Prowling the Darkness Rayden Valkyrie Tales by Stephen Zimmer

Author:Stephen Zimmer
Format: epub

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A malevolent presence encompassed Rayden. Raising the hackles on her neck, she kept still, remaining in a crouch behind a broad stalagmite rising near the perimeter of a vast cavern.

Torches and bronze oil lamps positioned all around the cavern cast a flickering array of shadows across the jagged rock surfaces.

A semicircular dais, set against the wall on the far side of the cavern, displayed thirteen prominent seats carved into the rock facing. Each of them like a throne, the ornate stone seats had armrests crafted in the form of a serpent’s body. The motif continued in the image of a serpent’s head with jaws open and fangs extended, positioned at the center and top of each seat’s back.

Before the dais, a pair of large rectangular pools reached far across the cavern floor. A raised walkway bisected the pools, running to the base of the dais where a short flight of broad stone steps led up to the platform.

A dark, glistening liquid filled each of the extended pools. Not a single ripple disturbed the still surfaces.

Jutting out from the dais on each side, and projecting over the pools beneath them, were the ends of a pair of rectangular stone tables. Positioned to align with the center of each pool, the tables had been made from a kind of stone black as the maw of the abyss itself.

At the center of each table, on the ends aligned over the twin pools, leered the stone-sculpted head of a snake. Resembling the shapes on the back of the throne seats, the matching images had their jaws spread wide open, displaying long, curving sets of fangs with forked tongues protruding outward.

A large assemblage containing guards, servants of low and high ranks, prominent individuals from the city, and many Sharir-Mord had been gathered in the open space spreading beyond the near end of the pools. Displaying a reverend silence, the crowd looked toward the dais with an air of expectation.

Lingering near the front of the citadel when evening approached, Rayden had passed the time watching various arrivals from the city. Knowing that they were the least likely to recognize her, or question her presence, she slipped in behind one small contingent making its way into the depths of the citadel.

Though keeping a distance between herself and them, she figured they would assume that she had been initiated. The entire way down into the caverns, Rayden could hear another group following behind her.

Continuing after the group ahead of her and striding into the cave entrance, Rayden walked with the kind of ease and steadiness that projected the notion that she belonged there.

Rayden’s experiences over the years had taught her that the presence of confidence and guise of familiarity often bypassed others’ suspicions. An individual who looked and acted as if they belonged in a certain place tended more frequently than not to prompt those who encountered them to believe that they did.

Providing enough illumination to see the way forward, torches set in holders along the walls of the cave passage gnawed incessantly at the teeming shadows.

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