Fire streamed around the pillar they had just been cowering behind and Rhyss threw them both forward, pulling her cloak up around all of them as best as she could. Even with the tattered and torn edges some of the scripts must have held.
"Go!" Rhyss screeched when the fire died down to blackened, smoking rock. "Go go go go!"
Heln didn't need to be told twice, let alone five times. The chamber had been warm, now it was boiling hot and he couldn't seem to get enough air into his lungs. What he did breathe in was searing.
They ran along the outside of the pillars and up to the door, taking the steps two at a time.
"Knock it over!" Bel yelled. Rhyss already had her dagger out and slammed the pommel into the stone.
Nothing happened.
"Okay. Okay okay." Heln tried to pull down his shields and remain calm, doing his best to not notice how the dragon had recovered from hitting the barrier and was already getting to its feet. It was still moving in short bursts, despite one of its legs dragging limply behind it.
The sealing magic on the door was much, much stronger than the one at the end of the tunnel. Several scripts had been placed on it, the signatures of each one overlapping, covering any weak points.
There were still weak points.
"Here." He jabbed his finger at the top right corner, then at a point closer to the left side. "And here. Hit there, I—"
"Down!"
Rhyss shoved him off of the stairs and if he hadn't been ready for it he probably would have cracked his head open. He landed well enough and was already halfway to his feet before Rhyss landed beside him and was finishing hauling him up by his shredded hood. Heln didn't see Bel, but it was too late, the clicking behind him motivating him to move forward much more effectively than Rhyss's hand shoving him between his shoulder blades.
He glanced back just as flames washed over the door. With the barrier lit up it was easy to see the dragon, how the fire in its throat shone through where the scaled plating on it was nearly worn through, how part of its jaw was eroded away. The eyes stared blindly straight ahead. Despite their opalescence, there was no intelligence behind them. Every motion the dragon made originated from the gem in its chest.
The dragon had been dead for a very, very long time.
"Bel got out." Rhyss told him. "I think. It needs a minute between blasts, once it's done we run up the — now!"
She was hauling him back to the stairs the moment the fire died down, ignoring the heat rising from the stone. Bel was next to them a moment later. The dragon's jaws snapped once, twice, like it was trying to find fire, the clicking coming from the back of its throat. When nothing happened, it pressed against the barrier, hot and huge and terrifyingly close. So close that Heln could have counted the scales on its shoulder if he wanted to. The links on the chain, each one probably roughly the size of Heln himself, clattered and rustled together.
The barrier actually flickered.
Heln felt like his heart was flickering, too, but Rhyss was already at the blackened door and smashing at the two points he had shown her.
The door trembled, but held.
"Hit it harder, Rhyss! Like you mean it!" Bel was screaming again, her voice a full octave above normal.
Rhyss didn't waste energy replying. Her dagger glowed, the light washed over her hand, and she hit the door with all of her magic behind it.
The door moved maybe two inches. Rhyss stepped back, panting slightly, her eyes wide and wild. Bel shoved on the door ineffectively.
"The barrier isn't going to hold!" Heln watched, horrified, as the dragon slammed up against the barrier again. When the barrier had been established, there was no way the dragon could have gotten out. Time had weakened it and from what Heln could tell the gem that made the power core in its chest was draining magic, siphoning it off of everything, including the script that were supposed to keep it in place. "We have to go back!"
"We'll never make it." Rhyss still had her dagger out. "I… I have a plan. Just trust me. Do you trust me?"
Heln supposed that he did, but he didn't have much choice, because one more impact would probably weaken the barrier enough that the dragon could get through it. He nodded.
"Great. The dragon is—"
Whatever Rhyss's plan was, it was lost in a horribly loud scream from the dragon that made them all flinch back. She just nodded when it was over, like they understood. Her face was pale and determined, a smudge of soot on one cheek.
Heln didn't understand, but he nodded back anyway.
The dragon hit the barrier again and the glowing blue magic stuttered. One of the pillars it had been chained to made a groaning noise, then began slowly toppling towards them like a felled tree.
Heln had time to think two things.
One, the pillar was much bigger than the dragon.
Two, it was heading straight for him.
"Heln! Move!"
He wasn't even sure who had screamed that, it was high pitched with hysteria, but it did get him moving, because the pillar was falling faster than he had thought, gaining momentum. When it crashed against the wall with a terrific boom, he was surprised that no part of him had been turned into paste.
Dust and debris exploded around him. He covered his head and tried to make himself as small as possible against the onslaught.
When the world stopped ending and the ground stopped shaking he looked up. He was absolutely coated in rock powder. Something had clipped his shoulder. It felt hot and damp, but it hadn't started to hurt yet. He knew it would.
He stood up, yanking his shirt out from under his jacket at the bottom in a near fruitless attempt to clean his glasses. They had been enchanted
