The coffin came back breathing.
Elithira heard it beneath the scrape of iron wheels and slapped the return stamp out of the vault clerk's hand. His brass seal struck the floor beside the coffin rail. One more inch and he would have marked the box empty, cleaned, and ready for another dead body.
Something kicked the lid from inside.
The clerk reached for the alarm chain. Elithira caught his wrist before he could ring every guard below the palace.
"Bring cutters and two healers before you bring frightened soldiers down here."
He ran, leaving his seal where it had fallen.
The coffin had been built for a broad demon with horns. Whoever had packed the living passenger had solved the extra room with quarry cloth and a broken shovel handle. Red wire circled the lid through six iron eyes. Each eye carried a little skin from hands that had tried to pry it loose.
Elithira drew her knife.
A woman's voice pushed through the wood.
