“How far down?” I put my foot on the first step, the rock warm under my bare feet.

“Long,” Peta said. “It will take at least half an hour to get to the bottom.”

Damn, that was a long ways down. But if I hurried, I was sure I could cut the time in half. Jogging down the stairs, I easily kept pace with Peta who was running ahead, the white tip of her tail twitching side to side as she leapt down each stair.

“Lark, slow down.” Cactus caught up to me and touched my arm. I glanced at him.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re running as if you’re in a hurry,” he said, his own pace slowing, his hand dragging at me.

Frowning, I didn’t slow. “We are in a hurry. Ash’s life is on the line and I was just lying on my back in your room as if there was nothing in the world to—”

“Easy, easy. I know. But you had to heal and that was as good a place as any to let your body pull together while we waited for Peta. The thing is . . . if you look like you’re in a hurry, people are going to notice you more. You don’t want that, Lark. You don’t want to be noticed here.” He stared straight ahead, his thumbs hooked into his belt as he walked slowly.

Painstakingly slow. Peta turned her head and let out a sneeze. “He’s right.”

Damn it, I just wanted to get to Brand before the day was over. That was the other part of being in the Pit that weighed on me. How many hours had gone by? How would I know when I had only a day left? The lack of sun was fouling my ability to gauge time.

And I said as much to Cactus, but Peta answered.

“Everyone goes to sleep when night falls; that is how you know the day is over. And when you wake, the new day has started.” She slowed and I bent to pick her up, only touching her when she gave me a bob of her head.

Placing her on my shoulder, I kept walking, forcing my feet to go slow even as they itched to run. “That seems . . . odd.”

“It’s how the Pit has been run for as long as I can remember.” Peta wrapped her tail around my neck as she perched on my left shoulder like some sort of oversized bird that was currently purring. I chose not to point out she was obviously enjoying my company; the connection between us was growing in leaps and bounds.

In the back of my head I sensed her emotions and general thoughts. Nothing specific, but more of an overview of where she was in her feelings and mindset. Already I could tell she was secretly pleased I had listened to her, and while she was far from happy that I was her new charge, she didn’t really hate me.

I forced my thoughts back to the whole sleeping business. “So what makes everyone fall asleep? Or is there like a gong that sounds and everyone just goes to bed?”

Cactus shook his head. “No gong, a bell. First the bell chimes, then you get a warning that sleep is coming from a tingling in the spine that spreads through your body. Enough time to get to a bed and lie down.”

“And if you don’t?”

He answered, “You fall asleep wherever you are. Sometimes people get caught in the tunnels and sleep the night on the hard stone.”

The bottom of the stairs flattened out into a large chunk of quartz smoothed and polished to a high sheen under our feet. The rock protruded out into open space all the way around the edge of the cavern we were in. A platform if I ever saw one. Cactus pointed past me toward the flickering sparks of fire that rose up from below. “This is the Pit. You sure you want to go in?”

“No choice,” I said. And there wasn’t, not if I wanted to save Ash.

CHAPTER 8

The platform was warm under my feet as I stepped onto it, my toes curling against the stone. Heat waves rolled up in rippling shadows that filled the air. I couldn’t see the lava, but I heard it burping and plopping as it boiled far below. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to step farther onto the platform. The smooth rock ran a good twenty feet deep all the way around the edge of the Pit and it reminded me all too strongly of the Deep and their mini coliseum. Was this a platform to watch people fight to the death within the lava? Mother goddess I hoped not.

At various and seemingly random points along the edge of the platform, stairs curled downward to the main floor where a few Salamanders walked. One was swimming in the lava. My brain still struggled to comprehend how that was possible.

I took another step and a tiny set of claws dug into my right shoulder.

“Lark, do not walk to the edge. Go to your belly. If you get a waft of fumes, you could pass out and fall in,” Peta said.

Worm shit, I hadn’t thought about that. I nodded and dropped to my knees, slid down to my belly, and then scooted forward. Cactus did the same, inching up beside me. I peered over the edge of the rock, and Peta scooted across my spine to sit on the back of my shoulders. But that was a distant sensory to what I saw.

Lava indeed. The Pit was one monstrous magma pool that stretched several hundred feet across with tendrils reaching out; rivers that spread through the mountain. Orange and reds, yellows and golds so intense that my eyes hurt looking at the pool. Waves of heat wafted off the surface, curling into the air, bringing the smell of burnt things and sulfur.

“Hypnotizing.” I scooted a little farther forward to get a better look and Peta’s claws tipped into me again.

“No swimming,” she said.

I shook my head, but Cactus still grabbed my hand, his fingers lacing tightly with mine.

“Just in case.” He winked at me, a grin tugging at his lips.

Leaning over the edge, I gripped his hand. Something was pulling me, urging me to get closer. The soft whisper of words barely spoken, teased my ears. Someone was close below us and something about the voices made me think it would be worth listening in on.