They stepped from sunlight to shadow. It was cooler within.
They walked through a high vaulted hall containing the stuffed remains of several huge animals. A woolly mammoth stood in the beams of light from one of the stained glass windows. Across from it was a bridge-backed wyrm, a reptile so huge it made the mammoth look small. The skeleton of a dragon hung from the ceiling. It ran the length of the large room.
“I’m glad you wanted to come here. The King would like your opinion on the moongate.”
“He is thinking of making the trade?”
Jonas glanced around and then shrugged. “It is difficult to understand how His Majesty thinks sometimes. I am just a humble servant.”
“You certainly seem to have become one since you entered the palace.”
Jonas gave a short barking laugh. “I enjoyed our sea voyage you know. I felt a sense of freedom on that ship. But this palace is where my duty lies and where their burden is heaviest.”
They entered a smaller chamber. Elder signs from half a dozen places lined the walls. There were tracings of symbols to be found in the deserts near Tanyth worked on copper. There was a stone pillar that must have come from somewhere in the Northlands. In one corner brooded a black monolith in which a truesilver star within a circle had been set. It hovered just above a plinth of similar black stone. Doors led out to much larger halls on the left and right, but Jonas kept walking straight ahead through an archway. “This is quite a collection.”
“It was started by the Archmage Pelageus,” Jonas said. “His descendants have added to it. King Aemon most of all. He finds such artefacts fascinating.”
“So I gathered.”
“The possibility that worries me most is that someone who knows about the King’s obsession may have chosen it as a way to strike at him.”
“By sending the sarcophagus?”
Jonas nodded.
“It seems a far-fetched way of doing so.”
“I’ve seen stranger plots,” said Jonas.
“So have I.”
The sarcophagus would have looked at home in the room they walked through. Metal coffins stood upright against the walls. The lids had been moulded into the shapes of sleeping humans. Their features were fine. Their eyes were huge. Over each sarcophagus hung a silver mask, each also an excellent representation of a human face.
“Some of these belonged to the Priest Kings who served the Old Ones when they ruled Siderea. Some come from Umbrea. They were interred in mausoleums.”
“I would have thought they would have been destroyed by the Inquisition.”
“Interring them under the shadow of the Angel is symbolic of Solar ascendance,” said Jonas. “It proves the servants of the Holy Sun have triumphed over the worshippers of the false gods and have no fear of them.”
More guards stood by the entrance of the next chamber. Each of them carried a shield warded with an elder sign. Their helmets were similarly protected. They had the hard, fit look of elite warriors. This room was lit by sunbeams falling through stained glass windows in the roof. Dust floated in the pillars of light. At the far end of the chamber stood the moongate. It was an arch three times the height of a man, made of white marble inscribed with runes. Liquid truesilver filled the arch, remaining upright in defiance of gravity. Kormak walked closer and studied it.
Dull moonstones showed in the stonework. They had none of the sparkle they would have possessed when active.
“What do you think,” Jonas asked.
“It is indeed a moongate,” Kormak said. “And it is probably functional.”
“You’ve seen the like before?”
“Yes.” Kormak said, not liking the memories the sight of this thing brought back.
“You think it could be made to work?”
“By a sufficiently powerful sorcerer.”
“They say the Old Ones and their favoured servants used these to travel from place to place as quick as the light of the moon.”
“I know,” Kormak said.
“The elder signs around the Palace hold it inert.”
“They ought to.”
“They say thousands of these once linked every city and palace of the Eldrim. Now there are only a few score left. This would be priceless if it worked.”
“Most likely,” said Kormak. He wondered if the Sidereans really were considering trading this to Marketa and her masters. They could ask a great deal for it. He said so.
Jonas steepled his fingers then glanced around as if to make sure they were not overheard. He said, “The King-Emperor will never trade it.”
“Why? It is worth a fortune”
“She is our enemy.” Jonas said. “And the King-Emperor is already the