The floor gave out without a sound.
One second we were standing on a vast plain of warm, ridged basalt, and the next the plain was tilting. The stone split open along dark seams that ran for miles, and the whole world heeled over like a ship taking a wave broadside. Then it rose, and we slid off its back into the black.
We fell into total darkness.
The air roared past my ears. I couldn't see the walls or the bottom. I could only hear the wind screaming up the drop, and somewhere under that, something enormous shifting its weight.
'Feather Step. Now!'
I unspooled Chains of Agony from both wrists first, sending two chains whipping through the dark. The first snagged Light by his belt. The second wrapped around Ilse's waist and cinched tight. Maggie didn't need one. She was already sinking past us slow and upright, her veil lifting in the draft, as unhurried as a woman walking down a flight of stairs.
Then I stepped.
