Page 66 of Brimstone

As we approached the wall that separated the Third from its neighboring wards, Vorath Shah hooked a hard left and ducked between a short, squat building and a tall tower of some kind. The gap between the two buildings was barely enough to accommodate the width of my shoulders. As I entered the narrow corridor, following after him, I was sure I would see him sprinting away, but no. Shah was right there, waiting for us, just a couple of feet into the alleyway.

“There’s a door up ahead, in the wall. You’ll need to open it, Carrion.”

Swift squeezed past me, not even remotely concerned about stepping on my feet. “You can crack a vault, Vorath. Why do you needmeto open a simple door?”

“Because it’s not a simple door. You’ll see for yourself. You’ll see.”

Moments later, we were standing in front of said door, and Shah’s issue became apparent. There was no door handle. There was no keyhole. There was no lock. In fact, the wall was so smooth and free of defining features that it was almost impossible to tell there was a door there at all. If it weren’t for the thin, oblong seam in the sandstone, even I would have missed it. Shah held out his hands in a universalSee what I mean?kind of gesture.

Carrion frowned, running a hand along the seam. “How did you get in here when you were with Eric?”

“He has a special key. He holds it against the wall and sweeps it to the left. It opens without a sound.” The awe in Shah’s tone was there for anybody to hear. “I don’t know how he has access to charmed objects. All I know is that he didn’t get it from me.”

Did Carrion know that this magic trick of Eric’s wasn’t magic at all? From the way he snorted, reaching for the dagger beneath his shirt, it seemed that he did.

“Give me some space,” he murmured. The blade flashed as he drew it and held it against the wall. He angled his body, blocking his movements from Shah.

“What are you doing?” The vault breaker stood on his tiptoes, trying to peer over Carrion’s shoulder.

Carrion’s eyes met mine. There was a question there:Should I tell him?I shrugged, not caring either way.

“It isn’t magic, Shah. It’s just a really big magnet.” Carrion swept his dagger along the middle of the door, grinning with satisfaction when the metalcaughtthe metal on the other side, and he began dragging it to the left. Surprising, really. The dagger was made of Fae steel. The iron had been refined out of it, and it had been tempered with other alloys to make it strong. Turned out that Fae steelwashighly magnetic, though.

“What’s a magnet?” Shah asked.

“I’ll tell you later. No time for that now. We have silver to collect.”

As Carrion spoke, the huge sandstone block popped out and swung open, revealing a darkened passageway beyond.

“The bell tower is the highest point in the Third. There’s a ladder bolted to the outside of it but no door,” Shah prattled. “My whole life, I always assumed it was a solid structure, but no. Look at all this. Rooms and rooms. All empty, but still. I asked Eric how he found out about all of this, but he wouldn’t say.”

He led us up the internal spiral staircase that wound up the center of the bell tower. Without any windows, the interior of the building was pitch-black, but Shah had come prepared. He had handed out small vials filled with a glowing green substance that looked an awful lot like liquified concentrated evenlight. All three of us held the vials aloft as we climbed, using them to light the way. I could see perfectly well in the dark. I suspected Carrion could, too, since this darkness wasn’t caused by my shadows—I would have to remember to ask him about that later—but we still carried the vials for appearances’ sake. The light painted the walls a sickly color, illuminating thick cobwebs and the bones of small rodents that littered the stairs.

When we were what I assumed to be halfway up the stairs, Vorath advised, “Watch your step here.” A skeleton lay sprawled out on the steps, the bones pitted with age. At first glance, I assumed it was the remains of a human, but then I realized my mistake. The corpse’s canines were far too long to have belonged to a human.

Carrion saw the dead Fae’s teeth, too. He glanced back over his shoulder at me, raising an eyebrow, his profile washed in pale green.

An unsettled feeling solidified in my stomach. As we rose higher up the bell tower, that feeling grew heavier, weightier, settling like a stone inside me. There once had been a time when I might have chalked up a feeling like this to paranoia or being overly cautious, but I’d learned my lesson in the maze. My weapons were sharp, but my intuition was sharper. It had never led me astray. My nerves were screaming by the time I made out the open archway at the top of the stairs.

I stopped dead, reaching for my daggers and a handful of shadow. “Carrion.”

Up ahead, the smuggler was only a couple of steps behind Shah. The shorter human waited at the dark archway, dramatic shadows from the vial of green light twisting his features into a hideous mask as he turned back to face us. “It’s just through here,” he said.

“Carrion,”I growled.

The smuggler stopped on the second to last step, twisting to look back at me. “What is it?”

“We’re done here,” I told him.

“Uhh, no, we’re not?” He sounded incredulous. “We haven’t got what we came for.”

“We’ll find the silver another way.”

“What are you talking about? This ismymoney. These aremygoods. I have a right to claim them. Why would we make things harder for ourselves?”

“If you walk into that room, Swift,” I said calmly, “you won’t be walking out again.”

“What do you me—”