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‘Cade, we have a problem,’ Aradeus said. He was standing next to the door that I was assuming led us further towards our destination.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘I. . . I think there’s a storm behind this door.’

‘So what?’ Alice asked. ‘We just came through three of them.’

‘I’m pretty sure this one is different,’ Aradeus said, and carefully pulled open the door.

First we heard the thunder, like the roar of a dozen cannon firing all at once in that narrow corridor. The bolts of blue lightning zigging everywhere were blasting chunks out of the floor and walls, sending shards of shattered stone whizzing through the air. There was no way any shield spell could protect us from that much concentrated power.

‘Can we go around?’ I asked, gesturing at the two corridors on either side of us.

Aradeus shook his head. ‘According to the rats, this is the only way through.’

I turned to Corrigan. ‘You’re a thunderer. Is there any way you know of to walk safely through a lightning storm?’

‘Go fuck yourself,’ he replied, which was probably to be expected, but we really didn’t have time for his sulking.

Hating myself, I pushed harder on the recruitment spell. Corrigan grimaced at me, gritting his teeth, but finally he admitted, ‘I can’t end the storm, but I can redirect the lightning.’

‘Where?’

‘Into myself.’

It must have taken a supreme act of will– and even then, it could only have been possible because of the nausea overwhelming me– but somehow, Corrigan resisted the recruitment spell for long enough to mutter one of his own incantations and walk right into the storm.

‘Wait!’ I called to him, trying not to let anyone hear my panic, ‘You could die in there!’

He laughed at that, and somehow his voice sounded over the booming of the thunder. ‘Fine fucking time you pick to start worrying about my life, Cade.’

Chapter 47

The Lightning

Corrigan took his first step into the corridor and was immediately struck by a massive bolt of lightning. He swallowed an agonised growl but kept moving, his body bathed in blue sparks as he took the next step. Another bolt struck him, then a third. I’d heard tales of thunderers who showed off their strength by climbing to the top of a hill during a storm and allowing themselves to be deliberately struck by lightning– but I’d never heard of any of them surviving three hits.

‘How much more can he take?’ Alice asked, a note of something that sounded suspiciously like admiration in her voice.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Not much, I don’t think.’

When the next bolt struck, this time Corrigan screamed. In the blue glow, we could all see the steam rising from his skin.

‘Hurry, you dumb fuckers!’ he shouted. ‘I’m drawing the lightning to me, but I can’t keep it up for ever.’

I ran into the corridor, careful to stay a few feet behind Corrigan. I could feel my hair filling with static electricity, rising up from the top of my head, and my mouth tasted like copper. But I wasn’t being hit.

‘Come on, Galass, Fidick,’ I said reassuringly, fully aware I sounded like an idiot. ‘Alice and Shame next. Aradeus, would you be kind enough to bring up the rear?’

Step by step, we made our way down that endless corridor. I doubt it was more than ten yards long, but that journey took an eternity. Corrigan’s howls were becoming increasingly desperate, and at last I had to cover my ears with my hands because I couldn’t stand to listen to my best friend’s pain any more.

He was stumbling by the time he reached the end of the corridor, but he stopped inside the door and stood there, being hit over and over by the lightning.

‘Corrigan, move!’ I shouted, coming up behind him and readying myself to push him through, but he was shaking his head.

‘You have to goaroundme, idiot! If I walk past the end of the storm, the lightning will attack the rest of you!’

I really was losing it.‘Quickly!’I screamed, and one by one, we squirmed past Corrigan as fast as we could without touching him, and when we were all safely on the other side, I turned, expecting him to be right behind me. But he was still standing in the corridor.