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I peeped cautiously into the shaft, taking a good look up and down. No threats were immediately visible. Two bundles of cables dangled in front of me, one for each elevator car, side by side in the same shaft; but even with the Caryatid's fireball lighting our view, I couldn't see the cars themselves. I could see up to the top of the shafts, the lift mechanisms glowering in the shadows three stories above me… so neither car was on an upper floor. Both had to be in the blackness below.
When I thought about it, I decided the cars must be on the bottommost level; it made sense for the Keepers to lock the elevators down there so intruders would have a harder time reaching the generator room. Not that such tactics would slow down Sebastian-he'd ripped the one door open, and for all I knew, he'd summoned his nanite chums to carry him and "Rosalind" down the shaft, like feathers floating on the wind. Too bad our group couldn't do the same; but since none of us could fly, we needed a practical alternative.
On the far side of the elevator shaft, a ladder was embedded in the concrete, ru
Impervia answered that question by jumping into the shaft and catching the nearest bundle of cables. The bundle had four cables side by side, all in a line with a fist's distance between adjacent ones… like four strings on a harp, except that the cables were each as thick as my arm. Impervia had no trouble grabbing two of the four with her hands and jamming her feet between adjacent pairs for extra support. The cables were taut but not totally unyielding; they pinched her boots with what looked like a strong (but not painful) squeeze.
"How is it?" the Caryatid called to Impervia. "Can you just slide down?"
Impervia freed her feet, loosened her grip, and tested to see how far she slid. After only a few centimeters, she stopped and shook her head. "The wires aren't smooth-they're prickly with rust. If you tried to slide far, the friction would rip your gloves, then start on your fingers."
The Caryatid made a face. "Then I'll have to use the ladder. I'm not strong enough to clamber hand over hand down a few dozen stories."
"The ladder might not be safe," I said. "It's such an obvious way down, the Keepers might have booby-trapped it. A loose rung… a trip wire… there are lots of possibilities. But I don't think they could booby-trap the cables-too much chance of damaging the elevators."
"I can't manage the cables," the Caryatid replied. She held out her arms as if showing off her roly-poly little body. "I know my limitations; by God, I know my limitations. Even the ladder will be a challenge."
"Don't worry," A
"You do?" The Caryatid looked dubious. So did Impervia.
"I, uhh… my family…" She stopped, glancing nervously in my direction.
"Your family is much like the Ring of Knives," I said. "In similar lines of business."
"You knew?"
"I guessed." I'd guessed from the way she'd talked about criminals after we found Rosalind's body. I wish I didn't believe you-that there aren't people vicious enough to kill an i
A
She gave a bitter laugh. "Like most social-climbers, my father was naïve. About gaining other people's acceptance. Also about the quality of my singing. But by the time it became obvious I didn't have star quality, he'd bought me enough music education to spoil me for a life of crime. Or so I convinced him. Believe it or not, he was thrilled when I became musicmaster at the academy; now I'm rubbing shoulders with dukes and princes, so he thinks there's a chance…" She shook her head and gave another humorless laugh. "Anyway. I'm not in Uncle Howdiri's league, but I survived several years of breaking into some very well-protected estates. I can do this."
A
I took A
A
The Caryatid split her fireball in two: half for herself, half for A
A
"A trip wire." A
"Looks like the wire is broken," Impervia said. The Caryatid and I were trying to see, but we were much too high on the ladder to have a good view.
"It's not a break," A
"Sebastian could do it," I said. "The boy's powers let him do practically anything."
"Would Sebastian have to know the trap was there?" A
"Probably a general order," I said. "The way his powers work, I don't think he pays a lot of attention to details. He doesn't have to."
"Then we're in luck," the Caryatid said. "Sebastian probably cleared every trap in the shaft with a single command."
"Probably," I agreed. "Let's hope Jode didn't ask him to reactivate a few, just to keep us on our toes."
But as we continued down the shaft, A
As expected, both elevator cars had been locked in place on the lowest level. That might have put us in a quandary-how to get into the cars or past them so we could reach the floor itself-but Sebastian and Jode had solved that problem for us by blowing out the entire shaft wall just above the elevator doors.
It must have been a massive explosion. The wall was poured concrete, reinforced with embedded steel rods. The edges of the concrete were charred black; the ends of the rods were half-melted blobs.