Grey Strength 16

Ignoring him, I approached the right-hand door and slid the viewing window aside, peering into the gloom beyond. The narrow, dark cell was empty. As I moved to the left, I prepared myself for the worst. When the window slid aside, a beam of dim light landed on the prone form of a woman in rags. Her eyes opened and turned toward the light, gleaming scarlet.

Grabbing the door’s handle, I heaved. The series of bolts that secured the door groaned and bent, but it was the stonework that gave way first, bursting apart with a shower of rock dust. The door flew open, ripped free as the hinges sheered, and embedded itself into the wall.

“Torviir, Bolgar, you are dismissed,” Varay said behind me. “I’ll cover for you when he arrives.”

I didn’t need to turn around to know they’d obeyed as their heavy bootsteps and the clanging of their armor receded down the hall away from the prison cell.

Caera scrambled back against the wall but came up against the end of the length of chain that bound her mana suppression shackles to the floor. “G-Grey?” she asked, her voice cracking with dehydration and disuse.