A shout carried in the passage beyond the door, and he froze.
Then he heard a clang of steel and the clatter of a sword on stone, followed by one rough thud and then another that carried through the floor stones under his feet. After that there was silence outside in the passage.
Chane hesitated and looked to the others. It was obvious that at least Osha and Shade had heard something as well, and the dog’s ears flattened. Something clinked outside the door, and then came a scraping of metal near the lock. The door’s lock bolt clacked, and Chane shifted left, ready to strike as the door swung inward.
In the narrow space of the open door was a leather mask over a hooded figure’s face.
“Wait,” it said in Numanese with a rolling thick accent not correct for a Numan.
That person pushed the door wide until it banged carelessly against the wall. Somewhere behind Chane he heard Shade snarl in warning.
Beyond the strange figure in the doorway, at least one guard lay unconscious in a heap upon the passage floor. He could not see the other, but he heard no movement outside. Still ready to strike, he looked their would-be rescuer up and down.
The figure raised a tawny-gloved hand and slid the mask upward into its hood.
Aupsha eyed him in turn. “I have freed Counselor Columsarn, and he has gone to do the same for the duchess. Come with me.”
It was all too convenient, and Chane did not move, even when he heard the others in the room step nearer.
Aupsha’s forearm was encompassed in a hardened leather bracer. The same type of armor, suitably shaped for a woman, covered her torso. Even her thighs and shins were protected, and everywhere on those pieces of darkly dyed armor were ornately carved swirling patterns that obscured symbols Chane could not quite make out.
“Freed?” Nikolas asked. “My father and Sherie were locked up?”
Aupsha’s eyes shifted briefly toward the young sage before returning to Chane.
“The duke has sealed the keep, even to the servants in their rooms,” she said. “The counselor was locked in his chamber but not under guard, so I released him first.” Her tone grew impatient. “The duke has left, taking his Sumans and some of the keep’s guards on horseback. But he is aboard a wagon ... with a covered load in its rear.”
“Back up now,” Chane ordered.
Aupsha lingered for a breath before retreating to the outer passage’s far side.
Chane slipped out, looked both ways, and found that the second guard was also down. The others came out behind him.
“We cannot delay for your doubts,” Aupsha added sharply.
Osha immediately rushed for Wynn’s room as Shade dashed to the passage’s end and peered down the stairs. Chane remained poised before the tall dark servant, now dressed and armored more strangely, more foreignly, than she herself had always appeared.
“Do you know what’s in the wagon?” Wynn asked, stepping in on Chane’s right.
“My guess would be the same as yours,” Aupsha answered, “and I have little patience left.”
Chane was about to push Wynn back and sidestep toward her room when Osha returned and handed off his blades. Chane took them and quickly strapped them on as he kept his eyes on Aupsha.
“Is my staff still there?” Wynn asked.
“Yes,” Osha answered.
At Chane’s glance, the elf was already stringing his bow, and the strange and narrow canvas bundle was again tied over his back.
“Get your staff,” Chane told Wynn. “Nikolas, go with her.”
As the two ran off, Shade came trotting back.
“Anyone?” Chane asked, and Shade huffed once for no.
Only then did Aupsha look away at Shade with a brief narrowing of her eyes. “I will go below and verify that the artifact has been taken,” she said.
“Why would I trust you for that?” Chane challenged.
Aupsha let out a slow breath, as if suppressing distaste. “Whether it is there or not, the duke has tried to lock away everyone who knows him ... and has fled the keep. That alone is enough reason to stop him from whatever he has been doing.”
Chane was half tempted to remove Aupsha here and now, but if the duke had been so mad as to use the orb in some way, the man would not have relinquished it in taking flight. Still, Chane wondered what might happen if he was mistaken. What if Aupsha, who knew the duke much better, had a reason for sending all of them off and out of the way?
“Someone must find the counselor and the compass I left with him,” she said. “Only that device has a chance to locate the artifact if it has been removed. You will also need Lady Sherie to manage any remaining guards.”
“Wait—where are you going?”
At that, Chane found Wynn at his side again with her staff in hand.
“You and Nikolas get our packs,” he told her, and she looked from him to Aupsha. “Please,” he added, “we must move quickly and be prepared for anything.”
With obvious reluctance, she and Nikolas went off.
Chane barely turned to see Aupsha heading for the passage’s back. And before he could go after her ...
“I come with you ... to help,” Osha called out.
Aupsha halted and turned. Her mask was down over her face once more, and it was impossible to gauge her reaction.
Wynn returned and handed off Chane’s packs. It was obvious what Osha intended to do, and she held out a cold-lamp crystal.
“Take it, just to be sure,” she told him. “Meet us in the courtyard when you’re done ... and be quick.”
Before Osha even nodded, Aupsha had turned away. He took the crystal and followed her.
“Nikolas, Shade, and I will find Jausiff and Lady Sherie,” Wynn said to Chane. “You get our wagon ready, but be prepared to clear us a path if the guards won’t listen to the duchess.”
Chane disliked the idea of them all splitting up this way, but there were too many paths to follow, and Wynn was already headed for the stairs with Shade.
Only Nikolas lingered, eyeing Chane, until Chane stepped off after Wynn.
Osha slipped ahead down the stairs to the passage’s rear, and Aupsha said nothing. He did not like having her at his back, but whatever lay below, he intended to see it first, and he brushed Wynn’s crystal across his tunic several times to heat up its light.
He would have preferred to remain with Wynn, but he had seen her face upon learning that Aupsha intended to verify the orb’s presence or absence beneath the keep. He had seen such an artifact once in his time with her—and Magiere, Léshil, and Chap. He would know another one when he saw it. But when he and the strangely armored woman reached the rear passage with its end door out the north side ...
Around the corner and down the two steps, the door leading below was wide-open.
He glanced at Aupsha, but the mask made it impossible to read her. This door being open did not bode well, and she slipped into the lead as they descended more stairs beyond the door. Another passage at the bottom led them into a narrow stone chamber with six heavy doors of old wood, three to each side.
Aupsha halted, and Osha had to sidestep to view the chamber. Something more caught his attention immediately.
A body lay crumpled on the floor, though Osha recognized it only by the garb of a Suman guard. The man looked nothing like any guard he had seen, for this one was aged, too old to be in service. The corpse’s eyes were half-open, as was his wrinkled mouth, but those eyes were as clouded and pale as his near-white hair.
Aupsha was still frozen in place and looking down when Osha heard the crackling squeak of leather. He followed the sound to her nearer gloved hand, now clenched in a fist.