Shadow War - Deborah Chester [139]
“Where, then, will we go?” she demanded. “To the treasuries? They will be looted. The priests are our last hope.”
“Sien cannot be trusted.”
“No one can be trusted,” she said. Turning from him, she started down the steps alone.
The moonlight shone across her, and she hadn’t even noticed. Swearing to himself, Caelan ran after her and shoved her to one side of the steps.
“Take care,” he whispered furiously.
She stiffened under his hand, but did not waste her breath arguing.
Together they hurried to the imposing, larger temple, standing tall against the night sky. Its auxiliary buildings, containing living quarters and instructional rooms, stretched out behind it. Caelan considered circling around to the back and entering that way, but Elandra still hastened a step or two in front of him.
Picking up her skirts, she went up the wide marble steps with confidence. Caelan followed, watching for trouble, knowing they could be walking into a trap yet having no alternative to offer.
At the top, he moved ahead of her, keeping his arm outstretched to hold her back, and went first to the door.
Its lock was normal. No spell protected it. Caelan fitted the dagger’s tip into the keyhole. A stiletto would have served his purpose better, but he had no such weapon.
Crouching there in the darkness, working by feel, the sweat of urgency running down his temples, Caelan felt the hand of the empress close upon his upper arm.
It was a silent warning. He reacted without looking, whipping his sword off his knees and coming up and around in one swift movement of defense.
The moonlight shone full upon the steps now, lighting their pale marble surface in silvery radiance. Skimming upward over the steps came the shadows of men, only no men walked the ground to cast them.
Caelan’s blood congealed in his veins. Staring in astonishment and rising dread, he straightened fully upright, and for a moment his grip slackened on his sword. Although the empress had described these shadows to him previously, nothing she had said truly prepared him for the horror of seeing them coming so fast and silently.
He took one cautious step back, retreating deeper into the dark, and brought up his sword.
The empress did not retreat, however. Fumbling at the bodice of her gown, she drew out something secured on a cord about her neck. “Hurry and break the lock,” she said softly. “I’ll try to hold them off.”
He stared at her, wondering what kind of talisman she held. “Do you have a warding key?”
“What is that?” she asked, then gestured at him. “Hurry! You cannot fight them with swords. I told you. Get the door open as soon as you can.”
But Caelan knew that doors would not protect them from the unbound shadows of men. Even if they got inside, these creatures would follow. He shivered involuntarily and braced himself for the fight to come.
A faint golden glow appeared on Elandra’s palm. He looked and saw that she was holding a large, square-cut jewel, and it was emitting the light. Astonishment spread through Caelan. He had not realized she possessed powers of her own.
Above the light spreading out from her hands, Elandra’s face looked set and purposeful. She raised her hands to cast the light from the jewel a little farther, and the racing shadows stopped and curled back from the light as though burned.
Inside his amulet pouch, Caelan’s fused emeralds grew warm against his chest. They had warned and protected him before. Now he marveled to see that the empress carried something similar. Even better, she knew how to utilize the powers within hers. Although he was long familiar with the magical ability of his emeralds to conceal their true shape and worth from the eyes of other men, Caelan had never dreamed his emeralds contained a force such as this. He had kept them all these years as a token of hope, as a reminder of his little sister. But perhaps they had other uses.
The shadows raced around behind him, and Elandra turned quickly in a small circle, casting