I glanced around as Azriel climbed to his feet. "The only way we can get into the tunnels is via that pit Jak and I fell into."
"Given I must retain human form while in this building, our only option is to fall into it once again."
"Or we could grab something heavy, and spring the trap first."
"That would also work." He paused. "There were chair remnants in the room next door, were there not?"
"Yes."
"Then I will retrieve them."
We headed up the stairs. Magic crawled across my fingertips as I opened the door to the pit room, its touch stronger and dirtier than before. Either I was becoming more sensitive to magic, or it had changed somehow.
Azriel appeared with the chair remains. I stepped aside, giving him room, and watched as he tossed them into the middle of the dark room. For a second, nothing happened. Then, with a crack, the entire floor dropped. As it hit the cavern floor far below, dust bloomed, making me sneeze.
Azriel drew his sword and squatted near the edge of the hole. Valdis's flames fanned out, lifting the darkness and revealing the all too familiar pit. It was about ten feet square and smelled of earth and age. But there was something there this time that hadn't been there the last – wooden stakes.
An over-the-top response to our previous intrusion into the place, no doubt.
"The bitch is getting nasty," I muttered.
"She has always been nasty," Azriel commented. "But I believe she is becoming desperate."
"And desperate people make mistakes." Or so the saying went. There didn't seem to be much evidence of it so far. My gaze swept the floor. The stakes had been set in a semicircle that covered the area immediately below the doorway – the place where most people would fall. The other half of the small pit was unencumbered by any additional security measures. Nothing that was so blatantly obvious, anyway.
"Can you jump that far?" Azriel asked.
I nodded. "Just be there to stop me falling back onto the stakes."