Elizabeth clomped uncertainly down the steps, desperately trying to keep pace with Luella, but had not gone far when she noticed something quite peculiar. Barnaby, for some reason, had stopped. Not only that, but he was now standing with his nose pressed right up against the wall, which he was patting and rubbing and pummelling with his hands.

　　"Um . . . what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked.

　　"This isn`t a real wall", stated Barnaby, matter-of-factly. "It`s a rollerwall. The joins are easy enough to spot but I`ll be blown if I can find the switch".

　　"You mean . . . it`s some kind of secret entrance?"

　　Barnaby gave the wall a bit of a kick. "This one`s very secret".

　　"As interesting as that is", Luella cut in, zipping back up the stairs to find the source of the delay, "we are in a bit of a rush . . . "

　　Barnaby delivered a hefty thump, scratched his head and looked utterly, utterly baffled.

　　"Maybe you cannae see it properly", Aelgren suggested. "Here, try this". And he grabbed at one of the torches on the wall.

　　Which stayed exactly where it was.

　　Aelgren, who looked improbably confused, pulled at the torch again. And when it refused to budge a second time he frowned, growled, and gave it a hearty twist.

　　Both the torch and its metal brace came tearing free of the stone . . .

　　Elizabeth squealed as the floor snapped open, sending her plummeting into the darkness. The world around her became nothing but empty space before the others were alongside her and they were all of them skidding and sliding down the tunnel that felt like the worst fairground ride ever to be invented.

　　It came to an end with an indecorous whump and an unseemly tangle of limbs.

　　As soon as Elizabeth was able to catch her breath she discovered that they were all squashed together like a fist wedged into a bell jar.

　　"Well this is cosy", commented Aelgren, who was still gripping the torch even though he seemed to be upside down.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author`s consent. Report any sightings.

　　Elizabeth grimaced as a furry boot tried to go up her nose. "What happened?" she said, in a strangled, muffly voice.

　　Barnaby groaned. "I think we`ve fallen into a Fool Pit. The Artellians invented them as a way of keeping robbers away from their tombs. The thieves would be attracted by what they thought would be an easy way in, only to find themselves facing certain doom . . . rather like we are now".

　　"You mean the rollerwall was a decoy?" said Izzario, from somewhere on top of the pile.

　　"It certainly was".

　　"How wonderfully ingenious", Luella said, without the slightest trace of sincerity.

　　"But the interesting question", Barnaby went on, while trying to free his arm from where it was jammed between someone`s leg and a shoulder, "is what they were trying to hide. The Skycage was only built about a hundred years ago, so this can`t be to do with the prison".

　　Elizabeth tried to twist her head around to get a better sense of their predicament. As far as she could tell they appeared to be stuck in a narrow inlet that opened up - or rather, down - into a pear-shaped chamber. Although exactly how far away the bottom of it was remained something of a mystery given the limited state of her vision, which was currently obscured by a combination of Aelgren`s footwear and the hem of Izzario`s robes.

　　A collective moan of irritation flared up from behind them as Aelgren began to wriggle about like a boar with a bad head.

　　"Get off", snapped Luella, evidently unimpressed at this turn of events.

　　Aelgren grunted. "I`m trying!"

　　"Well can you do it without kicking me in the face?"

　　"Sorry. But it`s nae easy when I`m facing the wrong - "

　　"NO!"

　　Barnaby`s warning came too late. Aelgren`s jostling had already dislodged several body parts and the process of disentanglement had gone too far to be stopped. First Aelgren, then everyone else, went tumbling into the pit.

　　Where Elizabeth breathed in horror as a set of rusty spikes came shooting in her direction. They stopped with a judder, just inches away from her nose, retreating into the wall with a low metallic groan.

　　She refilled her lungs to a feeling of huge relief at having not been turned into a kebab.

　　"The mechanism must have seized up", said Barnaby, sounding slightly disappointed. "I expect it`s never really been used".

　　"How lucky we are", observed Luella, scooping up her top hat and brushing off bits and pieces of dirt.

　　"Actually", said Izzario, "we might be. Because it looks as if this little dungeon has a big case of stone-rot - look".

　　Izzario drew everybody`s attention to the river delta of hairline cracks that ran all the way from the base of the pit to the small circular mouth of the entrance above them. A crumblechunk of mouldy brick came away in the palm of his hand.

　　Aelgren got to his feet and grinned and clapped enthusiastically. "Right then", he said. "Let`s see if it`s as bad as it looks".

　　Which, as Elizabeth promptly discovered, was actually Vollish code for: "Let`s kick something down!"

　　And with two hefty thwollops and a galumpherous hollering "YARL!" a boot-shaped hole had appeared in the wall.

　　Izzario crouched to have a look through to the other side.

　　"Now that`s more like it", he said, with a smile.