Part 42 (2/2)

He stood at the edge and stepped off, letting his wings catch him as he fell down the stone-walled shaft until he felt the sides widen out. The darkness below was almost total, save for what waning light still came from above. One by one the others joined him. Osgan and Marger descended together, landing awkwardly in a tangle of limbs.

'Report, Vastern,' Sulvec said.

'Three pa.s.sageways running parallel, the centre one blocked off by a stone block the size of a house. There's ... a boot sticking out from under the block. Army issue.'

Sulvec heard the uneasy shuffling of his men. 'Any sign of Thalric or the others?'

'No sign of anyone, but the clear pa.s.sages head off as far as I can see. This place is big.'

'Light a lantern. Keep it low and shuttered.'

He did not have to ask twice. One of his men carried a little gas lamp, and even the faintest glow from it was welcome.

'If Thalric's under that stone, he's gone,' Vastern observed.

'If,' Sulvec replied. Trust the b.a.s.t.a.r.d to go and die in a way that we can't check Trust the b.a.s.t.a.r.d to go and die in a way that we can't check. 'We'll move deeper in. If he survived at all, we should find some trace of him.' None of them liked the suggestion but that wasn't the point. 'Vastern, walk ahead of the lamp, quiet as you can. We'll take the left-hand way first.'

'Right, sir.' Moving surprisingly softly for a bulky Beetle, Corolly Vastern padded off into the darkness with his crossbow levelled. Dark-sight Dark-sight, Sulvec understood. A useful Art, but rare. Perhaps we should try to breed Beetle-kinden for it A useful Art, but rare. Perhaps we should try to breed Beetle-kinden for it. The Wasps were creatures of the day, and night attacks had caused havoc among them several times during their war with the Lowlanders.

He gave Vastern a long enough count to get well ahead, then gestured for his men to follow him, using the faint gleam of the lantern to navigate by. It was tempting to turn the flame up, but Thalric and the others could be waiting there in the pitch dark, watching for the faintest glimmer. In which caseVastern will see them before they see him In which caseVastern will see them before they see him. In the back of his mind ran the litany: Be dead, Thalric. Be dead and let us find your corpse Be dead, Thalric. Be dead and let us find your corpse.

Then he spotted the Beetle ahead, waiting for them. 'What is it?' he hissed. 'You've noticed movement?'

'Not movement, but signs.' Vastern gestured at the floor, which showed Sulvec precisely nothing. 'It's hard to see but there's been a disturbance here. That slime, that's everywhere here, it's been disturbed. Looked odd to my sight, and now the lamp really shows it up. Tracks, more than one.'

'Thalric and the Beetle girl?'

'Best guess,' Vastern confirmed.

'Then follow him and find him and kill him,' Sulvec managed to get out. The dark and the weight of stone above were oppressive. 'Or perhaps we'll start cutting his friend up, until he comes to investigate. Either way I want him dead before dawn, and then I want us out of this city.'

'No argument there, sir,' concurred Vastern wholeheartedly.

Che had recoiled with a strangled cry, tumbling into Thalric and nearly knocking him backwards onto the effigy-crowned tomb.

'What, what is it?' he demanded, hand outstretched and directed futilely at nothing he could see.

'I ...' Che took a deep breath, a better look. Her heart was still hammering from the shock. For just a moment ... 'It's nothing. It's I just got a bit of a fright, that's all. The throne ...'

'The what?'

'At the far end of this hall there's a throne. Only it's not empty.'

Thalric said nothing, waiting for more. Che took his sleeve and they both took a few steps closer until she was absolutely sure. 'Armour,' she explained. 'There's a suit of armour sitting there. Hammer and tongs, but it gave me a start.'

She edged closer, then closer still, because the scale and the repeating ribs of the hall's b.u.t.tresses played tricks. 'Look at that,' she breathed.

'I can't,' Thalric pointed out. Che continued to stare, trying to take it in.

'It must be the oldest suit of sentinel plate in the world,' she decided. It was true plate armour, an intricate suit of interlocking pieces that had been posed as if its missing occupant was deep in thought, elbow on knee, with the raised gauntlet supporting the edge of the open-faced helm. It must be wired together It must be wired together, she thought, staring into the cavernous emptiness of the helmet, and then realized: The slime is holding it together, like glue The slime is holding it together, like glue. 'It's absolutely huge,' she said, shaken. 'It would fit a Mole Cricket-kinden, I'd guess.' It was made to fit one of those statues It was made to fit one of those statues, came the next irresistible thought, but she shook it off. Perhaps that stone coffin held only ashes, or perhaps they had folded up Garmoth Atennar before putting him inside. Perhaps the box was actually the mouth of a pit and they had buried him standing up, or even standing on his head. She didn't know know, so there was no reason to get jumpy about it. Garmoth Atennar, Greatest of Warriors, sitting silently upright on his plinth, those dead stone eyes opening at last Garmoth Atennar, Greatest of Warriors, sitting silently upright on his plinth, those dead stone eyes opening at last.

I have to get out of this place. It is not healthy for the mind. 'I have seen workmans.h.i.+p like this before,' she said, 'in drawings in very old books mostly, but once or twice in life, and never a complete suit. It's Mantis work. It's beautiful. I wish I could see it in the light, to look at the colours of the metal.'

'The Masters of Khanaphes were Mantids?' Thalric frowned.

'Not if their statues are anything to go by, but they would have possessed the best of everything. A complete suit of Mantis-kinden sentinel plate like this ...You could buy half the a.s.sembly for the price of it.'

'Che,' Thalric interrupted, and the tone of his voice had changed. She felt her hand stray instinctively for her sword-hilt, ready for trouble.

'What is it?'

'I can see light.'

'Daylight?' she asked him instantly.

'No, not daylight.' His inflection said there was no doubt about it.

'You'll have to guide me, then. I just see see, here, and I see greys and shadows. If there's light coming from anywhere, I can't make it out.'

'Somewhere to our left. It's very faint, but it looks ... bluish. I think I can make out something ... a further hallway there?'

'There's another hall each side,' Che confirmed, 'but I suppose we go left then.'

'It must be daylight,' Thalric said, without conviction. 'What else could it be?' His stance changed suddenly. 'Or it could be lamplight. The Rekef?'

'It could,' Che confirmed. 'So let's creep up on them very carefully and find out whether it is or not. They won't see us, after all.'

'If it is Rekef, we'll have to kill them all,' Thalric said flatly. 'If we catch them by surprise, my sting can take two or three down before they have a chance to react. We should be grateful for what happened in your emba.s.sy. That cut the numbers down a great deal.'

Che paused a moment before saying, 'Thalric, two of my friends died in that fight.'

He stared back towards her, caught out, torn between spymaster and human being. 'Of course they did. Forgive me.'

'But you're right,' she said. 'If there's a chance we can surprise them, then we have to do it. I have my sword.' Her voice trembled just a little.

'Pray you don't have to use it,' he said.

They crept forward, and this timeThalric took the lead. It was a long time before Che's sight began to tint and waver, the light bleeding in to curdle her Art. It was not daylight, certainly: a strange unhealthy pale blue that picked out the alcove walls in stark contrast. More, it was not still, but dancing and guttering, playing up and down the floor and ceiling and making the slime gleam and glitter. It was clear that it was no kind of lamp that the Rekef could be expected to carry. They approached with trepidation.

Before an open archway they found them: two metal bowls, each a foot across, on elegantly worked, coiling legs. Some oil within them burned almost smokelessly, its scent rusty to the nostrils. Che and Thalric stopped and stared, half ducking into an alcove. It was not fear of the Rekef that made then seek cover, but a feeling of trespa.s.s, like two children lost in a giant's castle.

'The oil burns,'Thalric observed. 'So it has been lit but by who?'

If I said by magic, would he believe me? she asked herself. she asked herself. Perhaps now he would Perhaps now he would. 'I think that we have ... caused them to be lit. I think that our presence here has made this happen.' Ancient enchantments but why give tomb robbers light to work by?Why this long-dead hospitality? Ancient enchantments but why give tomb robbers light to work by?Why this long-dead hospitality?

'Some device ...' Thalric mused. 'It's possible.' Yet he did not seem eager to examine the braziers for artifice. Che looked past them into the next hall. There were other braziers there, glowing and flickering with pale light. Did I notice those before? Did I notice those before? She could not be wholly certain that she had. She could not be wholly certain that she had.

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