“She’s right,” said Kylon. “I didn’t sense them until the doors opened.”
“This, simply put, will keep the nagataaru from waking up as we go past,” said Annarah. “Please remain close to me. I do not think the effect will reach very far.”
Kylon nodded, and they clustered around Annarah and started down the corridor once more. He kept the valikon raised, his blade still shining with white fire as it reacted to the nagataaru slumbering in the niches.
But the nagataaru did not stir.
###
Caina looked around the domed chamber.
It was a smaller version of the Hall of Flames of the Inferno, but despite its reduced size, it was no less impressive. The domed ceiling rose a hundred feet over their heads, studded with crystals that made it look as if the night sky glittered within the stone. Endless rows of hieroglyphics marked the walls, and Caina wondered if they were a benediction of the Maatish gods or a curse upon Kharnaces for his heresy. As Annarah had promised, six doors led off from the domed chamber, deeper into the Tomb.
Unfortunately, only one of the doors stood open.
It wasn’t the door that led to the library.
“Are you sure this was the right way?” said Nasser.
Morgant scowled, but Annarah only nodded. “I am entirely certain, my lord Prince. This door led to a flight of stairs that ascended higher into the hill. At the top of the stairs was the library of Kharnaces. We left the Staff and Seal there and returned. This was the only door that was open, and the way back to the island was clear.”
“It seems a great deal changed in your absence,” said Kylon, white fire flickering within the symbols carved in the valikon’s blade. “The baboons, the undead warriors, and now this.”
Caina stared at the door. It was a massive slab of polished red granite, and she felt the powerful warding spells upon it. Even if they broke the spells, they would still have to hammer their way through several tons of stone. Kharnaces must have been active in the century and a half since Annarah’s and Morgant’s visit. Someone had to have closed the doors and awakened the guardians.
She looked at the one open passageway. It was wide and broad, the walls lined with hieroglyphs, and sloped deeper into the earth. The powerful necromantic aura radiated from deeper within that passage, though Caina was so close that the power seemed to cover everything.
A dark idea started to stir in her thoughts.
“Where does that passage go?” she said.
“I do not know,” said Annarah. “We didn’t explore the Tomb the last time we were here. We placed the Staff and the Seal in the library and departed at once, lest we draw the notice of any guardians.”
“Given that we’ve met the guardians,” said Morgant, “you can see the wisdom of it.”
“What is it?” said Kylon. “You’ve noticed something, I can tell. What is it?”
Caina smiled a little. Even with her shadow-cloak up, Kylon knew her well enough to guess her thoughts. Normally it would have alarmed her that someone could read her so well, but she and Kylon had been through so much together. He had certainly earned the right.
She looked at the passage again, and the brief flicker of happiness vanished.
“I think it may be possible,” said Caina, “that Kharnaces wanted us to come here.”
The others stared at her in surprise.
“Us,” said Caina, “or someone like us.”
“If that was true,” said Nasser, “if Kharnaces wanted us to come here, that would imply he was awake and active. That he was awake and active when Morgant and Annarah visited, and then let them go without a fight.”
Annarah swallowed. “If that is true…then I am a fool, and I delivered the Staff and the Seal into the hands of that monster for no reason.”
“Maybe not,” said Morgant. “If Kharnaces was awake a hundred and fifty years ago, why didn’t he use the Staff and Seal to summon up a billion nagataaru?”
Caina thought about it. “Maybe he doesn’t care about the Staff and the Seal.”
“That seems unlikely,” said Nasser. “The regalia of the Princes of Iramis were some of the most powerful arcane artifacts in the world. Even a Great Necromancer would not turn aside the power they offer.”
“A lure, then,” said Kylon. “He wanted to lure someone here.”
“Me?” said Annarah. “Or Morgant?”
Morgant shrugged. “If Kharnaces wanted to keep us here, he would never have let us go a hundred and fifty years ago.”
“The Prince,” said Annarah. “Kharnaces wanted to lure Lord Nasser here.”
“An interesting theory,” said Nasser, “but I fail to see what use I could be to a creature like Kharnaces.”
“One of us, then?” said Kylon.
Morgant snorted, pointing at Kylon, Caina, and Laertes. “None of you were born the last time we came here. Your damned parents hadn’t even been born yet. If Kharnaces could see the future to that degree of detail, I don’t think he would have let himself get banished to this miserable rock.”
Laertes shrugged. “Maybe we’re chasing our own worries. Perhaps Kharnaces was asleep when we came here, and is asleep now.”
“Then, centurion, how do you explain the closed door?” said Morgant. “The awakened guardians?”
“Maybe Kharnaces was sleeping, woke up, and then went back to sleep,” said Laertes. “Think of a man who fell asleep and then awakened a few hours later and noticed that his fireplace had gone dark. He lights the fire again and then goes back to sleep.”
“And if you add in the Staff and Seal,” said Caina, “Kharnaces would be like a man who woke up to find a priceless treasure next to his bed.” She blinked. “And if a man woke up to find a priceless treasure next to his bed…”
“He would move it to a secure location,” said Morgant.
“The library,” said Caina, looking at the closed stone door. “Were there any other doors out of the library?”
“Two,” said Annarah. “The library was one of the most secure locations in the Tomb. The others would be the armory, the treasury…and Kharnaces’s own burial chamber, where his canopic jars and his throne would have been placed.”
“Could we get to them through the library?” said Caina.
“Most likely,” said Annarah.
Caina nodded. “All right. We’ll find another path to the library, and then search the treasury and the armory until we find the Staff and the Seal.”
“An excellent plan,” said Nasser. “Let us proceed.”
Caina nodded and started towards the passage, the others following.
Doubt gnawed at her. Laertes’s explanation made sense. Kharnaces had been hibernating when Morgant and Annarah came here, he had awakened and rearmed his defenses, and then had drifted back into hibernation.
And yet, those closed doors…
Caina felt like a rat being herded through a maze, a maze that ended in a trap.
Again she thought of Sulaman’s prophecy, the certainty of her death if she sought the Staff and the Seal. Perhaps that death awaited her in the inner chambers of the Tomb of Kharnaces.
She took a deep breath and walked deeper into the gloom, the light in Annarah’s hand throwing dancing shadows over the ancient hieroglyphs upon the walls.
Chapter 17: Things Grown In Darkness
The necromantic aura grew stronger with every step.
Caina had thought it powerful on the surface of Pyramid Isle, and even stronger once they entered the Tomb. Now it washed over her like a torrent of freezing needles, so powerful that her teeth vibrated with it. It was so strong that her head pulsed with pain and her stomach twisted with nausea. Just as well that she hadn’t eaten anything before leaving the Sandstorm.
“I think it is safe to say,” said Caina, following the gentle slope of the passage downward, “that Kharnaces has a greater bloodcrystal here with him. Maybe even more than one.”
“Well,” said Morgant. “No one die, then. If you die and
rise again as Undying, that would be inconvenient.”
Laertes barked out a Legionary’s harsh laugh. “I’ll do my best.”
“It’s not a Subjugant Bloodcrystal,” said Annarah. “The aura is wrong. I’m…not sure what it is. It’s powerful, though, whatever it is.”
“An Ascendant Bloodcrystal?” said Kylon.
Caina shook her head. “I think…I think it’s even stronger than that.” The prickling sensation got even sharper against her skin. “And I think we’re about to find out what it is.”
They turned a corner, and a pale green light flared in the darkness ahead. The passage ended in a balcony, overlooking a large empty space, and green light flickered and flashed from beyond the railing. To judge from the dancing shadows upon the wall, something was moving in the space beyond the balcony.
A lot of somethings. It reminded Caina of people milling around a large bonfire, their shadows thrown in every direction.
“I think,” said Annarah, “that is the source of the necromantic power that saturates the Tomb.”
“It is,” said Kylon. “The Subjugant Bloodcrystal flashed like that. So did the Ascendant Bloodcrystal in Caer Magia.”
“Wait here,” said Caina. “I’m going to have a look around.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Kylon.
“No,” said Caina at once. “Look at the shadows. Something’s moving around in there, maybe more of those nagataaru-infested corpses. The shadow-cloak will let me take a look without any nagataaru spotting me. We managed to outwit the baboons and fight our way through the warriors. I don’t want to risk a third encounter with the nagataaru. Especially if Kharnaces isn’t hibernating. Rousing any guards this far into the Tomb might draw his attention.”
Kylon sighed. “Be careful.”
“You know me,” said Caina. “I’m always careful.”
“You’re usually a much better liar than that,” said Morgant.
Caina made her way down the passage, her boots making no sound against the floor. As the balcony drew nearer she dropped to a crouch, and then crawled the final few feet toward the railing. Necromantic power rolled over her in freezing waves, her headache going worse, and the green light stabbed into her eyes.
She inched closer to the edge of the balcony and peered through the gaps in the stone railing.
In the chamber beyond she saw…
Cold horror filled her, and for a moment she could not move through the alarmed shock.
In the chamber beyond she saw the end of the world.
It was similar to the domed chamber she had seen previously, the walls lined with hieroglyphs, crystals glittering in the curve of the ceiling. A circular dais of black stone covered perhaps half the floor, and around the dais walked hundreds of undead warriors like the ones Caina and the others had fought earlier.
At the edge of the circular dais floated an Ascendant Bloodcrystal.
It was identical to the one the Moroaica had used to almost destroy the world. It was a tapering shard of faceted black crystal the length of Caina’s arm, revolving slowly as it floated. Hundreds of Maatish hieroglyphs covered its facets, written in lines of green fire, brightening and dimming as the crystal revolved. Even from a distance, the bloodcrystal looked intricate beyond belief, the masterwork of sorcerers of unequaled skill and power.
One Ascendant Bloodcrystal could have killed everyone in the western Empire. One Ascendant Bloodcrystal, in the hands of a sorceress like the Moroaica, could have destroyed the world. Now another such weapon of sorcery floated perhaps twenty yards from Caina’s face.
That wasn’t the worst part, though.
One Ascendant Bloodcrystal could have destroyed the world…and there were five of the things in the chamber.
They floated in a loose ring at the edge of the dais, revolving slowly. From each crystal came a narrow stream of ghostly green fire, a stream that arced upward. The streams converged overhead, just beneath the apex of the dome, and there floated…
Caina could not make herself look at it.
She tried. Every time she tried to look at the shape floating below the dome, her eyes and mind rebelled, snapping down to look at the undead warriors and the five Ascendant Bloodcrystals. Her mind and body refused to look at it, the way her hand would have recoiled from a hot stove.
Which meant she had to see what it was.
Caina thought for a moment. Her eyes strayed to the pyrikon upon her wrist. The spirit of defense within the bracelet had let her handle the Subjugant Bloodcrystal, even though the mere touch of the crystal could kill. Could it somehow protect her, let her see the object floating below the dome?
She touched the bracelet, focusing upon it. The spirit of defense within it could read her mind, though she doubted the spirit understood the nature of the physical world. Nonetheless, it had adapted to her need before. She considered talking to it, but did not want to take the chance that the nagataaru-possessed corpses below could hear her.
That almost made her laugh. She had never thought she would be the kind of woman who talked to jewelry, but apparently anything was possible.
As the thought crossed her mind, the pyrikon shivered and unfolded itself from her wrist, expanding and growing thicker. It leaped from her arm and struck her forehead. Caina blinked in surprise, reaching up in panic to pull it away, but she felt the pyrikon encircle her head with a thin band of metal. The pyrikon had transformed itself into a slender diadem. It felt peculiar, but she wondered if the pyrikon’s new form would let her view whatever object floated overhead.
Caina looked up, and this time she did not look away.
Despite that, she could not tell what the floating thing was, not really. One moment it looked like a rift in the wall between the worlds, similar to the rift the Moroaica had torn open on the day of the golden dead. The next moment it looked like an enormous black sphere, nearly six feet across, a sphere that glittered with the same green fire and hieroglyphs as a bloodcrystal. In fact, the longer she looked, the more certain Caina was that it was an enormous bloodcrystal, albeit one in the shape of a perfect sphere.
The Ascendant Bloodcrystals were pouring their power into the rotating sphere, and Caina was sure it was the final source of the necromantic aura hanging over the island?
So what did it do?
For now, at least, it was irrelevant.
She looked at the floor of the chamber, doing a quick count. There were at least three hundred and fifty corpses down there, all of the moving around the dais and the ring of bloodcrystals. A quarter of the way around the wall, Caina saw an archway leading to a flight of stairs. If her judgment was correct, the stairs led higher into the Tomb and towards the library itself.
She made up her mind and crept away from the balcony, the light from the bloodcrystals flashing behind her. A few moments later she rejoined Kylon and the others. Kylon straightened up as she approached, lowering the valikon. The blade shimmered with white fire, reacting to the presence of the hundreds of nagataaru in the bloodcrystal chamber.
“What have you found?” said Nasser, as calmly as if they had been drinking coffee around his table in Istarinmul.
“Nothing good,” said Caina.
Morgant blinked. “Why are you wearing a diadem? Indulging in a bit of tomb robbery, are we? Not that I object.”
“It’s ghostsilver,” said Annarah. “That is her pyrikon. It’s shielding her from something.”
Caina took a deep breath. “There are hundreds of nagataaru-infested corpses in the next chamber, and they’re all awake.”
“I suspect,” said Nasser, “that worse is to follow.”
Caina nodded. “There are also five active Ascendant Bloodcrystals in the chamber.”
Stunned silence answered her.
“Five?” said Kylon at last.
“Those were the most potent weapons of necromancy the pharaohs of ancient Maat possessed,” said Annarah, gripping her staff with both hands “A single one could kill everyone within five hund
red miles, steal their life energy, and transform its wielder into a living god.”
“The Moroaica almost destroyed the world with just one,” said Kylon.
“You said they were active,” said Nasser. “Why have we not been slain already?”
“Something is harnessing their power,” said Caina. “There’s a…a spherical bloodcrystal about six feet wide floating in the center of the chamber, and the Ascendant Bloodcrystals are pouring their power into it. I have no idea what the thing is.” She tapped her left hand against the ghostsilver diadem upon her brow, and it collapsed, folding itself around her wrist as a bracelet once more. “That’s why my pyrikon turned into a diadem. I couldn’t look at the sphere. Every time I did, I just…recoiled. Like deliberately putting my hand on a hot stove. Every time I tried, I couldn’t look at it. I could only look at it after the pyrikon changed form.” She wanted to push back her cowl and rake the sweaty hair away from her temples, but that seemed unwise with so many nagataaru nearby. “I don’t know what it is. It has the form of a sphere, but looking at it was like…it was like looking into a gate to the netherworld. Like looking into a Mirror of Worlds in a wraithblood laboratory. Or the gate that led to Annarah’s Sanctuary.” She looked at the loremaster. “Do you know of any bloodcrystals like that?”
“I do not,” said Annarah. “The Great Necromancers had many different forms of bloodcrystals, both lesser and greater, but none that matched such a description. And a gate to the netherworld? The Great Necromancers, for all their other crimes, never trafficked with the spirits of the netherworld, whether indifferent ones like the elementals or malevolent ones like the nagataaru.”
“But old Kharnaces was a heretic, wasn’t he?” said Morgant. “Bet he’d enjoy a private gate to the netherworld in his cellar.”
Caina shook her head. “I don’t know what Kharnaces is creating. A means to escape the island? A way to take vengeance upon Callatas? I don’t know. Right now we need to find the Staff and the Seal. And I think…I think the best way is for me to go on alone.”
Ghost in the Seal (Ghost Exile #6) Page 23
