“All in one piece, then?” the sergeant asked, his attention still focused at the lower ever-stair landing. The professor nodded, then added...

  The professor looked down, and then behind himself.   “She was just here!”   “Well, now she isn’t,” the sergeant said, with a glance at th...

 (4♢) They found the sergeant crouched at the top of the second floor ever-stair landing, helmed up, sighting down his longarm, which he bra...

The corporal shrugged off his pack at the top of the immobile ever-stairs’ third landing. “I’ll take up station here.” The professor, too, d...

  “What about this one?” the corporal asked, holding up something frilly and pink, with an inordinate amount of bows in front of the girl. A...

  “Hold!” the sergeant called, when after three paces, he realized that the girl had not followed. “Last chance,” he told her, and waited a ...

       The wolf-like beasts advanced, spreading out. One angled for the men, while the other two made for the girl.      The dark-haired man...