Book One – Chapter 19

Cleaning the basin was another impossible task, until, by sheer accident, it became a little less impossible. Yu’s wiper cloth, flung during one of his many repeated laps across the stones, landed on a small protrusion at the base of the basin. He did not register it at first. Reaching for the cloth, his talon hooked around the odd bit of stone, and when he pulled, it shifted — and Yu almost somersaulted back, crashing into the bathroom door.

The reaction was pure, habitual panic; if something in the settlements moves underneath your feet, you got the fuck away, because it was either a serpent or some other crazy deadly thing. If it dares to approach you, it knows how to kill you, as every child of the streams knows.

For several somersaulting heartbeats, Yu stared at the cloth, now unmoving. Then, with the door at his back cracked open just enough to bolt if needed, he tossed one of his brushes onto it.

Nothing happened.

He stared around the room, listening for another presence. He understood, by then, that it could not be a serpent of the desert, but what did he know about the creatures that crawled inside guild walls? Far too little, that is. If there could be a Terbert, there could certainly be other things.

All he heard was the movement of water.

Still tense, Yu edged closer and peered into the basin. He saw that the water was receding. At the very bottom, somewhat of a square gap had opened. Then he registered the odd piece of stone next to his talons. It looked like nothing more than an ordinary block, just an unobtrusive bit set where the floor curved up to form the basin. But when he grabbed and tugged at it, the block slid sideways, for about ten centimetres. For an instant, Yu believed, exasperated and simply done with his life, that he had now managed to break the fucking floor. But then, after expecting three and searching for five, he finally put two and two together. He pushed the block back to its original position and watched, half curious and half insulted, as a flat stone slab slid into place beneath the gap in the basin, sealing it shut. The slab moved back and forth depending on how Yu pushed or pulled the small block. So that was it: a lever, literally hidden underfoot.