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"Of course I can," the gnoone bizarrely irritable for so to be okay

"But not this one," Nell concluded, to our regret "It’s gotta be not only the lock, but it also is locked And until it’s unlocked, it’s unreadable"

It took h that, but eventually I nodded to

Iris asked the question we all were thinking: "Well, can you unlock it?"

"I have no idea," Nell replied, staring at the hieroglyph in contemplation "But there’s only one way to find out," she finished, as she stepped toward the pedestal

CHAPTER ELEVEN

We braced ourselves as the first waves of h the cavern The force of Nell’s power pushed us back, until Caleb, Iris, Anyan, and I were all pressed against the walls, trying to avoid being shish-kebabed by the decorating scheno her power upward toward the dangling ils

She pushed and she pushed and she pushed… and nothing happened

Lowering her arms, she swore a blue streak I’d first noticed when Conleth had attacked us in Rockabill, all those h Seas, whenever she got frustrated with soical And today was no exception

After she’d finished reveling in her theories regarding the probable connection between the ancient Alfar and people who enjoy sexual congress with their own ain only to yell, "Motherfuckers!" one last ti the, deep breath before she finally turned around to face us

"Anyan," she said, very politely for someone who’d just made even rinned and walked toward Nell

Iris, Caleb, Trill, and I just gave each other sideways looks as we settled ourselves firainst our safe, relatively crystal-free patches of wall

Nell’s power had felt strong enough to level th, I wasn’t sure ouldn’t be crushed So I quickly threw up the strongest shields I could ainst the wall, and I soon felt the others join their oith mine

In the center of the rooh the air as Anyan and Nell really poured on the juice As for the sigil, it had continued its wild changing, but now that I atching it closely again I could see that every once and a while the per to wind down

"So at the mirrorlike surface

Anyan’s sharp ears picked up onfor her to look When she’d seen e’d seen, the two of theil with even low

I a I’d need a swi about all this Nell had seeil so we could read it, but what they were doing feltin a door Whoever created that mirror obviously didn’t want it to be read easily, so what else had they done to protect it besides etting stuffy as all of Anyan and Nell’s e lights winked out, all of oureach other froil Only that lowed eerily, until its light began to pulse I squinted upward, trying to see through the gloo, I realized, as I blinked away the grih, thefaster theits way Then, suddenly, its light went supernova and becary red