Page 88 of Queen Demon
Sanja, Kai suspected, would not take any of this well. But that was a problem for after they dealt with the Well.
Highsun, Arnsterath, and Eleni rode in a quiet group, Highsun distracted and thoughtful, Arnsterath amused, and Eleni watchful and suspicious. They had left Rafiem behind to protect the camp while the rest of the scholars waited for Sura to return with the raft.
Kai hadn’t thanked Arnsterath for retrieving him from the path of the Voice, or spoken to her at all. He knew what her motives were, and concern played no part in them. She hadn’t tried to speak to him, either. For now, she seemed to have given up trying to antagonize him.
Ramad had been riding near Kai, and clearly wanted to talk, and Kai had just enough spite left to neither encourage nor discourage him. But when they stopped for a water break at the spring, Ramad finally said, “I know I have no right to ask you anything, but why is there a rift between you and Bashat? Do you really think him that dangerous to the Rising World?”
Through her pearl, Ziede said, somewhat archly,Is that man bothering you?
No,Kai sighed.It’s fine. The day was turning cloudy and the wind was colder; it felt like the weather was mirroring Kai’s temper. He was too tired to be angry anymore, and having made a firm decision about the Well had settled something inside him. He said aloud, “I don’t think Bashat is dangerous. I think he’s overconfident. The kind of overconfident that makes mistakes.”
Ramad capped his water flask, and his warm smile flickered. “So by opposing him you’re teaching him consequences?”
Kai knew it was Ramad reaching for their old relationship, suchas it was. He let out his breath and thought,Why not. Maybe Ramad had earned the truth by now. And if their plan worked as intended Kai would be up here guarding a rock mound until his body disintegrated. “I never thought he would betray me. But he thinks I betrayed him first. When he was a child, when Bashasa died, I left.”
Ramad frowned slowly. He would have been a child then himself. “I remember when Bashasa died, of course.” He hesitated. “You helped to raise Bashat?”
“After Bashasa died, I wasn’t thinking clearly,” Kai found himself admitting. “I didn’t realize… Maybe I did, and I didn’t care. When I went back, eventually, he didn’t seem to care either.”
“He had his mother.” Ramad said it as if thinking aloud, recalling events that were just footnotes in history to him. “I don’t know how close they were. She died before I joined the vanguarders.”
“Lahshar bar Calis never liked me, and it was mutual,” Kai told him. They had never become friends but they had fought on the same side too long to think seriously about killing each another.
“It seems Bashat has a reason to be upset with you,” Ramad said, in a new tone. “But you hardly abandoned him to die on a hilltop. He was surrounded by family. He would be justified in refusing to speak to you, but…” He seemed conflicted, and Kai wondered if Ramad still believed Bashat had never intended to kill Kai and Ziede. Even after talking to Bashat, Kai wasn’t sure what he believed either. Ramad continued, “It’s not as if you’re his father—” Then he stopped, as if struck by a thought, and looked at Kai sidelong. “Are you? Or… his mother?”
“No.”Unfortunately,Kai thought. If he had been either, he would have stayed. Or taken Bashat with him. A Prince-heir had to grow up in the city to be selected by the various councils and guilds to rule. It would have meant Bashat would never be eligible,but there had been plenty of qualified and well-meaning contenders. It wouldn’t have affected Benais-arik’s fate much, and Kai thought Bashat would have been happier.
Then Tahren said, “We need to go,” and that ended the conversation.
They rode through the long twilight and short night, and arrived at the tor’s valley in the early morning. The lowering clouds threatened rain, but so far it was only a light sprinkle, barely felt. Making their way along the hills, they halted when they had a view of the swath of flattened brush and vegetation that stretched out from the collapsed entrance. Kai was a little surprised he had survived it at all.
They rode down most of the way through the brush, since there was little point in concealment now. Kai had a faint hope that a Hierarch or expositor would appear to challenge them, but they had no such luck. For one thing, whoever was still alive in there was probably trapped inside. Tahren remarked, “We’ll have to dig the creature out of there like a pit out of an olive.”
They left the animals to graze under a last copse of trees, and pushed through the brush to the weathered gray stone slabs. They were directly opposite the entrance, which might mean something if the Hierarchs had been interested in symmetry.
Tenes immediately began to check each crack and crevice, sliding her hands into them as far as she could, then moving to the next. Kai walked along ahead of her, just to see if there was anything obvious to the eye. The scholars who were experts at this hadn’t reported noticing any other entrances, according to Highsun, but then they hadn’t had much time to examine the place from the outside.
Ramad set Eleni to keep watch, and she took up a position near the trees. Arnsterath appeared to have appointed herself to thatduty too. She stood some distance back from the tor, staring at it. At least Kai didn’t have to deal with her and that was enough for him.
Highsun paced the tor in the opposite direction from Kai, poking along the cracks and crevices, while Tahren followed him. A wind-devil swept Ziede up the side to the top of the structure, then carried her back down. “It’s closed and sealed up there,” she reported, dusting her hands, “as we thought.” Then through her pearl she said,Tenes found something.
Kai turned swiftly and Ramad hastily stepped out of his way. Tenes had moved in Highsun’s direction, maybe twenty or so steps along the tor’s base. She leaned against a slab, her hand pressed to the dirt- and grass-filled gap between it and the next. She turned and signed,There were at least three passages along this side, all filled in with dirt and rock. But this one is still here, only partially filled.
“Can you open it?” Kai asked.
I have to get through this first. She patted the smooth slab of rock beside her. Kai couldn’t see any difference between it and the others. It was about twice the height of a tall person and just as wide, and perhaps had been square before weathering had softened the edges.
Kai registered Arnsterath’s silent approach just before she said, “Surely the one who broke the Summer Halls can crack this stone.”
Tenes regarded her with a cold stare. She turned back to Kai to sign,It will take time to encourage the slab to break.
Ziede shaded her eyes to look up the slope of the tor. “It’s braced on the inside, so the whole thing won’t come down?”
Tenes signed an assent and added,These passages must have been entrances, or perhaps airshafts. It’s a very strange structure.
Highsun returned with Tahren, saying, “That slab needs to be opened? I may have something which will help.”
Tenes gestured for him to go ahead, and he stepped forward, pulling his pack around. He took out a Blessed device, like the handle of a metal winch but with cups attached to it, and a couple of sharp projections. It looked dubious compared to Dahin’s tools, like it had possibly been put together from pieces of other things. Tahren frowned in concern and Kai had a moment of doubt. Maybe he had been stupid to make Dahin stay behind.
