Page 52 of Queen Demon
Dahin gestured extravagantly over the steering column, as if that transgression wasn’t even worth mentioning, despite how gleeful he had been about it earlier. The raft jerked alarmingly and dipped up again. Etem gasped and Tenes grabbed Kai’s arm. He patted her hand absently.
“Dahin, you have to admit that’s far more likely.” Ziede sounded exasperated. “I don’t know why the conspiracy would come here at all.”
Kai didn’t either. But the Blessed had a long time to notice what Highsun was up to. He still had the feeling this was something else.
Her jaw tight, Tahren said, “If you let go of those controls one more time—”
Dahin glanced back at her. “You’ll do what?”
Ziede groaned under her breath.
Kai stopped listening to preserve his own temper. He hadn’t realized the new university site was so close to the old until the street below opened up, the walled houses on the far side giving way to a forest of tall cedar and smaller brushier trees, the shadows under them darkening as the light failed. On the opposite side was a wall, scarred and pocked by time, the carvings that had once ornamented the top cracked and bashed away. Beyond that boundary, even in the growing dark, the shapes of what had been foundations were easy to trace in the overgrown grass and brush.
It had been a large complex, a maze of buildings, roads, walkways. Most of the stone had been hauled away, except for some small stelae, white against the green grass. Kai thought they werejust remnants of debris until he saw there were hundreds of them, some grouped together in patterns he didn’t understand.
Kai realized Dahin and Tahren had fallen silent. “Those are markers for graves? Or Memorials?” he asked Etem. This part of the city was quieter, the breeze sharp with cedar and pine from the forest.
“Memorials mostly, for the people who were known to be in the complex the day the Hierarchs razed it,” Etem said. The way they spoke about it, it was clear they were too young to have seen it happen. Enalin were generally long-lived, and sometimes it was hard to tell their age from their appearance. “The Hierarchs wanted to take them as slaves, but they refused to surrender, and this was the Hierarchs’ answer. After the war, the Belith searched it for remains, and interred everything they found on the site, so some are graves.”
“I imagine they weren’t able to identify many of them,” Ziede said. Tahren stood beside her, her expression closed and thoughtful.
Tenes watched the apparently endless graveyard disappearing into the dark with a pensive expression.There are no earth spirits, like the ground was laid barren to the bedrock. There must be so much pain still,she signed to Kai.Can you feel it?
Yes,Kai signed back. This part of the city must be more than a little haunted by it.The death well is fading, but slowly.
Etem’s glance over at Ziede was a little shy. “Did you ever see it before the destruction, Sister? Or you, Fourth Prince? I’ve seen drawings, but since coming here I’ve wondered what it was like.”
“No, none of us had traveled much, before the Hierarchs came,” Ziede admitted. She leaned into Tahren’s side. “I wish I had seen it.”
The street had been slanting gently upward, the forest beside it sloping down into a large ravine. Now the old wall fell away to reveal another open area dotted by large shade trees and broken up by a scatter of one- or two-story white stone buildings, some domed, others with cylindrical or flat roofs, many of the windows glowing with light. They were linked by broad stone pathways and small tree-filled gardens. The road curved through them, leading over a stone bridge above a wide running stream, and to the larger structure of a three-step pyramid, partially built into the hill behind it. Broad terraces extended from each level and a dome capped the top. A few people still moved along the paths, but the raft was so silent no one looked up.
No wall around this one,Kai thought, and wondered if it was because the wall around the old university hadn’t protected it.
Etem pointed out the way and Dahin guided the raft over the bridge, the sound of the stream rushing through rocks in its deep channel. Past it the road broke off into multiple pathways, one leading around the right side of the larger pyramid, to a much smaller stepped structure sitting in its own paved court. “That’s it,” Etem said quietly.
Lamps were lit on the pillars to each side of the entranceway, and on the low wall separating it from the path, but it was too dark now to see a good landing spot except for the court. Ascension rafts were tough but sitting down on a piece of statuary or a boundary stone would do more than a little damage. Tahren must have sensed Dahin hesitate, because she said, “Just land in the plaza. They may hear us but it won’t matter.”
Dahin gave a tight nod and the raft sank toward the ground.
Kai went over the railing as they landed, the others following, and they started across the court. A stone porch with long benches framed a spill of light from the wide doorway. Kai heard somewhat agitated voices speaking, but too low and distorted to make out the words. “Sounds like a noisy discussion more than a fight,” Dahin muttered, mostly to himself. “Maybe Tahren’s right.” If there wasn’t the chance of setting Dahin off again, Kai would have pretended to clutch his heart and stagger. Oblivious, Dahin continued, “If it’s the conspirators, why come here so openly—”
Kai,Ziede’s inner voice was sharp.
Kai squeezed his arm and Dahin stopped. Ziede and Tahren had halted a few paces behind them, staring off to the right. Tenes pointed at something past the low wall, among the bushes in the garden. Lamplight had caught on the almost invisible shape, reflecting off metal. Kai realized it was the railing of another ascension raft.
It should be no surprise, they knew there were Blessed here. But something about it gave Kai a jolt, he had no idea why. He whispered, “Etem, could it belong to Ilhanrun Highsun?”
Etem shook their head. “I haven’t seen a raft here before, and I visited with the Tescai-lin only seven days ago. Immortal Blessed Highsun was still in Sun-Ar, so we were told.”
A Rising World delegation might arrive in an ascension raft, if the Blessed envoys to the council were trying to be helpful and buy back a little grace after the embarrassing conspiracy incident. But Kai had a bad feeling that he had asked for this situation by not being more decisively violent when he’d had the chance.
Ziede whispered, “Tenes, stay with Etem. If it is a fight, get them safely back to the Tescai-lin.” Tenes signed a quick assent as Tahren drew her sword.
Kai strode toward the porch. Up the two steps and into a large room, well-lit with lamps high along painted and carved stone walls and more hanging overhead. More than a dozen people stood there in the midst of an argument, most gathered around a stone-topped worktable piled with rolled manuscripts and loose papers. Some looked like natives of Belith, while a few were clearly from the South or the further archipelagoes, light-skinned and light-haired, while the others could have come from anywhere, including the Arik. Most wore work clothes with formal stoles that looked like they had been hastily pinned on. One person, older with graying hair and a short beard, wore the full formal caftan and long stole. Kai had expected to meet scholars so none of this was a surprise.
Ramad stood in their midst.
Kai had half expected that.
