Nick went from stall to stall, carefully searching every dark corner and concealing shadow this time—but there was nothing to find. There were no spaces big enough or dark enough to conceal a human body; if there were he would have spotted them before.

At the end of the barn he found something: an old wooden ladder lying on its side against a wall. Why would the barn need a ladder unless—he looked up and saw a small hayloft on the barn’s left side. Nick felt an anxious surge of hope; he hurriedly hauled up the ladder and positioned it against the edge of the loft, then climbed up the ladder and looked—but the loft appeared to be completely empty. To make absolutely certain, he climbed up onto the loft and poked his foot into every corner. Nothing—the hayloft was nothing but a vacant platform.

He walked back to the ladder and looked around; from this vantage point he could see every beam and rafter in the barn. He could see the contents of every single stall too, and there was no doubt this time— the barn was empty. He had no idea why Riddick would have chosen to come here in the middle of the night, but apparently it had nothing to do with Alena. He looked down and saw Trygg standing motionless in a shaft of faint moonlight near the center of the barn; apparently she wasn’t having any luck either.

Then he noticed something: Trygg was standing in moonlight but she cast no shadow. Nick squinted hard and saw the reason: Trygg wasn’t standing at all—she was lying down.

Nick hurried down the ladder. He grabbed the dog by her collar and yanked her to her feet, then dragged her to the opposite side of the barn and released her; she immediately trotted back to the same area, sniffed at the ground, and lay down. Nick went over to the spot and looked at it; the ground under his feet had a different feel here, and the weight of his body made some of the dirt seem to settle in long thin lines. He dropped to his knees, and when he did the lines became even more pronounced.

The floor is hollow!

He bent down and swept the dirt and straw away with his forearm, revealing a series of long wooden planks laid side by side. It was a platform of some kind—a false floor. He continued to clear the dirt away until the entire wooden platform was exposed, then lifted one end and dragged it aside, revealing a deep black pit below. He shoved his head into the opening and blinked, allowing his eyes to adjust to the deeper darkness—and when they did he saw a body lying on its back in the center of the pit.

“Alena!” he whispered.

There was no response.

“Alena, it’s me—Nick!”

The body didn’t move.