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"Does such a creature exist?" I ask, reaching up to reverently trace a spidery black leg
"Not anyh we have found their remnants When your people ca they considered a threat Now only Inviernos re" His voice turns wistful "We are all shadows of e once were"
I open my mouth to ask more, but he pushes the tapestry aside to reveal a low, dark tunnel I give Stor look
"I knew there was a secret entrance," he explains, "though I didn’t knohere The ruling houses are arrayed in a crescent around the Te I’m sure each house has an entrance of its own" He stoops low to follow the seneschal inside "I believe it is safe, Majesty," he says over his shoulder
Mula steps in after him with no hesitation, but Hector peers inside and says, "There is little quarter for sork"
"An eneestures for ers ready"
19
THE tunnel is so sht; the rest of us duck to avoid the low ceiling Only the seneschal carries a torch, and once the tapestry swings back into place, I can’t see where I’ my feet It’s the perfect place for an ambush, and we all step quietly, ears pricked
Since co to the city of Umbra de Deus, my Godstone has been riotous with activity--cool one s athered in once place--close friends, enei aside, who kno i inhabit this place, each with a stone of his own? So I have been ignoring it, knowing there is no way to parse itsit responds to at any given ht, dark corridor, everything changes The flashes of hot and cold are replaced by a soothing vibration, an alht be a song It fills reet the sunrise "Storm?" I say
"I feel it too," he says, but there is no surprise in his voice
The torch ahead winks and flashes with the seneschal’s steps The light snags on a gouge in the wall, a curving darkness set off by lighter gray
"Stop!" I say, and everyone halts I brush past Mula and put a finger to the gouges Not gouges--scripted letters I’ve seen theate that leads to life is narrow and small so that few find it
"Just like in the tunnel beneathleading to the zafira," Storm says
"Yes" What he didn’t say, what he didn’t want the seneschal to hear, is that these same words are also carved into a tunnel beneath the cataco to wonder if they mark a place of importance," he says "Maybe a place of power"
"It’s worth investigating," Hector says casually "When we have the tiet back hoo back to
"His High Honor the Deciregus is waiting," the seneschal says in a biting tone, and he proceeds down the tunnel without bothering to see that we follow
The ground slopes upward, so gradually that I don’t realize it until s warh I have not called it, the zafira slithers fro htens
The seneschal pushes so aside, and cooler air hits my face We exit the tunnel into a colossal stone chamber shaped like a perfect half ht of severalwith lines of black runes in a language I’ve never seen before Large tapestries are arrayed at regular intervals, though they seeainst theto one of the ruling houses Ten tunnels means ten approaches We could be surrounded in the time it takes to blink
Opposite our tunnel, the flat part of this huge half lass panes set in iron cross work like a portcullis Each pane is a different color, with shades of blue and green doive depth and shine so that the glass seelass tiles, and beneath that, barely withinwater Orso violently now that surely everyone else must sense it too
Before us stand two Inviernos in white robes One is Storht crystal-white hair that reaches her knees Her pale, perfect skin is stretched too tight over tiny features I could not say how old she is, and I can’t begin to read her oily black eyes, but her carriage speaks of veteran poise
"Your Majesty," Storm’s father says "I present Her E Hawk She is the Deciregus of Tinkling Fountain House"
She inclines her head "Your Majesty," she says, drawing out the address so that it sounds like a hiss
"Your High Eminence I am pleased to us before But she stares at h--and I know there is no possibility of kinship between us
"Tell us of the zafira," she cous of Crooked Sequoia House," I say "You, I neither know nor trust"
Her eyebrows raise, and I barely holdso impolitic in Joya d’Arena, but lofty conteht tack in Invierne
Storreatest allies," he says to one on too long and at too great a cost The Low EarthHaill be eager to coreement"
"Tell us the location of the zafira, and then you will have your answers," Hawk says
Not a chance "I want es a look with Storo first, as a dehteous honesty that is in accordance with God’s will"
That is exactly the wrong thing to say to me I practically spit the words "Do not dare tellinside my body, and even I do not presu first" I look around at my companions: a former eneirl who defended ive up everything for h the vast cha way at tre first"
Storards me steadily, but his unnatural black eyes make it impossible to read his expression He leans over and whispers sohtens and says, "Very well This way"
He gestures us all toward the glass wall Hector’s hand goes to his scabbard, and I check ers
As we approach, a section of the wall begins to appear a little different from the rest Were I to look askance, it would seelass But straight on, up close, the colors are e
"Is that it?" I ask no one in particular "Is that the gate?"