Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Fifty-Five: Brilliant

"Stop!" Elva's voice rang out in the hall way, Eragon froze with his foot in the air.

"Jump to there," Elva said. She pointed at a spot a yard in front of him. "By the scrollwork."

Eragon crouched, then hesitated as he waited for her to tell him whether it was safe. She stamped her foot and made a sound of exasperation.

"It won't work if you don't mean it. I can't tell if something is going to hurt you unless you actually intend to put yourself in danger." She gave him a smile that he found less than reassuring. "Don't worry; I won't let anything happen to you."

"Stop!" Eragon cursed and waved his arms as he tried to keep from falling onto the section of floor that would trigger the spikes hidden both above and below. The spikes were the third trap we had encountered in the long hallway leading to the golden doors. The first had been a set of hidden pits. The second had been blocks of stone in the ceiling that would have squished them flat. And now the spikes, much like those that had killed Wyrden in the tunnels beneath Dras-Leona.

"Try a little bit farther out," Elva said. Eragon grimaced but did as she suggested.

"Stop!" This time he would have fallen had I not grabbed the back of his tunic.

"Even farther," Elva said. "Stop! Farther."

"I can't," Eragon growled, his frustration increasing on his face. "Not without a running start. What now? If the spikes go all the way to the doors, we'll never reach them."

"Maybe the trap is meant for a walking dragon," Arya said. "If it's only a yard or two long, Saphira, Alethea or Thorn could step right over without even realizing it was there. But if it's a hundred feet long, it would be sure to catch them."

"Not if we jump," Saphira said. "A hundred feet is an easy distance."

Eragon and I exchanged concerned glances with Arya and Elva.

"Just make sure you don't let your tail touch the floor and don't go too far, or you might run into another trap." Eragon finally said.

"Yes, little one." Saphira crouched and gathered herself in, lowering her head until it was only a foot or so above the stone. Then she dug her claws into the floor and leaped down the hallway, opening her wings just enough to give herself a bit of lift.

When Saphira had gone two full-lengths of her body, she folded her wings and dropped to the floor with a resounding clatter.

"Safe," Saphira said before she turned around and jumped back. "Well? Who's first?"

It took her four trips to ferry all of us across the bed of spikes. Then we continued forward at a swift trot. We encountered no more traps until we were three-quarters of the way to the gleaming doors, at which point Elva shuddered and raised her small hand. We immediately stopped.

"Something will cut us in two if we continue," Elva said. "I'm not sure where it will come from ... the walls, I think."

"What if we—" Eragon cut off as twenty black-robed humans, men, and women alike, filed out of a side passageway and formed a line in front of them, blocking the way.

Alethea lept from my shoulder and grew to an appropriate size. Both she and Saphira opened their jaws and raked the spellcasters with a torrent of crackling flame, but it passed harmlessly around them.