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stared upon the boy's soul.
    Then she blinked and smiled wide, turning to Ciara, "I was wonderin' where in you'd got ta. We still have half'n the plates to be dryin."
    Ciara shook her head, the girl would probably, when facing down a dragon, blink and then offer it a breath mint. Then knick whatever bits of silverware the thing had left lying around. "The castle's been invaded. We need to get out of here before they finally come for the rest of us."
    The ghost nodded slowly as if she understood, then shrugged and picked up a sponge. Matters above the stairs were none of her concern.
    "Marna!" Ciara shouted, startling the boy whose trembling she felt through their bond. Ghostly eyes turned back upon her, "We need to leave, all three of us. Can you take us through your passage?"
    The girl looked back to her vellum, then up towards the sky. "But i's not even past the blinkin' 'our. They'll liable ta hear us."
    Thinking quickly Ciara blurted out, "It's all right. I was given special compensation by, by the King! He said we, all three of us, we were to go through your tunnel."
    Eyes unused to anything approaching a lie outside of "I din't take nuffin!" widened in joy, "Really? He asked for me tunnel specify?"
    "Yep, so you best grab the lantern and lead us through as soon as possible, okay?"
    Twiggy fingers grappled for the lantern as the girl stepped over top a set of pots and put one shoe deep into the sudsy water before coming up triumphantly with her prize. Holding it aloft as though it could banish any evil spirits wandering the halls, she dashed to her poster and ripped the whole thing down, tossing it to the side.
    Some tiny part of the ghost's intermittent brain registered that she'd never be seeing this place again. She looked around momentarily at the small pile she'd managed to cultivate over the years, her fingers caressing spoons, iron nails, glass shards and finally coming to rest upon a hilt that she'd found nestled deep in the tunnel. Picking it up, she handed the blade to the boy and smiled widely, "In case we come across any really big dinners!"
    The boy took the hilt, the blade drooping in his light grasp. Ciara watched like a mother who'd just seen her dull-witted child be handed a chainsaw and told to get to chopping. But the boy did not wave the sword around, only holding it as extended away from himself as he could. As though he were afraid of its soul.
    "Come on, come on. Don't want to leave the king waiting!" Marna shouted, her legs already lost to the blackness as she dangled the lantern one last time upon the strange couple and then ducked back in, taking the only light with her.
    Tamping down wild fears that this blackness was nothing more than an actual crevice into the world itself and she'd fall endlessly, Ciara tightened her grip on the boy. The fact that Marna seemed to be skipping and pounding her back into the ceiling did little to counter her fears. It was hard to count the girl as fully human even by the light of mid day. Counting to three, Ciara stepped forward, her boot actually finding stone floor. And without taking the chance to also bid a fond farewell to her only home she stepped through the threshold, dragging her luggage with her.

    Scabbering across rocks slick with moisture, his thin soles already damp from the rising ground water, Aldrin tried to steady himself against the pressing walls. The girl paid him no heed, only tightening her grip and calling out to the ghost.
    "Are you certain you know where this goes?"
    The ghost swung the lantern in a rhythmic pattern as if she didn't really need the light, but enjoyed the sheen it left on the rocks. "Yes, it goes 'til it ends."
    They were a strange pair to behold, one black as a crypt the other pale as the body being laid to rest inside it. Aldrin wasn't certain which terrified him more. But neither seemed to want to slice his throat, so they were a better choice than what awaited him back at the keep.
    He touched his chin, still tender