Marie-Bell turned when Jen shouted. She barely registered the warlord’s movement then she was gone, the door slamming shut behind her. Marie-Bell stood beside a confused Damien, both of them facing the door.

“What happened?” Marie-Bell asked.

Overwhelming corruption washed over her. The world went dark and she found herself flying backwards. Something slammed and she stumbled free.

“Damien! Anybody?”

Darkness and silence were the only reply. Her heart raced and she took great gulps of air. Another crash reverberated through the darkness. The noise shocked her out of the panic that threatened to overwhelm her.

“Heaven’s mercy. What’s going on here?”

She concentrated on her hammer and the head burst into pure white light. The holy glow pushed back the darkness, but nowhere near as much as it should have. Something was suppressing her power. Marie-Bell pushed more soul force into the hammer and the light grew in response.

Holding her weapon above her head, she explored the room she’d been dragged into. Furniture was stacked in piles and covered with white cloths. There was a heap of chairs, another of end tables, and a pair of long dining room tables.

She worked her way around the perimeter until she reached the door. Instead of wood she found a rune-covered sheet of steel. That must have been the second crash. She tried to read the runes, but they writhed and went in and out of focus. The wavering images made her nauseous and a headache began to form behind her eyes. Marie-Bell looked away before the effects got too bad. She hadn’t recognized any of the markings anyway. If Damien were here he could help her decipher them, but she was on her own.

Marie-Bell shrugged. If she couldn’t think her way out, brute force might do the trick.

She charged the head of her hammer with even more holy power then swung it with all her might. The hammer’s head struck the metal without a sound. Darkness formed where steel struck steel and the light vanished from her weapon.

Marie-Bell yanked the hammer away from the metal plate. Trembling, she sent more power into the hammer’s head and it burst once more into light. She let out a breath. The barrier had only drained the energy charging the weapon, not her whole core. If she couldn’t bash the door down, how would she escape the sealed room?

Haunting, half-mad laughter echoed through the darkness. It came from everywhere and nowhere. She spun a frantic circle, trying to locate the source.

A wave of corruption washed over her, dropping Marie-Bell to her knees. She’d never experienced darkness this heavy. It felt like someone was holding a wet rag over her mouth. She couldn’t breathe. The room spun.

She leaned forward until her hands hit the floor and focused on breathing. The darkness was only in her mind. It wasn’t a physical thing. Whatever she thought, it couldn’t smother her.

Slowly, one breath at a time, she mastered her breathing and with it her fear faded. She climbed to her feet and sent more soul force into her weapon, forcing the darkness back.

The laughing stopped and a cold voice said, “Well done, little paladin. My master said you were weak, but I didn’t believe a mere cloak of darkness would stop a member of one of the holy orders.”

“Show yourself and you’ll see how weak I am.” Her grip tightened on the haft of her hammer.

Again the humorless laugh. “I don’t think so. Direct confrontation isn’t my style. If you want a fight, you’ll have to find me. I’m not in the room with you. Are you clever or strong enough to escape my trap? It will be amusing to see.”

Her tormentor fell silent, leaving Marie-Bell with nothing but her own thoughts in the oppressive darkness. That creature—she refused to believe it was a human being speaking with such a voice—indicated there was a way out. Perhaps more than one if she could escape by either strength or cunning. Of course that assumed it had told her the truth.

She shook her head. Thinking like that would drive her crazy. There had to be a way out. Anything else meant she was stuck here until help arrived and Marie-Bell refused to just sit around and wait to be rescued like some princess in a fairytale.

She paced the length of the room, tossed aside the furniture in hopes of finding a trap door, and tapped the walls to check for hollow spots. All her efforts came to nothing.

Marie-Bell pursed her lips and tried to think. There were no secret doors and she couldn’t bash down the steel plate barring the exit. Maybe if she moved down a little ways beyond the steel she could go through the wall.

With no better ideas she walked to the steel plate then took three big strides to the left. Here goes nothing.

The wood made a satisfying crunch when her hammer crashed into it. Marie-Bell grinned and struck again enlarging the hole. She poked her head into the hole in hopes of seeing out into the hall. Three inches from the paneling waited another rune-covered steel plate.

Marie-Bell shouted her frustration, drawing another amused laugh from the creature. If the paneling covered steel plates she had to assume the floor and ceiling did too. If that were true, how could strength help her escape?

Her eyes went wide. Maybe it didn’t mean physical strength. If she purified the room the steel plates wouldn’t be any obstacle to her escape. The technique that destroyed the dwarf’s armor should work just as well here. That was the most powerful purification technique she knew, and Marie-Bell had all the time in the world to gather power.

The hammer went up above her head and she closed her eyes to better concentrate. A steady stream of power flowed from her core to the hammer’s head, pulsing in rhythm to her heart. The heavy darkness descended over her again, but this time she knew what to expect. Her breathing remained steady and the power continued to flow.

“That won’t work,” her tormentor screeched. “You’ll never get free that way.”

Marie-Bell ignored the creature as she did the darkness. If anything its protests encouraged her. When the hammer couldn’t hold another drop of power, Marie-Bell slammed it into the floor.

A wave of holy light rushed in every direction. The runes on the door sizzled and burned away. A pained scream was followed a moment later by a foot-tall creature resembling a wrinkled old man covered in white flames falling out of a niche in the ceiling. It rolled around on the floor swatting at the flames covering its chest and legs.

When it managed to extinguish the flames it climbed to its feet and whirled toward Marie-Bell. Her hammer struck it on the top of the head and crushed it flat. The creature turned to black mist and vanished back to hell where it belonged.

Now all she had to do was batter down the door and find Jen and Damien.