Amal loathed sorcery. Somehow he had become engrossed with cabals of rival mystics, and he wanted nothing more to be gone from here. Or, nothing more save the jewel, and perhaps even the woman still if she proved faithful and as useful as she just was. By Bel, he would find the truth of this! The daring thief ran forward as the blackness spread, some of the liquid pouring down creases in the tiling but remained off the face of the tiles for the moment, giving him small islands to hop on. He leaped like a puncing jackal, and with the black quickly encircling him, he made a desperate jump to the left. 

A normal man of comfortable living would have hit the wall and broken bone, but Amal landed on the sandstone and planted his feet as if he were right-side up, and launched himself off the wall like the spring of a lock. He spun mid-air and landed roughly against the solid surface of the ground at Sythemis's feet. He bled from a small wound on his leg, naught but a scrape but he grunted from the pain and rose before her. 

Beside them, Antiachus's body lay still and bleeding uncontrollably, and the two thieves fled the room into the following tunnel. It was a dark corridor of dim torches and the screaming faces of demons carved into the walls. 

"This way," Sythemis said, but she did not make it two steps before her slender throat was grabbed and she was shoved into the wall. Amal's eyes were not cold like they had been at the tower. Here they blazed with wrath, the torch-light dancing along his rippling muscles that were even now poised to snap her neck if she made a move. 

"Using me, I can understand. Even respect. But throwing me into this pit without warning me first would have been your death had you not just saved me there." He told her, his voice like iron. Amal was clearly not a wizard or sorcerer of any kind, for if he could manifest his will, she would have burst into flame. "It will not save you again." 

He let her go, and gestured with a small tilt of his head for her to continue. Bel curse him, he did enjoy seeing her walk before him, despite his rage.