"That's an exaggeration. I have retreated, and you know it. I'm not that much of a fool."
What sounded like a mental snort rolled down the line between us. I ignored him and continued on.
The air stirred again, this time whisking behind me, making the small hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end.
Something definitely was here.
I stopped again. Amaya, can you sense anything?
No foe, she said. No fair.
I half smiled, despite the tension running through me. She was obviously feeling a little put out. I mean, it had been hourssince she'd killed anything.
Funny not, she muttered.
My smile grew. I walked on, my gaze constantly scanning the walls and the floor, looking for some clue as to what might be here, and whether it was dangerous. I couldn't see or sense anything untoward. Even the dark caress of magic began to fade as I moved farther from the pit trap, until it was little more than a faint buzz of wrongness that scratched at the far edges of my senses.
As I moved into the end third of the building, the filth and grime began to build. The sludge was thickest where machines had once stood, and it smelled to high heaven. I kept to the center, between the outline of the machines, but even so it was hard not to slip and slide.
Air whisked past me again, and for a moment it felt like someone was trying to grab at my fingers. The fleeting sensation left them tingling. I flexed them and frowned. What the hell was going on? Was it my imagination, or something more?
I stopped again. There really was nothing to see. Nothing but the dirt and the grime and a few rusted remnants of the machines that had once dominated this space. If there was an entrance into the caverns below, then it didn't appear to be here. The floor looked solid – although given the thickness of the grime, it was certainly possible that there was something here and I just couldn't see it.
Although I couldn't see evidence of anyone having walked through this place recently, either, and with the thickness of the muck, surely I would have. My footprints were pretty easy to spot.
Again, air stirred, but this time, ethereal fingers briefly entwined through mine. I yelped and jumped backward instinctively, my heart leaping into my throat even as my fingers burned with the icy touch of the dead.
Shit, I thought, suddenly realizing what was going on. It was a fucking ghost.