The leviathan’s mouth was too damp and narrow for them to fit in at the same time, so Séverin went first, his boots easily finding the grooves that led to the staircase. He broke a phosphorescent baton and the light climbed through the metal throat of the leviathan, catching on the tops of a spiraling staircase unwinding deep within its jaws. Séverin swallowed hard. He knew the creature was Forged, and yet it still seemed eerily alive to him. Steam plumed out from its metal joints like exhaled breath. He looked behind him, holding out his hand to Hypnos. The other boy stared into the tunnel, his blue eyes rounded with fear. Unbidden, he remembered Hypnos as he had been—the boy with the singing voice, the boy desperate for an invitation to join the game.
“You didn’t have to come,” said Séverin.
“Nonsense,mon cher,” said Hypnos, even as his teeth chattered. “If I didn’t come, who the hell would have protected you?”
The familiar barbs of those words dug into Séverin. He blinked once and saw Tristan wide-eyed, grinning. He blinked again and saw him dead. Séverin tightened his hand to a fist, feeling theraised edge of his scar, the sour taste of the promise he couldn’t keep:I protect you.
“Come on, then,” he said tonelessly.
The steps were slippery, and the metal joints groaned with the pressure of his weight. Arctic water sloshed over his ankles, soaking through his water-resistant trousers. Everywhere the light touched, Séverin saw ruin. There were still a number of steps to go, but at least he could see the slatted, silver floor of the leviathan’s belly.
“Fifteen minutes down!” called Enrique, though his voice sounded faraway.
Right before they hit the bottom of the stairs, Séverin asked for the spherical detection device. Hypnos handed it to him, and they both watched as the detection light illuminated the gaping shadows, caverns and shelves of the Fallen House’s treasure room.
In all that he had seen, the word “awe” rarely came to him.
But now… now he felt fresh wonder.
The light illuminated a world teeming with exquisite treasures. It felt like the inside of a holy place. Even now, Séverin could make out the tattered edges of a rich, scarlet rug. There was a water-damaged roll of cushion, a side table with a candle. Whoever built this had intended it as a place of meditation. Beyond the small area of meditation, the room opened to a cavern. Egyptian pillars of lapis lazuli propped up the walls. Huge, half figurines of roaring, golden tigers swiveled their heads in his and Hypnos’s direction and narrowed their ruby eyes. Illuminated manuscripts Forged to the likeness of birds fluttered, shedding bits of gold leaf as they streamed overhead. There were statue busts and relics, necklaces of luminous stones, spinning orreries carved of jade…
“Dear God,” said Hypnos. “The Order wouldkillfor this.”
Hypnos walked toward a pillar in the middle of the room. It was roughly four feet high and adorned with the international House symbols of the Order of Babel. Séverin followed after him. Each of the symbols bore a particular indentation. There, nestled among the thorns of House Kore and crescent moons of House Nyx, he recognized the ouroboros shape of the House that should have been his: House Vanth.
“Why have this here?” asked Hypnos.
Séverin followed the direction of the pillar to the low ceiling above which resembled a warped mirror. Or a Mnemo lens.
“I think it functions like a key,” said Séverin, pointing at the indents within the House symbols. He took out his ouroboros carving and held it up against the sunken shape of it in the stone pillar. A perfect fit. In one smooth move, he pushed in the ouroboros and then looked up at the ceiling.
Nothing happened.
“Let me try,” said Hypnos.
He pressed his House Nyx ring into the indent, and a ripple of light chased down the silver ceiling…
Séverin held his breath, wondering if it might reveal some proof that its final treasure lay here. Instead, the Mnemo screen showed the ice grotto above: Enrique pacing in a circle; Zofia burning a match; Laila stone-faced and unblinking.
“We can see them so clearly, but they can’t see us, can they?” asked Hypnos. He waved his hands wildly beneath the screen, but no one’s expression changed. “How is this possible?”
“The recording device must be on one of the leviathan’s teeth,” said Séverin, though that was not nearly as interesting to him as the Rings. He stared at the perfect fit of the ouroboros carving within the pillar. “My father’s emblem didn’t work.”
Hypnos looked curiously blank as he withdrew his Ring. Instantly, the Mnemo screen went dark. Séverin noticed that the lines of his mouth had tightened, as if his mouth warred with his mind. It was the expression of a secret fighting to be known.
“Perhaps it only works on active Houses?” suggested Hypnos, not looking at him.
“The Fallen House was exiled long before House Vanth fell,” said Séverin, pointing at the emblem of the six-pointed star in the pillar. “It works just fine.”
“Yes, well,” said Hypnos, shrugging. “Does it matter,mon cher? This is no treasure and holds no interest to us.”
Séverin eyed the pillar a moment longer and then withdrew his ouroboros pendant. In the end, Hypnos was right. The pillar held neither hidden truths nor hidden treasure. They needed to keep looking.
While Hypnos turned to the wall of treasures, Séverin moved toward the northern section of the room. Built into the wall was a great steering wheel, the spokes encased in white.
The leviathan didn’t just move, it could besteered. Controlled. Suddenly, the name of the Horowitz family in the well made sense. Each of those Tezcat portals had been routes for the leviathan to sneak through.
Hadn’t Enrique mentioned there was a lake in Istanbul? And the well was just wide enough for the creature to fit through. Séverin scanned the area nearest the steering wheel, nausea creeping through his body. The Fallen House must have used the leviathan as a transportation vessel. To his right, a metal bubble protruded from the wall, an escape mechanism of sorts, equipped with its own small steering wheel and clouded orbs that he recognized as Shu Gusts, Forged breathing apparatuses full of oxygenand named for the Egyptian god of the air. This part of the leviathan formed a partial narthex, which abutted the place of meditation. A table hunched half-hidden in the shadows. There, a stone slab—like an altar—jutted up from the floor. On it lay something dark and leathered.
