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Dougal moved his numbed fingers from the rope to Killeen’s arm and then fell backward, letting his weight haul Killeen and Clagg up over the lip of the hole to land upon him.

Blushing just a little, Dougal and Killeen disentangled themselves from each other and stood up. As one, the three of them leaned over and peered into the pit.

The tomb guardian gave Breaker one last stomp, and the blue glow in its central arcane motivator crystal faded and died.

Clagg howled in despair. “Do you know how much of my life that represents?”

As if to answer, the composite tomb guardian turned and stretched its arms up at them. Clagg leaped back, but Dougal stood his ground, confident that they were well beyond the creature’s reach.

“I hate magic,” Dougal said. “I mean, sure, we knew that grabbing the Eye was going to make something happen—an asura like Blimm wouldn’t just leave it there unguarded—but with magic, you can’t ever know what it’s going to be.”

Killeen leaned up against a wall of the bone-lined corridor, trying to restore the circulation to her legs. She looked like a newborn colt struggling to its feet for the first time. “Blimm must have been very determined to protect his crypt. Guarding a tomb with a beast like that strikes me as overkill.”

Clagg snorted at them both. “You idiots. The Golem’s Eye isn’t just a pretty rock. It is an ambient thaumaturgic construct. It contains the construct’s mind. That tomb guardian didn’t even exist until we showed up to disturb it.” He glared at Dougal. “When you touched the ruby, you activated the Eye. The Eye in turn created the guardian.”

The tomb guardian slammed its limbs into the side of the chamber directly below. Dougal watched as pieces of the construct crumbled away. It hit the wall again and again, knocking loose more pieces every time until little of it was left but a few twitching skulls that seemed to stare up at Dougal and accuse him of thievery with their empty eye sockets.

“So passes Blimm’s great creation,” Clagg cackled. “And now the Golem’s Eye is mine!”

Dougal started to grin, but his sense of triumph faded when the bones lining the corridor began to thrum.

Dougal looked about them. “You say the ruby is that thing’s mind?”

The asura nodded, still delighted in his anticipated prize. “In a sense. Blimm designed the central cereo-impulse unit so that the guardian could assemble itself out of appropriate materials in the surrounding environment. I’d think even a human could grasp that.”

“So, assuming the ruby is still intact, the creature could reassemble itself anywhere?”

Clagg’s face darkened. “Isn’t that what I just said, bookah? It could re-form anywhere it could find enough appropriate …” The asura’s voice faded to silence as the rattling of the bones surrounding the three of them grew louder. Clagg’s eyes opened wide as he realized what he had just said.

“. . . material.” He finished softly, looking at the bone-lined chamber around them.

“We should run, now,” suggested Killeen.

As the bones began to peel themselves from the corridor’s walls, Dougal grabbed his torch in one hand, Killeen’s hand in the other, and ran. He didn’t look back to see if Clagg was keeping up.

Through the chambers and passages they fled, the dry clattering of bone against bone behind them. They slowed only for a moment where the spider had ambushed Killeen, and again where the explosive trap had detonated. Only after they reached the far side of both chambers without incident did Dougal call for a halt. Clagg bent in half, desperate to regain his breath. Killeen was practically yellow from exhaustion as well.

Over their deep gasps for breath, Dougal listened for the sounds of pursuit. Nothing.

“We’ve outrun it,” he said at last, wiping the sweat away from his forehead.

“Not possible,” panted the asura. “We are still surrounded by bones. Show me the Eye.”

Dougal fished out the gemstone and held it out to the asura, but did not let go of it. The fire in the jewel’s heart was gone, and the stone felt dead and