Lost and Sound by Viola Grace Page A

and into the alcove. “I am going to be very careful and use those dance classes my mother insisted on. How did they remove the cuffs?”
    “The guards had keys and I slid them along the floor.”
    “That is most sensible. I set nine traps in the first few blocks.
    She felt for the switch, and when the door swung outward, she sighed with relief when none of the wires were attached. Yllin took a deep breath, focused on the seven years of dance classes, went up on her toes and stepped into the room rigged with the wires.
    She stepped daintily from one small diamond of cross wires to the next until she was standing in front of the box. Yllin could feel her friends holding their breath as she looked at the machine.
    “It’s not a bomb. It’s a shock grid.” She turned it off and steeled herself, bumping into the wire. “It’s off.”
    The crew left the room by the alcove door. Nearing winked, picked up the bound men and placed them in the library, in the circuit of wires. “Specialist Yllin, can you return and reset the unit?”
    She chuckled. “Well, Specialist Nearing, yes I can.”
    She tiptoed back into the centre of the room, turned the unit on and carefully tiptoed out again.
    When the alcove door was closed again, she and the whole group let out a sigh of relief.
    Yllin nodded. “Right, grab some artifacts and follow me. I know a place we can hole up that isn’t on any of the maps yet.”
    They took the carefully tagged artifacts, and Yllin led the way deep into the underground city.
    A weird chirping got her attention, and she looked down at her com unit. The origin code was not one she was familiar with, but she knew whom it was from. She waved everyone to silence and answered.
    The howl of rage was unmistakable. “What did you do to my ship, bitch?”
    “I am sorry. I believe you have the wrong calling code. You may want to try again.” She disconnected the link, and she waited while the crew giggled.
    The com chirped again and she answered. “Yes?”
    “We are tracking this signal. We will get our goods back.”
    She grinned. “Come and get them.”
    She disconnected and locked the com.
    “Now, Dr. Kliask, this is the reason I have been so eager to return here. It was a surprise.”
    Yllin knelt and ran her hands up the wall, seeking and finally finding the switch. A wall and the floor slid back, and Dr. Kliask was trembling with eagerness as he followed the hidden stairway into the city under the city.
    Nearing brought up the rear, and from the bottom of the steps, she closed the hatchway.
    Dr. Kliask and his team were staggering forward and grinning like fools as the merchant sector of the city was exposed to living gazes for the first time in a thousand years.
    “How did you know this was here?”
    She laughed and led them through to the next surprise. “Since day nine of my installment here. My radius began expanding, and since there was something to see, I went down.”
    “What is this level?” Nearing was as amazed as the others.
    Dr. Kliask answered. “This is the commerce area. That means that the area above was strictly for the use of visitors.”
    She grinned. If he got more enthusiastic, he would explode. His eyes were all batting randomly, and the rest of the crew was busy saying that they wished they could take notes.
    She kept them moving. “I promise I will bring you down here again, but we need to get to safety and that isn’t quite here. Not yet.”
    One of the assistants asked, “Are there more levels?”
    “More than I can count. From here, I can sense two more than I could from the surface.”
    The gathering got more excited. “Enough! I will get you safe and in a defensible position, and then, we will be able to chat about the city as long as you like.”
    Nearing was snickering in the blue light that cast his features into a hellish glow.
    She glared at him. “Shut up, demon.”
    He dissolved into hoots, so she led her charges to the next set of hidden stairs. The