I looked around. The light that filtered in through the grimy windows highlighted the dust and rubbish lying in drifting piles along the loading bay's ramp. Three doors led off the platform that ran around the sides of the dock, and there were stairs down at the far end that led up to them. I could neither see nor smell anything or anyone out of the ordinary, but I hadn't last time, either. But there was something here – something that crawled along the edges of my psychic senses.
Magic.
"They haven't abandoned this place, that's one certainty." I drew Amaya. Flames rippled down her sides, casting a lilac glow across the nearby concrete.
"If this is where they hide the gateway onto the fields, it would be highly illogical for them to do so," he said. "But they will more than likely have added additional security. Tread warily."
"I did that last time, and still fell through the goddamn floor."
"So this time don't ignore intuition when it suggests something is wrong."
"That would be totally logical, and you know I don't always work that way."
"Unfortunately, that is very true." His voice was wry, and I smiled as I cautiously moved up the ramp. The last time we'd been here, Jak and I had chosen the middle door of the three that were situated on this upper level, and had subsequently triggered a trap. Maybe a change of entry point would change my luck.
I stopped at the first door and scanned it for anything out of place. It was one of those half-glass doors, but enough paint had peeled off the lower section that the grime had stained the wood almost black. There didn't appear to be any sort of security – magic or otherwise – so I reached for the door handle. The damn thing was locked. Which wasn't surprising if they wanted to direct all traffic to the middle door. But having sprung that trap once, I wasn't about to go there again.
I bent and peered at the lock. It looked solid enough, but the same could not be said about the frame. It very much looked as if sometime in the past, someone had kicked this door good and hard and had taken some of the frame with it. And though it had been patched, I suspected it wouldn't take much to force it open again. I clenched my hand and gave the door a thump. It sprung open instantly. I caught the edge before it could smash back against the wall, then closed it again, making sure it still looked locked.
The room itself had obviously been a small office, though it held nothing more than the remnants of a whiteboard, a broken office chair, and strings of dusty cobwebs. I moved on. The next door wasn't locked, and it led into a room that was long and dark. Given there was no wall to my left, it also had to be the same room that held the trapdoor into the pit. I glanced down sharply, seeing bare concrete rather than wooden flooring, but didn't immediately move. The uneasy sensation of magic crawled around me, and I wasn't about to ignore it.
"Amaya, flare brighter."
She did so. Her flames revealed the room was twice the size I'd imagined. The roof soared high above me, snaked with metal lines and some sort of conveyer system. Several small offices sat on the right-hand side of the building, and the concrete was stained with rust lines and grime, reminders of machines that had once stood here. To the left, there was that large square of wooden flooring Jak and I had fallen through the first time. Obviously, whoever had made that trap had repaired it after we'd left.
"Why would they set the trap over only one door?" My voice echoed in the cavernous room and something seemed to stir in the shadows down the far end. Or maybe that was simply imagination and fear.
The stairs are closest to the middle door, so most of those who use them would logically choose that door. Azriel's voice held a hint of amusement. Why do you ask the question out loud rather than in your thoughts?