The Rising Stones (Ihale Book 1)

probably have the energy to walk," Heln said.
"Well, I would feel a lot better about walking if I knew that we were actually getting somewhere." Bel looked up and down the tunnel. It looked the same both ways, only broken by more pillars that she didn't care to count and didn't dare look at. She wondered if the tunnels they hadn't traveled down looked the same and if the one near them had the same symbol. It was coated by a long, snarling tree root so it was impossible to tell. She didn't want to think about it anymore. "I'm starving."
"I think the moss is edible." Rhyss was eyeing the walls with a considerable amount of trepidation.
Bel regarded the moss with a queasy feeling. "I'm not starving, literally, just a little peckish, not really in the mood for moss, more for something that makes a good brunch. Oh! Heln. Maybe you can sense the Temple! Then—"
"No."
"Okay, it's customary in most cultures to let someone finish their sentence and only then refuse to go along with their plan." Bel looked up at him.
Heln's expression was a closed door. "I knew what you were going to say and I knew the answer was no, so I saved some of your precious breath."
"It is pretty precious," Bel conceded. "So, why not?"
"I can't sense the Temple, it's specifically shielded from people like me," Heln explained. "And don't ask if I can sense an absence, because I still can't. It's not really… an exact science, and I'm not clairvoyant. Believe me, if I knew a way out of here I wouldn't be hiding it from you. I want to get out, too. Even if I could… I don't know, something about this place…"
He trailed off, and something in his voice stopped Bel from asking any more questions.
It didn't stop Rhyss. "What about this place?"
"I don't know. It doesn't feel like normal magic, but the whole place is just drenched in it, more than a strengthening script. More than, well, I don't know. I think it has something to do with that carving."
Rhyss's eyebrows rose. "Carving?"
Heln gave Bel a sideways glance, like he was looking for permission. Instead she spoke for him.
"The forest god's symbol." Bel straightened, despite her entire body protesting. "I don't know, maybe someone put it there later, but it was definitely its symbol. So. We need to get out of here really fast."
It had looked just as old as the stone around it, but if Bel was anything she was an optimist.
Rhyss shuddered at the mention of the old god and Bel couldn't blame her. "You're right. Okay. Rest for a bit, then we push on. I want to be out of here as soon as possible no matter who left that symbol."
She didn't say "or what", but they were all thinking it.

Chapter Six
When they hit the dead-end, it was in a literal sense. At least, Rhyss did, letting out a shriek that let any creature for miles know precisely where they were. At first Bel thought she had to be dying to make a noise like that. It was only when she ran closer that she realized exactly what she was stuck in.
From far away, the spider webs looked like more dimly glowing moss, but with Rhyss trying to pull free bioluminescence lit up every fiber of the tell-tale spiral with a blue light. Bel glanced up but didn't see any spiders. At least not for the moment.
"Get it off! Get it off get it off get it off!" Rhyss's voice was raising in pitch with every word she said.
"Calm down. Spiders that build webs are attracted to thrashing, it alerts them to the presence of food."
"Bel if you think that is helping, it is not, it's not, you're the worst—"
Bel grabbed her hand and pulled, but she was stuck tight. "Okay, I'm going to cut you out, so you're going to want to stand still anyway. I don't spend hours practicing with knives like you do so if I cut you then it's entirely your fault and you can't beat me up. Okay?"
"If you're admitting I can beat you up then I'm probably about to die," Rhyss said almost too quickly for Bel to understand her.
"Everyone knows you can kick her ass, even her," Heln reassured her. Bel drew Rhyss's dagger and carved out a jagged, Guard Trainee shaped hole in the spider web. She jerked back the moment she was free and did a little dance like it would help shake the webbing that trailed off of her hair and clothes like tinsel.
"Oh gross gross gross gross."
While Rhyss was busy with that and Heln was busy trying to calm her down without suffering blunt force trauma, Bel sent her illumination bubble through the filmy curtain of webbing.
There were a lot of spider webs ahead of them, hanging like sheets off of unused furniture, old cobwebs coating the walls and floors and glinting dully like tarnished silver.
"Eleti, what made these?" Heln asked. "How big are the spiders? Because I'm imagining spiders as big as Mabi, and I am not happy about it."
"As great as having a pet spider the size of my dog would be, in reality they don't actually get that big." Bel flicked her wrist and her bubble rose into the webbing. Even she didn't want to meet spiders that came up to her waist. One of the spiders, no bigger than her outspread hand, shied away from the light, eyes glittering. "See? Cave spiders. They can make webs stronger than steel. We're lucky that Rhyss has an enchanted blade, but even with that we aren't making it through here."
"We could light them on fire." Rhyss suggested, still brushing ineffectively at her arms.
Bel sighed, rolled his eyes, and slapped her with a cleaning script. The webbing slid off in piles of silver silk around her feet. "No. That's a terrible idea. We are underground and I don't know about you, but I haven't exactly felt a