This time, I remember the sharp jutting stone and remove my finger from the wall before it gets sliced open again. I still stings a bit from last night. Wouldn't do to reopen the cut. I make a quick signal to Enturi to avoid the sharp spot, but I cannot tell if he sees it in the darkness. Since he doesn't cry out or flinch as we move forward, I assume he did.

A few more steps takes us to the edge of the ward zone. I turn back again, leaning in to whisper.

"This is it."

He nods. I hear him muttering something, and then he slips a hand under my cloak and grasps my bare upper arm. I feel a tingle of magic in the contact, but that's all. I don't feel any braver. Ah well, maybe it doesn't work like that. I shrug and take a step forward. Into the fear.

The fear envelops me, swirling around me like a wind ripping off tattered bits of my sanity, whispering voices calling distantly for me to go back, run, flee. My arm tingles with magic where Enturi is touching me but the fear still feels strong, threatening.

"Is that the best you can do?" I growl back at him through gritted teeth.

"Less talk, more walking," he hisses back. I step forward. Moving is easier than last night. Still kinda like walking through sucking mud filled with sanity-eating centipedes nipping at your brain, but doable. As I move forward, Enturi's protection grows stronger. I feel my mind steady. It is easier to maintain control. Thirty steps and we're at the grey wall of the ruins. We move along the wall to the large broken out hole through which I spied the rune. I glance around the corner, through the aperture. Just a large, empty room. No ghosts, that I can see anyway. Or any other kind of threat.

I hear Enturi breathing heavily behind me. Whatever he's doing to lessen the effect of the fear ward must take some effort. I step into the ruins and pull him after me.

The fear disappears as soon as we enter the building. The release of tension makes my legs go all wobbly and I lean against the wall for support. Beside me, Enturi collapses back against the wall, gasping, and slides down to the floor. He is covered in sweat, damp strands of his hair hanging down his forehead like mooring ropes after a storm. I give him a quick nod of appreciation. 

"Nicely done."

Leaving him to recover, I look around the darkened room. The chamber is mostly intact. Even the inner walls are of stone and there are no windows. Part of the long wall opposite the hole we came in has collapsed, and the ceiling slopes down to the rubble. Rain drips down the stones. There are two doorways, one in the back wall, and another near the back on the inside wall. Both had doors at some point, which now lie on the floor, broken, pieces scattered.

The rune is on the inside of the wall facing Elftown, above a rectangular block of stone with the narrow side placed tight to the wall, in a little alcove. It looks like the torture table in Jeamo's studio, except bigger and more ornate. A sacrifical altar. I approach warily for a better look.  There are broken bits of metal and stone where there used to be shackles. Shackles to keep the elves secure while the humans tortured and killed them. The flat stone surface of the altar is discolored, soaked with the blood of those who died here. There must have been many.

I can see faint scratch marks in the stone and take a closer look. A couple of crude runes, scratched into the blood-soaked stone. "Die, humans" they say. No doubt the work of one of the elves who stormed the hall in the uprising. Pathetic. Is this graffiti the best we could do? The altar still stands, the blood rune is untouched, the chamber of horrors mostly intact. But on the other hand, the humans did not reoccupy the Hall after the uprising. That put an end to the torture and murder of elves. At least until they sent in Jeamo to start the old practice again.

I peer at the rune itself. The strokes of the rune were carved lightly into the wall and then painted with blood. A sense of danger, of lurking power, oppresses me as I lean forward for a closer look. With a hot torch, burning the blood off the wall should be easy, unless the mixture of fire and blood causes an explosion like the one that broke my ribs in Bolin's workroom. But to truly get rid of the rune, I need to efface the wall carvings. But how? Maybe the burning blood will explode with enough force to damage the wall surface. That would eliminate the rune. And bring the humans down on this place like a swarm of angry gulls.

"Goddess," Enturi whispers behind me. "How many elves did they kill?"