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“I don’t know, a dust mattress might be very comfortable,” said Angela. “Also possibly orthopedic.”
They were all walking softly and close together, as if afraid to disturb the dust. There was no apparent danger: just dust, silence, and gray light. The bad smell had no source, it just drifted around them in a hideous miasma. Nothing changed even when they reached the threshold of a huge desert of a room and saw a hall with shadows along the walls and the stair banister. Kami could see nothing but darkness waiting at the top of the steps. One step was broken clear in two.
“I can get up there,” said Jared. Kami caught at his arm, and when he turned to her she saw the gleam in his eye, reflecting the spark she felt kindling in him.
“No,” Kami told him. “Those stairs don’t look safe.”
Jared grinned at her, teeth a pale flash in the murk. “Ah, but I can do magic now.”
“You don’t know what that means yet,” said Kami, but she didn’t grab him. She regretted that when he made a break for the stairs.
Kami had her foot on the first step when Angela lunged forward and caught her by both shoulders, staring down at Kami with her dark eyes narrowed.
“No,” Angela said firmly. “You do not risk your life for that idiot.”
“It’s holding up all right,” protested Jared, laughing and breathless, halfway up the stairs. He leaped lightly over the broken step.
The staircase collapsed.
There was a crash, dust rising in an explosive rush. Kami was blind for an instant. Her eyes burned with dust, and her throat burned with a scream.
Then her vision cleared. The dust was no longer moving but held suspended, glittering in the air like a curtain made of tiny beads. The stairs kept falling, but in slow motion. The disappearance of the stairs was less a crash and tumble than an escalator that went nowhere, each step waiting to take its turn to fall.
Jared twisted in midair and grabbed one of the slowly toppling stair rails. It held. He reached for the next rail, and the next, moving like an acrobat on a jungle gym. When one stair rail tumbled away from his reaching fingers, Kami reached out a hand as if she could catch it and hold it for him.
Jared’s magic must have kicked in at the same time, because the rail swayed back toward him. Jared’s fingers closed around it. He swung himself onto one of the remaining steps, then launched himself down the stairs as the steps fell away almost under his feet.
The last step collapsed just as Jared landed on the floor. Kami flew at him, and he rocked back before she could grab him, evading her hands again.
“You’re frightened,” Jared said, his voice a little unsteady. “Don’t be. Wh-why are you frightened?”
She felt his uncertain reach for her, inside their minds. Kami threw rage and love and relief at him.
Of course I’m frightened, you idiot! You almost fell to your death! Don’t ever do anything like that again! I know you like taking risks—I do too, but there is a line. You are the most important person in the world to me. Don’t you dare cross it again.
Dust and splinters were in Jared’s hair. He had a graze and a smudge of blood on his forehead, and fresh blood welling along his arm. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I will tr
y.”
Hearing words spoken was a shock. It made Kami abruptly aware of their surroundings and especially their friends. Angela and Holly were staring at them, looking very interested but very uneasy about the fact that a silent conversation was going on before their eyes. Under their gaze, Kami felt terribly exposed. She stepped away, avoiding Jared’s eyes.
“So,” Holly said, trying to smooth things over as usual, “I see this house has a cellar. Since the stairs just fell into it.”
Kami beamed at Holly. She was right: there was a whole other level to explore. She moved, Jared a step behind her. He said in a low voice, “So, you like taking risks too?”
“I don’t recall saying that,” Kami said. “And you have no witnesses to prove I did.” She went for the door on the other side of the hall and found another vast bare room. In the far corner of the room, another, smaller door was tucked like a secret.
Kami crossed the floor.
The others followed her, though Angela said, “The stairs collapsed. Which means this house is a death trap. Why do we want to explore all the fatal possibilities of the death trap?”
The little door had a handle shaped like a sword hilt. The cool metal met Kami’s hand in an easy grip, and the door swung open without sticking. Concrete steps led down into the lowest floor of Monkshood House.
“What could be unstable about concrete?” Kami asked, and took a step into the dark. She hesitated and Jared’s concern touched her mind, but the step held firm. She took another step down, and then another.
“Why is your first impulse to find out what could be unstable about concrete?” Angela demanded. The absence of the usual bite in her tone made it clear she was relieved.
Kami did not answer. She was busy taking each step with care, her hand pressed flat against a gray wall. She heard the others following her. She only breathed out, in a soft whoosh, when she reached the bottom of the stairs.
