As I left the destruction of the cavern behind, the stones’ murmurs became soft and sweet once more. They talked of water and air and the slow passage of time that had little effect on them. After the screams of the stones and the wail of the shattered diamonds in the cavern, the murmur of the rocks was as soothing as a lullaby. But I pushed the sound to the back of my mind, tuning it out.

Because if I listened to it, I would want to stop, just for a few minutes. And then I’d be gone.

I don’t know how long I trudged along, just plodding through the dark earth. Minutes, hours, days, the end of the time. But I stumbled free of the narrow passageway I was in and entered a larger room, almost as big as the cavern where the diamonds had been. I was halfway across before I realized I was walking directly into a sheer stone wall.

I stopped, blinked, and held out my glowing palms.

The passageway branched off into two directions. Left and right. Two more dark holes just like all the others I’d walked and crawled and shimmied through. But this time, I had to make a choice. But which one? And would it even do any good? They both could lead farther into the mountain, turn back on each other, or lead me straight to a dead end. As long as it seemed like I’d been walking, I could be halfway to China by now.

But still, I had to try. Right first. I walked down into the right passageway about a hundred feet and placed my bruised, bloody hand on the stone wall. The usual, low murmurs of water, rock, and time sounded back to me.

Same sound I’d heard for hours now.

I sighed, turned around, and trudged down the left passageway. Once again, I placed my hand on the stone and listened to its vibrations. Water, rock, time. Nothing to tell me which way to go.

“Fuck,” I snarled in a loud voice.

My curse echoed up to the top of the cavern and bounced back down to me before reverberating through the whole area. I sighed and swiped my hand over my face, smearing blood, dirt, and grime deeper into my skin.

Flutter-flutter. Flutter-flutter.

I froze, wondering if I was imagining the noise. If I was somehow concussed and just didn’t know it. If maybe I was already dead, and this was all just a final dream or some sort of purgatory before I got shipped down below.

Flutter-flutter. Flutter-flutter.

Nope, I wasn’t imagining it. The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere up above. On an impulse, I raised my hands over my head, palms up. I reached for my magic again, and the cold, silver flames burning in the spider rune scars in my palms intensified. I’d just upped the wattage on my human flashlight.