The Garden of Stones - By Mark T. Barnes Page 0,146

thing that made Indris very nervous. Yet they had acted like the elite soldiers they were. Ekko and Mauntro had led their forces in a devastating attack on those appointed to guard the ruins. Indris tried not to think about the fates of those who boasted a trophy from a fallen Tau-se. He had no doubt it would have proven to be a short-lived error in judgment.

Those Fenlings who fought had been cut down. The entrances to their nests were collapsed. Avān and Human prisoners had been taken, marched without further harm to holding areas. All the while Tau-se anger had simmered, seen in the widening of their eyes and the angling of their ears.

In the calm that followed, Indris led the way to where Brede’s broken body lay among shattered debris. A quick check confirmed the woman was dead. A familiar sense of disentropic chop assailed his senses. His gorge rose along with a wave of revulsion.

“Hayden?” Indris asked as he stepped away from Brede’s corpse.

“I know you don’t approve of it, Indris, but salt-forged steel does have its uses.”

“What’s done is done. Leave the bolt where it is, though. We want to make sure she stays dead. I’ve no idea what new tricks she learned at the knees of the Angothic Witches and am not inclined to take any chances.” He gestured to two of the Tau-se. “Would you please bring her?”

The group waded through the dirty water of a flooded street. They climbed a small set of moss-covered stairs, then trekked through an untended park of wildflowers and jacarandas. After several minutes they came to the round building that held the plaza of the Star Clock.

Ekko and almost twenty Tau-se congregated there. Indris could tell by the way they knelt on the hard stone, the way they rubbed the fortune coins in their manes, something was wrong. He dashed forward to where Ekko knelt in the wide round doorway of a tall building. Indris could hear the sonorous tick, creak, and groan of gears and wheels from inside. The giant Tau-se bowed his head to Indris, his expression mournful.

Two bodies lay on the ground, covered by the blue-and-gold over-robes of Lion Guardsmen. Four of the Lion Guard stood over the bodies, weapons and shields worn with much use.

With a trembling hand, Indris pulled back the robe covering the nearest corpse. He swallowed a curse when he saw the body had been beheaded. But he knew the lotus crest tattooed below the collarbone. Indris saw Daniush had been beaten before he died. He pulled the robe up to cover the body once more, then turned to the other. The breath stuttered out of him.

“I am sorry we could not arrive in time to save him, Amonindris,” Ekko rumbled. Indris craned his neck to look at the Tau-se champion, whose eyes were wide. “I failed him, my friend.”

It was then Indris noticed the Sepulchre Mirror. Indris had seen a few of the eternity prisons over the years, though never outside the Forbidden City of Qahavel. This one had likely been found by tomb raiders in a ruin somewhere. Indris touched it. It was cold. The mirror was inactive.

“Ariskander is dead,” Indris murmured. “Far-ad-din will not return to Amnon. I fear all our plans will come to nothing.”

There was a commotion at the doorway. The battered Tau-se who carried Brede’s corpse lowered it to the ground. The cloth of her doublet and breeches was poor, the scorched and bloody fabric scented with incense, sweat, and musk. Brede would have been beautiful once, but her pale face was now gaunt, the dead skin sallow beneath a snarl of dirty blonde hair.

“There’s naught much better than a dead Angoth.” Hayden’s tone was satisfied. He nudged her body with his boot.

One of the Tau-se came forward with a leather pack. “I found this near her body.”

Indris opened the pack to reveal the Spirit Casque. The diamond glittered in the gloom, a pool of radiance lighting the faces of those around. Traceries of honeyed light flickered across the amber, echoes of Ariskander’s features in the moment of his death. Indris closed his eyes against the sight of his uncle’s screaming face, the frozen eyes and mouth wide with terror.

“Something must’ve happened to Omen for this thing to be here.” Indris clenched his fists in frustration.

“But what?” Hayden asked. “Omen wouldn’t have gone down easily.”

“I aim to find out as soon as I can, Hayden.”

With great care Indris placed the Angothic Spirit Casque back in