The sight before him startled even Odys.
A desiccated corpse came up the dim stairway.
As luck would have it, the Spirit Light Tube shone straight onto its face.
The two women behind Odys clamped their hands over their mouths to keep from screaming.
The corpse in the captain's hat seemed to spot the three of them and abruptly quickened its pace.
Odys had a sudden idea. He pushed Philly and Renata back into the room where they had hidden earlier.
Once he shut the door again, the footsteps outside slowed to their former, steady pace.
As the footsteps drew closer, the two women began trembling again.
It was a lot to ask of them. This had happened on only their second day at sea.
If they could scream, the strain might not have been so bad.
But they could neither scream nor speak. All they could do was sob quietly.
Odys also noticed that the corpses huddled in the corner were trembling. Even the one that had hanged itself shook as though it wanted to jump down.
Clearly, those footsteps had left a deep impression on them.
The footsteps stopped outside the door. Odys quickly took out an Invisibility Scroll, then realized a serious problem: how was he supposed to use a scroll without reciting an incantation?
But he immediately remembered that, as a Scroll Professor, he did not necessarily need to recite one.
He only needed to channel his Beyonder power to use the scroll normally.
A Beyonder of another Pathway, however, would have to inject spirituality into the scroll and recite an incantation to activate it.
With that in mind, Odys tossed out the scroll and silently spoke in Ancient Hermes: Open!
The scroll broke apart, first forming a black vortex. Then the three of them vanished