He had seen they were running out of steps, with a broader space beyond, and was just edging upward to get a look when he triggered the trap. It was a magical trap, and that was his excuse: no loose stone or tripwire or beam of light, or any other conventional trigger. He felt a sudden rush of cold air about him, and a phantasmal thing just floated up through the stone of the stairs, a glimmering skull and bones atrocity hung with the ghostly ropes of entrails, and with eyes swiveling independently in their hollow sockets. Lief practically swallowed his tongue, seeing that wheeling gaze pass about the stairway and then both translucent eyes come to a consensus and fix on him.

Silently the specter lifted an arm in accusation, the bony pointing fingertip almost close enough to brush his nose. The temperature plummeted still further, Lief’s breath gusting white from his mouth and a skin of frost forming on the stones around him.

Enth lunged for the thing wordlessly, his groping hands passing through its fickle substance. The specter reacted even so: those mad eyes span about again as though they were balls on a gambling wheel, and then they fixed the man-spider with their crazed stare.

With a stiff elegance, the spirit essayed a bow, and then sank back through the floor, leaving Lief sat on the stairs with his back to the wall, breathing heavily and trying to slow his heart back down.

He wanted to say a lot to Enth then, but any words would surely have escaped into the room beyond and warned whoever was up there. There was no suggestion that the man-spider understood what had just happened: probably he went through most of his forcibly human life not understanding things, and a visit from random undead fit into that pattern perfectly. Lief had a good idea, though. Nobody living in a place like this would go mad with pressure plates and wires and all the rest: fine for tombs and treasuries but hardly practical to have at home. The Doomsayers and their master had some thoughts for security, however. He guessed that they had set up a trap that they themselves need never worry about triggering. The spirit had been bound here ready to wreak its unliving vengeance against all comers, unless… well, unless they were already tainted by the Dark, Lief supposed. He felt almost flattered that the heinous apparition had considered him virtuous enough to take offense at. And then he thought about Enth, and felt rather less pleased with himself. You poor bastard. You’re one of them, whether you want to be or not. Mind you, Harathes is one of us, so you win some, you lose some.

He signaled that they would creep up a little farther, to see what was what. The whole business with the ghost had taken place in utter silence.