The Rising Stones (Ihale Book 1)

carving. In the new light it looked darker and more defined. The raised ridges of the skull and antlers shone like they had been freshly gilded.
A sharp, bright light swung in the empty socket, jerking in his direction, and Heln made a noise that echoed off of the walls, jumping back and slamming up his shields in the same moment.
When he looked again there was no light, the socket was simply a slightly shadowed recess in the stone.
His heart was pounding out an erratic rhythm against his ribcage. He turned away from the socket to just breathe, ignoring the crawling sensation working its way up his skin.
Ahead of him the tunnel stretched on. Nearly every thirty feet, another pillar jutted from the wall. Most of them were covered, but on a few of them he could see the dark, tell-tale lines of runes and something else.
Behind him in the first tunnel was a soft noise, almost imperceptible above the still slowing beat of his heart. He held his breath.
It sounded like footsteps. For one delirious moment he thought it might be rescue. If Vin had survived, a fact Rhyss seemed sure of, it wasn't too far-fetched to think he had sent a team after them.
It was still too dark for him to see anything alongside the footsteps.
Heln switched off the light stick, holding it like a dagger and inching forward. Without the light stick it was even more dim, the plant life losing some of its luster until his eyes adjusted.
There was no light in the other tunnel. The unease already sliding across him rose, the hairs on the nape of his neck when he heard the noise again, closer.
A rescue party would be loud, despite the monster in the first chamber. Voices would be calling for them, lights would be everywhere and they would be sending out search scripts.
This had none of that.
It had to be something else, Heln realized, and he didn't want to find out what by running right into it. He backed away slowly, trying to keep an eye on the tunnel and where his feet were going at the same time, slowly lowering his shields.
Dead, empty magic.
In the darkness at the end of the tunnel, he saw two sparks of emerald light flared to life, much closer to the ceiling than he cared for. Heln dropped to the tunnel floor. His first instinct was to turn and run for the barrier, but the construct would catch him with ease and would likely toss him past a handful of pillars.
Maybe Rhyss could land that, but he certainly couldn't.
Heln felt vulnerable on the floor, soft moss pressed against his face, but at least he wasn't a low Ihalin cut out of darkness in front of the barrier. The barrier that the construct would be inevitably drawn towards while he wasn't there to warn his friends.
He heard it shuffling, its footfalls surprisingly quiet for something that must have been roughly twice his height. He glanced up and saw the outline of it looming near the end of the tunnel, blocking the two arrows that pointed straight at the barrier. As it turned he carefully got to his feet, trying to stay low. He was ready to press himself flat the moment he saw a hint of green. He was halfway certain that it didn't matter, the thing had to hear his pulse. It was hammering loudly enough in his own ears that he wasn't sure if he was making any noise trying to get back to the barrier.
Could they even hear? He didn't know.
His question was unfortunately answered when he tripped, stumbling backwards over a root he hadn't felt with his hands. The thing whipped around and made a horrible noise.
Heln gave up on stealth, scrambling to his feet and sprinting for the barrier. He nearly tripped again, this time close enough that he ended up careening into the barrier head first and stepping on Bel, barely managing to catch himself on the wall before he fell down.
"Ow!" Bel sat up. "Ow! What in the—?"
"Shut up, shut up." He slid down the wall and covered Bel's mouth with his hand, which earned him a muffled protest. "Construct. Right outside. Please shut up."
Bel went still at that, her one visible ear twitching slightly. Rhyss had also woken up during their exchange, staying silent as she rose to a crouch, her knife already in her hand. He wasn't entirely sure how she had done that. He was very sure that he didn't want to know.
Silence that seemed to last an eternity stretched around them. Heln realized he still had Bel's face in a death grip and pulled his hand away.
The silence was finally broken by a scraping sound just outside of the barrier.
Rhyss spoke first, her voice a low murmur. "Bel, can you create another barrier?"
"No." Bel shook her head. "Not this fast. It's this one or nothing for at least a few hours."
"That's fine." Rhyss did not have the face of someone who thought that it was fine. "I just thought I'd ask."
Heln tried to sense what it was doing, but all he could feel beyond Bel's magic was a vague sense of wrongness.
A giant hand slapped down on the barrier, near the top. The barrier should have let off sparks of magic, at the very least.               Nothing happened for a moment, then the hand began to press in, like it was pushing against cloth. The top bubbled down violently.
The wrongness of the power outside intensified, invading Bel's magic.
"It's pulling the barrier down!" Heln used the wall to pull himself up. "We need to go!"
Rhyss didn't need to be told twice, she had their bags ready for them and they all stumbled out of the other side of the barrier just as it shattered like glass against the onslaught, sparkling and fading in the air. Heln stumbled, pain crackling around his skull. Rhyss shoved him, keeping him more or less on his