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She stepped boldly into the library, but he was nowhere to be seen She had observed hi the library, hadn’t she? Here was his taper as proof Vanishing was usually her trick and the absurdity made her want to chuckle, but she sed it back
She hid herself behind a big leather armchair in a dark corner to see if Professor Josston reappeared, but she’d barely gotten herself situated when she heard whatShe’d ht ti spot, and was glad she hadn’t when someone entered the library She peered around the chair, and in the diht took in the wide shoulders and serious expression of Mr Cade Harlowe, his face etched in shadows He glanced over his shoulder as if to ensure he had not been followed, then did so very curious He stepped over to one of the bookcases and reached up to a dragon sculpture on one of the shelves He twisted its tail This was followed by a distinct snick He then pushed the bookcase, and it swung open silently on well-greased hinges and tracks He stepped through the opening and the bookcaseno evidence of his passing except for a stray wisp of air current Now she kne the professor had vanished A hidden room or corridor behind the bookcase
Just ere he and his student up to?
She smiled There was only one way to find out
UNDERGROUND
Karigan allowed several ht for the dragon sculpture, its bronze surface aged to a dark patina It crouched ings partially unfurled and sinuous neck curving so that it see her to touch it
She took a deep breath, reached for the tail, and turned it as she’d seen Cade Harlowe do The snick made her jump It sounded so much louder when she did it that she feared it would awaken the entire household and bring Mirria It did not, but she understood Cade Harlowe’s ientle push of the bookcase was all it took to swing it open The space beyond was dimly lit with a wall lamp, but she took her taper with her just in case and passed through the opening into a cupboard of a space just large enough for the bookcase to move and for her to stand in When the bookcase swept closed behind her, her heart pounded--it was difficult to breathe--too like the sarcophagus in which she’d so recently been sealed
She steadied herself with deep inhalations There was no lack of air, just nerves too tautly strung in this tiny, closed space Hoould she get back out? She saw noherself she was going forward, anyway, not retreating, and the way foras clear, a door outlined by the laht
She lifted the latch and opened it, cool air exhaling into the little roo into blackness Three unlit tapers sat on the top step, but she bypassed thean a spiraling journey doard
She plunged down and down on rough cut stone steps, the air growing increasingly damp She felt she must surpass even the house’s foundation before she reached the botto her oeight with each step down
In a small chamber at the botto and ironbound, yet when she tried it, it opened as easily as the others with no groan of ancient hinges Hoping she’d finally found where the professor and Cade Harlowe had snuck away to, she stepped boldly across the threshold into a dark space dense with silence of which she could htened her taper, and even then the scene mystified her The path before her was like a cobblestone street, and along its sides were dusty shop fronts, hitching posts, troughs Rubble filled the spaces between and behind the buildings Hefty bea above
"Gods," she murmured, her voice clamorous in the silent world
Mill City ht over the reht, or at least part of it These stone and timber structures were more like what she was accustomed to in her own time than the brick of Mill City She li puffs of dust, and used the tail end of her shawl to rub griht revealed little of the interior but the rough plank floor riddled with debris and a table with a chair pulled slightly away as if its occupant ht return at any moment A plate and tankard draped in cobwebs also waited
Karigan shivered and backed away A sign hung askew fron of the Cock and Hen
The Cock and? No! She almost dropped her taper This could not be possible The Cock and Hen was in the lower quarter of Sacor City But there could be no mistake--this was the Cock and Hen, a disreputable inn in a rough neighborhood that nevertheless brewed the finest darkest ale in the city She knew the sign--and the ale--well, and now she began to recognize the rest of the exterior, even as out of place as it looked underground
Mill City had been built on top of Sacor City, or at least part of it That was the only conclusion she could co Way The revelation that her city lay buried beneath the foundations of another sent her reeling She sat on the edge of a trough, oblivious to the dirt s her hand over her eyes did nothing to change the scene before her