She hoped the Temnoti would keep talking, but the misshapen priests lapsed into silence once the decision had been made. They returned to the catacombs gallery, walked past the niches holding the dusty skeletons, and entered the ossuary with the summoning circle and the standing stone. The Temnoti stopped there, and genuflected to the standing stone, and then once more to the symbol of Temnuzash carved over the defaced sign of the Divine.
Caina waited, her mind sorting through potential plans. Her valikon could slice through any wards the Temnoti cast to protect themselves from harm. Unfortunately, it would take her a few instants to summon the valikon, and the sword’s light would be immediately visible in the gloom of the ossuary. The Temnoti would immediately realize who she really was, and Caina would lose her advantage.
No. She would have the advantage of surprise only once. Caina had to save it until the most effective possible moment. If the Temnoti were taking her and Ilona to a cell, they presumably would go about their business after they were secured. Caina could then use the valikon to break the spell on Ilona, and together they could escape.
One of the Temnoti glided to the wall on the far side of the summoning circle, reached out, and pulled on a skull. It had been mounted on an iron rod, and a metallic click echoed through the ossuary. The floor shivered, and a section of wall between two of the skull-stuffed niches swung open. Beyond Caina saw a narrow passageway of stone, and in the distance, she glimpsed a hazy green glow.
No. Not a glow. A necromantic aura. Which direction was that passageway facing? Unless Caina had completely lost her bearings, the corridor pointed north.
Which meant it led to the ancient ruin of the Lord’s Castle. Or, more specifically, to whatever vaults waited beneath the Lord’s Castle. Seb and Theodosia and Ilona had all told her tales of creatures issuing forth from the ruined castle to prey upon the citizens of Vagraastrad. Most recently that could be laid at the feet of Libavya and her reveniri. But those tales had been around for a long, long time. What manner of creatures might lurk in the dark vaults below the Lord’s Castle?
Caina didn’t know, but she had a grim feeling that she was about to find out.
“Marina,” rasped the first Temnoti. “Leave the globe on the table.”
Caina moved forward with stiff steps and left the glowing glass globe on the nearest table.
“Both of you, follow us,” said the first Temnoti, and the three priests moved into the passageway. Ilona followed them, and Caina followed her. The narrow passage beyond the wall was gloomy, the walls covered with mold, the only light coming from the green haze in the distance. As they moved closer, Caina saw that a wall of shimmering green haze sealed off the end of the passage, a haze that gave off a potent necromantic aura. Would the mist kill her and Ilona? No, it didn’t seem the right kind of spell. Rather, Caina thought it radiated from something powerful lying beneath the Lord’s Castle.
An ancient artifact of sorcery, perhaps. Another one of Rasarion Yagar’s relics? Or perhaps the aura of a potent necromancer.
Neither prospect seemed promising.
The Temnoti glided into the hazy mist, Ilona followed them, and Caina had no choice but to follow suit.
It felt like jumping naked into a pool of icy water. A shudder went through Caina’s entire body, and she felt goosebumps erupt across her skin. It took all her self-control to keep her expression blank, though she saw Ilona jerk and twitch as she walked into the haze.
The haze mantled the corridor, painting everything with a sickly green glow. The passageway ended in a door built of oak planks and bound in iron. One of the Temnoti produced a key and unlocked the door, and it swung open with a scream of rusted hinges. Caina wondered if the passageway was an ancient escape tunnel from the Lord’s Castle, one that Cazmar Vagastru had failed to use before the Warmaiden killed him.
Beyond was a large hall, the vaulted ceiling supported by thick pillars. It was the same sort of rough, massive stonework that Caina had seen in Sigilsoara, though unlike Sigilsoara the rock was not marred by strange black veins and tumorous growths. The greenish haze illuminated everything, painting the walls and floor with a sickly glow. Six reveniri stood motionless, watching the door for intruders, their eyes glowing with harsh white light. Caina felt a fresh surge of fear, and then remember that the reveniri couldn’t see her.
If the Temnoti realized that their reveniri couldn’t see Caina, that would be bad.
“Come,” said the first Temnoti, beckoning with a tentacle. Caina and Ilona followed the three browned-robed priests into another passage. It was a wide corridor that looked as if it had once been used as a prison. Narrow wooden doors bound in iron lined the walls. Each door had a small metal grill that would admit only a little light, though Caina supposed the ever-present green glow made that irrelevant. Six reveniri stood guard in the corridor, motionless as statues.
The first Temnoti opened one of the doors. “In there, both of you.”
Ilona walked into the narrow cell beyond the door, and Caina followed suit.
“Should we dismiss the mind-controlling spell?” said the second Temnoti.
“No,” said the first creature. “They are Ghost agents and may be troublesome. The spell will keep them docile for another few hours. I suspect Lady Libavya will come in haste when she hears our news. Most probably she will kill them both as soon as possible.”
The Temnoti slammed the door, and Caina heard the clang as the heavy lock slid into place. The priests moved out of sight, and silence fell over the cell. Caina looked at Ilona, but she still stood motionless, blinking from time to time, but otherwise showed no sign of consciousness. The cell was otherwise empty, without even a bucket for waste.
Likely the Temnoti did not think they would live long enough for that to be a problem.
Caina counted to a hundred, listening and staring at the iron grate in the door, but she heard nothing and saw nothing moving. At last, she eased forward and looked through the grate, but saw nothing in the corridor. It seemed the Temnoti had departed, confident in the cell, the reveniri, and their own sorcery to keep the prisoners secure until Lady Libavya arrived.
Which meant that it was time to act.
Caina held out her right hand and called her valikon. The sword’s glow seemed blinding in the gloom of the cell. She considered Ilona for a moment, then took the other woman’s left hand and pushed the tight red sleeve up a few inches.
“I am really sorry about this,” said Caina, and she sank the tip of the valikon into Ilona’s left forearm. Blood welled up from the small cut, and Caina put gentle pressure on the weapon’s hilt. For an instant, nothing happened, and then the valikon’s hilt grew warm beneath her fingers. The glow of the mind-controlling spell around Ilona’s head collapsed, and she yelped and jerked back, her black eyes growing wide.
Caina dismissed her valikon, and Ilona staggered into the corner, eyes wide, breathing hard.
“I’m sorry,” said Caina, “but that was the only way to break…”
“No, no,” said Ilona, sinking to the floor, her knees drawn up to her chest. “No, it’s not you, it’s…oh, by the Divine. They’re going to kill us. They’re going to make us wish they had killed us…”
“Ilona,” said Caina. She squatted next to her. Ilona had seemed so cool and collected as Theodosia’s nightkeeper that Caina hadn’t expected panic.
“This happened to me before,” said Ilona. She was breathing fast and hard, and the words were tumbling out of her. “When I was a child, my mother and father and I lived in Risiviri. My father was a carpenter, and…and…he offended someone in a Temnoti cult. They came in the night and mind-controlled us, and they killed my mother and father. Oh, by the Divine, I was so helpless. I was so scared.” There were tears in her eyes, and she sniffled and wiped at her face. “They would have gotten me, but they made a mistake, and I escaped. I’ve been trying to hurt them ever since. That’s why I joined the Ghosts and followed Theodosia. But it was all for nothing, wasn’t it? They
’re going to kill us, they’ve always been going to kill us, we…”
Caina caught Ilona’s chin in her hand and turned her head, looking her in the eyes.
“Listen to me,” said Caina. “It’s going to be different this time. One, their spell didn’t work on me. Two, I broke the spell on you, which means we both have our wits about us. We’re going to find a way to get out of here and make Libavya pay for all the innocent blood she has shed. But I need you to stay calm. Can you do that?”
“I…” Ilona blinked a few times and then nodded as Caina released her hand. “I…yes, I can do that. By the Divine.” She shook her head and wiped her eyes again. “Look at me. Crying like a girl with a skinned knee. I’ve been in worse trouble than this. But…they had me, Caina. They had me. I knew what was happening, and I couldn’t fight. It was just like I was a girl all over again, and I was about to see my mother and father die again.”
“Yes,” said Caina, thinking of the cell where Maglarion had held her prisoner. “Yes, I understand. But we’re not dead yet, Ilona. We’re going to get out of here, and we’re going to bring down Libavya.”
“I hope you are right,” said Ilona. “But how?”
“Well,” said Caina, reaching for her hair. “First, we need to get out of this cell.”
“How?” said Ilona. “Your valikon is a potent weapon, but I doubt it can cut through solid iron.”
“Probably not,” said Caina, drawing out one of the long wires she had hidden in the leather cord that held her hair in place, “but I wasn’t planning to do that.”
Ilona blinked and then grinned. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice breaking into places where I wasn’t welcome,” said Caina. She went to one knee before the door, inserted the wire into the lock, and got to work. “I suppose breaking out of places I’m not welcome is basically the same idea.”
“What then?” said Ilona. “There were six reveniri in the corridor outside the cell. Even with your valikon, we can’t fight past them all.”
“No need,” said Caina. “I’m a valikarion, remember. The carrion spirits within them won’t know I’m there.”
“Oh,” said Ilona. She hesitated. “You…aren’t going to leave me behind, are you?”
Caina shook her head. “No. Here’s the plan. I’m going to get out and take a quick look around. You heard the Temnoti. Libavya didn’t create all those reveniri for the greater glory of Temnuzash. She’s working on something down here, and I want to know what it is. Once I take a look around, I’ll destroy the reveniri one by one, and we’ll get out of here.”
Ilona took a deep breath. “And if you get caught?”
“I won’t,” said Caina. “But if I am, you only have to wait a while. Because sooner or later Kylon and Seb and Basarab are going to run out of patience and come looking for us.” It was also possible, Caina suspected, that the Bronze Witch might tell Kylon what had happened. It was also possible that Crailov had warned the Temnoti to wait for Caina, but there was no point in worrying Ilona further. “You’ve seen Kylon and Seb fight. The reveniri and the Temnoti aren’t going to slow him down.”
“If you say so,” said Ilona. “I…”
The lock clicked, and Caina withdrew her wire.
Caina glanced at Ilona. “Ready?”
“I should ask you that,” said Ilona. She took another deep breath. “Good luck.”
“Thank you,” said Caina, straightening up and returning the wire to its place in her hair. She might need it later. “Stay here and don’t make any noise. I’ll be back as fast as I can manage it.”
“All right,” said Ilona. She wrapped her arms tight around herself. “I wish I had worn something warmer. Or a little higher-cut.”
“It is a nice dress,” said Caina. “I’ll be right back.”
With that, she eased the door open and stepped into the corridor, looking up and down.
As before, six reveniri stood guard, two at the door leading to the entry hall, two at the far end of the corridor, and two against the walls. Caina walked in silence to the nearest reveniri, but none of the creatures responded. She waved her hand in front of its face, and still the creature showed no sign of recognition. Good – they couldn’t see her.
Caina moved to the far end of the corridor. The necromantic aura that saturated the place was coming from that direction. Whatever Libavya wanted, Caina suspected it was in there. All the pieces pointed to something monstrous lying within the ruins of the Lord’s Castle. Teodor Valcezak and his daughter and his party of witchfinders had stormed the sanitarium, and they had all been killed or taken captive, save for Teodor. The old man had been muttering about a glass coffin when Caina and the others had found him in the woods. The pyrikon spirit had shown Caina a glass coffin in her dreams. Lady Libavya had summoned and created all those reveniri for a reason, and the Temnoti had spoken of her experiments.
What was the secret? What was Libavya Jordizi doing down here?
Caina had to find out.
Prudence suggested that it would be wiser to take Ilona and flee back to the sanitarium at once. Cold reason argued otherwise. With his memory intact, Caina suspected that Teodor had been a formidable fighter, and he and his daughter would have surrounded themselves with formidable fighters. Despite all that, Teodor and the witchfinders had still been overwhelmed and defeated.
Would the same thing happen to Kylon and Seb and Basarab if they stormed the sanitarium and found the tunnel to the vaults beneath the Lord’s Castle?
The reveniri made no response as Caina opened the door. Beyond was a large room with moldering wooden racks on the walls. The racks held rusting swords and spears, and long wooden tables sagged beneath the weight of rusting cuirasses and helmets. Likely this place had once been the castle’s armory. There was another door on the far wall, and Caina opened it. The next room looked as if it had once been a library. Dusty books lined the walls, their spines written in either Ulkaari or High Nighmarian. Perhaps Cazmar Vagastru had been a literate man before the Warmaiden had destroyed him. Some of them looked like innocuous books of history or noble genealogy, while others gave off a faint necromantic aura to Caina’s sight. If they won, Basarab would have to destroy those books.
There was another door on the other end of the library, and Caina opened it.
She found the source of the necromantic aura that covered the vaults below the ruins of the Lord’s Castle.
It was the pillared hall she had seen from the pyrikon’s dream.
Caina took a cautious step forward. The crypt was even larger than the ossuary chamber in the catacombs above, the vaulted ceiling supported by thick pillars of rough-cut stone. In the eerie green light, Caina saw countless bones and rusting weapons scattered across the floor. It looked as if a fierce battle had been fought here long ago. Likely it was the battle when the Warmaiden had taken the Lord’s Castle.
A stone bier rose in the center of the vast crypt, and atop the dais rested the source of both the green haze and the necromantic aura.
“Glass,” murmured Caina, taking another careful step forward.
A coffin of rough green glass lay atop the bier, glowing with ghostly green light. The vision of the valikarion saw tremendous necromantic force centered upon the coffin, raw and unrefined yet nonetheless potent. The aura…
No. The light was coming from the coffin, but the aura wasn’t.
The aura was coming from the thing inside the coffin.
Caina walked forward in silence, the fingers of her right hand flexing as if they wanted to grasp the hilt of her valikon. There was a dark shape lying inside the coffin, almost like a fly trapped in amber. She climbed the steps to the top of the bier and gazed at the coffin. Between the glow and the thick, cloudy glass, Caina couldn’t make out the dark form, yet it looked vaguely human-shaped.
There was someone inside the coffin. To judge from the power of the necromantic aura, the thing inside the glass coffin was an undead creature of gre
at power, perhaps one with considerable strength in sorcery. Had the Warmaiden imprisoned it here? Or maybe the creature was simply hibernating.
Libavya must be attempting to either free it or bind it.
Either way, she had to be stopped.
Caina stepped back. Yes, she knew what had happened here now. This thing had been sleeping beneath the Lord’s Castle for all those centuries, and Libavya Jordizi had found it. She had started the sanitarium to provide herself with an endless supply of patients to transform into undead servants, and she had been trying to awaken or free the thing in the coffin. Most probably those necromantic spells had required blood, which was why her reveniri kidnapped people from the city and the countryside.
Well, it was all going to stop tonight. Caina would return to the cell, finish off the reveniri, and take Ilona back to the sanitarium. Once she returned to the Temple, she would tell Basarab everything she had seen, and then they would fall upon this place like a storm. No matter how powerful Libavya was, no matter how many Temnoti allies and undead slaves she had, she could not stand against a party of witchfinders, a Kyracian stormdancer with a valikon, and an Imperial battle magus.
Caina turned toward the door, and then something started clattering behind the bier.
Chapter 14: Asleep
Caina whirled, calling her valikon on reflex. The sword assembled itself in her right hand, the white fire burning against the green glow coming from the coffin.
Something was moving in the shadows on the other side of the bier. Caina took a quick step back, the valikon coming up in guard, her eyes sweeping the gloomy hall. There were so many bones scattered on the floor. Could they rise as undead warriors? Caina didn’t see any spells, though the hall was charged with necromantic force, and…
“Who’s there?” said a woman’s voice in Ulkaari. The voice was thin and exhausted. “Who’s there? Tell me, damn you! Are you there, Libavya? Stop these damned games and show yourself!” The voice cracked in a mixture of rage and terror.
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