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The undead kings hesitated. The flames in their empty orbits flickered in uncertainty. Below me, Aliree shivered, and the crown tilted precariously on my head. The skeletons advanced a step. I tried again.

"It is I! King… uh… King Hardnoggin from… er… from Castle Skulltop! There are none of those pesky living ones here. So why don't we all just head back to our comfy little thrones and catch some more shut-eye?"

For a moment the kings stared in undead befuddlement. Then, all at once, they turned and shuffled back to their thrones.

"It's working, Muragh!" Aliree whispered.

"I think nine centuries of death left their minds a little on the dull side," I whispered back. "Now come on. Let's blow this creepy little slumber party."

Nothing makes a body-or a skull, for that matter- hurry like a good scare. While I navigated from the crook of her arm, Aliree moved with frail but urgent speed through countless twists and turns. Soon her breath rattled in her thin chest, and sweat misted her face. Her steps were uneven. I wanted to tell her to stop, to rest, to let the fire in her blood cool for a moment. But I bit the memory of my tongue. I think she knew what I had just learned from the map.

"We're almost there," I said. "Just make this next left."

Aliree gave a jerky nod and stumbled around the corner. She limped down the corridor, and then, after a dozen paces, we came upon-

–a dead end.

I let out a groan of annoyance. "The wall must have shifted, Aliree. We're going to have to backtrack and come at it from another direction."

"All right," she gasped.

With valiant effort, she turned around, moved back down the corridor… and struck a dead end.

"But that's impossible!" I said. "We just came this way a moment ago!"

The rough stone wall smugly hulked there in front of us, blocking the way.

Aliree leaned against the wall and struggled to regain her breath. "The wall must have… shifted right after we… passed by here."

Aliree was right. This had to be a place where Under-mountain was actively reforming itself. Despair filled my hollow insides. I had tried to lead her to the Grotto of Dreams, but instead I had gotten her trapped here, in this hole far underground. A fine grave I had dug for her, had dug for us both.

She sank to the floor and sat, cradling me in her lap.

"I'm sorry, Aliree," I said in a wavering voice. "I'm so sorry I let you down."

I don't know how she smiled then, but she did. It was a good thing I didn't have a heart, because at that moment it would have broken.

Her voice was soft now. "You didn't let me down, Muragh. You gave me a chance when I would have had none. For that, I'm so grateful." She lifted me up and, upon my bony forehead, bestowed a gentle kiss.

A strange tingling passed through me. I opened my jaw to say something, anything, I didn't know what. I never made it that far. There was an odd sucking sound. Then the square of floor beneath us vanished.

I realized the truth as we fell. Undermountain had reshaped itself right out from under us. After that, I couldn't think about it anymore. I was too busy screaming.

Floof!

I wobbled in confusion. That was not the sound I had expected to make when we landed. Thunk, more likely. Or splat, or maybe even blort. But not floof.

I tried to get a look around, but everything was white. Then something tickled the pit where my nose used to be, and all at once I sneezed. Yes, skulls can sneeze, and this sneeze nearly blew my cranium apart. A thousand bits of white went flying in every direction, then settled gently back down to the floor.

Feathers.

Then I saw Aliree, a mischievous smile on her lips. I gaped in surprise.

"Aliree… you did this?"

She gave a modest shrug. "Maybe I was just a dabbler in magic, but I did learn a thing or two."

I was not about to complain. However she had managed to cast the spell, it had saved us from a nasty end here in…

… here in where?

Aliree brushed away the feathers, picked me up, and stood. We were in a cavern so large her magical light did not reach the ceiling.