darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,79

“Though, I don’t think it likely, given the long passage of time. Whatever the case, they would be very far gone from human at this point, and it would be impossible to tell who they once were without some extremely fancy divining magic.”

“That’s obscene,” whispered Faran. “Why would someone do that?”

“I don’t know,” replied Siri. “Necromancy is something I’ve never wanted to know more about. Maybe it makes the associated risen stronger or more durable.”

In my head, Triss was cursing viciously in the Shade tongue. The Resshath-ra wasn’t allowed to show his horror visibly either. Not here. Not now.

“I should have searched the ruins when I came back,” I said. “I should have known about this.”

“There was no point in you doing that,” said Siri. “You didn’t get back till weeks later, and I had already taken care of this. There was nothing you could have done, and no reason to believe that the Son of Heaven could be responsible for something this horrible. None of us knew what he was then. I doubt most of his people had any clue about this—not the living ones anyway—though he needed at least one mage to manage it. There was no reason for you to know, which is why I never mentioned it till now.”

Kelos knew, I sent to Triss. The idea made me sick.

But Triss’s response surprised me. He may have known about the Son, but he couldn’t have known about this. His mental voice was very firm. He would never have countenanced it. Malthiss would never have countenanced it.

I hope that you’re right. If you’re not, I may have to change my mind about accepting his help.

And letting him live?

That, too.

I can’t believe that he knew. I refuse to believe it, even of Kelos the Traitor.

Siri lifted her eyebrows at me, obviously wondering if Triss and I were done with our silent little conference. Only she and Faran would have noticed. I nodded very slightly to let her know that we were.

“I wouldn’t have chosen to expose them to this,” she said very quietly, indicating the students with a jut of her chin, “but this is the only path that a human can manage into the hidden ways. Come on.” She crossed the broken magical circle defiantly—the message that she would not let it affect her expressed clearly in the proud lines of her back and shoulders.

I followed, doing my best to emulate her quiet poise. Siri’s refusal to let the Son’s work make her treat the temple as less than it had once been was exactly the thing I needed to fortify my own flagging nerves. She led us all to a seemingly innocuous point about midway between the top of the eye as seen from above and the left corner. There, she slipped around some of the roughly stacked fallen blocks from the ceiling and drew her sword before kneeling and inserting the point into an open gap between two of the stones that made up the wall.

“There was a false piece of mortar here when I found it initially,” she said. “I didn’t see much point in replacing it, since this can’t be opened without the right key.” She pushed then, sliding the short curved blade of her sword all the way home. “Let’s see. . . .”

Siri rocked the sword ever so slightly, and was rewarded with a sharp metallic click. She pivoted, gently torquing the hilt of her sword to the right, and a slim section of wall opened inward to reveal a narrow set of stairs descending into the depths beneath the sanctuary.

“Why don’t you go first, Aral?”

Her tone made me quite sure she was up to something. Nor was I wrong. The stairs led down thirty or so feet to a landing where they doubled back in the other direction. Faint light was visible through an arch at the bottom. I passed through and found myself in a mirror image of the sanctuary above. Here, the blue circle of Namara’s unblinking eye was set in the ceiling, and the iris that centered it was a great orb of white marble spelled to give off a gentle light.

Where the eye above looked up into the sky, this one looked down into a seemingly bottomless reflecting pool. It was beautiful and peaceful. Holy. One, last, pure fane to a fallen goddess. Seeing it healed something in my heart. I understood then that Siri’s choice to send me first was a gift, a chance to spend