“Good one, Mariel,” Iniya said.
“It would have been nice if our scout had bothered to check the throne in the first place,” Andi said.
Wainwright ignored her. He got down on his hands and knees and felt around the perimeter of the pit.
“I’m not detecting any traps. This could be it.” He looked up at Tolman.
The sage just shrugged. “I told you guys.”
“Callum, throw some light down there,” Iniya said. “We’re going down, kids.”
The enchanter cast another illumination spell. This time the glowing ball floated down the shaft.
Wainwright squinted, following the orb’s progress. Iniya knew that he had the best vision of all of them.
“Twenty-five… thirty-five…”
“That’s one deep mo-fo,” Andi said.
“I think I see spikes,” Wainwright said. “Yeah. Definitely spikes. At the bottom.”
“Makes sense,” Tolman said. “Typical trap construction.”
“Where did the throne go?” asked Mariel.
Wainwright said, “There’s a passage down there. The throne must have slid to one side.”
“Pretty intricate,” Callum said. “I can float you down if you want. I’ve got a little spell power left.”
Wainwright looked over at Iniya for his orders.
She shrugged at him. “Go ahead, take a look. But rope up. Just in case there’s an anti-magic plate down there. I don’t want to have to pick your guts off those spikes.”
“That makes two of us.”
“And don’t touch anything.”
“I never do. Not in my job description.”
Andi helped secure a hundred-foot-long silken line around Wainwright’s waist and then she tied the other end around one of the pillars.
“I’ll feed your line,” she said.
“Ready?” Callum asked.
“Let’s do this,” Wainwright said.
As Iniya watched, the enchanter cast his float spell on Wainwright who grinned like an idiot, saluted her, then stepped off the edge of the shaft. The spell allowed the scout to drift down into the shaft at a safe rate, like he was falling in slow motion.
“Wuss,” Andi called after him. “In the old days you would have climbed down yourself. Blindfolded.” She fed out the line as he sunk lower into the shaft.
A minute later, Wainwright called up. “I’m in!”
“What do you see?” Iniya called.
“Just as I thought. East/west passage. Throne’s blocking the west. East is clear for as far as I can see—which isn’t far.”
“Ok. Don’t move. We’re all coming down.”
“I’ll spike the rope.”
The sound of clanging and banging echoed up from the depths of the shaft. It went on for what seemed like ten minutes. Finally, Wainwright announced that the rope was secure at his end.
“Do I have to go?” Mariel asked, in her Mariel voice. “My climbing skill, uh, sucks.”
“I have enough for one more float,” Callum said. “But then I’ll be totally tapped out. How long are we going to be hanging out here?”
Iniya glared at him. “Until we find the freaking clue, Callum. You okay with that?”
“Just asking.”
“No floating. Mariel you stay. But keep your eyes open for wanderers.”
“What about me?” Tolman asked. “I don’t have great climbing either.”
“Well, then be careful. We need you down there to identify crap.”
Andi said, “You can follow me. That way if you fall I can grab you. Maybe.” She laughed.
One by one they roped up and made their way down the shaft. Iniya first, then Andi, Tolman, and then finally Callum.
They all huddled in the passage way while Wainwright fished in his bag for some glowstones. Stupidly, they forgot to bring down the torches. The scout offered to climb back up, but Iniya was eager to get going. She could tell everyone was kind of worn out.
“Let’s do this. Standard order,” Iniya said.
They all got in position. Wainwright up front, checking for traps. Iniya next with a few glowstones looped to her staff for light. Then Callum, Tolman, and Andi bringing up the rear.
The passage was narrower than all the other ones in this dungeon, maybe just six feet wide and six feet tall, but the walls and floor and ceiling were perfectly smooth, like they had been polished. It reminded Iniya of something, but she didn’t know what.
Tolman ran his fingers along the wall. He noticed something too.
“Good thing we don’t have torches,” he said. “I think this is oil.”
“Fire trap?” she asked Wainwright.
The scout took a few tentative steps forward. “I don’t think so. There would be more combustibles.”
“Are we moving or what?” Andi called from the back. “I’m getting claustrophobic.”
“Yeah, hang on a sec…” Something was definitely off here, Iniya thought.
And then she felt the rumbling again. And an image popped into her head: the barrel of her father’s shotgun.
“Run!” she screamed.
She didn’t get more than a few steps before the massive metal throne slammed into her like a locomotive.
And then everything went black.
Justin Boone woke up.
Well, that wasn’t exactly right. He was still asleep; he knew that. Dreaming.
But now he was conscious. Consciously dreaming.
He saw the ceiling above his head. White. Textured paint. It smelled freshly painted.
He heard the low hum of air conditioning. Felt the sheets against his skin. They were cool and smooth. Expensive, probably.
But simulated.
That’s something else he knew. Everything here was simulated. The room, the sheets, the air conditioning, the new paint smell, even he himself was simulated. All by a building full of OmniWorld’s computers.
It was a bizarre feeling to know that. Really bizarre.
Slowly, gradually, Justin sat up in the bed.
In the real world, he might have experienced some dizziness sitting up too quickly. That had happened a bunch of times with him. Could they simulate that? A momentary loss of blood pressure? He had read that the BerylBlue mega-qubit processors OmniWorld ran on could simulate just about anything. Why not body sensations?
He looked around.
He was sitting in a bed in what looked like your generic hotel room. Nothing too fancy. There was one window with the curtains drawn. A loveseat, a coffee table, and a nightstand. Carpeting on the floor and some unremarkable paintings on the wall. All in all, pretty underwhelming in real life.
But this wasn’t real life.
At least, he didn’t think it was.
For one thing, the last thing
