Julia's belly closed with a snap. Finn turned her over, and watched her ruby eyes glow, watched her snout clamp shut.
“How's the leg now? Give it a shake and let's see.”
Julia dutifully shook. The leg seemed perfectly fine.
“I think I had a dream,” Julia said.
“That's what you always say. I strongly doubt that.”
“Doubt if you will. Why would I remember something if it wasn't truly there?”
“Maybe you did. I don't want to hear it, whatever it is.”
“Are you two done over there? Could you possibly spare the time for something else, like getting us out of here?”
Finn knew that when Letitia's voice reached a certain pitch, one should consider an intelligent reply.
“Is Squeen still spooking about below? Can you see him from there?”
“Where would he go, Finn?”
“I'm working on a plan. I truly need to know.”
“What kind of plan?”
“It's not in the talking stage now. As soon as it is I'll let you know.”
Julia made a lizardy sound in her throat. “She's not buying that, Finn.”
“Don't talk, please. I'm trying to think.”
“You could ask me, you know.”
“What?”
“I said-”
“I heard that, Julia. Ask you
“How to get us out of here.”
“If I do, will you shut up for a while?”
Julia didn't answer. The light went out in her eyes.
“All right. I'm sorry. If you really have something to say, don't keep it to yourself.”
“You haven't asked.”
“I'm asking now.”
“I'm not overly certain, but I think we can get out the same way I got out before.”
Finn was listening now. “Don't play games with me, there's no time for that.”
“You're talking about when Calabus was up here, right?”
Letitia was across the room before Julia could get the words out. “When you went looking for Finn?”
“Certainly. If there was another time I left, I don't recall. I didn't slip out the door, as you perhaps imagined, I was gone before the old man came in. I got out over there.”
Finn and Letitia turned in the direction of Julia's nod. Neither saw anything but a wall. Both looked back at the lizard. Finn was certain Julia smiled, though he knew for a fact she didn't have the parts for that.
“Patience,” Julia said, “and all will be revealed.”
Sliding off the table, she scampered across the floor. At the wall she stopped, hesitated, moved her snout an inch to the right, then another to the left.
Finn glanced away for an instant, looked back again. When he did, Julia was gone.
“Finn …!”
Letitia squeezed his hand. Finn went quickly to his knees. He rubbed his fingers across the ancient wood where it met the grimy floor. Nothing. No cracks or seams. Nothing to suggest a secret panel or a hidden entryway. Yet, short of sheer magic, Julia couldn't simply disappear. There was something here, something that plain confused the eye. Something he-
“Well then, what do you think? Is that not a fine deceit or what?”
Julia's appearance brought a gasp from Letitia, and a muttered oath from Finn. The lizard's red eyes blinked from a narrow hole. A veil of cobwebs hid her snout, and her scales were coated with dust.
“It was no illusion,” Julia said, “it's architectural folly's what it is, a madman's dream, a builder gone berserk. Rooms don't begin where another room ends. They stop short, leaving dark canyons in between. Roofs come through the ceiling and up through the floor. Some doors open on walls. Some doors open on doors. Corridors begin and go nowhere at all.”
Julia tended to irritate Finn with her frequent rattling on. This time he truly didn't mind. This time her chatter gave him hope, a new chance to leave this wretched place behind.
“And all these chambers, passages and such, they lead outdoors, they take you out of here, and it's safe all the way?”
“Safe enough,” Julia said, “if you don't meet a Vampie with a broom somewhere.”
“Don't worry,” Letitia said, “he's only got a musket now.”
“That's not our problem anymore,” Finn said. “If you please, grab a handful of those smelly candles, dear.”
He turned back to Julia. “That hole looks fine for lizards. I guess I'll have to widen it a bit.”
“No problem but have a care when you do. One wrong move and you'll bring the house down. Oh, neither of you care for creatures of the insect persuasion, I recall? Lice, beetles, spiders and flies? Mites, millipedes, bugs of every sort?”
Finn looked at Letitia, Letitia looked at Finn.
“Anything bites, don't scratch,” Julia said. “That's what you get for not wearing tin …”
36
Even as Julia said, it was no great effort to make the very small hole large. She was also right about bringing the whole wall down upon his head.
“I would say I told you so,” Julia croaked, and rattled off into the dark, “but I'm fairly sure I did.”
“I am grateful for your help,” Finn said, wheezing, gasping through a cloud of dirt, rot and old debris. “I don't know what I'd do without your good advice.”
Letitia appeared through the gloom, holding a candle high, a pale and dusty apparition with wide and anxious eyes.
“I don't care for this, Finn. I'm not sure it's a good idea.”
“We haven't even started, dear. I don't think we should judge it quite yet.”
“
“I don't either, but I don't see anything for us back there.”
Letitia didn't answer. She followed Julia, whose lizard eyes could penetrate the dark far better than any human or Newlie born.
As Julia had warned, insect life of every sort abounded in the maze behind the walls. It was heaven for spiders, a termite delight. There were bugs that crawled and flew, bugs that liked to bite, bugs Finn couldn't even name.
Once, ducking wooden beams, bending nearly to the floor, Letitia cried out, stood and cracked her head. The candle flew away and rolled across the floor, the wick still lit. Finn crawled across to get it, stopped in his tracks. The dusty floor was teeming with roaches. A swarm of thousands of the ugly, writhing creatures, frantically running from the light that intruded on their dark, unwholesome world.
They moved like the undulations of the sea, wave after wave, one mass scrambling atop the next, another and another after that. Worst of all, the thing that made Finn's skin begin to crawl, was the color of the things. Neither brown nor black, like their ordinary kin, this dreadful mass was deathly white. Pale, swollen, disturbingly fat.
“Here's your candle,” Finn said. “You ask me, that was not a pretty sight. If you'd like, I'll trade places and carry the light awhile.”
“So something can find me in the dark? No thanks, Finn. You're not getting away with that.”
Before he could answer, she turned away again. Finn let her go. This was clearly not the time to speak of
