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The ceiling sloped up, and the thick stone walls rose higher and higher until he walked, unexpectedly, into a great charound in the center of this chah he smelled a rat

Alain held up the torch as Beor cautiously stepped into the chae padded in his wake There was no sign of Kel

The high corbeled ceiling arched up into a darkness the hazy torchlight could not reach Opposite Alain, and to either side, lay niches, each alcove carved with the representation of an ancient queen

Here, deep in the womb of stone and earth, not even the wind could be heard But so them

"Where is she?" Alain demanded of that unseen presence

The torch whuffed out as though a gust of wind had extinguished it One ht all around them The next, it was too black to see, and he s pitch curl and die away until all he s aro Beor swore under his breath, more prayer than oath

Then even those sensations were gone, and Alain could no longer feel or hear anything, not the breathing of the hounds, not the stone itself beneath his feet He was alone except for a shuddering, wheezing sigh that breathed in and out around hi creature, half asleep and half aware

"Where is she?" he called again

The vision hit like a blast of light, searing his eyes

Three queens stand before him, one to the north, one to the south, one to the west

"Who are you, to est She holds in her hand a bohose length runs writhing with gold sala like fire Her tomb is carved with two sphinxes Their clever faces, as h touched by phosphorus

"Who are you, holy one?" She is no saint known to the blessed Daisan, but he can respect her nevertheless, for she is a wos through him with the fierce claht Have you not heard of me? Was I not fostered by the lion woht me the secret ways known only to the Pale Hunter?"

"There is much I do not know," he admits

"What do you want?" asks the second queen, standing to the south Her toold beaten into the shape of a sow, and she has herself the ample outlines of a prosperous woman, sleek and radiant