Free The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez

broke apart. It attempted to reform, but she smashed its head-like protrusion. Shrieking like a banshee, it dissolved into a brackish puddle at her feet.
    â€œAll right, all right,” said Scurm. “Never mind, Jerry.”
    Grumbling, Jerry the puddle sloshed his way to a corner.
    â€œCan’t blame a guy for trying, can you?” said Scurm with a smile.
    Connie helped Tia to her feet. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t try, Scurm. Do we have a deal or not?”
    â€œWe’ve got a deal.”
    He held out a hand, and Connie tossed him the coin. His ears twitched in rapid circles as he hopped out from behind his workbench and gestured for them to follow him downstairs.
    â€œCan we trust him?” asked Tia.
    â€œScurm never goes back on a deal,” said Connie.
    They followed him into a basement outfitted with a networked array of crystal balls, rune-laden stone tablets, and mysterious color-changing liquids in beakers and vials. Winged frogs zipped around in a spherical cage. A kaleidoscope of rainbow-colored smoke swirled out of a cauldron in one corner. Everything was wired up to a large mirror on the wall.
    â€œNice setup,” said Connie.
    â€œDon’t touch anything!” Scurm said.
    â€œRelax. If you move this a little to the left”—she pushed a glass pyramid an inch—“you can increase your harmonic convergence ratio by four or five percent.”
    The frogs cheerfully chirped. A rack of crystals flashed in sequence, sounding a soft melody.
    â€œI studied a little under the Oracles of Delphi. I could never manage to see the future, but I picked up a few things.”
    Grumbling, Scurm poured an entire skull’s worth of slimeinto the cauldron before tossing in a wiggling something. “Name I’m looking for?”
    â€œGrandmother Willow.”
    He scribbled onto a piece of parchment and added it to the cauldron.
    â€œThe registry is behind heavy concealment wards. I can pierce them, but odds are good that it’ll lead the Guard right to us.”
    â€œAren’t you worried about what they’ll do to you when they catch you?” asked Tia.
    â€œThey never catch me,” he said with a smug smile. “And I can lose all this gear. But you two—especially you, Verity—you’re going to get captured and pitted.”
    â€œPitted?”
    â€œYou didn’t tell her about the Pit of Vipers?” asked Scurm.
    â€œVipers? Like poisonous snakes?”
    â€œThere haven’t been snakes in there for a thousand years.” He chuckled. “They were all eaten by other things Oberon tossed in there.”
    â€œShe knows the score,” said Connie. “Let us worry about that.”
    â€œIt’s your call.” He traced a feather on the mirror, creating glowing glyphs upon the surface.
    â€œWhat other things?” whispered Tia.
    â€œIt’s not important,” whispered Connie.
    â€œThen why aren’t you telling me?”
    â€œYou wanted to come along.”
    â€œI didn’t think I’d be thrown into a pit of things within the first two hours.”
    â€œWe won’t get caught,” said Connie. “And if we are caught—”
    â€œYou’re not filling me with confidence.”
    â€œIf we are caught,” Connie continued, “which we won’t be, but if we are, I’d be pitted. They’d more than likely send you back to the mortal world with a slap on the wrist. Maybe a cautionary curse, like all the food you eat screaming when you bite into it.”
    â€œOh, is that all?”
    â€œWe won’t get caught.”
    Scurm finished his rune. The mirror fogged up and thumped as if something on the other side of the glass was smacking against it. “Ladies, I need some quiet here. This is the tricky part.”
    He chanted softly, and stuff started happening. The frogs chirped. The cauldron belched forth small flying bugs that