Tangled Webs
his nose and mouth.
Surreal stared at the body in the closet. “Nope. Been here long enough to start to smell. But someone wearing the illusion of that face let us into this house and passed me just a minute before he went through the door at the end of the hallway.” The shields had kept the smell to a minimum until she opened the door. Now there was no doubt they were looking at carrion.
“What door?” Rainier asked.
She looked at the end of the hallway. “The door that’s no longer there.”
“Hell’s fire,” Rainier muttered. “What’s going on here? And where are Jaenelle and Marian?”
She shook her head, then took a step closer to the body. Was that…? Yes. There was a folded piece of paper tucked between the dead caretaker’s thigh and hand. Naturally it was between the body parts farthest from the door.
She reached in, pulled the paper free, shook off a couple of maggots, and then stepped back, closing the door to cut down on the smell.
“It’s getting dark outside—and even darker in here,” Rainier said. “Let’s go into the sitting room and light a couple of lamps before we have to deal with frightened children.”
“We’re going to be dealing with frightened children whether we light lamps or not,” Surreal replied.
“I just don’t understand what Jaenelle and Marian were thinking.”
Surreal waggled the paper. “Since I think I found the first clue, let’s light the lamps and find out.”
The moment they walked back into the sitting room, Dayle said, “Where is the spooky stuff? This place is boring.” Then she poked her lower lip out in a pout.
Maybe landen adults thought pouting was cute. As far as Surreal was concerned, if you were old enough to stand up by yourself, you were too old to pout and have it look cute.
«Don’t even consider it,» Rainier said.
«I wasn’t considering anything.»
«You were going to tell her to open the door under the stairs.»
Of course she was. «If she doesn’t stop pouting, I’m going to put maggots in her hair.»
A hesitation. Just long enough to tell her he was picturing the possibility—and enjoying it.
Since that cheered her up, she waited while Rainier used Craft to light two of the oil lamps in the room.
Somewhere in the house, a gong sounded twice.
Rainier held one lamp while she opened the paper.
THERE ARE THIRTY EXITS FROM THE SPOOKY HOUSE, BUT YOU WILL NEED TO LOOK CAREFULLY TO FIND THEM, FOR THEY ARE WRAPPED IN DANGER. EVERY TIME CRAFT IS USED, AN EXIT IS SEALED, AND THAT WAY OUT IS LOST. WHEN THE LAST EXIT IS SEALED, YOU WILL BECOME PART OF THE HOUSE—AND STAY WITH US FOREVER.
“What in the name of Hell…?” Rainier said, following Surreal as she moved away from the children.
“The gong,” she whispered once they were standing near the door. “It sounded twice when you created the tongues of witchfire and lit the lamps. I heard it when I made the witchlight.” Which was still floating in the hallway.
“When I checked the time, I called in and vanished the pocket watch,” Rainier whispered back.
“So that’s five times we’ve used Craft since we went through that gate in the fence.”
“Five times that we remember.”
He had a point. The Blood—especially darker-Jeweled Blood—were so accustomed to using Craft as a way to siphon off the power that flowed within them, they weren’t even aware of using it half the time.
“The gong must be a signal that Craft was used,” Surreal said, glancing at the children to make sure she and Rainier were still out of hearing.
“Or a signal that one of those exits closed because Craft was used.” Then Rainier added on a psychic thread, «But communicating like this doesn’t appear to trigger…whatever this is.»
They waited, but no gong sounded.
She read the note again and considered the implications.
«Rainier…I couldn’t have been the only one to receive an invitation.»
«An invitation to a trap, from the looks of it.»
«Yeah.» She gave him a moment to consider that. «The others haven’t shown up yet, and we don’t know how many invitations were sent.»
«Fair bet invitations were sent to Yaslana and Sadi. And the caretaker, or whoever he is, did say there were twelve visitors per tour.»
«Doesn’t mean twelve of us were expected.» She studied the note. «Every time Craft is used, an exit is sealed, and there are thirty exits. That sounds like the total number of times Craft can be used between all of the Blood in the
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