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"Aainst the ropy ceiling, and the scarf tied over my hair catches and pulls down onthe floortricky I hold the lamp out with one hand and balance with the other

My shadow distends along the walls, and as if alive, it separates into two shadows and then into four What should be apes as if to devour ht Rippling, the shadows retreat Goose bumps come out all over my skin

The htens with hope: if a cat has made its way down here, then we can find our way out As I scra the skin

The tunnel curves sharply and drops into a round space like a bubble of air popped amid the rock At first I think there is no exit but then I see a gap so loill have to wiggle forward on my belly I raise the lantern

"A heaves as if liquid i, stretching until they drip onto the floor A shadow exactly like a crocodile hinges open vast jaws that curve along the walls as if to consurifies into a jackal’s shadow gathering itself to pounce Raising up the lantern breaks the shadow’s leap into shards that skitter away like bugs The feathery crawl of tiny legs brushes alongoffthe lantern and slappingthere

My ht cuts new pathways across the chamber’s smooth floor I see another way out: a doard shaft as black as a well filled to the brim with pitch But the moment I take one hesitant step toward it, the surface of the well slurps darkness over its ries, then a second leg and a third: a to as I am pulls its head and body up until it fills half the space Its six eyes are voids, sucking away ,shadow descending toward asp I desperately knock the lantern forward It tips, over-balances, and my reflexes kick in: I catch it before it crashes over

When I look up the spider’s shadow is gone and I face the giant shadow of a hissing cat, ears flat, back arched But now I knohat to do Grabbing the lantern, I leap to ht all the way around to shatter any

And there Amaya is, where she wasn’t a moment before She has curled up on herself, lips pulled back to show her teeth, head hunched, arolden lighte on the day ent to the Ribbon Market For an instant her pupils look slitted

"Amaya!"

She blinks with her ordinary eyes "Jes?"

"What happened to you? Why did you go off?"

She snivels the way she always does when she is being accused of so A shadow ate ulp! When you shone the light on me it vanished"

I can’t explain what I saw The song people sing before each trial winds through ain: Shadows fall where pillars stand

The only thing I really want is to get out of this awful place Now that I can breathe again because Amaya is safe, I realize I smell water I shine the laer there Light catches on a gli in these dusty passages, its moisture tickles my nostrils Escape surely smells like this

Movement scratches behind us I whirl, but it is Kalliarkos, not a tomb spider, who crawls out of the tunnel He has pursued us without a lantern, braving the darkness He gives ful look that I can’t answer in front of ods you are both safe"

My nod is my answer "There’s water at the base of that shaft, not th drop If the pattern holds, then we’ve reached Rivers"

The la When I tip the lantern sideways the flaain

"That one is al to take tiot to move"

"What about my mother?"

"She is awake We will not leave her, Jes I promise you" He vanishes back up the tunnel