The gravity in the room doubled in a fraction of a second, hitting their exhausted bodies like a falling log. Kael stood in the center aisle of the giant bone cathedral, his mouth hanging open at a terrible, broken angle. The skin around his neck stretched tight as a drum. From deep inside his throat, Morcant's smooth, heavy voice continued to ripple through the freezing air, bouncing off the massive pillars of petrified bone.
Kael lunged.
He dragged his right foot behind him, the broken ankle scraping across the stone with a wet, heavy sound. His speed was terrifying. He closed the distance in a single heartbeat, his long steel blade swinging downward in a blur of cold metal.
Varic forced his stiff, blue fingers to tighten around the hilt of his iron sword. He stepped directly into the center aisle, planting his boots into the dust to block the strike. He let out a short, desperate grunt as he swung upward.
The two blades met, and the air cracked with a deafening bang.
