Page 121 of Amber Gambler

That fit with what I recalled from the few seconds I heard it from Kierce before comprehension sank in.

Behind us, Badb on his shoulder, Kierce conversed with his crow. Not an unusual sight in and of itself.

Except they were staring at me, heads bent together, discussing a topic that left Kierce befuddled.

When they noticed me watching them, Badb launched into the sky.

“I found it,” Harrow yelled, his voice echoing.

“They already knew we were here,” Carter grumbled to me. “Now they know we’re coming.”

Wiggling out of the entrance, which was a bit tight for a man his size, he rubbed his hands together.

“There’s a glamour cast over the pit concealing a ladder to the right side that leads into a tunnel.”

“One of the exhaust flues maybe?”

“This was dug out beneath the structure.” He curled his fingers. “With claws.”

“This day keeps getting better.” I glanced around our motley crew. “So, who wants to go first?”

The jump down wasn’t too bad, and the ensuing climb wasn’t either. Probably because Harrow caught me on the first and boosted me on the second. He remained in the pit to warp the glamour enough to reveal the ladder and the tunnel at the end of it.

Carter took point. Kierce gave her a whole minute before going in after her. Then it was my turn.

Only once I was crawling through the downward tilting tunnel did I sense Harrow behind me.

Our breaths filled the tight space, both comforting and claustrophobic. I might have panicked if not for a slight breeze suctioning in over our backs, racing ahead toward whatever awaited us. As it was, I still got twitchy after the five-minute mark. The idea of getting trapped down here did not appeal. Especially not if Little doubled back. I don’t know how dangerous she was to us, but she gave me the willies.

“There’s a round room ahead.” Carter’s voice carried. “It’s the width of the smokestack.”

Because of course there would be a secret room beneath the privies. Savannah never disappointed.

Anooftold me Carter had tumbled into the chamber. Kierce made his exit with more grace then turned back to help me avoid taking a headfirst dive onto the curved stone table like Carter. As soon as I got to my feet, I leapt down to make room for Harrow. And because touching the table, even through the thick soles of my shoes, felt how vomit tasted to my necromancer senses.

The grooves carved in its edges, sloping toward the floor, stretched my stomach like a taffy pulling machine.

“Bijou, Bijou, Bijou,” Little purred from the ceiling, a good twenty feet above our heads. “I was beginning to wonder if you required a handwritten invitation to join me.”

“Ankou?”

Thuds rang out behind me, and I pivoted to find the others had collapsed onto the dirt floor.

“I would say in the flesh, but this is an avatar. Not even a good one. Rather puny for my tastes.”

“You actually did it.” I backed toward Kierce’s still form. “You bargained with achild.”

“Kids like her don’t get to be children. They’re a whole other breed. You know that.”

“That doesn’t make it right.” I knelt to check his pulse. “What did you do to them?”

“Them?” He chuckled through her little-girl throat. “I wouldn’t worry about them.”

The skin beneath my fingers felt cold, hard, when Kierce had always been warm. The more I focused, the more sensations grated against me, opposite what they should be, twisting my perceptions. I felt it then. Rough beneath my fingers. Firm beneath my back. Frigid to the point of burning. I was…horizontal.

No. I was standing. Or was I?

“What’s happening?” I jerked my hand back and rose, vertigo swamping my senses. “Where am I?”

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