the wall, trying not to pant too loudly. Maybe she should wait. If this was really a loop and she kept going, she might run into the giant from behind.
She pulled out the photometer and ran her fingers over the familiar switches. Not all light is visible, she thought, so maybe there is a light to follow after all. Finding the power switch, she turned it on. The LED digits on the tiny display screen flashed to life again. Turning the dial through its spectrum settings, she read the numbers in her mind. Ultraviolet is zero, Infrared is zero. Gamma is zero. What’s this? Visible spectrum is positive now! How can that be? With this illuminance, I should be able to see where I’m going!
Still watching the photometer, she moved up a step. The intensity went up. Another step. Higher intensity. She continued ascending until she reached the sixth step and began leaning toward the seventh. The intensity ebbed. So the sixth step marked the highest reading.
As she listened for the giant, she started down, expecting the intensity to drop, but instead, it began to increase again. Each step down brought a higher number, until she passed where she began and reached the third step below it. Finally, it dropped once more.
She looked up into the darkness, mentally sketching the stairway. Six steps up to the brightest light going upward, but then nine steps down to an even brighter light. It just didn’t make any sense.
Clump!
The giant was pretty far below her, but there wasn’t much time. She ascended again, still watching the meter, and once again, the intensity heightened. Three steps. Still higher. The ninth step, where it was highest during her previous climb, showed still higher, and now … Ashley continued climbing. The intensity rose again. Finally, on the fourteenth step, the intensity dropped. The thirteenth step represented the highest peak yet. Would going down again show another rise?
Clump!
But going down would take her closer to the approaching giant. Still, she had to try. She descended one step. The reading plummeted to almost zero. She jumped back up. The intensity recovered.
This had to be it. This had to be the highest peak. Scanning the area with the photometer, she searched for any hint of a source point, but the apparently invisible light seemed to come from all around. She had followed the light, just like Dr. Allen had said, but what now? The giant would be there in a heartbeat!
The strange sound thumped closer, rounding the spiral steps until the giant had to be only a dozen or so away. Still watching the photometer, Ashley shivered, and with each tremble, the light reading dropped.
She steeled herself, firming her jaw as she spoke into the darkness. “Halt! Come no closer!”
The thumping stopped. The light reading steadied. Then, a low laugh rumbled from several steps below. “I thought I detected a sweaty female. Your voice resembles Morgan’s, and you smell like Naamah after a night of prowling in the upper lands.”
Ashley gripped the photometer tightly, ready to bash him in the head, though she knew it would be a feeble defense. She felt for the brick in her bag. She didn’t want to lose it, but it might be her only chance. “If you come any closer, I will be forced to use my weapon.” She glanced at the reading. The lumens count almost doubled.
“A woman against a Naphil?” The voice was closer now, maybe five steps away. His eyebeams flicked on, hitting the step just below her. “Even Morgan shuddered as she watched us train for battle. Are you a more powerful sorceress than she?”
“I am not a sorceress. I am the daughter of Thigocia, the warrior queen of all dragons.”
“You do not sound like a dragon, certainly not like the one I met in the mobility room before I began climbing these cursed stairs.”
Ashley forced a steady voice. “That was Roxil, my sister. How did you get past her?”
The awful “clump” sounded again. “I am sure you have heard my staff as I ascended the stairs. I used it against your sister and now rely on it as a walking stick. She was a formidable combatant, especially since I lack a leg, but she is no longer in any condition to fight.” The eyebeams rose a step and scanned up her body slowly. “I see you now, and you are no dragon.”
Ashley gulped. New shivers raced across her skin. She glanced at the photometer again. The reading slowly