“Don’t come down until I say so,” he said as he carefully picked his way along the jumbled surface of broken slabs and loose debris.
Frost glittered like a crust of diamonds on the stones beneath his boots, but despite the treacherous footing, he made it to the corridor below without mishap. With a flick of his hand, he sent the tiny sphere of magelight spinning down the passage. The way appeared unobstructed, at least as far as the magelight could travel.
Cupping his hands to his mouth, he called up through the hole. “The passage is clear. Be careful where you put your feet. The stones are very slippery!” Sonoe scrambled through first, followed closely by Jelena. Gran came next, with Taya and Amara, who leaned heavily on the princess for support, bringing up the rear.
Ashinji stepped up to take his mother’s arm, but she waved him off.
“I don’t need your help, Son. I can walk on my own. Look to your wife.”
She’s deliberately downplaying her condition to reassure me, but what can I do?
His mother seemed determined to not add her own pain to the burdens her son already carried. With a sigh of resignation, Ashinji turned away and went to stand beside Jelena.
“Come sisters, we must hurry,” Taya urged. “Time is running short.”
“Yes, I can feel it, too,” Gran responded. She sent her own magelight bobbing down the corridor after Ashinji’s smaller one.
Ashinji met Jelena’s gaze. “Feel what?” he asked, though he already knew the answer.
“The Nameless One,” Sonoe replied. “He knows we are here.”
Ashinji glanced at the youngest Kirian, and for an instant, he thought he saw a tiny smile twitch her sensuous mouth. All of his instinct for danger raced along every nerve and without conscious thought, he had his dagger in his hand and leveled at her before he realized it.
Sonoe’s eyes gleamed in the semi-darkness. “What are you doing?” she whispered, taking a step backward.
Ashinji looked at the knife and then back at Sonoe. Slowly, he re-sheathed the weapon. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
“Apology accepted.” Sonoe licked her lips, then added, “I know you’re afraid. We all are.” Despite her soothing tone, Ashinji still could not banish his unease. He found it impossible to erase from his mind the memory of that terrible vision he had, back when he had been a slave in Darguinia, of Sonoe reaching into Jelena’s throat and removing something.
“Follow me!” Taya commanded. She set off down the corridor at a brisk pace. Ashinji took Jelena’s hand and fell in behind the princess. Sonoe, Gran, and Amara walked abreast at their heels. The corridor stretched ahead of them, arrow straight. The floor had buckled in places and deep cracks scored the walls and ceiling, but the structural integrity of this part of the fortress appeared to have survived the monumental forces that had torn the rest of the complex apart.
They hurried along in silence with only the scuff of their boots on the flagstones to break the stillness. Ahead, Ashinji could see the magelights had stopped before what looked like a wall of blackness. As the group drew closer, the wall resolved itself into a massive stone doorframe. The twisted remnants of iron hinges hung in jagged shards from the sides. The doorway itself gaped like an empty black maw.
“The main Spell Chamber should be through this doorway. Pray that it’s still intact,” Taya said. The group approached with caution, but before Taya could step through the gap, Ashinji laid a hand on her arm to stop her.
“No, Princess. Let me go first.” Taya hesitated for a heartbeat, then nodded and stepped aside, allowing Ashinji to step over the threshold, his little magelight floating ahead.
He found himself standing in an eight-sided chamber, empty save for a large platform in its exact center. The chamber appeared to be fashioned of black stone. Deep cracks fissured the walls and rubble-strewn floor. Part of the ceiling had caved in, creating a pile of broken stone near the platform. A thick, unbroken layer of dust covered the floor and the top surface of the platform. Ashinji took a step forward and kicked up such a choking cloud, he had to fall back through the opening to the corridor outside.
“The…room’s pretty much…intact,” he gasped, then succumbed to a sneezing fit. Eyes watering, throat burning, he struggled to clear his lungs of the irritating dust.
Taya stepped forward to peer into the room. She withdrew, clicking her tongue in dismay. “We’ll need to clear out all that dust first, or none of us will be able to breathe.”
“I’ll do it,” Gran volunteered. The elder Kirian raised her right hand.
“Ashi, Jelena, stand away from the doors,” Amara instructed. Gran spoke three words and Ashinji felt the air around him beginning to stir. He pressed his back against the chilly stone, one arm looped protectively around Jelena’s waist.
A ghostly veil of dust swirled through the gap between the doors and flowed, serpentine-like, past Gran and down the corridor, disappearing into the darkness behind her. When she lowered her hand a few heartbeats later, Taya once more peered into the room, then looked over her shoulder at the others and nodded.
The princess slipped through the gap and crossed the chamber to the central platform. Gran’s spell had scoured the chamber clean. Not a speck of dust remained to dull the polished floor-black as the night sky during a new moon-beneath Ashinji’s boots.
Gran and Amara followed Taya to the platform, where they laid down their bundles, then opened them to reveal an assortment of magical paraphernalia: a small thurible, a chalice, beeswax tapers, a glass rod. Ashinji realized the slab must be an altar. Sonoe pulled a small pouch from her sash and paced clockwise around the altar, sprinkling the contents of the pouch on the floor to form a circular space whose boundaries consisted of a crystalline white powder.
“When we begin the Ritual, you can’t step outside this circle,” Sonoe instructed, looking pointedly at Ashinji. “It will be very dangerous for you if you do.” She tucked the now empty pouch back in her sash and brushed her hands together. Amara and Gran busied themselves with setting up the altar, while Taya moved to the periphery of the room and paced through each corner, her eyes trained on the featureless black walls as if searching for something.
“Jelena, pet, how are you?” Sonoe inquired, caressing Jelena’s cheek, and though he tried otherwise, Ashinji could detect nothing but genuine concern in her voice.
“I’m better than I thought I would be.” Jelena looked at Ashinji and smiled. “It helps that my husband is here. I don’t think I’d be nearly so calm without him.”
“You are the bravest of all of us,” Sonoe murmured, and pulled Jelena close, kissing her forehead. “I love you, my dear friend.”
“And I you,” Jelena replied. Ashinji struggled to control his unease, but every nerve thrummed with alarm. As the two women held each other, his agitation grew, until he could no longer contain it. Gripping Jelena’s shoulders, he pulled her out of Sonoe’s arms, eliciting a gasp of surprise from both women. Jelena turned on him, her eyes demanding an explanation.
“Sonoe has to…to prepare for the Ritual now, love, and I want these last moments with you all to myself,” he offered, realizing his reason must sound awkward, but not caring.
“Your husband is right, pet,” Sonoe responded. If she had taken offense to Ashinji’s action, she gave no sign. “You two need do nothing now. We’ll call you when it’s time.”
“Young man, keep watch at the doors until we are ready.” Taya had finished her circuit of the room; frustration swirled about her like thunderclouds.
“Of course, Princess,” Ashinji replied.
“There are spells of protection woven into the walls and floor of this chamber, but I can’t find a way to activate them!” The chief Kirian seemed to be giving voice to her thoughts rather than addressing anyone in particular.