“Eye level to a child… or to a supplicant,” said Séverin.
Still crouched, he slid his knees into the dents of the floor. He dropped the phosphorous pendant on the ground, and the blue light silhouetted him. In the past, when they had gone on hunts for acquisitions, Laila had always been taken by how differently Séverin saw the world. He had a sense of wonder unlike anyone she’d ever met. It made her remember the first evening she realized she wanted to kiss him. At the time, he had commissioned a garden installation based oncobwebsof all things. She’d thought it was a disgusting idea until he’d reached out, tilted her chin back, and asked softly: “Do you see the wonder now?” That was all it took for the night sky to transform above them. One turn of her head, andthe world seemed crisscrossed with the starry thread of soon-to-be constellations.
Séverin still had an uncanny sense for performance. But now, he had the look of someone too eager to be sacrificed, and Laila had to stop herself from the strange impulse to run to him and pull him to his feet.
“It’s like an altar,” Séverin said, so softly that Laila couldn’t tell if he meant for them to hear. “And I kneel in worship.”
Then, he pressed his palms together as if in prayer, pushing them into the depressions of the door. A silver light ran down the vines, as if it was stirring awake after a long slumber. The door’s ice and metal hinges groaned as it swung back, revealing a room lit within by a silvery glow.
Beside her, Enrique crossed himself, and Hypnos drew in a sharp breath. Séverin rose to his feet, but he didn’t enter.
“Why isn’t he going in?” muttered Hypnos.
“Fear of dismemberment,” said Zofia. “If I were designing thief-catching mechanisms, I would have a device rigged to attack the first three people who entered.”
Hypnos stepped behind Zofia. “Ladies first.”
Enrique threw the spherical detection device to Séverin who caught it one-handed.
“What do you see?” asked Enrique.
Usually, Séverin would have been narrating the whole scene—from the number of walls to the shape of the ceiling. But whatever he saw here was worth hoarding the whole sight to himself. Laila held her breath.
“Stars,” said Séverin simply.
Laila and Enrique looked at each other, confused. What about the treasure? Thebook?
“No detection devices,” said Séverin. “It’s clear.”
They filed in one by one—Hypnos clinging to Zofia’s coat—into a room Laila could only describe as an ice grotto. Séverin was right about the stars. Above them stretched a rendering of the night sky, but it wasn’t real, even though it looked fathomless. It was like an image suspended of a former night, and at the center hung a pendulous moon that changed before their eyes, growing slimmer with every passing second as if it were counting down to something.
The ice grotto resembled a sunken courtyard. Farther into the room, shallow steps descended to an empty floor bearing a single, jagged pool revealing Lake Baikal’s sapphire water. Splayed against the far wall loomed three, huge shield-like structures. If there was writing or symbols on them, the cobwebs of ice concealed it from view. Above those three shields appeared more carvings of women. They seemed to lean out of recessed niches within the ice wall, their arms outstretched and their hands…missing. When the light flashed over them briefly, they looked terribly lifelike.
The pale light of the stars above them only gradually revealed the room’s contents, but one thing was for sure…
There was no treasure here.
Laila’s heart sank, but she refused to be discouraged. Treasure liked to hide. She knew that well enough after two years of working with Séverin. As they moved to inspect the eastern wall, Enrique jumped back with a squeal. Laila whirled around, her pulse racing as she beheld what made Enrique nearly scream. When the light hit the eastern ice wall, the wall turned translucent and revealed the entire menagerie of animals they’d glimpsed moments ago.
“Interesting,” said Zofia. “A Tezcat wall connecting the menagerie that requires no key but light. That’s clever.”
“That’s horrific,” said Enrique. “Look at them… they’reawake.”
Laila turned slowly toward the creatures. Where they’d once slumbered, now they were awake. Each of their heads had turned to face them.
“I hereby volunteer to guard the door,” said Hypnos. “From the hall. Actually, the end of the hall.”
Séverin ignored him. “Let’s keep documenting. I want to see what’s down those stairs.”
“How?” asked Enrique. “It’s far too dark. We should come back with more light. I want lanterns trained just on that eastern wall.”
Then, Laila heard the unmistakablerrripof a lit match. In seconds, Zofia had created a makeshift torch.
“Much better—” said Enrique, but his words were cut off by a sharp scream from Hypnos.
“Séverin,wait!”
Too late, Laila realized Séverin had broken off from the group, venturing toward the stairs at the far end of the grotto that led to the north wall. He didn’t wait. With his lantern aloft, Séverin took the first step—
