Kingdoms of Dust by Amanda Downum

Author:Amanda Downum [Downum, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9780316068987
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2010-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

They rode slowly to spare the horses; they rode in silence to spare themselves. The moon had risen pale and ghostly when they reached a narrow side gate into the palace, and Asheris had collected himself enough to get them quietly past the guards. Siddir vanished once they were inside.

Asheris led Isyllt and Adam across darkened lawns and paths lined with rustling date palms. She smelled gardens and kitchens and stables, glimpsed carven trellises and light glowing through keyhole windows, but they didn’t pause long enough for her to appreciate the scenery or get her bearings. Granite glittered in dim lamplight as they passed through arching corridors and columned arcades. Distant laughter and conversation drifted through the halls.

Asheris cornered the first servant they passed, giving her a long set of instructions that sent her hurrying off in the direction they’d come. Another series of corridors and walkways led them to a dark wing that smelled of plaster and sawdust. From the depth of the silence, Isyllt guessed they were far from the central hub of the palace.

“Renovations,” he said apologetically as they passed scaffolding and stacked lumber. “But at least you’ll have privacy.”

“And it’s out of the way if more assassins come.”

“That too.”

He opened a door at the end of the hall and ushered them into a dark suite that smelled not of dust, but of long disuse. Stillness radiated from the plaster walls, the kind born of the absence of people.

“I must report to the empress,” Asheris said, kindling a lamp. “Your luggage will be brought, and food. Wait here, please, until I come for you.”

With her nodded agreement, he was gone.

Adam and Isyllt stood in the warm circle of light. After a moment Adam shrugged and found a second lamp, and began to inspect the rooms.

Wide and high-ceilinged: They would have been airy with the shutters open. The walls were pale plaster, the arching doors and windows crowned with stucco friezes. Blue-veined marble tiles covered the floor. The only furniture was a cedar wardrobe, a table with a single chair, and a low bed shrouded in netting. A smaller set of rooms adjoined the first, just as clean and empty.

The brief tour complete, Adam paused in the doorway. The lamp haloed his spiky hair in gold and painted his face with shadow. “What he said on the road…You knew.”

“Yes.”

“And you trust him, even so?”

“I do. And he trusts me even more to bring me here, knowing what I do.”

Adam sighed. “Always secrets.”

“You should have gone to the mountains,” she said as he turned. She meant it to tease, but the words came out flat and bitter.

He paused, his broken-nosed profile against the light. “I should have. But I didn’t.”

His tone was not soft, precisely, or gentle, but it conjured a not-entirely-unpleasant fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach. If she’d been less tired, perhaps, less filthy and reeking of horse and sweat—

“Rest,” Adam said, a smile hooking one corner of his mouth. “I’ll wake you if more assassins show up.

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