Lord Siss had pulled the entire elite inner guard inside those doors hours ago. The sounds of battle had faintly echoed from deep within the canyon just before dawn—the crashing of stone, the shrieks of dying men, and the terrifying, earth-shaking roar of their Lord. But for the last thirty minutes, there had been absolute, chilling silence.
The Python commander was beginning to feel a creeping, icy dread in his stomach. Something was wrong. The air tasted wrong.
Suddenly, a loud, grinding screech echoed across the courtyard.
Every single snake guard on the wall froze. They turned, their bows drawn, aiming down at the heavy obsidian doors of the inner sanctum.
The massive gears inside the stone walls groaned in protest as the heavy iron chains were pulled. Slowly, agonizingly, the giant obsidian doors began to swing outward, grinding against the polished marble floor.
