Torches lined the path ahead, and here the darkness no longer pressed against them as it had near the entrance.
For a few uneasy minutes, that almost felt like mercy.
Then, behind the four disciples, the great hall they had left abruptly sealed itself.
A steel wall dropped with a thunderous crash and cut off the way back.
Oswin's pendulum jerked at once toward the sound.
There was no wind in the corridor, nothing that should have stirred it, yet the cone tipped hard in that direction and quivered there.
A chill crept through him. His pendulum never moved without cause, and never without danger.
He raised a hand.
Fay, Jackson, and Jenkii stopped with him at once, weapons already drawn.
"Is there something?" Jackson asked.
"I cannot tell for certain," Oswin said. "But my divination says there is danger behind us."
"What do you want us to do?" Fay asked, her grip tightening around the handle of her whip.
