Beyond the Pool of Stars by Howard Andrew Jones

Author:Howard Andrew Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466842656
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

17

Faces in the Stone

Ivrian

Our imaginations peopled the place with a hundred dangers even as they raced ahead in contemplation of the wonders that awaited us in the Chamber of Ancestors. I did not speak to Mirian of it, but I worried that someone might have learned the Karshnaar code and plundered the tomb, almost as much as I worried that we might misremember that code and be cut in half or crushed to paste beneath some ancient trap.

—From The Daughter of the Mist

The corridor was in slightly better condition than the first ones, complete with short runs of shining little fungi. Certainly the green light was eerie, but it was better than nothing. Because it grew in long trenches at both head and foot level, Ivrian could easily see there weren’t any monstrous spiders or centipedes waiting to drop on him. What webs he saw were of the typical variety. He still gave them a wide berth.

With his pole shifted to its spear end and pointed before him, Jekka sounded almost friendly as he spoke with Mirian.

“It is wise,” he said, “to leave more warriors to guard a larger space.”

“Yes,” Mirian said.

They neared an intersection. “You are not more worried that we will be encumbered while carrying the treasures?”

“Not with these magical backpacks.”

He’d grown a lot friendlier today, and Ivrian wondered whether that was just the natural result of his spending time with Mirian. Perhaps seeing her artwork last night had something to do with it. Whatever the cause, a calmer, less irritable Jekka was a more reassuring companion.

They advanced into the next segment of hallway. A long swath of its ceiling was cracked. Mirian flashed her light over its surface and revealed tree roots that had fought their way through the rock.

Jekka continued to prove uncharacteristically talkative. “I begin to see that a contract is a pledge that guarantees honor between humans. I suppose such contracts are necessary when there are so many different clans.”

“Yes,” Mirian agreed.

“Unfortunately,” Ivrian added, “many humans don’t honor their contracts anyway.”

Jekka glanced back at him and stopped to consider Mirian, who halted and cocked an eyebrow at him.

“But you do,” Jekka said.

“My clan prides itself on honoring its contracts,” Mirian said. “My father risked his life to honor his.”

“All for the riches?” the lizard man asked.

Mirian’s smile was a little sad. “Not really. For the thrill. To go places no one had ever seen. To find secrets, to solve puzzles.”

“He was a hunter, then.”

“Of a kind.”

“And you are like him.”

“I suppose I am.”

They reached another intersection, surveyed the dark corridors, moved on. What else lay down these silent halls, he wondered? How many lizardfolk had lived and died here and raised families? And how many artisans must it have taken to chisel the carvings into every surface? It was, he thought, a little too much. Like the homes of the extraordinarily rich, where everything was gilded, even the bathing chambers.

Jekka was talking once more. “I think you are more interested in the hunt than the riches.

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