The Blood Knight - J. Gregory Keyes [196]
“He might,” Anne conceded. “But I don’t think he could fool me about who he is. And Robert is behind us. I can hear the Kept up ahead.”
“But a Scaos…”
“Virgenya Dare made him our slave,” Anne said firmly. “I’m the rightful queen, so he’s my servant now. Do not fear him. Trust me.”
“Yes,” Austra said weakly.
Then she continued. “Remember how we used to play in the horz?”
“I remember,” Anne said. She reached behind her for Austra’s hand. “This is all happening because of that, somehow. Because we found the grave.”
“Virgenya Dare’s grave?”
“I was wrong about that,” Anne said.
“You? Wrong?”
“It happens,” Anne replied wryly. “Well, now, are we ready to meet a real live Scaos?”
“Yes.” She didn’t sound confident, though.
“Then off we go. Cazio, are you still all right there? And the rest of you?”
“Yes,” Cazio replied, and their companions echoed the reply. “But who, by Ontro, are you talking about? And how did we get into this wretched tunnel?”
“What was that?” Anne asked.
“I said, ‘How did we get into this tunnel?’”
“I think he knows where he is, and he’s remembering it,” Austra said.
“What do you mean, remembering it?” Cazio asked irritably. “I’ve never been here before. I don’t even remember how I got here.”
“This place must be older than the glamour,” Anne said. “That’s probably good.”
“Glamour?” Cazio muttered. “What glamour? The last thing I remember is the Sefry house. Was a spell cast upon me?”
“It’s the same with me!” one of Leafton’s men, Cuelm MeqVorst, exclaimed.
“Yes,” Anne replied. “A shinecrafting was done to you, but we’re beyond it, and there isn’t time to go into detail. We are being pursued by the usurper and his men.”
“Let’s fight them, then,” Cazio said.
“No, there are too many,” Anne said. “But those of you in the rear, keep watch. Be ready. If somehow they find the way into here, we will have to fight.”
“They can only get to us one at a time,” Cazio pointed out.
“True,” Anne said. “You might be able to hold them off long enough for us to die of thirst.”
“What do we do, then?” MeqVorst wanted to know. His voice was edged with panic.
“You follow me,” she said firmly. “You may hear or see strange things, but unless there’s an attack from behind, keep your hands still unless I say so. Do all of you understand?”
“Not entirely,” Cazio said, and the other three men murmured agreement.
“Where are we going?”
“The only way left to us. Down.”
The scorched odor became stronger, at times stifling, and Anne fancied she smelled mingled with it the acrid scent of fear coming from those behind her.
“I hear it now,” Austra gasped. “Saints, he’s in my head.”
“We can’t go farther,” MeqVorst protested fearfully. “Men I can fight, but I’m not going to be food for some great bloody spider.”
“It’s not a spider,” Anne said, wondering as she said it if that was true. After all, no one knew what the Skasloi looked like, at least not that she’d ever read or heard. They were known as demons of shadow whose true forms were hidden by darkness.
“Stay calm, all of you,” she said. “He can’t hurt you as long as you’re with me.”
“I…it feels…the voice…” The warrior’s voice trailed off, and Anne thought she heard him weeping.
The murmurs grew louder but remained unintelligible until they finally reached level earth once again. Then they seemed to subside as they encountered yet another dead end.
Again Anne knew where the hidden entrance was. She found the latch, feeling as she did so a peculiar tingle.
The wall in front of them silently swung open, and lamplight poured from the tunnel into a low, round chamber.
Something shifted in the new light, something wrong, and she stifled a shriek. Austra didn’t manage to, and her scream reverberated in the hollow depths.
Anne stood stiffly, heart pounding, vision swimming.
It was only after several slow, thundering pulses of her blood that she understood that she was looking not on some sort of monster but at a woman and a man. The man was horribly disfigured;