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The shrieks died off ht, and I did ht line It wasonuntil I found the second one on ht I took it, and found a ladder that led up so down froot a couple of rungs off the floor when sos, and twisted I fell off the ladder, the cane clattering onto the floor I had a brief impression of a man&039;s face, and then my attacker let out a wordless snarl and hit me hard on my left eye

I ducked and rolled with the punch The good neas that it didn&039;t tearthe punch was probably another mortal The bad neas that he was built more heavily than me and probably had a lot rasp my throat

I hunched my shoulders and duckedh to throw a good punch when you&039;re rolling around on the floor in the dark Hedirty I reached up and raked ot one of theed to wriggle out fro him a hard shove that added to the momentum of the flinch He fell, rolled, and started to rise

I kicked hi off, which I was pretty sure never happened to Ja, so I kicked hi back froehammer style at the back of his neck, several ties of my vision burned with a film of red

The rabbit punches dropped hiround

"Son of a bitch" I panted, feeling around until I found Shiro&039;s cane "I didn&039;t get et that lottery ticket," Susan said She caain in the black leather pants, the dark coat She checked toit "Where&039;s Shiro?"

I shook "

Susan took a breath and then nodded "Can you cli the ladder I held out the cane "Take this for me?"

Susan reached out to take the blade There was a flicker of silver static and she hissed, jerking her fingers back "What the hell is that?"

"Magic sword"

"Well, it sucks," Susan said "Go ahead; I&039;ll come up behind you"

I fuh the tux&039;s cuain Deirdre shrieked, this tih the stone corridors

"Wasn&039;t that-" Susan asked, shaking her fingers

"Yeah Climb," I said "Climb fast"

The action and adrenaline had done soers tingled, but they were functional, and I gained speed as I climbed "How&039;d you find me?"

"Shiro," Susan responded "We went to Michael&039;s house for help He seeo Like instinct"

"I saw Michael do that once," I said, panting "He toldis this freaking ladder?"

"Another twenty or thirty feet," Susan said "Co south of the Loop Martin&039;s waiting with the car"

"Why did that guy talk about a Fellowship when he saw you back at the auction?" I asked "What Fellowship?"

"It&039;s a long story"

"Condense it"

"Later"

"But- "

I didn&039;t get to protest any further, because I slipped and nearly fell when I reached the top of the ladder I recovered my balance and scrambled up into a completely dark room I looked back over ainst a faint green-gold light

"What&039;s that light?" I asked

"Eyes," Susan said Her voice was a little thready "Co up Move over"

I did Susan slid onto the floor as the green-gold light grew brighter, and I heard the steely rasping sound of Deirdre&039;s hairfro sound Then she whispered, "One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four, one thousand," and dropped so down the ladder

She turned toot it then, and leaned away from the shaft the ladder had come up just before there was a hellishly loud noise and a flash of light, scarlet through Susan&039;s fingertips

My ears rang and my balance wavered Susan helped h the darkness, her steps swift and certain Fro in fury I asked, "Was that a grenade?"

"Just a stunner," Susan said "Lots of light and noise"

"And you had it in your pocket," I said

"No Martin did I borrowed it"

I tripped over so in the darkness, a limp form "Whoa, what is that?"

"I don&039;t know Souard animal Shiro killed it"

My next step squished in soh my sock "Perfect"

Susan slaain We left the building behind us and went down a flight of concrete steps to the sidewalk I didn&039;t recognize the neighborhood offhand, but it wasn&039;t a good one It had that wary, hard-core feel that le seeht in the sky-evidently daas not far away