There were trees below, species that could never have survived at this altitude. They ringed the inner edge of the crater, towering in the air. He could almost reach out and touch the tops of the closest ones. Yet these trees were long dead. Their sides were scorched black, their branches naked and twisted. Once, they were a mighty grove. Now they looked like the boneyard of someplace long cursed.
Past the trees were the ruins of a vast city. Buildings filled the greater part of the crater – more buildings than there were in all of Adopest, and many taller too. They were little more than stone husks now. Their sides were blackened like the trees, shutterless windows staring out like the empty sockets of thousand-eyed skulls. The sight made Taniel shiver.
“The Kresim Caldera,” Del said. His voice quaked.
Bo’s face was grim. “Kresimir’s protection has faded over the centuries. The volcano’s acid and heat have killed the trees and burned out the buildings. Nothing lives up here.”
“Except the cave lions,” Taniel said. “I don’t know how they can.”
“Something keeps them alive,” Bo said.
Taniel could see a lake in the middle of the caldera. There were plots of trees as well, and ponds, and clear knolls that had once been parks where children played in the Time of Kresimir. Taniel imagined that the waters within the caldera had once run clean and beautiful. From his vantage point he could see that the lake was foul and brown. It bubbled and belched, and a thick cloud of steam and smoke rose from its center.
In the distance Taniel heard the scream of a cave lion.
“Fix bayonets,” he said. He heard the clatter of weapons as the Watchers behind him readied themselves.
Spreading out, they proceeded into the crater.
Taniel positioned himself between Del and Bo. “Where is the coliseum?” he asked.
Del didn’t respond. Taniel thought he heard a whimper come from the man. Then again, it could have been the dogs. They’d fallen deathly silent since entering the caldera.
“South Pike had a proper peak when Kresimir was summoned,” Bo said. His brow furrowed. “It’s said that when he touched the ground, the very earth dropped out from beneath him and the mountain erupted, spewing soot and acid into the air, enough to coat all of Adro. The Predeii barely survived. When all had settled, the caldera had formed and Kresimir stood on the shore of Pike Lake.” He pointed toward the center of the caldera.
“That’s where the coliseum is?”
Del nodded.
“I’ll need someplace to line up a shot into the coliseum. The farther away, the better, but it needs a clear view.”
Del seemed to consider this for a few moments. “Kresimir’s palace. Follow me. I can get us there.”
They fell silent as they passed through the deepest part of the dead forest. Their footsteps echoed on the hard-packed cobblestone road, and Taniel realized suddenly that there was no snow. The ground was bare, with even the hardiest forest scrubs and bushes long dead. The air, he also noted, was growing warmer. Some remnant from Kresimir’s protection of the Holy City? Or heat from the heart of the volcano? Would they even be able to approach Pike Lake? Unbearable heat and poisonous gases might drive them away. They didn’t have the sorcerous protection of Julene and the Kez Cabal. Taniel gave Bo a glance. He was looking less and less well. Taniel doubted he could protect a fly, let alone the rest of them.
They found the next bodies at the edge of the forest on the near side of a small hill. These, Taniel noted as he got closer, were not just cave lions.
A Warden lay torn to shreds among the remains of at least six or seven cave lions. His hand, the flesh stripped from the bones, still remained around the throat of a dead cave lion. Taniel held a handkerchief over his nose against the smell. The bodies hadn’t been around long enough to begin to rot, but the lions were putrid, and their stink was far more pronounced here where the cold had begun to fade and the wind did not carry it away.
Ka-poel went on ahead again. She paused just on the other side of the hill, still in sight, and waved her arms at them. Taniel was glad to leave the bodies behind.
Not for long. He came to a stop beside Ka-poel and choked down bile. He heard someone spilling their breakfast noisily behind him. A quick glance told him it was Bo.
There’d been a pitched battle here. Wardens had made their stand in the center of a small park – presumably while Julene and the Kez Privileged escaped into the heart of the city. A dozen of them had died, and three times their number in cave lions. Their remains lay scattered across the onetime park. Nearby, a Warden lay with one arm up on a stone bench, his entrails spread about the ground before him. He’d been feasted upon in great haste.
“These things are hungry,” Rina said. Her dogs crouched at her feet, unwilling to leave their master’s side. “They run as if they are hunting, as if they have a purpose to attack and kill, yet whenever there is a death, they stop for the meat. They’re starving.”
Taniel swallowed. “They’re hungry? Is that why they’re chasing the Kez?” It was much easier to handle, though no less dangerous, than the thought of the lions being guided by some supernatural force or intelligence.
Rina shrugged. “It’s possible. But cave lions don’t hunt in packs, even in the worst of times. They are solitary creatures.”
“How could there be so many on the mountain?” Bo said. “There’s nothing to eat up here. I’ve never heard of more than one or two cave lions on an entire mountainside.”
No one seemed to have an answer.
Taniel checked each of his pistols and his rifle to make sure they were loaded, then snorted a pinch of powder. His hands shook. His body told him to take more powder. He’d need it. He fought the impulse. He’d be powder blind with much more. Then again, he’d be dead without the strength. He took another snort.
The trail of carnage led through the park and onto a boulevard that seemed to head into the center of the city. Blood and bits of Warden and cave lion had been dragged along as the cave lions chased the Kez Privileged.
As they entered the city, Taniel kept his eyes on the buildings. Not a sound issued from within any of them, though the wind should have howled, or tiny animals should have moved about. Nothing. The city was completely dead, even the elements, and it chilled Taniel’s soul.
A hand on his shoulder made Taniel spin, rifle in hand, and almost gut Del with his bayonet. Taniel stilled his beating heart. “Sorry,” he said.
“The palace,” Del said, “is that way.” He pointed into the heart of the city.
They altered course according to Del’s instructions. Though the city spooked the pit out of him, Taniel was grateful to be away from the trail of the cave lions and Privileged. He’d find Kresimir’s palace and pick away at the Privilegeds’ numbers from a safe distance, and they wouldn’t have enough power to summon Kresimir.
Adamat heard rumors all the way home about the massacre in Elections Square. Most traffic headed away from the square. Word was spreading fast and there were signs of the Rope everywhere he went as people warded against bad luck and ill omens. A massacre during the Festival of St. Adom was bad enough to keep many people home.
He hoped he’d be able to hire a carriage immediately for Offendale. He’d get his family and get out of the country and then…
“SouSmith!” Adamat called as he hung his coat on the rack. He stopped. There were three coats too many hanging there. He closed his eyes. Not again.
“Can’t you let me be…?” Adamat walked into the sitting room and froze.
Lord Vetas and his two goons stood on the far side of the room. Astrit stood between them, Lord Vetas’s thin hands on her shoulders. She looked like a helpless fly caught in a spider’s web. The sight of his little girl nearly stopped Adamat’s heart. It was one thing to know she was in danger. It was another to see her here in Lord Vetas’s grip.