Page 116 of Harnessed in Gold

“No change,” I say. “It’s strong all along this wall.”

“That doesn’t make sense. This is the edge of the building. There’s nothing on the other side but dirt.”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past few months, it’s that things don’t have to make sense to be real. Determined, I pull a rickety-looking, moth-eaten, upholstered chair up close to the wall. “Aaron, can I borrow you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is the metal sound louder here than in the middle of the room?”

“Hold on.” He shuffles back and forth several times. “Definitely.”

I gesture toward the chair. “What if you stand on this?”

He climbs up, Leo and I holding out our hands in case the chair gives out underneath him.

“Weaker,” he proclaims. He hops down and squats close to the floor. “Stronger.”

I crouch next to him, and right away the fiery horror cranks up. “Stronger,” I confirm.

Then, with his and Leo’s help, I stand on the chair. “And less up here.”

“It’s like y’all are listening for termites or mice or something,” Avery jokes. But it is, kind of. There’s something on the other side of that wall, or just beneath it. Something we can sense.

The question is, how do we get to it?

“Alright everyone, move aside.” Topaz rounds an empty spindle bookshelf and elbows her way to the wall. “And back up.” She throws a grin over her shoulder. “Unless you want to make some new friends.”

Leo jumps in front of me and nudges me back until my thighs hit the dusty table. I’m pinned there, watching over his shoulder as Topaz turns her hands upright and points them low at the wall, curling her fingers.

Using her weavingmagic.

I lurch back, but the table doesn’t budge. A swishing sound, like a hand brushing down a smooth sheet, sends my fingers digging into Leo’s arms.

“Aw, hell no,” Aaron mumbles. “Just. No.” He and Avery shelter behind Rime, Aaron poised to run and Avery bouncing up and down in excitement.

The floor between Topaz and the wall undulates like the distant ocean. When light flashes on scales, I cower behind Leo, burying my face in his back to stifle my scream.

“They’re blacksnakes,” he tells me. “They won’t hurt you.”

Blue, black, pink polka dots—what do I care? They’resnakes. I peer around his arm to watch as they slither over Topaz’s feet, winding like cats around her legs. One twists up her torso and slips over her shoulders. There must be ten of them, but more are coming. I gulp down my terror and disgust as they wiggle out of the wall and drop to the floor like pork through a meat grinder.

Topaz crouches close to the wall and places a hand on the stones, heedless of the snakes still squeezing through the cracks. “There’s a room on the other side.”

“What kind of room?” Rime asks.

“Like this, but lower.”

“Ask them what’s in there,” Leo says.

Topaz plays with a snake like it’s a Slinky. “Metal. Broken tools and glass. A crumbling hearth.”

We all gasp, “The forge.”

“How are we supposed to get in there?” Rime side-steps snakes as he approaches the wall. “There’s no door or hatch or anything.” With his phone light, he searches every square foot for some sort of opening, beating a fist on the loosest-looking stones.

Topaz returns to her full height, one snake draped across her shoulders and another coiled around her waist. “You said there’s a coal chute in that other room?”

“I think so,” Leo replies.