“What the hell!” Persh’al’s grip tightened on her arm as he scowled at the rock. “See what I mean, kid? No tree, and now we’re rock-climbing.”
Cheyenne pointed slightly to their right, where a narrow passage cut through the rock. “That’s wide enough for us to get through, right?”
“Should be. One at a time, anyway. Cross your fingers that it doesn’t move while we’re in there. Keep going.” They moved toward the passage, shoes crunching on whatever the black fog was hiding beneath them. Persh’al slipped between the boulders first, the sides of his bulging pack scraping the walls. “Didn’t look so tight from the outside.”
The wind dropped in the passage, but the smoke hadn’t found its way in with them. Cheyenne looked again at the eerie gray sky with no source of light and kept moving. Pebbles toppled down the side of the boulder, bouncing off the rough wall beside her before hitting the ground without a sound. She looked at the wall and jerked away, nearly bashing her shoulder into the opposite side of the cleft stone. “Ugh.”
“Huh?”
A face was etched in the stone wall, mouth open as if it had been caught inside the boulder halfway through a scream. Like someone was trying to push their way out of it.
“Face in the wall,” she muttered.
“Oh, yeah. That happens sometimes.”
She skirted around the face, which thankfully didn’t move when she passed it. “Is that what happens to magicals who get lost?”
Persh’al said, “No idea. Maybe. Or maybe it’s the place’s idea of a good practical joke. Scare the pants right off ya and make you run until you get lost. Like I said, kid, ignore what you see.”
Before they’d made it remotely close to the end of the passage, the rock walls on either side of them disappeared. Blinking quickly, Cheyenne lifted her elbow to test the air, but there was nothing there anymore. “This is nuts.”
“Yep. That’s the abridged version.” The troll looked around them in every direction and shrugged. “Nothing now. Just smoke and more smoke. And that’ll change again soon, I’m sure.”
“So, how do we know when we’re getting close?” Cheyenne glanced quickly to the right when something skittered across the unseen ground.
“Looks kinda like a door. Or a doorway. Not one of these shifting illusions, either.” Persh’al waited for her to catch up so they could walk side by side again. “When you see it, you’ll know. As far as I can tell, the doorways are the only constants in here. And you won’t find yourself stepping through one only to find that it’s a fake. I think.”
“Wonderful.”
The skittering and rustling sound rose again, and Cheyenne paused. “Something’s moving.”
“Uh-huh. And we need to keep moving too. Just don’t—”
“Hey!” Something heavy and cold slithered across the top of Cheyenne’s shoe. She kicked it off and gritted her teeth. “Something just ran over my foot.”
“Time to pick up the pace.” Persh’al grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie and tugged her along beside him. “Eyes open, yeah?”
“Like I could see anything anyway.” They walked quickly over nothing and through wisps of black smoke.
About four yards ahead, more smoke ballooned into a dark, solid shape that didn’t disappear again when the wind kicked up. The dark shape glinted in the pale gray light, and when it turned sideways, Cheyenne hissed. “That looks like a tentacle.”
“Sure does.” Persh’al flicked his wrist, and a bright-green whip of crackling magic materialized in his hand. “Get ready and don’t fall back. That’s about it.”
“Right.” Cheyenne summoned two sparking, hissing black orbs and stayed close to his side.
The next thing she knew, the tentacle wasn’t yards away but right in front of them. It whipped toward them and crashed into the ground at their feet. The halfling launched her sparking attack at the thick section and severed it. A shrieking cry rose from every direction, sounding close and far away at the same time.
“I’m guessing they’re in a bad mood today.”
Persh’al scowled at the flopping severed tentacle as they stepped over it. “Funny. Keep going.”
They made it four feet before another shape rose from the ground in front of them, reared back, and opened into a gigantic mouth with rows of sharp teeth dripping with something green and noxious. Cheyenne reeled away from the stench blasting out of that mouth before she hit it with two more black spheres. Her magic scattered shards of monster and green goo in every direction, but the pieces disappeared before they hit the ground.
Persh’al snorted. “You gonna let me get a shot in or what?”
The halfling grinned. “Sorry. Next one’s all yours.”
“You know, you’re a lot more fun when you play nice. I’m sure it wouldn’t—”
Two more tentacles darted toward them through the smoke-thick air. Cheyenne and Persh’al leaped away from each other to avoid the lashing strike, then the troll’s sparking green whip cracked against the tentacles and coiled tightly around them. Something screamed, and the glistening appendages shattered.
“Not as satisfying as I thought, but fine.”
That skittering sound returned again, this time magnified by a hundred. Cheyenne peered through the fog around them as they kept walking. “Sounds like those creepy bugs.”
“Could be anything, really.”
A massive shadow blocked the grim light overhead, then something dropped from the sky and landed with a wet smack beside them on the left. A hairy, spike-studded body rose from the ground, eight eyes shifting in all directions as the spider-thing leaped toward them. Persh’al lashed out with his whip and the spider screamed, then the skittering grew louder on the right.
“Whoa.” Cheyenne blinked at the swarm of fist-sized black crabs scrambling toward them. She let off round after round of her black orbs, which smashed into the creatures and scattered them like bowling pins until the things changed tactics. Hundreds of them leaped on top of each other to form a new shape, and Persh’al grunted beside her, cracking his whip against the huge spider while it danced back and forth in front of him.
“You got those things?”
