“Something could have taken it deeper into the lake,” said Séverin, eyeing the water.

“What, like a … creature?” asked Hypnos.

Beside him, Laila looked uneasy. Her gaze darted around the cave.

“We can’t be sure, but we can try to run some experiments from here, without disturbing anything else. It could be that parts of the chamber require activation before they reveal themselves to us,” Séverin said. “The best thing we can do is unload our belongings, evaluate our surroundings, and perhaps test the lake for reactions?”

Zofia nodded alongside Laila, Hypnos, and Enrique. Séverin dropped his rucksack and began rummaging through its contents.

“Secure the surroundings and check for any sign of recording activity. We can’t afford to rush anything at this stage, so move as slowly as you have to,” said Séverin. “Hypnos and Enrique, examine the shoreline. Laila, see if you can’t source anything un-Forged that can tell us more about what to expect. Zofia, use your nautical devices and measure the depths of the lake. Also, Enrique—”

Séverin paused, looking up.

“Enrique, what are you doing?”

Enrique was poking something into his uninjured ear. “Giving myself some added protection in case there are any sirens.”

Zofia frowned. “Sirens are not real.”

“But they could be a symbolic stand-in for something,” said Enrique. “Sonic blasts or earsplitting Forging devices, or what have you.”

“How does disturbing your earwax assist in that endeavor?” asked Hypnos.

“BEESWAX IS WHAT WORKED FOR ODYSSEUS WHEN HE FACED THE SIRENS,” said Enrique, far louder than he needed to.

Laila winced. “We heard you.”

“WHAT?”

“We heard—” started Laila, then she shook her head. “Forget it!”

“WHAT?”

Séverin motioned for him to take out the beeswax, which Enrique did before looking curiously at everyone.

“I brought enough for everyone?” he said.

“How are you going to hear us if you’ve got that in your ear?”

“Just wave your hands and I’ll see it. I can hear a little through my bandages, but not much,” said Enrique, shoving the wax back in.

“Say nothing if you agree that I am the most handsome man alive,” said Hypnos quietly.

Enrique, who was preoccupied with his research notes, said nothing.

“Hurrah!” said Hypnos.

Zofia was about to say that was not a real victory when Laila called, “Come see!” She gestured to one of the dark boulders separating the shore from the water. “I almost didn’t notice it. It’s definitely Forged.”

Zofia followed her. Near the water’s edge stood a large gray boulder with a hollow, conical protrusion. Zofia touched it lightly. It had been bronze once, but was now mottled green and gray. The metal whispered the will that had long ago been Forged into its structure:

Hear and repeat and resound.

“It’s … it’s like a sound amplifier,” Zofia said, confused.

Why would the device need to amplify sound if the cave was silent?

“Let’s measure the lake and go back to the others,” said Laila. “I think Séverin will want to see this.”

Zofia dropped her satchels onto the ground, drawing out her measuring devices and a length of steel rope, Forged to retain a calibrated tensile strength at all times. She would need to lower the device into the water without losing it. As she assembled her instruments, she counted the things around her, steadying herself—seven rocks, four square-shaped, three roughly rounded; four stalactites directly above her; three rock shelves jutting from the cave wall on the right; zero rock shelves jutting from the cave wall on the left; three used matches lying beside her boot.

Zofia returned to her reading instruments, frowning as she translated the measurements. The lake was deep, but there appeared to be an obstruction running down the middle. Zofia was about to call out to the others when her torchlight roved over something pale and moving in the shallows of the lake: a skull, toppled onto its side.

Zofia yelped, skittering backwards.

“Zofia!” called Laila, rushing to her side. “Are you all right?”

Zofia stared into the water, goose bumps erupting over her skin.

Skeletons didn’t normally frighten her. To her, they were like machines devoid of use, their anima flown out of them and moved onto something else in the unseen equation and balancing of the world.

But the way it had seemed to rear up out of the dark had thrown her. There was something in the way it turned and listed to one side … Hela’s head had turned in an identical fashion on one of the evenings when her fever raged at its worst. Beneath her sister’s blond hair and gray eyes was a skull. It might already be only a skull.

Zofia had been able to push the unknown from her mind until now, but seeing that skull summoned her fear up close in her thoughts. She felt frozen by all the things she did not know, all the things that threatened to undo her calm. Was Hela safe? Would Laila live? What would happen to them?

“Zofia…” said Laila. “What’s wrong?”

Zofia pointed wordlessly at the skull.

“Oh,” said Laila. “Don’t be frightened … it’s nothing. We knew there were dead down here, remember? They can’t hurt us … and … and I’m sure they are not hurting either. They’re dead, after all.”

Zofia looked up at Laila. Her friend looked different. Zofia regarded her features: paler skin, sunken eyes. Laila smiled, which should mean that she was fine, but Zofia recognized that smile. It was forced and stretched, which meant it was a smile performed for her benefit.

Hela had worn the same smile many times.

Zofia’s gaze dropped to Laila’s hand on her arm. Blood ran down Laila’s arm from a gash just below her elbow.

“You’re bleeding,” said Zofia.

“What?”

Laila looked down at her arm, her brows pressed down, eyes widened. It was a look of horror, Zofia realized. Laila touched the cut on her arm, her fingers coming away black as machine oil and not the dark red of blood. Blood smelled like old coins and salt. Laila’s blood did not. It smelled like metal and sugar, and reminded Zofia of the charnel houses in Glowno.

“I didn’t realize,” said Laila. She looked up at Zofia, her eyes huge in her face. “I … I didn’t even feel it.”

Zofia knew that was not common, and she knew that Laila’s uncommon moments made Laila feel sad and too different from other people. She didn’t want her friend to be sad, not when they were so close to a solution.

“I’m not feeling a lot of things lately,” said Laila quietly.

Zofia drew herself up. Her worries had no place right now.

“We will change that,” said Zofia. “It is why we are here.”

Laila nodded, wiping the blood off her arm.

“This”—Zofia pointed to the gash on Laila’s arm—“is a symptom of a mechanical failure. That’s all. We are all machines, and you are no different. We have parts that break and need fixing, and they perform different functions and have different utilities. We will find that break and fix it.”