"i'll help you," berrigan offered fervently.

"no," laura said. "you could contribute more by helping the others reach the artifact. i'll achieve the same ends with or without you."

trask scowled. "after you take action to stall our pursuers, what are the chances you might make it to the airstrip? our pilot could fly you out of here."

"none," laura said. "i was caretaker here, and i failed in my charge. i'll do all i can to slow our enemies so you can retrieve the artifact. we all know that to lose the translocator would be disaster. i will not abandon obsidian waste. i will hear no arguments. tell your pilot to leave while he can. quick, on your way, we haven't a moment to spare."

trask began pulling gear from the back of a jeep. "you heard the lady--grab your equipment and let's get moving. elise, call aaron, tell him to take off immediately. we'll get out using the translocator or not at all."

elise produced a satellite phone and started dialing. seth grabbed his suitcase, set it on the ground, and opened it up. he had not traveled with his weapons--they had been sent through other channels to perth, where they had been loaded on the private jet. he found his sword and strapped it on, adding a knife as well. looking over at kendra, he saw her putting on the adamant mail he had acquired from the satyrs. light and strong, the shirt had saved her life at wyrmroost. he grabbed his emergency kit, which was now a leather satchel instead of a cereal box but still contained a variety of items that might come in handy. he still had the onyx tower and the agate leviathan that thronis had given him. he made sure he also had the small metal flask from tanu that could change him into a gaseous state. he was only to use the potion in a dire emergency, because tanu had doubted whether the translocator would work on him if he were gaseous. kendra possessed a matching flask.

glancing to one side, seth saw berrigan sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking shell-shocked. "you better get your stuff," seth told him.

the young man stared at seth. "my best stuff is back at the house. besides, you think swords are going to help you in there?"

"sure, if we find something to stab."

berrigan grinned vaguely. "who knows what we'll face inside the dreamstone? honestly, i'd prefer a clean death out here under the sky. in there, we won't know if we're asleep or awake. most likely, some twisted combination of both."

"we have to go in, so we might as well be prepared."

"prepare your mind, not your sword," berrigan advised. "you're young."

seth shrugged. "you're skinny."

berrigan flashed a real grin. "i like your attitude."

"sorry about your sister," seth offered. "she seemed pretty funny."

"she was very funny. i can't believe she was a traitor. could they have compromised her while she was away at her university?"

"maybe it was mind control. or maybe she was a sting-bulb or something."

berrigan batted at the flies circling his head. "camira was amazing. flighty, headstrong, annoying, but amazing. i'd prefer an alternate explanation to betrayal."

"i once thought my sister, kendra, was dead. i also once thought she was being disloyal. turned out it was all trickery by the society."

berrigan reached out a hand. seth took it and hauled the young man to his feet. berrigan squinted up at the dreamstone. "i've always wondered what was inside. i guess i should at least bring a knife."

trask now held an egg-shaped iron object roughly the size of a pineapple, with irregular protuberances jutting from the top half. his stance suggested it was quite heavy. laura and vincent were inspecting the strange key with interest.

"you'd better hurry," laura prompted.

trask shuffled over to the recess in the wall of the dreamstone, heaved the top half of the egg into the indentation,

and fiddled with it until the key clicked home. trask rotated the iron egg to the right. after he had twisted it halfway around, the top half of the key detached. still holding the bottom half of the key, trask discovered a smaller egg-shaped key nested inside.

"it's like a matryoshka doll," elise murmured.

"a what?" seth asked.

"those wooden russian dolls that fit inside of each other," she clarified. "oh, right."

"where's the door?" kendra asked. the key had turned, but no opening had appeared.

"i'm not sure," laura murmured.

trask removed the smaller key from the bottom half of the larger one. "is there a second keyhole? this one has teeth on top just like the first."

berrigan shook his head. "everything else is smooth."

"or was smooth," tanu mused. "opening the first lock may have created a second keyhole elsewhere."

mara was scanning the broad expanse of the wall. "i see nothing from here. we should examine the whole dreamstone."

laura rushed back to the jeep she had driven. "i'll go left, you guys go right. honk if you find something."

trask let the empty iron shell drop to the ground, carrying the smaller egg back to the other jeep without too much effort. everyone piled back into the jeeps they had ridden in previously.

seth scrutinized the flawless wall for irregularities as the jeep accelerated. he scanned high and low, although if the second keyhole were up high, he had no idea how they would reach it. there were no handholds for climbing, no nearby trees, and no ladders handy.

they raced around a corner and along the side of the dreamstone, bouncing over the uneven terrain. none of them spotted indentations, and they heard no signals from the other jeep.

rounding the next corner to the far side of the stone, mara pointed ahead to a large opening. the other jeep came around the far corner, and they met at the entrance to a tunnel.

"big keyhole," seth said.

"the first key did open a door," berrigan said. "just on the far side of the dreamstone."

"the next keyhole will be somewhere inside," trask replied. "make ready."

seth and the others climbed down from the jeeps and checked their gear. kendra came up beside seth. "having fun yet?" she asked.

"a little. i'm excited for the zombies to catch up. the best part so far was running them over."

kendra shook her head. "we should check if tanu has a potion for curing stupidity."

"i'm hoping to get another zombie hand. i can't believe i threw one away!"

kendra rolled her eyes.

seth gazed at the shadowy entryway. it was barely large enough for a person to enter walking upright. the floor of the narrow tunnel sloped upward out of sight. he might be immune to magical fear, but natural emotions still affected him like anyone. sick with worry and anticipation, he suppressed a shudder and composed his expression. there was no way he would let his sister see his anxiety.

trask strode to the mouth of the tunnel and faced the others. "this is not how we planned to enter the vault. we're rushed, we're tired, and we're under duress. on the bright side, we have less time to stress out about it. we can do this. we have a perfect team assembled, and we're well equipped. i'm ready. let's go."

laura stood up in her jeep. "i'm leaving. good luck."

"laura," trask called. "don't throw your life away. you know this preserve. do what you can to stall our enemies, then get away."

"i'm in no hurry to die." she swung the jeep around and started speeding away.

tanu approached trask. "if you're taking the lead, let me carry the key."

trask handed the iron egg to tanu, unslung his enormous crossbow, and led the way into the tunnel. advancing in single file, vincent followed, then mara, berrigan, tanu, kendra, seth, and finally elise.

just like the exterior of the dreamstone, the ceiling, walls, and floor of the passage were smooth obsidian. seth kept glancing over his shoulder until the entrance was out of sight. elise watched their rear, keeping her compact crossbow ready.

"where is the light coming from?" mara asked.

only after the question did seth notice that nobody had flashlights out yet, but the corridor was lit by an even glow. he could see no source for the light.

"this is an unnatural place," berrigan said.

the corridor began to curve in different directions. first left, then right, then down, then up and to the left, then down and right, and so on. before long, seth lost all sense of what direction they were moving in relation to where they had entered. the corridor never branched. the only choice was forward or back.

seth remained tense, caressing the hilt of his sword as he walked. after several minutes, trask said, "what have we here?"

"you have to be kidding me!" vincent added.

seth rose to his tiptoes and leaned from side to side trying to see what they were talking about, but the corridor was too narrow and there were too many bodies between him and trask. as he kept moving forward, the tunnel widened, allowing the others to spread out. soon seth had a view of the dead end.

after widening, the corridor ended with a rounded wall. mara, vincent, and trask were searching the end of the corridor and the surrounding walls. tanu clicked on a flashlight, but the added shine revealed nothing new.

"we must have missed a turnoff," elise suggested, looking back.

"the hall ran unbroken from the entrance," mara responded with calm certainty. "there were no gaps in the ceiling, walls, or floor, no alternate routes whatsoever."

"i didn't see another way to go," trask added. "there must be a secret passage."

"did anyone notice a keyhole?" kendra asked.

"i saw nothing," mara replied. she sighed. "it may have been disguised."

"use your hands and your eyes," vincent said. "hunt for any indentation or recess."

they scoured the area at the end of the passage. the ceiling was low enough that most of them could reach it. they searched diligently, but found nothing.

"the keyhole could have been anywhere along the passage," trask finally said.

"there is nothing here," vincent confirmed.

"that was a long corridor," elise pointed out.

"then we'd better get going," trask said. "let's not forget who is in pursuit. keep your eyes open."

trask took the lead again, and the others followed in the same order as before. seth slid his hands along the glossy wall. how might the creators of this vault have camouflaged the next keyhole? could it be covered by a hatch? or shielded by a distracter spell?

"kendra?" he said.

"yes?"

"if the keyhole is protected by some kind of distracter spell, you might be the only one who can see it."

"that's a good point, seth," trask called back. "keep a sharp lookout, kendra."

"i'm trying."

they regressed slowly along the corridor for several minutes without finding anything suspicious. "this feels wrong," mara murmured.

"what do you mean?" trask asked.

"this doesn't feel like the reverse of the turns we took to get here."

"the tunnel has no forks," trask reminded her.

"that's what i don't like," mara said.

"it just feels different because we're going more carefully," vincent said.

"i disagree," mara replied.

seth caressed the walls, searching for cracks, seams, anything unusual. he shuffled his feet to sort of feel the ground, even though vincent was on his hands and knees examining the floor of the corridor much more carefully. there had to be something all of them were missing.

"oh, no," trask said.

"what?" elise asked from the back.

"impossible," vincent complained.

"another dead end," trask answered.

seth felt the hair rise on the back of his neck.

"what do you mean, another dead end?" elise challenged.

"this is an unnatural place," berrigan repeated, his voice unsteady. "we've left the real world behind. we should not be surprised. is this any stranger than light coming from nowhere?"

seth kept advancing until he had the same view as the others. once again the corridor widened and then came to an abrupt, rounded conclusion.

while vincent and mara scoured the walls and ceiling, trask stood surveying the area with one hand on his waist, the other holding his huge crossbow.

"let's not waste time here," trask said. "stay vigilant, but let's pick up the pace. mara, let me know if the way feels different again."

they proceeded with greater haste. within a minute or two, mara said that the way felt different. a few minutes after that, they arrived at another dead end, almost identical to the first two.

"i'm starting to have my first case of claustrophobia," vincent declared, his face shiny with perspiration.

"great place to start," trask said.

"i think we're making progress," mara said, sniffing the air. "just not the way we're used to."

"then on we go," trask urged.

they came to several more dead ends. an occasional steep slope or odd sequence of turns made it clear to seth that the passageway kept changing, even though they seemed to be traveling back and forth between the same endpoints.

at last, trask let out a relieved laugh. "look here, it seems we have found someplace else."

the passage widened again, allowing them to spread out once more, only this time it opened into an expansive chamber. they paused in the entryway, gazing at the huge room. as in the tunnels, a steady glow illuminated the room, still lacking an apparent source. the wall across from them was curved, the floor semicircular, the ceiling half a dome.