The Gilded Chain by Dave Duncan

Author:Dave Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf

sank back with a sound of grinding teeth as he saw more light streaming from the arch.

Durendal leaned close to his ear. “I think we may have to relax here for a while. Someone has called a meeting.”

“Relax? Yes, sir. Wake me when it’s time to go.”

Next through the door was a torch-bearing monkey lighting the way for two tottering humans. They seemed to be two women, but they were so shrunken and bent that Durendal could not be sure.

He could hear voices from the stairwell.

More torches had appeared in the far corner of the garden and begun moving slowly in their direction. Once or twice their flames reflected off water. The ground seemed to be lower at that end, so the tantalizing fountain nearby probably fed an ornamental stream and a series of ponds like the Queen’s Garden at Oldmart. More windows were brightening, others going dark. The entire population of the monastery must be awake, and it was a reasonable guess that they were all on their way here.

Why? The focus was just below him, a platform of white stone, probably marble. He slithered forward under the branches until he had a better view. The floor itself was irregular in shape, bounded by ornamental walls and flower beds close at hand, a lawn at the far side. Khiva’s corpse lay facedown in the center of an inlay of dark tiles that outlined an octogram. The two old women were sitting on the far edge, and now a monkey arrived carrying another, whom he set down gently beside them. No, it was a man, and the next three who came shuffling into the gathering were men also. They all stayed outside the octogram and well away from the stinking, buzzing load of bad meat that yesterday had been Khiva son of Zambul. Obviously someone was going to perform a conjuration.

Sunrise and sunset were very sudden affairs in1 Altain. The roofline and the towers’ silhouettes were clearly visible now against the sky.

Even the shadowy atrium had brightened to reveal a tiny secret paradise of lawns, bushes, flowers, little gazebos, ornate bridges, tall trees.

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