Sword of the Gods - Bruce R. Cordell [80]
They broke out into a room slightly larger than the one with the chests. Leheren wasn’t there either.
“Is she trying to lose us?” Chant said. Maybe they should have brought the lieutenant back to the surface.
“I don’t think she’s in her right mind,” said Carmenere. “She ran off before I could ask Selûne’s aid on her behalf.”
The walls were irregularly sized stones mortared in place, though most of the mortar was long gone. A litter of skulls lay on the floor. Humanoid skulls, Chant noted.
“Burning dominions, why are there skulls down here?” Demascus suddenly exclaimed. The deva seemed particularly upset. Chant wondered what memory, if any, the skulls had triggered.
“Maybe evidence of the cult,” said Chant. “Which would mean we’re close.”
“I think Leheren went this way,” said Riltana, who was peering down a steep stair of mismatched stone slabs. The descent looked more like a ladder than a staircase.
“Then that’s where we go,” said Demascus. “Keep an eye out for a flame inscribed over the symbol of a cube. Even if we lose the lieutenant, we can still access the sublevel.”
They took the stairs. The stairwell meandered as it descended, then emptied into a room lit by torches.
Leheren was there.
She was threatening a genasi with her long sword; its tip rested in the hollow of the man’s neck. The genasi was dressed in the red leather of the Firestorm Cabal, but had defaced it with black paint showing a jagged spiral. A similar symbol had been carved into the back wall of the chamber. The new design was situated almost directly above a flame and cube symbol.
We have a winner, Chant thought.
The genasi’s fearful eyes tracked to them as they entered, then darted back to Leheren.
“I said, explain yourself, recruit. What in Karshimis’s name are you doing down here?”
“I … this is my post, Lieutenant!”
The room, except for the back wall, was draped in yards of red cloth hung inexpertly from torch brackets. An old couch in the chamber was similarly covered in scarlet swathes, while a mounded heap of the material apparently served the genasi as his bed. A crude table, a single chair, and a couple kegs rounded out the chamber’s furnishings.
“And what is this symbol you’ve adorned yourself with?”
The genasi glanced again at the newcomers.
“Answer me!” screamed Leheren.
The man’s gaze snapped back and he squeaked, “The Elder Elemental Eye, Lieutentant!”
“And,” continued Leheren, her voice gone quiet and flat, “how long have you secretly served this Elemental Eye down here below the Motherhouse?”
“Not long. I was only recruited a few tendays ago.”
“Why did you betray your Firestorm Cabal comrades?”
“Betray? Lieutenant Jett said learning about the Eye was how one joined the Cabal’s inner order. I thought this was a promotion—”
Leheren slapped the genasi so hard he tumbled to the floor.
“Bind him,” she said, glaring at the genasi. “You’re a fool. There’s no inner order. How stupid are you?”
Demascus watched over the genasi while Chant used one of the lengths of red fabric to bind him hand to foot. The fellow seemed stunned, but whether at the lieutenant’s blow or her accusatory words Chant couldn’t tell. Both, probably.
Leheren and Riltana studied the wall with the inscribed symbols.
Riltana reached to touch one. Leheren knocked the thief’s hand away before she could touch the wall.
“Hey!” said Riltana.
“Sorry. Something’s not right here.” Leheren turned to regard the captive. She said, “If there’s a trick to opening the passage, now would be a good time to tell us. As opposed to after we trigger something nasty.”
Chant said, “Yeah. That would probably makes us feel less charitable toward you.”
Demascus raised a single eyebrow and measured out a length of scarf, which Chant found more intimidating than Leheren’s and his own efforts combined.
The genasi coughed. Then he mumbled, “It’s a three-step sequence. Press each symbol twice, starting with the flame, then the square, then the spiral, in that order. Otherwise some kind of curse is triggered. I don’t know what.”