I carefully placed my foot on the stone, first the heel, then the toe. Transferring my weight and then repeating the same movement, over and over again, as I led the way to the gate. The noise the Li’ards were making was loud enough even without the echoes. Flesh ripped as it was torn from bone, and the contended squeaks and chirrups reminded me of Eggs. The room had no real source of light beyond the gaps underneath and to the sides of the gate, as well as some cracks here and there in the wall. But enough ambient light had found its way in for me to see the general shapes of the creatures in the darkness.

  Tails and wings fluttered as wetness spattered on the stone steps. I was glad the cows and pigs were already dead. To be eaten alive like this would be a horrible death. Which is why we needed to get out of here before they tired of their dead prey and found some with a bit more life in it.

  I had an arrow nocked on the bow. Perhaps I’d be able to kill one from a distance before they closed in on us, but part of me doubted it in these conditions. Besides, they were the size of large hounds. It would take more than one.

  The others had followed me diligently, and most importantly, silently. We had stacked up near the gate now, and I motioned Sila toward the gate. Hopefully, he could open it quickly, and we could get to work on our mission for the Arcuzane. So far, we’d done okay, aside from having no cooks and chefs to overpower and perhaps impersonate.

  In our defence, though, how were we supposed to know the mad bastards had Mavev feeding Li’ards? His little weapons, as he’d called them.

  I shuddered. He was bad enough riding a Drake. Let alone with a room full of these voracious things. Sila approached the door, squatting down with his strips of metal while the rest of us stood around him. The others’ eyes must have strained as much as mine did watching the shadowy shapes of the Li’ards feast and doing our best to put the wet, squelching sounds of their eating out of our minds.

  “Shit,” Sila whispered.

  “What?” I hissed back.

  “No keyhole, no lock. Can’t pick anything.” Sila huffed as he stood and turned to me.

  “What do we do now?” Sayo leaned in quietly as a mouse when she spoke.

  I racked my brains. I didn’t know. We needed to get out of this room, but without stirring up a Bastard Lizard’s nest of several of the scaled, pissed off fuckers.

  “I could do something,” Gertha said, the metal in her mouth clacking on the backs of her teeth.

  Well, as Peevan used to say, a potentially bad decision is better than no decision.

  “Do it,” I said, turning toward her.

  Gertha reverently placed both hands on the gate and took a deep breath.

  Then the pealing of bells began. They started off in the distance and gradually got louder, more insistent. A bell somewhere above us began tolling, a deep, dolorous sound that echoed through the stone and sent small vibrations through our bodies.

  If we were in Avandun, then the number of bells in certain sequences told what and how many of the bastard lizards had come to ruin your day.

  I didn’t know how Cemfyllen did their signals, but their bells had started and just kept going. My ears rang, and the bells seemed to get louder and louder.

  Something rumbled in the distance, far above us.

  It sounded like thunder. But it was off; it went on for too long. The pitch was off.

  My palms started to sweat, and my heart began pounding in my chest.

  I didn’t need to know Cemfyllian signals to know that our day had gone from bad to worse.

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  A sharp intake of breath from the others brought me back to the situation at hand. All was silent apart from the bells ringing. They were deafening, they made me want to grab my ears and pound my head against the stone wall until either of them split in half.

  “Gertha, get us out,” I growled.

  The bells rang louder. My mouth was wet with saliva, and I felt sick.

  “Tullen. They-” Sayo started.

  “Gertha. Now.” I cut Sayo off; we had to get out of this room.

  “They’ve seen us.” Sila cried.

  I whirled around. Dark shapes skittered and darted around the room, behind and up pillars. Some darted through the air, launching off pillars and gliding in loose arcs near us, then away.

  They were feeling us out.

  Just our luck to be locked in a room with clever ones.

  I loosed an arrow at one of the shapes crawling near us on the floor. It squawked and scuttled away, its talons raking the stone floor.

  Still, those bloody bells persisted, and the deep rumbling from the sky erupted again. On the edge of my hearing, I was sure I heard screaming.

  I drew another arrow and nocked it onto the string.

  “Get ready,” I said.

  The air around us suddenly went freezing.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “No…don’t you dare.”

  Voices belonging to none of us lingered in the air. My heart ached, and for a brief moment, I was overcome by a deep, bitter melancholy. I bit back a sob. I knew this to be Gertha’s magic. A potent spell.

  I looked over to her.

  She smiled sadly, then the gate dissolved.

  Sila caught her under her arm as her knees buckled.

  “What the fuck? The gate…” A nasally voice called out. It belonged to a thin man with a shock of red hair and a mouth that looked like it had been carved with a blunt blade.

  “HALT IN THE NA-” A gruff voice shouted, belonging to a large, muscled man. His order was abruptly cut off when my arrow entered his mouth and punched out the other side, causing him to fall, gurgling on his own blood. It was a good shot. Although I’d been aiming for his heart. Still. I wasn’t going to argue with a blessing from the Hunter.

  Sayo leapt forward, swinging her blades. Bells continued ringing.

  “INTRUDER!” The nasal man screamed, just before a second, a neater mouth was opened in his neck. Sayo twirled with the movement, immediately facing toward the Li’ards, which had suddenly begun screeching and chittering. She almost moved like a Steelweaver.

  Potential. I heard Peevan’s voice say in my mind.

  “Fuck off,” I said aloud.

  “What?” Sila said?

  “RUN,” I SHOUTED.

  I didn’t have to repeat myself, as Sila and Gertha started running ahead. They were slower than I would have liked. I threw Gertha my bow, and it looped over her arm, the stave smacking against the stone of the corridor as she and Sila ran toward a door at the end.

  My hands free, I drew my sword stick, holding its wooden sheath in my off hand.

  “Sayo, go after them,” I said.

  “I can help.” She growled.

  “NOW,” I shouted.

  The Li’ards moved into the light now, some covered their faces with their wings. Others began tasting the air. I could see them clearly, and my heart stopped for a moment.

  The Gruff man lay on the ground still, twitching as blood poured down the sides of his mouth like a grotesque water fountain. One by one, the creatures laid eyes on him.

  “We have a little time,” Sayo said, stepping backwards slowly. I stood transfixed.

  A Li’ard with an arrow sticking out from the joint in its wing darted forward. It pressed one of its feet onto the guard's knee before clamping its mouth around his leg. He burbled, moaning as the creature's frill opened and closed. It’s white scales already stained with his blood. Others stepped forward tentatively. A sea of apex predators, each a different, striking colour. From greens to reds, yellows and even brown. What struck me as odd were the shining metal collars around each of their necks.

  They surrounded the guard, each Li’ard clamping its mouth around a different body part, before shaking their heads and beginning to flay him. He made no noise, for he was already dead, the shock of his injuries no doubt too much for him.

  I looked into Sayo’s eyes and turned away from the Li’ards, running after Sila and Gertha. The guard had bought us a little time.

  My priorities had changed; I needed to find Mavev.

  Just what was he doing with Wyverns? How did he find so many? Why were they here?

  It had to feed into Cemfyllen’s wider plan.

  I swore out loud as laughter erupted inside my head, drowning out the bells that had continued ringing the entire time.