onto all fours, coughing the dust from her lungs as her gaze followed the pulsing yellow light back to its source. Rasp was still bent against the ground, eyes screwed shut as he poured the last of his strength into keeping the storeroom from collapsing over them.

Oralia reached for him a second time. Rasp sensed her nearing presence and bared his teeth threateningly. “Don’t even think about it. Try to move me and you’ll sever my connection.”

Her hands froze midair, inches from his glowing body as the weight of his statement settled in her gut.

“Take Faris and get the fuck out of here already!” Rasp snapped.

She knew well enough not to argue. Doing so would only waste time and Rasp’s dwindling strength. Rolling to her feet, Oralia seized Faris by the elbow and dragged him toward the entrance. The faun fought, thrashing to escape her iron grip, but his physical prowess was pitiful compared to hers.

Faris’s hooves scraped futilely against the stone floor, attempting to slow their progress. “We can’t leave him!”

It was not often that Oralia agreed with Rasp over anything, but for once the boy was talking sense. She pulled Faris along as she broke into a trot. “I cannot move him, Faris. It will bring the entire cavern down if I try. At least do him the courtesy of making his sacrifice mean something.”

She was almost to the doorway when a dark shape came bounding through. “No time for that, swabbies. Get back!” Rali’s voice rang out over the growing clamor. “She’s coming down!”

Rali was barely inside when the passage gave out behind her. The earth rumbled and roared as the ancient supports finally gave way to the pressure. The insides of the mountain spilled forth, filling the empty passage as it caved in on itself. Oralia pulled Rali to her as the surrounding walls shook so fiercely, it rattled her clenched teeth together. There was no place to run, nowhere to hide. All Oralia could do was cover her head and wait for what she hoped would be a swift end.

Splintered slabs of rock fell from the ceiling and struck the ground in bursts of razor-edged shrapnel. The shaking continued, and yet, the worst of it never reached them. Confused, Oralia tentatively slit her eyes open. A dull yellow light lit the gloom, highlighting the falling debris and shifting clouds of dust. Oralia found herself crouched at the center of the storeroom with Rali huddled into her and Faris balled at their feet. Rasp had moved from his original position and now knelt beside the trio with his hands braced against the buckled floor, screaming.

Waves of dancing yellow light poured from his body and weaved into a tight, protective shell overhead, shielding them from the falling debris. The cavern chamber shook and shuddered in protest, but the magic, as stubborn as its wielder, held strong against the onslaught. Minutes passed before the mountain yielded. The quaking gradually died away until the only sound left was the hiss of falling dirt from the cracked ceiling above.

With an agonized whimper, Rasp’s arms gave out beneath him and he collapsed against the upturned ground. The yellow light dimmed as the tendrils of magic dissipated into dark nothingness.

Oralia blinked as her eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom. Dust kicked up by the cave-in clouded the air. She pulled her tunic over her mouth and nose to keep from breathing in the worst of it. Unable to see more than a few inches from her face, Oralia groped the area around her for familiar bearings.

“Ow.” A pained voice came from the floor. “Those are my fingers you’re stepping on.”

“Sorry, Faris.” Oralia lifted her boot, grateful that at the very least that the faun was alive and hadn’t succumbed to shock. “Can you reach Rasp? Is he alive?”

“I’m not so sure I’m alive, to be honest.”

“You are speaking to me, Faris. I assure you, you are very much alive.” For how long, however, remained to be seen. Oralia kept that particular thought to herself. She left him to check on Rasp as she turned her attention to the other member of the party currently huddled against her. “Ralizak?”

Rali’s fingers were dug so deeply into Oralia’s waist, she could already feel the muscle bruising. The dwarf didn’t reply. She only held on tighter, trembling.

Oralia rested her hand lightly on Rali’s head, unsure of what she could possibly say to comfort her. “Rali, are you hurt?”

“I can hear them,” Rali whimpered with her face pressed into Oralia’s flank. “They’re screaming and I can’t reach them.”

Apart from the occasional shift of rock, Oralia heard nothing. “Who?”

“Udduc and Henog. I can’t hear Fraegar anymore. She’s gone quiet.”

Oh gods. The collapse, of course. She should have known to send Rali ahead with the others.

Oralia drew her arm over Rali, feeling the dwarf’s shoulders rise and fall with each shaky sob. Rali wasn’t in the present time. She was stuck years in the past, thousands of miles away, reliving the worst moment of her life. Red Rock, the famous breach—how Quartz Ralizak first earned her notoriety— was not the glorious tale of heroism the realm painted it to be.

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“I am here with you, Rali. You are not alone.” Slowly, Oralia eased them to the floor.

“They’re all going quiet. Henog’s crying but I can’t hear Udduc anymore.” Rali pressed closer, sobbing, “Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop!”

Rali was working as lead tunneler on the southwest shaft when the enemy broke through. She brought the shaft down to stop the invasion, with her and her crew still inside. Rali spent three days underground, listening to her friends die before the rescue team dug her out. She was the only survivor.

Red Rock was the reason Ralizak refused to go back underground, why she awoke in the night screaming and turned to the bottle to get through the next day. It was the reason the other dwarfs hated her. The realm pretended the reassignment was a promotion, that serving under Oralia was some form of reward for Rali’s bravery. In truth, it was the only option she had. No one else, especially not the dwarfs, would tolerate a glorified killer.

Oralia gently pried one of Rali’s hands from her side and searched her fingers. “Where is your ring?”

Tears streamed from the lieutenant’s tightly closed eyes, leaving streaks on her dirt-caked face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Henog. I had to.”

Faris’s voice cut through the dark. “She traded it for a handle of booze.”

Oralia whipped her head at him, tusks bared. Her ferocity, alas, was wasted upon the faun, who could see no further than his own nose in the gloom. “That was her grounding ring,” Oralia said, fighting to keep her voice calm for Rali’s sake. “She uses it for flashbacks.”

“Well nobody told me!”

She and the young Belfast were going to have a serious talk about dealing contraband to an addict when they were through. Provided they got through. Oralia removed the pendant from her neck and cupped it in Rali’s trembling hands. “Open your eyes, Rali. What do you see?”

The dwarf’s reply came between fast, panicked gasps for air. “A necklace.”

“Take a slow breath with me. Hold it.” They repeated the exercise three times, until Rali’s breathing was less irregular. Oralia kept her voice calm yet firm, as if this was a perfectly ordinary exercise and they weren’t trapped gods knew how far underground without any hope for rescue. “Describe the necklace to me.”

“White gold chain,” Rali sniffled, brushing the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. The effort left dark streaks across her dirtied face. “Amorphous mineraloid gemstone.”

Even in the midst of a flashback, a dwarf was still a dwarf. Oralia prompted her further. “And to a layman you would call it . . . ?”

“A blue fire opal.” Rali turned the stone over in her dirt-smudged fingers. Her breathing was still unnaturally quick, but coming down. “It’s a good size, but the color’s clouded. Usually you see a lot more blue and some green or violet. This one looks like it’s turning gray.”

That wasn’t right. The stone was normally a bright sapphire blue. Oralia tilted her head to get a better view of the pendant held in Rali’s hands as a new series of panicked thoughts rampaged through her head. Something was amiss. Was Whisper’s magic thinner here? The Iron Ridge was named for its rich, mineral-laden rock. Was it possible that the iron was interfering with the power stored in the stone?

There was another possibility as well. One she did not dare consider given their already bleak circumstances.

“I—I know this necklace. My friend . . . she wears it.” Rali placed the opal into her palm and tapped it. When the stone stayed the same dreary color, she repeated the action several times more to no avail. “I feel like something should be happening. Like someone should be shouting at me. Is this thing broken?”

Oralia breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Rali was starting to come out of it. The severity of the attacks had lessened over the years. In the beginning, they’d lasted hours. Now, with time and practice, Rali had found ways to bring herself around much faster. The issue of Whisper’s fading magic, however, was an entirely different matter. Something that would have to wait until later, after their rescue.

The rescue that Oralia was not so certain was coming.

“Uh, Protector?”

Oralia lifted her eyes to look at Faris. With Rali recovering, she could at last focus her attention on the other downed member of the group. “Please tell me Rasp is alive.”

“He’s in and out of it, but he’s still breathing at least. That’s not the problem.” Faris posed his concerns as a question, as if hoping it was simply a figment of his imagination and not reality. “Does the floor feel wetter to you?”

Oralia felt the ground and winced, realizing that the buckled stone indeed felt wetter than it had mere moments before. The first rule of a cave-in was to stay where you were and await help. This, alas, did not apply to flooding. Through the shifting gloom, she could see the doorway was still intact. She only hoped the stairwell to the surface was in similar condition.

Oralia jumped upright, her knees screaming, and pulled Rali with her. “Up, Ralizak. We need to get to higher ground.”

“Hm?” Rali gazed up at Oralia with a far-off look in her eyes, as if caught in a dream.

Oralia’s stomach dropped another rung lower. Although she was aware of her surroundings, Rali was still not processing the danger around her. Such inattentiveness did not bode well for an emergency evacuation.

The dwarf lifted one boot curiously. “Why are my feet wet?”

“There is a slight flooding issue.” There was no sense in making Rali panic. Faris was already doing enough of that for the both of them. “We need to go up the stairs and find the exit. Can you walk, Ralizak?”

“I’d rather sit.”

“No.” Oralia yanked her upright again. “Do not do that.”

“Oralia,” Faris said, his voice wavering, “I can’t get Rasp to come around.”

Perhaps it was a small blessing that the faun possessed horrible night vision, otherwise he would have seen the absolute despair etched across her face. Calm, Oralia told herself. You have to stay calm. At least on the outside, else everything will go to shit.

Not that everything wasn’t already shit. What was worse than shit? Oh yes, drowning. Definitely drowning.

“I will carry Rasp,” Oralia said. “We are going to move single file. I hold your hand, Faris, and you hold Rali’s. Do not let her sit.”

“Or we won’t get her up again. And dammit, I can’t carry two bodies!” was the part Oralia kindly left unsaid. Gods, she wished she had some rope.

She’d sent her pack on up with the rest of the supplies. A lot of good it did her now.

Faris stood and shook the water from his left hoof. “Is this a good time to point out the water’s getting higher? We’re at ankle height here.”

“I noticed. Thank you for your astute observation.” Oralia heaved Rasp’s limp body by the arm and ducked low, slinging him over her shoulder. She reached for Faris and he squeezed her fingers so tightly she nearly snapped her tusks at him.

No time for that, go!

Water splashed underfoot as she sprinted through the narrow doorway and out the other side, pulling the others with her. The mouth of the cavern was completely caved in. She could hear the fast trickle of water worming its way through the rubble. This, she realized, was the source of the flooding.

The foot of the stairwell was only partially obstructed. Oralia wedged herself between the fallen slabs of ceiling and led the others through. She bounded up the stone steps, grimacing as the muscles in her legs and lower back competed for the title of most abused. Faris kept pace. So much so, he kept accidentally nicking her in the back of her calves with his sharp hooves.

Trouble up ahead caused Oralia to skid to a stop. Faris didn’t react nearly as quickly and slammed into her. With his face firmly pressed into her lower back, Faris emitted a muffled “Maybe warn me we’re stopping next time?”

She caught the wall and steadied herself, grateful the faun hadn’t thrown her completely off balance. Oralia crouched lower and examined the break in the stairway. Even equipped with night vision, she was unable to see past a few yards of darkness, leaving her with the grizzly conclusion that the bottom was a very, very long way down. “Some of the steps have fallen. The other side appears stable, but I cannot cross with all of you. You are going to have

to jump, Faris.”

“What?”

The sound of churning water below told her there wasn’t time to consider an alternative course. “You cross first and I will throw the others to you.”

“I don’t like this plan.”

“Would you rather I throw you?” As much as Oralia tried to make it sound like a genuine offer, it still came across as mildly threatening.

“Not really.”

“You are a faun, Faris. You were born to do this. Take three steps back for a running start. Lift your feet high so you do not trip. Full speed. When I say jump, you jump.”

Reluctantly, Faris let go of Rali and did as instructed. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” He screamed as he broke into a run.

“Jump!”

The faun’s hooves scraped against the rock one last time before he sprang high over her head and sailed across the gap. He struck the other side and slipped, coming to a grinding halt inches from the drop-off. To Oralia’s relief, the staircase held beneath him.

With Faris safely on the other side, Oralia turned her attention to the next person to brave the crossing. “Ralizak, can you hear me?”

The dwarf lifted her head, still oblivious to the danger. “Huh?”

Oralia draped Rasp’s limp form over the stairs and checked to make sure her feet were firmly planted with her knees bent. She’d left most of the heavy lifting to Curly since his enlistment. Gods, she hoped she didn’t break her back attempting this. “I am going to throw you across the pit to Faris, alright? If you get to the other side and start to slip, try to grab onto something. Preferably not Faris.”

“Wait, what?” Rali snapped from her daze too late.

Oralia heaved with all her might and threw the dwarf, perhaps too forcefully, into the awaiting arms of Faris. Faris didn’t catch Rali so much as he cushioned her landing. They were both shouting incoherently at her by the time the pair had recovered enough to stand, but Oralia wasn’t listening. She repositioned Rasp securely over both shoulders before skirting several steps back in preparation for her own running start.

Her voice reverberated off the surrounding rock. “I would advise getting out of the way.”

“Oh shit, she’s coming in hot!” Rali scrambled up the stairs, hauling Faris by the elbow with her.

Move, Oralia commanded, and her leaden legs obeyed. She pounded up the stone steps and pushed off, keeping her sights focused on her landing and not the dark, gaping chasm below. She came down on the other side with both feet planted below her, knees bent to absorb the impact. The staircase shuddered and groaned beneath her. Already, she could feel the fractured stone beginning to slide.

Oralia forced one throbbing foot in front of the other. “Go!”