Possibly.
Hopefully.
Sincehe was focusing on it, Isaac began to notice something strange happening to thedust in this region.It was extremely fine, almost to the point of beinginvisible, and it seemed to glint faintly in the cartilage light, like it wasmade of a precious metal.In some places, it was beginning to clump along thewalls, mingling with the osseous fibers already protruding from the stone.Itwas filling the gaps in the masonry, like mortar between a crack.If hesquinted, he could’ve sworn the dust was moving, wriggling and breathing likemoss.It almost—
“Isaac,”Zaria whispered.
Helooked.
Thestampede of footprints curved off suddenly into an adjacent room.It seemed tobe a very abrupt detour.All the thralls had followed.
Rightnow, the door was closed.He heard no sound.Isaac gestured, and they stackedup on opposite sides of the frame.Zaria pressed an ear to the wall, listening.She shook her head.Even still, she began to extend her polearm, ready to stopa charge with the length of the weapon.Isaac balled a tangle of flame into onehand, grabbing the finger-shaped handle with the other.
Helooked to her.She nodded.
Heopened the door and rushed inside.
Acouncil chamber greeted him.In the middle of the stretching room, there was anopen circle of knuckled stone, capped with a dust-covered husk of a lectern.Several fetid skeletons surrounded the standing desk, all of which weredisplayed like a college lesson.Isaac assumed it was a research presentation.As he made his way further into the room, he saw the faint residue ofresurrection on the bones, as well as desks and chairs surrounding the stage,arrayed in rows like pews in a church.
Thedesks were made of real bone, woven together like a basket.
Isaacgrimaced.
“Clear,”Zaria said.
Towardsthe back of the council chamber, there was an open square of darkness.It tookIsaac a moment to recognize it as a hole in the floor.At each corner of thesquare, thin metal beams rose into the ceiling and deep down into the lightlesschamber below.If he had to guess, it looked like an elevator.
Theroom was empty.There was no sign of the puppeteer or their thralls.Standingby the door, Zaria took a few tentative sniffs of the air, glancing back theway they came.
“Smellsomething?”Isaac asked.
For along moment, she glared down the empty corridor, as if daring whatever lurkedin the shadows to attack.
“ThoughtI did,” she said.“Nothin’ now.”
“If youkeep hearing things....”
Shegestured him on.“I’ll keep watch.Do your thing.”
“Mything?”
“Pullingwonders from the arse of evil.Hurry on, now.”
“Ah,yes,” Isaac said, heading in.“I can see my dissertation now.‘Archaeologicalsodomy.’It defends itself, really.”
He madehis way through the rows of desks, heading toward the elevator.From the squarehole in the floor, cool air rose to greet him.A faint breeze was blowing fromthe depths of the earth.He thought of the dynamics of air.For a breeze toarise, the cavern below must be very large, large enough that its size causedan internal system of weather.He couldn’t see the carriage attached to theelevator, and he wasn’t entirely sure it hadn’t long ago snapped off from therusted support beams.There was nothing but darkness.
Hegrabbed a chair from a nearby desk and tossed it down the hole.It disappearedwithout a trace.After listening for half a minute, he heard no sound.The cavernbelow them was, indeed, very deep.It might go all the way to the bottom of thetomb.
Closeto his father....
Only asingle set of footprints had been carved into the dust around the elevator.Thetracks came to the precipitous edge of the open shaft.From there, they widenedinto a full-body print on the floor.It looked, rather plainly, like thepuppeteer had dropped to their belly and stuck their head through the floor.This confirmed that the rogue sorcerer had a corporeal form, at the very least.It was said that the most powerful wizards could evolve beyond the flesh.
Isaactook a breath.
Gingerly,he dropped down to his stomach, inched his shoulders over the gap, and bent hishead down into the chilly air.
Therewas only darkness.It was a perfect black, like the depths of the catacombs,where no sunlight had ever touched.At the same time, even without a singledetail to focus the eye, Isaac could immediately feel the vastness of the spacearound him, like he had somehow fallen into the night sky, where the threemoons were in their darkest penumbra.If he slipped now, he imagined he wouldfall forever.
