Aleira Brightleaf's Arc

Chapter 8 of 18

The sealed door held the necromancers out. It also held the heat in. Aleira felt it first on her throat. The tower had breathed through that archway. Now the fresh air was gone. The lava veins in the walls pulsed brighter, and the trapped heat climbed. Sweat ran down her face. Her protective robe kept the killing burn off her skin, but Hazel had no such robe. Neither did Morwenna. "It's cooking us," Morwenna said. She backed against the throne, staff shaking. "No air. No air. It gets hotter. Then we burn. I'm already dead and I can still burn." She listed it plainly, like reading a bill. Hazel pressed her hands to the wall and yanked them back. "Too hot to touch. If I blast the door, the rock pours in on us. If I blast the wall, same." Her wand trembled. "And I can't aim. You know I can't aim." Aleira looked up. The spire narrowed as it rose, black stone laced with molten light. High above, smoke curled out the peak into open sky. Air escaped up there. It could come in the same way. "Not the door," she said. "The top. Hazel, break the peak. Open a hole up high. Heat rises. Let it out. Pull cool air down." Hazel stared up the long throat of the tower. "That's so far. If I miss low, I drop the ceiling on your head." "You always miss," Aleira said. "So don't aim at the top. Aim at the floor." She took Hazel's wand hand and pointed it straight down at the stone between their feet. Hazel's mouth opened. Morwenna made a small, terrified sound and hid behind the throne. Aleira held Hazel's wrist steady. "Trust your bad aim. Fire." Hazel squeezed her eyes shut and fired. The spark hit the floor, then curved wild, as it always did. It shot up the inside of the spire, spinning, climbing. It struck the peak. Stone cracked. A chunk of the tower's crown broke free and fell outward, away from them, into the wastes. A hole tore open at the top. The trapped heat rushed up through it in a roaring column. Cooler air, still hot but breathable, slid down the walls. Aleira gulped it. Hazel dropped to her knees, gasping. Morwenna peeked out, blinking her white eyes. "We can breathe," Morwenna said. Then her staff twitched. Her head turned up toward the new opening. "But the smoke. The smoke goes up now. Straight up. High. They'll see it for miles." Aleira followed her gaze. Above them, a thick black plume poured out the broken peak into the sky. A signal, burning bright over the wastes. The necromancers had lost Morwenna's scent through the buried door. Now Aleira had hung a marker over the tower for every eye in Hell to find.