Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) - Robert Jackson Bennett Page 0,144

do that!> said Sancia.

said Clef.

said the Mountain.

Sancia looked out on the rings and rings of floors below her. she asked.

said Clef.

Sancia continued across the walkway to the door. She slipped through it and found herself in some kind of maintenance shaft. said Sancia.

said the Mountain.

She walked down the shaft, found yet another door, and opened it onto another marble hallway.

the Mountain whispered.

She stopped. she asked.

asked Clef.

said the Mountain.

Sancia continued on until she found a lift that went all the way up, to the fortieth floor. She took a breath, relieved, and set the dial to the thirty-fifth floor.

asked Clef.

said the Mountain.

From the sound of its words, it seemed like the Mountain did not like him much.

The lift opened. Sancia stepped out onto the thirty-fifth floor. This was a floor of offices, and they were different from what she’d seen so far. For one, they were huge, nearly two stories in height. They also featured lots of sumptuous, complicated wallpapers, huge stone and metal doors, and lavish waiting areas.

asked Clef.

said the Mountain.

thought Clef.

said the Mountain.

said Clef.

said Sancia.

said the Mountain, though it now sounded distracted and impatient.

said Clef.

<…Yes.>

Sancia walked ahead until she found it—a large, black door with a stone frame. And beside the frame was a nameplate reading:

TOMAS ZIANI

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OFFICER

She tried the door. It gave way easily—presumably because of the blood she carried. She slipped inside.

She stopped and stared. Ziani’s office was…unusual. Everything was built of huge dark, heavy stone, towering and forbidding and looming, even the desk. She saw none of the artful designs or colorful materials from the other rooms. Besides the side door leading to the balcony, there was nothing conventional about this place.

Yet it also looked familiar, she realized. Hadn’t she seen a place just like this before?

Yes, she had—the room beyond looked almost exactly like that chamber depicted in the engraving with Crasedes the Great, the one she’d glimpsed in Orso’s workshops, where the hierophants stood before the casket, and from it emerged the form of…something.

“The chamber at the center of the world,” she whispered. That could be the only explanation for the huge, strange stone plinths, and giant, arched windows…

Then she remembered. Because this used to be Tribuno’s office.

whispered the Mountain.