They persued their chosen guide to a tunnel entrance and then walked on past it, as if they weren't interested in it.
"Aren't we going up?"
"Not like this," Gabriella said. She darted into a tent belonging, if the washing hung outside of it was anything to go by, to a very showy woman. She dragged Crowe into a corner and applied the makeup she had stolen to his bicep. It was an excellent imitation of a Brotherhood tattoo. She also blackened her own hair, and made a smudge on her chin that, from a distance, could be taken for a scar like the one Kannis had.
"You're missing your calling Dez," he whispered. "They could really use someone with your talent in the theatre."
"One more word and I'll make yours a nice big target. Or a Faith symbol."
"The day I wear a Faith symbol is the day I'll die. Of shame," he added pointedly.
The interior of the Glass Mountain was surprisingly bright. Gabriella had expected to have to sneak through dark, dank, tunnels, using the touch of her hands and feet on the rock to guide her round corners or up stairs.
The bright and airy walkways, glowing with pearlescent warmth, were the last thing she expected. Crowe seemed equally surprised.
"Wasn't the Isle like this?" Gabriella asked.
"I've no idea. We never went inside it."
There were plenty of people around, mostly men but nobody questioned their right to be there. Many rooms in the complex appeared marbled and seemed to be used mostly as meeting points, with no furnishings. Other rooms held dining equipment, or shelves of objets d'art, or beds. It was truly a palace and Gabriella wished she could take the time to explore more of it.
After a couple of hours they had found no sign of Kell, but Gabriella had identified the limits of what she suspected to be a private set of apartments.
"How are your lock-picking skills?" she asked.
"Bloody fantastic if I do say so myself."
"Good." She glanced around to be sure no-one was passing this junction and tapped a narrow doorway. "Open this."
It took a matter of seconds and then they were through into a well-appointed hallway. Two doors opened on to a store room and a small bedroom. A third opened into an office. Crowe was at the desk immediately, opening the drawers.
He brought out two leather-bound tomes and looked at them as though astonished.
"Something wrong?" Gabriella said.
"I've seen these before. They're Margrave's day books from the Belle. I imagine the logs of the Vigilant must be around here somewhere too. It obviously survived my attempt to destroy her."
Gabriella picked up first one logbook, then the other. There was a crossed-circle stamp on each one. "These are from a Faith Archive…"
A loose page fell out from near the middle and she picked it up. It turned out not to be a page from the book, but a note from a Confessor. 'Taken from customs agent, deliver to Scholten, most urgent.' The date was two years old.
"They stole this. The Brotherhood, I mean. Kell's people"
"From the Belle?"
"From the Faith. That's how Kell found out about this place, two years ago. He must have intercepted the messenger." Putting the log books down, she stepped out of the room and moved along to the next door. She pushed it slightly ajar and peered in. It was a bedroom, with a man snoring on the large four-poster inside.
She slipped inside and padded across, trying to get a good look at the man's face without waking him. He had a Brotherhood tattoo on his back and braided red-blonde hair, but he had his face buried in the pillow.
Gabriella took breath and whispered: "Kell?"
He made a snuffling sound and rolled over, blinking bleary eyes.
"Yes, what?" He focussed on Gabriella and licked his lips. "Oh, right. You're from the Faith aren't you?"
"Very much so. I missed you after our little meeting in Andon."
"A rare compliment, thank you."
"I also wondered about this place. This palace, I mean. It's so beautiful. I've never seen its like."
"Do you think man is the only intelligent race to have lived on Twilight?"
"Of course not, but…"
"But?"
"But the other races, the older races, they're all gone."
"True, but this mountain has been here for a very long time and over those millennia, there came others. The Rabash, for example, whom we call goblins. There are those who remember this place. It's power and its fate."
Gabriella didn't like the sound of that. "Its fate?"
"My dear girl, don't tell me you thought these drifters and dispossessed wanderers, fugitives from the Final Faith's repression, built the terraces or excavated the passages that join these mountains?"
"No. I suppose they were built by the Dwarves."
"Dwarves… Heh. If you say so. Such a place is not unique of course."
"The Isle of the Star?" Gabriella suggested.
"Well done! Like the Isle of the Star, this is a bridge to Kerberos, Sister DeZantez. This is the gateway from which we will journey to Kerberos." Kell said.
Abruptly, three hidden doors burst open, admitting armed men into the room. They all wore simple black jerkins and leather armour and the linked-circle tattoos on most of them were clearly visible. Kell swept the bed sheets away from himself and over Gabriella's head, blinding her and confining her.
Boots and fists thudded into her back and limbs and head, and hands stripped away her weapons. Then the sheet was removed again. Kell hopped out bed and revealed that he was wearing trews and boots.
"Did you really think I could be tracked so easily, without knowing who was following? Did you really think I don't have scryers watching my own home and wards in the corridors? I was worried I wouldn't get back to this room in time for you to find me in it."
There were six men around her, but they carried cudgels and maces in their hands rather than blades. "While you've got me at a disadvantage, I don't suppose you're in the mood to tell me a few things?"
"No." He nodded to the Brotherhood guards. "Find a nice high terrace and throw her off."
Several pairs of hands reached for her and that was their mistake. Gabriella grabbed one man's wrist and pivoted, throwing him into Kell even as she snatched the mace from his hand. She used the opposing force from the move to back-kick a second guard in the gut and crack a third man's cheek open with a mace.
She spun on the balls of her feet, kicking high and slashing back-handedly with the mace. In a few heartbeats, all six men were down and she dove for her own pair of swords.
When she rose, ready to go after Kell, he had a sword-point to her throat. "I'm sorry to disappoint you." He lifted the sword that had been in his hand all along and motioned her towards the door through which she had entered. He stepped beside her, keeping the point at her throat. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut short our visit."
He opened his mouth to say something else, but no sound came as Travis Crowe, standing in the doorway, said: "Hello Kell" and stepped through. He put his sword to Kell's throat and hesitated, looking between Kell and Gabriella. Gabriella felt a wave of triumph wash over her and not just relief.
"It seems I have you at a disadvantage." She pushed the point of Kell's sword away and put her own blade to his throat. "Now, about — "
Stars exploded in her vision and her sword flew across the room. Crowe stepped smartly across, shaking the hand with which he had hit her and planted his foot on her sword. He levelled the tip of his blade towards her. Behind him, Kell spoke.
"I'm afraid, Sister DeZantez, that things are a little more complex than you thought. Your friend Crowe here is not only your friend. He's, shall we say, my friend Crowe."