Page 89 of Queen Demon
No, it was worth having to trust a strange Immortal Blessed, not to worry about Dahin throwing himself into the Well the instant their backs were turned. At least they knew Highsun by reputation.
As Highsun set the device to the wall, Tahren drew Ziede away and Kai hastily motioned for Tenes to back up. She hurried over to stand beside him and Ramad. Even Arnsterath, an ironic twist to her mouth, retreated to a safe distance.
The device made a neat etched outline in the center of the slab, a square shape easily large enough for someone as big as Highsun to step through. As he fiddled with the device again, something cracked sharply, so loud they all flinched back. When Kai looked again, the pieces inside the square had split into shards.
That wasn’t subtle,Ziede commented silently to Kai.
If there’s a Hierarch or expositor anywhere in this valley, they heard that,Kai agreed. Ramad was waving off Eleni, who had started to run to them from her watch post.But then they probably knew we were here already.
True,Ziede conceded.I don’t have a good feeling about this, Kai. Neither does Tahren.
He glanced at Tahren, who gave him a head tilt of acknowledgment, and admitted to himself that he didn’t either. The settled feeling of a straightforward task had left him sometime after they had entered the valley.I’m glad we made Dahin and Sanja stay at the camp.
I wish I’d put them both on the first raft to go back with Sura,Ziede said.
Kai wished she had too, but there was no point in saying it. And at the time he would have made the same decision to let them stay.
“What’s wrong?” Ramad asked, his voice quiet. Tenes watched Kai worriedly.
Because he didn’t want to sayI feel like I’m working toward an endgame that isn’t mine,Kai said, “I don’t know.”
Tenes reached over and squeezed Kai’s wrist. Ramad’s brow furrowed. He said, “That’s… worrisome. To put it mildly.”
Highsun returned the device to his pack and started to clear the shards away. Tahren moved to help, and the gray daylight began to illuminate a stone-walled passage, the floor piled with dirt and rubble. But like Tenes had said, it was still high and wide enough for them to make a way through.
Arnsterath stepped nearer and said in Saredi, “Are you talking about me?”
Tenes shifted away from her. Kai said in Old Imperial, “No, I don’t talk about you. I try not to think about you.” Before she could respond, he added, “If you want to help, stay out here with Eleni and make sure nothing escapes.”
Arnsterath actually betrayed real irritation. It was somehow more painful than her façade of cool indifference because it reminded him of Arn-Nefa. She said, “The other door collapsed. I recall that, because I was almost in it when it happened. So were you.”
Kai pointed at the passage. “Make sure the constructs don’t come out this door.”
Her mouth thinned. “You want the credit for killing the Hierarch yourself. Still trying to court Bashat?”
Ramad snapped, “Arnsterath, that’s enough.”
Kai bared his teeth in a gesture she would understand. “If you wanted to kill Hierarchs, you had your chance sixty years ago in the Summer Halls.” He strode toward the passage, calling imps to light the way.
Kai went first, with Tenes beside him, followed by Tahren and Ziede and Ramad, with Highsun last. The light from the imps helped, but the air was bad and close and Kai found he didn’t like the feeling of being buried underground. It was something the Hierarchs had liked, obviously, or they wouldn’t have built earthworks around their own dwelling places, or tried to smother mortal cities with them.
The passage led straight in and they encountered no sign of doorways, blocked or open. And Tenes said the other passages and chambers she could feel nearby had been filled in with rubble. “This place is so strange,” Ramad whispered. “What were they doing here, before they sealed it up?”
“I think they were trying to make a new Summer Halls,” Highsun answered quietly. “Or the Summer Halls was a larger copy of this place.”
“That would make it much older than the scholars believed,” Ziede said.
“Yes,” Highsun agreed. “If the expedition had had time to truly study this place, I think we would have come to many astonishing revelations. It’s a shame to destroy it, but it must be done.”
Kai didn’t want astonishing revelations, he wanted to get this over with.
Ahead, the imps found the passage blocked, and Kai saw it wasn’t a pile of debris; it was cut blocks, carefully stacked to close off a large doorway. He studied it for signs of intentions, but there was nothing. He brushed his hands over the rough brick, just to make sure, then nodded to Tenes.
She slipped forward and put her hand on the center block. Her mouth hardened at whatever the earth spirits told her. She stepped back and signed,It’s a sealed chamber. Something alive inside, I don’t know what.
Kai told the others, “Be ready.”
Highsun said, “Do you need the—” But the blocks crumbled under Tenes’ touch. The brick material had no resistance to her, no spirits claiming it for her to cajole or negotiate with. As the debris crumbled away, white light, unnatural light, shone through the gaps. Tahren pulled Tenes behind her and stepped forward beside Kai.
