I really didn’t like the idea of our scrivening expert crossing the trap on her own. We were out of options, though. Every minute we spent second-guessing ourselves was a minute the other teams could use to get ahead of us.
“I’ll do it,” Hagar offered. “Looks easy enough.”
Less than a minute later, Hagar had her serpents in place.
“Wish me luck,” Clem said with a grin.
She put her foot on the trigger before any of us could react. Jinsei flashed around her foot and rippled through the scrivening.
The tentacled gargoyle’s head swiveled toward my friend.
But it didn’t fire its beam of crimson death.
“Whew.” Clem’s voice shook. “That was scary.”
“Get across there before it changes its mind.” I tried to smile, but it was impossible. My adrenaline was still spiked from the fear I’d felt at Clem’s near-death experience. My heart rate jumped again when Clem stopped in the middle of the pattern.
I nearly keeled over from shock when she let out a frustrated shout.
“There’s another connection here!” She banged her fists together. “There’s another set of power points right in the middle of this thing.”
“How many?” I called out.
“Four,” Clem responded.
That made sense. I should have seen this coming. The teams had to work together to get across.
“Get your team over here,” I commanded Trulissinangoth. When she hesitated, I put the weight of my core behind my next sentence. “You need to do your part, or we’ll never get through here.”
Trulissinangoth said something to her teammates, and they all laughed.
“Very well,” she said with a shrug. “We will let the lesser creatures guide our path. For now.”
I was going to take great pleasure in beating this dragon bloody when the test was through.
“We need to cross over together.” I explained the dilemma and the only solution I saw.
“I don’t see a problem,” Trulissinangoth scoffed. “You humans will bridge the trap, and we will cross.”
“Wrong,” I snapped. “We’ll bridge it in pairs, and we’ll cross in pairs. That way neither team has to worry about any mistakes from the other side. Now send one of your people out to meet Clem.”
The dragon grumbled at that, exactly as I knew she would. It would have been too easy for her people to let us get halfway across and then trigger the trap. There’d be none of that on my watch.
The red-scaled dragon crossed the scrivening, his eyes narrowed into suspicious slits, and joined Clem. She explained what he needed to do, and they bridged the trigger points to allow the next pair, Hagar and the blue-scaled dragon, to reach the far side of the trap.
Where they ran into another problem.
“There are more triggers over here,” Hagar shouted. “Twelve of them, it looks like.”
“That’s okay,” Clem said. “When we get everyone else across, then six of you can bridge those and we’ll join you.”
We followed Clem’s plan, and soon we were all on the far side of the trap.
“I’m so glad I could assist you in overcoming this challenge that you would not have been able to defeat on your own,” Clem said to the dragons as she joined us. “I look forward to when you return the favor and do something we could not accomplish.”
The dragons rocked back on their heels as if Clem had just slapped them all across their broad noses.
“You’ll pay for that insult,” Trulissinangoth spat. “I’ll make sure it is the last you ever utter.”
“You can try,” Clem said. “I’m not much of a fighter. Be sure you finish the job, though. Because I’m smarter than you’ll ever be, and you’ll never see me coming if I survive.”
“That’s enough.” I stepped between them. “Look, we have more of these traps to cross, and who knows what else we’ll face. This isn’t the time for a fight.”
“That time will come,” Trulissinangoth promised me.
“You bet it will,” I said. “But now it’s time to work together before the other teams beat us to the goal.”
With that settled, our team of happy allies continued its journey around the ring. We crossed two more sets of traps with the same two-by-two plan. As we passed beneath each gargoyle, I examined it for some clues as to what lay ahead. Something about them troubled me, but I couldn’t figure out what.
Finally, we reached a door set into the inner wall. It opened to greet us, and Trulissinangoth motioned for me to step in first.
“Of course,” I said. “I’ll be happy to pass through the door if the dragons are too frightened of it to lead the way.”
If insults got under Trulissinangoth’s skin, I’d keep them coming. We had to work together, but that didn’t mean I had to play nice. Anything that upset the dragon would work in my favor down the road. If she was distracted by her anger, she’d be less capable.
The new chamber was another silo-like room, though it was much larger than the first one. My team entered with plenty of room to spare, and the dragons followed us in, their eyes cast toward the ceiling as if expecting a sneak attack.
“Open the next area,” Trulissinangoth demanded.
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I asked. “Look around. There’s nothing on the walls. Or the floor or ceiling, for that matter. How am I supposed to open a door?”
“Figure it out,” she said.
“Knock it off,” Eric shouted. “You overgrown lizards haven’t done anything since this challenge started. Why don’t you figure something out for a change?”
“Why don’t you follow the orders of your betters?” the dragon shot back. “That’s something you should get used to.”
An aura of flame burst to life around Eric. Rage smoldered in his eyes, and he raised his fists into a fighting stance.
“Eric,” I cautioned.
“No,” he shouted. “I’m sick of this. If they want to fight, let’s fight.”
“Have it your way,” the dragon said.
She brandished her claws, and her team prepared to attack. Clearly, they’d decided that Eric’s threat was reason enough for them to turn on us.
“Eric!” I shouted.
The lights went out.
And the floor vanished.
