There was a long hallway stretching down ahead of them, and a stairway at the end.

There was a Floater Demon somewhere, too. They could hear its screechy hunting noises.

“Do you think it knows we’re here?” Arn said.

Grem shrugged.

“We find out,” he said, and started walking down the hall with the other Pakmog.

Dav and Arn followed behind them.

When they came to the stairs, they all looked around.

“Which way Dav’s brain say go?”

Dav stepped forward and leaned over the stairs, trying to see.

“I guess… down?” he said. “That’s the direction that the girl was in.”

“Good thing big brain here to help us,” muttered one of the Pakmog.

“Wait,” said Arn. “Do you all speak our language?”

“Some Pakmog learn,” said Grem. “Teach others. Not much else to do in cave. Prag pretty good.”

“Great!” Dav said. “There are all sorts of things I want to ask everyone!”

The Pakmog all stared at him, and said nothing.

“Pakmog don’t like talking Men-from-above speak,” said Grem. “Grem get job.”

“Oh,” said Dav. He looked disappointed again. “Well, I say we head down, and see if we can make it down to the level where that window was.”

Two of the Pakmog walked in front with their swords held up. Arn and Dav were in the middle, with Grem and the last Pakmog behind them.

There was a sound.

“What was that?” said Arn.

The gray walls were too close, and there was barely enough light to see what was going on. He wanted to turn around and run, but there was nowhere to run to.

Nobody said anything. They came to the bottom of the stairs, and there were more halls running out in every direction.

“That way,” said Dav.

There was another sound. It was a dry rattling noise.

Like bones rubbing together.

“Walker,” grunted Grem.

“Where?” said Arn. He was whipping his head back and forth, trying to look in every direction at once.

“All over,” said Grem.

“What?”

“That way,” Grem pointed, “That way. That way. All over. Can hear them.”

“Why can’t we see them?”

Grem shook his head.

“They waiting.”

“What for?”

“Until we trapped. What Grem would do,” he said.

Dav sighed.

“Then we just keep going in the right direction, I guess.””

Grem nodded.

The walked down the hallway together. There was another intersection coming up and they could see more stairs.

“Perfect,” said Dav. “We can head down again.”

They went past a window. On the other side of the bars they could look up at the remains of the blown-up bridge. There was a huge gap now, much too wide to jump across.

There were more sounds, but they still couldn’t see anything.

When they got to the next set of stairs, they stopped.

“I think this might take us low enough,” said Dav. “Should we…”

But before he could say anything else an arrow shot past his head and stuck in the wall.

One of the Pakmog grunted something loud and hard, and suddenly dark skeletons – Graywalkers - Arn recognized them from a book in the library - started pouring down the corridors on all sides, and coming down the stairs as well. There were archers with them, who shot more arrows that only barely missed them.

“Down!” Grem said. “Hurry!”

“I don’t think I can fight those!” Arn yelped.

“No fooling,” Grem grunted as he pulled Dav down the hall. “They bad news. Go.”

Two of the Pakmog stayed behind, blocking the stairs to let them go.

Arn could hear the sound of steel hitting steel behind him. The Pakmog were fighting the Graywalkers.

Dav stopped looked back up the stairs.

“We can’t just leave them there!” he said.

Grem made a growling noise and grabbed him again, pulling him down the stairs.

“Argue later, go now!” he said.

Arn followed without a word, listening to the sound of the fighting on the stairs up above.

“What if there are more of them down here?” Arn said quietly.

Grem shook his head but didn’t look back at Arn.

“Actually,” Dav said, poking his head around the corner, “I think it looks empty. Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Arn said.

“I think maybe is as good as we’re going to get.”

Grem grunted and walked out into the hallway like he wasn’t worried about anything.

“Which way?”

“Oh!” said Dav. He put his finger on his lips and turned around and around. “Hmmm…”

“Any time now be good,” Grem muttered.

“That way!” Dav said.

“Are you sure?” said Arn.

“Yes. No. Probably. Yes, I definitely think it’s that way.”

Grem grumbled again but hefted his sword and moved slowly down the hallway.

The sounds from the fighting were getting fainter as they moved away.

The hallway was long and dark, with dim red lava light coming in through a few narrow gaps. Now and then they could hear the Floater Demon crying out, but it seemed to be far away.

“Hello?” came a voice from down the hall.

It was a girl’s voice.

They all stopped. Dav stood still and stared intently down the dark corridor.

“Kim?” Arn tried to yell softly, which is impossible, so he just gave up and spoke right out loud. “Say something again so we can find you!”

There was a pause.

“My name isn’t Kim,” said the girl.

“Oh,” said Dav. “Are there more villagers down here?”

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The voice down the hall hesitated again.

“I don’t really know. It’s just me, I think.”

“Come on,” Arn said to Dav and Grem, and he started moving again. “Keep talking!”

“What should I say?”

“What’s your name?”

“Ama,” said the voice.

“You’re not from the village?” Arn said.

“I am,” she said. “But I think I might not be from your village. I don’t know your voices.”

They were walking past dark doors, with buttons beside each one, to open them. It was obvious when they got to Ama’s door, just from the sound of her voice.

Arn reached out to push the button, but Grem grabbed his arm and shook his head.

“What if trick?”

Dav looked worried.

“What if it’s not a trick?”

Grem stared at him again. Arn didn’t think Grem really knew what to do with Dav. His mind was about as different from a Pakmog’s as was possible. But Grem seemed to recognize that Dav’s brain worked by some kind of strange magic all its own.

“Okay,” he grunted, then took two steps back and held his sword at the ready. “Arn open door, see what happen.”

Arn gave him a worried look, but then turned around and pushed the button. He stepped back as the door swung open.

A girl walked out. She stopped and stared at them all. She was clearly no adult – the Pakmog towered over her too. She wore the robes of a Woodsmith.

“Hello,” she said. When she saw Grem she jumped and looked worried. She was very pale and thin.

“I’m Arn, this is Dav and Grem,” Arn said.

For once Dav looked like he wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t keep the disappointment that she wasn’t Kim off his face.

She nodded at them, but moved over beside Arn. She seemed to be watching Grem fearfully.

“How long have you been in there?” Arn said.

“I really don’t know,” she said. “There’s no night or day. It feels like a really long time.”

Suddenly her face spasmed into sadness.

“I just want to go home,” she said. But then she shook her head and looked like she was pulling herself together. “Is there a way out of here? Is it even possible?”

She looked so lost that Arn couldn’t help feeling protective. He put his hand on her arm and she looked up at him hopefully.

“Definitely! We just got here from our village not very long ago. There was a gate,” Dav said.

“Really?”

She looked hopeful.

Dav nodded eagerly.

“It stopped working, and the bridge to get there is broken now, but I’m sure that’s not going to be a huge problem.”

“It’s not?”,

Arn wanted him to shut up. She didn’t need to hear the whole thing right away. But Dav seemed to think everyone would regard everything as an interesting puzzle instead of a terrible situation.

Dav pointed at Grem.

“Grem here, he knows about another gate. He’s showing us the way!”

She stared at the Pakmog with worried eyes.

“He helped us. We wouldn’t even be here without him,” Arn said.

She looked at Arn for a moment, then nodded, but pulled herself against his side and wrapped her arm around his.

Grem grunted.

“Way back across broken bridge. That important thing too.”

Dav looked sheepish.

“Well, it’s true. The other gate is across the broken bridge too, it sounds like. We came in here to try to save a friend of ours. She’s down there somewhere.”

He waved vaguely towards the floors below.

“I think Dav might be able to figure a way out though,” Arn said when he saw her expression. “He has a way of looking at the world. Sometimes he makes surprising things happen.”

Ama still seemed worried, but she looked like she was willing to trust Arn at least.

“Should keep looking for other man,” Grem said.

They were all too aware that there could be a crowd of Graywalkers running down the hall towards them at any moment.

“Right!” Dav said, then looked at Ama. “But you should come with us!”

She smiled a little.

“Looks like there’s nothing else I needed to do today.”

But she kept her arm wrapped tightly around Arn’s while they walked.

They moved down the hall again with Dav and Arn on either side of Ama. She was definitely too thin, like she hadn’t eaten in a long time. She limped a little when she walked, but she kept pace with them - her face was determined.

“How did you get here?” he asked her.

She sighed.

“One of our council talked me into coming through a gate with him. To explore. I don’t know why I said yes. Turns out it was a bad idea.”

Arn nodded.

“I know how you feel. I followed Dav here through our own gate. It’s been going about as well as I thought it would.”

“Shhh!” Grem hissed at them.

They all stopped.

There was a voice. It was softly calling something that sounded like “Hello?”

“That’s Kim! I can hear her!” Dav said.

There were gaps in the wall of the corridor that let in the red light of the Underworld. They had been avoiding them so nobody could see them, but now Arn stuck his head out of one and looked down the outer wall of the fortress.

“There she is!” he whispered, but he stopped Dav from trying to look as well.

“She’s there. I saw her sticking her head out. It looks like she’s one more level down.”

Dav pointed ahead.

“Stairs. Let’s go down.”

Grem frowned.

“Don’t like it. Too deep. Harder get out again.”

“We’re already in it this far. Should we go back? Maybe if we ask nicely the Graywalkers will let us go?”

Grem grumbled something in Pakmog, but he started moving towards the stairs, very carefully.

The stairs went up and down, but they were empty.

“Grem not like this much,” he said. “Bad place. Feels not good.”

They all stared downward into the dark.

Arn pushed Dav.

“Lets go. She’s right down there. I saw her.”

They were so close now that he wanted to just get it over with - find Kim and then think about how to get out again. Plus part of him wanted to show Grem that villagers weren’t always afraid. He squeezed Ama’s arm and let go.

Dav gave him a strange look, then they both moved into the stairwell and started walking down.

Which was exactly when everything started happening.

There was a loud bang, and then a clatter of steel and bones.

Arn whirled around but Grem was already fighting. Ama stood behind the Pakmog, staring wildly around at the Graywalkers that nearly surrounded them. They were thinner than Pakmog, but taller, and carried wicked-looking swords and bows. Now that he had a chance to really look at them, their faces were terrible. They didn’t look like skeletons of people at all, once you were up close.

He jumped back up the stairs and grabbed for her.

And nearly lost his arm. A Graywalker slashed its sword at him, and he only pulled away just in time.

“Grem!” he yelled. “Take care of Ama!”

“No fooling!” the Pakmog growled. “Thank you for smart words!”

Then the skeletons started pouring into the stairwell, cutting them off from Grem and Ama completely.

Dav grabbed Arn and pulled him.

“Run!” he yelped.

But Arn jumped back towards Ama again. If he could just find a space to grab her...

But instead one of the Graywalkers spun around and moved to attack him.

He had to run.

He didn’t want to. Grem and Ama were right there on the other side of the skeletons. But there was no way to reach them.

He turned and ran down the stairs two at a time, following Dav, and feeling like an idiot.

I never should have let go!

They pounded down the stairs, and he could hear the clatter of skeletons right behind them.

There was no time to look when they reached the bottom - the whole place could have been swarming with hostile mobs and they would have run right into the middle of them. But the Graywalkers were right on their heels, so Arn and Dav leapt out of the stairwell and into another hallway.

“Right!” Arn yelled, and they flew down another dark corridor lined with doors.

Except one. One door was wide open, and light was streaming out of it.

That seems really suspicious, Arn thought.

But what choice did they have? With a good solid door between them and the skeletons, they could at least be safe for a little while. That was all that mattered right now.

A villager leaned out of the door.

“Kim!” Dav yelled out.

It was her. Kim’s mouth dropped open when she saw the crowd of Graywalkers behind them.

“Run!” she yelled.

No kidding, Arn thought, but he didn’t have any spare breath to say it out loud.

Then she yelled “Don’t come in here! It’s a trap!”

But they were going to be caught if they didn’t go into the room.

They both ran straight in, and Arn turned around, slamming the door shut just as a terrible gray form of loomed in the hall behind them, its sword held high to strike.

The door shuddered as the blade fell on the wood.

Dav grabbed Kim, and even though he was panting and out of breath, he laughed roughly.

“I knew we could find you!” he rasped.

Arn leaned over, trying to catch his breath and calm down.

They had Kim, but Grem and Ama were still out there, with skeletons all over.

He was frantic. He couldn’t just hide behind a door! But there was nothing he could do. The Walkers would have him the second he stepped outside.

With a hallway full of skeletons right outside the door, Grem and Ama might as well have been a million miles away.

“You shouldn’t have come!” Kim said. She looked stunned at seeing them. “I’m so sorry! I knew it was you when I saw villagers out there across the lava. If anyone was going to find their way here, it would be you.”

Dav shrugged.

“I had to try to find you.”

She wasn’t smiling, though. She covered her face with her hands and shook her head.

“I should have stayed hidden. It was stupid of me. I should have let you think I wasn’t here. Now you’re trapped too!”

She looked like she was going to cry.

“What?” Dav said. “We’ll think of something. Don’t worry!”

He looked at Arn, like he wanted him to agree and tell her the same thing.

But Arn was staring across the room, into the corner.

Another villager stood there, watching the three of them.

It was Ren the Cleric. From the village. From home.

He had a big, blocky face and a booming voice. Arn could remember him making the whole village stop talking with one loud word of command. The Council members were all supposed to be equal, but Ren had always seemed like the most equal of any of them.

Dav’s mouth dropped open when he saw him.

“Dav,” Ren said and shook his head. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here.”

“Ren?” said Dav. “What… How did you get here?”

Ren smiled and shrugged.

“The same way as you. But I hear the portal is out of order now.”

He nodded at Arn, who wanted to feel hope for the first time since the portal had disappeared. It was an adult. One who actually knew about things. If anything was going to get them home, this should have been it.

But something felt wrong.

“I’m sorry you two got mixed up in all of this,” Ren said.

“It’s like a little village in here!” said Dav. “I never would have guessed that there were so many of us in the Underworld.”

“Well,” Ren said, “Normally there aren’t.”

“Then what’s happening?”

“To start with, neither of you is supposed to be here at all.”

Dav looked sheepish, but Arn was frowning.

“What about you?” he said. “Why are you here? In the Underworld?”

Why was Ren here in the Underworld? How did that make any sense at all?

Ren sighed and gave Arn a hard look.

“It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell it to you later, after they put the bridge back together and re-light the portal.”

“Re-light it?” Dav said.

“Oh yes, it’s really not that big of a deal. You just need or some kind of flame like a torch. You light the rim of the portal, and it opens right back up.”

“Really? That’s amazing!” Dav said. Arn could see that he was ready to sit down on the floor and start asking Ren all sorts of questions about portals.

But Arn thought he had questions that were more important right now.

“Who is putting the bridge back together?” he said. “And why did they blow it up?”

Ren looked at him blankly.

“I think you can work that last one out on your own, can’t you?”

Arn stared back at him.

“It was so that we couldn’t get out,” he said. “So that we couldn’t escape.”

“Spot on,” said Ren. “They keep the bridge wired up with TNT just in case.”

Arn didn’t think Dav was getting it, not at all. He still looked excited.

“Dav, Arn, I’m so sorry,” Kim said again. “You shouldn’t have come.”

She still looked like she was going to cry.

There was a bad feeling building up in Arn’s stomach.

He had to say it out loud.

“Ren brought you here, right?” he said.

Her look said it all. She didn’t need to answer.

Ren nodded at him.

“And people call Dav the smart one,” he said.

With that he hit a button on the wall beside him, and another door opened up.

Graywalkers flooded into the room.