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The Caryatid was closest, only a few paces away. When she noticed me looking
at her, she asked in a harsh whisper, "What the blazing hell was that?"
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"How should I know?" Down the road, a cloud of dust or smoke drifted above
the treetops: the remnants of whatever made that deafening bang. I couldn't
see any light shining on the cloud from ground level; with luck, that meant
the explosion hadn't started a fire in the surrounding forest.
The Caryatid was still staring at me, her face paler than usual in the glow
of her shoulder-flame. "So," she whispered, "do we investigate the boom?"
"Of course we do!" That came from Impervia, riding up to join us. Her face
was set in a grim smile, trying not to show too much enthusiasm. As always,
she longed to charge straight into trouble, but did her best to hide it.
"We shouldn't get distracted," I said, knowing I sounded like a rationalizing
coward. "Our first priority is Sebastian; is there a good reason to waste time
on something that has nothing to do with him?"
Impervia made a scoffing noise. "It's got to be part of the same business,
Phil. When was the last time we had mysterious deaths or strange things
appearing from the sky? Never! And now they're all happening the same night.
Everything's connected, and we have to find out how."
Without waiting for an answer, she turned her horse and kicked it into a trot
back toward the mausoleum. Her mount, a gray gelding, showed no reluctance to
head in that direction; perhaps the stupid beast had already forgotten the
bang that made him panic.
The Caryatid gave me a look. "We can't let Impervia go alone, Phil." She
tugged lightly on her horse's reins, and started up the road herself.
Sighing, I checked how Annah was doing. She'd got her mare under control and
was coming back toward me. "Are you all right?" I asked.
"Fine," she said softly. "You?"
"Fine, fine, fine."
Pelinor and Myoko were fine too they'd joined Impervia and were riding toward
Death Hotel together. Annah's eyes met mine: a look that probably meant
something, but in the darkness, I couldn't tell what. "We'd better keep them
out of trouble," she murmured.
I nodded. Together we rode forward.
8: OPENING THE VAULTS
The air near the mausoleum reeked with a chemical stink, something acrid that
made the back of my throat feel raspy.
Our horses wouldn't go near it we tied them to nearby trees and proceeded
forward on foot. Needless to say, Pelinor went with cutlass drawn; Impervia
kept her fists ready in a guard position, the Caryatid cradled a flame in her
hands; Myoko's hair splayed out from her head like a huge black halo.
I would have pulled out my change-purse, but Annah might get the wrong idea.
Thinking of Annah, I turned toward her, intending to deliver some manly
speech of reassurance like, "Stay close, I'll protect you." But when I looked
around, she was nowhere in sight. Her horse was tethered with the others; I'd
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helped her dismount. But now...
Something touched my elbow. I consider it a triumph that I didn't squeal like
a castrated piglet. Annah stood beside me in the darkness; but she'd put on a
hooded black cloak that faded uncannily into the shadows. For a brief moment,
I saw the white of her teeth under the hood as she smiled a smile far more
impish than one might expect from a quiet woman. Proud of herself for taking
me by surprise. Then the smile vanished and Annah did too. Though I was
staring straight at her, I could barely make her out in the silent blackness.
Surprise, surprise: our pretty musicmaster wasn't just a shy wallflower, she
could literally fade into the background. Ihad to stop underestimating the
woman she was far far from helpless.
Our group moved wordlessly forward. The ground was muddy, but clear of snow;
with the mausoleum and surrounding trees acting as windbreaks, the front lawn
had been shielded all winter from the brunt of most blizzards. Whatever
shallow snowdrifts may have built up over the past few months, they'd already
melted in the spring thaw.
As we drew nearer the building, I could see rubble strewn on the far side.
Impervia saw it too; she waved us in that direction and hurried her pace. The
chemical smell grew stronger not enough to choke us, but it made our eyes
water. The stink reminded me of explosives my friends had made in Collegium
Ismaili's chem lab... but I'd never paid enough attention to tell one
incendiary chemical from another just by the after-blast odor.
Poor planning on my part.
When we rounded the building's front corner, we saw what the bang had done.
Most of the mausoleum's side wall had blown out in a huge detonation,
scattering stone and concrete like grapeshot. The spruce trees ten paces away
had great ragged holes ripped through them; needles and branches had been
pulverized by flying debris.
Much of that debris came from the cinder blocks bricking up the side
entrance... but the blast had been powerful enough to loosen the building's
granite as well. The entire edge of the roof was gone, exposing steel I-beams
that had trussed up the weight of the dome. Here and there, the steel looked
partly melted the bottom lip of the I-beam sagged in places like softened
candle wax.
Amidst the rubble, nothing moved. The mausoleum waited, filled with
pitch-black shadow.
Pelinor stared at the hole. "Looks like something smashed its way out," he
said in his usual hearty voice. I winced at the sound, piercingly loud in the
silent night... but nothing attacked Pelinor or anyone else. If our luck was
good, whatever had caused this wreckage was gone: stomped off to parts unknown
while we were getting our horses under control.
Impervia moved toward the rupture in the wall, obviously intending to clamber
inside. "Wait," said the Caryatid; she raised her arm and tossed her ball of
flame through the breach with an overhand lob. Half a second too late, I
wondered if there might be combustible gases inside... but the original
explosion must have burned off anything capable of igniting. The Caryatid's
flame ball landed tamely on the mausoleum's floor, merely lighting what there
was to see.
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To be precise: absolutely nothing.
One might expect the people who'd slept in the hotel to leave evidence of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
