Citadels of the Lost (23 page)

“But if I go back now, I'll have to leave you to do it,” Urulani said with bridled fury. “And that would be a violation of clan-law, wouldn't it . . . being out of your sight?”

Philida puckered her lips in thought. It looked painful. “Then I will take you back.”

“Ah, but if you take me back, you will be leaving the Lyric and Mala out here beyond the Ambeth wall,” Urulani said. “That would put them in danger, and then
you
would be in violation of clan-law. Neither one of them has enough sense to survive on their own. Are you sworn to protect them?”

“It is my unquestioned duty!” Philida responded indignantly.

“Then let's find them quickly, get back inside the town wall, and then
no one
will be in violation of clan-law,” Urulani said, pushing her way past the shorter Hunt-runner as she again followed the booted prints of Mala's feet and the smaller, bare prints of the Lyric back into the undergrowth. She could hear Philida following noisily behind her.

What kind of a hunter is she?
Urulani thought.
Maybe her specialty is deaf beasts that have to be wrestled to death.

Pushing past another fern, Urulani found the trail easier to follow as the jungle gave way to a colossal ancient structure. The domed roof had partially collapsed but the walls seemed largely intact. Urulani wondered for a moment why the Ambeth had not used this structure for shelter rather than rebuild at the edge of the river. The trail of the two women led very clearly across the broken, dirty flagstones to a wide set of stairs and a large arched opening.

The noise behind her had stopped.

Urulani turned to look back. “They must have gone in there. We just need to bring them . . .”

The short woman was trembling, her eyes fixed on the ruin before them.

“Philida?” Urulani asked quietly. “What is it?”

“You go,” the Hunt-runner said in a quavering voice.

Urulani opened her mouth, about to say something about it being a violation of clan-law but stopped as she realized that Philida was on the verge of fleeing. Instead she said, “All right. I'll go get them. You stay right here and I'll be back.”

“Yes,” Philida gulped.

“I'm going to draw my sword now,” Urulani said evenly. “Right?”

Philida managed to nod her head.

Urulani turned back, slipping her blade from its scabbard. It had been made abundantly clear to her by Philida that “guests” of the Ambeth clan were in violation of any number of clan-laws simply by showing their swords uncovered anywhere at any time. The Sondau woman, her smooth black skin now suddenly damp with perspiration, moved quickly up the steps and into the open, arched portal.

Dim light filtered into the hallway that appeared to run along the interior length of the wall before turning at the corners, the sagging ceiling having fallen completely in several places. The floor was covered in debris. The walls featured faces, dim and indistinct in this light carved in a frieze that ran down the length of the hall.

These lost humans had a fetish for face carvings, Urulani thought to herself, following the clear tracks down the hall toward a passage to her right.

“Li-li . . .”

Urulani froze, her eyes widening in the darkness. She shook her head, drew in a deep breath, and then continued. The tracks definitely led through to the right. She turned and paused again.

This was another hallway, but the walls were of wood. She could hear them creaking as she passed them, moving toward the intersection with another hall toward the end. There the halls turned left and right. She could see where these, too, continued deeper into the building.

“Li-li . . .”

She had definitely heard the voice that time. It echoed down the hallway so badly that she was uncertain as to its direction. She could not tell if it was Mala's voice or that of the Lyric, but it must have been one of the two of them. How either of them knew to call her by that name was a mystery that angered her. No one called her that anymore.

She hurried down the hall to her left, following it to the right and then stopping at another intersection. Two branching hallways went into the darkness on her left or her right while the one in front of her continued a while before also turning right.

Urulani gritted her teeth.

“A labyrinth,” she muttered. “I hate labyrinths.”

“Li-li!”

Urulani whirled about, but there was no one behind her. She was sure the voice had been close, so close that it she thought she felt the breath on her neck.

“Where are you?” she called out.

“Come, Li-li . . . Come and find me.”

Urulani adjusted the grip on her sword. It must have been the Lyric, she thought, moving cautiously down the narrow hall. She and Mala playing their own little game in the ruins like children—too foolish and young to know that there are dangers in the world. What was she doing here, anyway? Charging in to rescue these two women who represented everything she hated. The Lyric who changed who she was and what she knew more often than the sun dawned. Urulani prized reason, tactics, and thought—while this woman placed them all in danger by her madness.

Worse for her, though, was Mala. She was a traitor whose trust was forever lost and her every action in question. She had betrayed them all and had a hand, no doubt in Urulani's mind, in the attack on Nothree and the death of uncounted numbers of her kinsmen. The Sondau captain would have tossed her overboard the night she was exposed, and they would all have been rid of her long before now.

And yet here she was, moving deeper into this maze and for what? To rescue two foolish women who could not even manage to keep within the barricade walls.

“Why have you come, Li-li?”

“I've come for you,” Urulani shouted down the hallway. “We've got to get back to the town.”

“No, Li-li,” the deep voice said. The walls around Urulani groaned. “You did not come for the women—you came for
him
.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Urulani shouted, her hand suddenly shaking; she had to concentrate before it would stop. “We need to leave.”

“You cannot leave,” the voice said. It seemed to come from everywhere. “You came to find me . . . but you are lost and wandering. You do not know the way because you do not know what you want. You will never find it until you know what you seek.”

“I'm looking for two women . . .”

“You do not want them . . .”

“But I
will
have them!”

“Because he would want it to be so.”

“Stop it!” Urulani shouted.

A whisper came into her ear.

“You are lost, Li-li . . . you need to find the stars again. They have been hidden from your eyes, but you shall see them again, as you did when you were young. Come to Chelesta, Li-li.”

Urulani turned toward the voice. The faces in the wall were those of a woman.

It was her own face carved in the wall.

The face slowly smiled at her.

Urulani roared, swinging her sword wide and connecting with the carved face. In an instant, the wall exploded into dust followed by the wall behind her and those at either end of the labyrinthine halls. Instinctively, Urulani raised her arms to cover her face.

When she lowered them at last, she saw that the entire maze had vanished, crumbling to dust around her. In the center of the now empty shell of the building stood the Lyric and Mala gazing up at a statue of a woman that had remained unscathed through the years and the fall of the maze.

Urulani quickly crossed the now open space, her footfalls kicking up thick dust as she ran. “Lyric? Mala?”

The women turned toward Urulani. Mala had an expression of surprise, but the Lyric was unfazed.

“So you came for her,” the Lyric said with a smile and a vacant expression. “She said you would come when she called.”

“Come with me,” Urulani said, not wanting to think about what the Lyric was implying. “Philida is waiting for us outside, and we've got to get back inside the town before we're missed.”

“Oh, I don't think anyone will be looking for us,” the Lyric said with a smile. “They'll be dealing with far bigger problems. You're right, though; we had better hurry or we'll be caught outside. He has come. He's the beginning of the path but he does not comprehend its ends.”

The Lyric looked up.

Urulani followed her gaze. Sunlight was streaming down in columns from the broken dome far overhead. Urulani could hear horns blaring in the distance.

A screeching sounded so loudly that it raised a pall of dust up from around their feet as a shadow rushed overhead, blotting out the sun in its passage. Its shape and sound Urulani had seen only once before, but it was unmistakable to her now.

An enormous dragon had come to Ambeth.

Two more shadows like the first crossed over them in quick succession before Urulani was finally able to run toward the open doorway of the structure, with Mala and the Lyric close behind. As soon as they were outside, Philida joined them in their mad dash.

T
HE CRASH OF A GONG resounded from the walls of Ambeth.

Drakis started at the sound and the quick succession of alarms that followed it. He pushed his way out of the Far-runner's hovel just as the enormous silhouette of a dragon passed so closely over the town that he ducked instinctively.

“Mala,” Drakis demanded of Ethis, who had followed him in his rush to the alley. “Where is she?”

“She was with Urulani and the Lyric,” Ethis answered at once.

“Where!” Drakis insisted. “Where were they?”

“They were in the market plaza near the Keep,” Ethis responded. Drakis' voice was closer to panic than the chimerian had ever heard before. The screams of the townsfolk were making it difficult to be heard. “I don't trust their handler, but Urulani will take care of them.”

“No, we've got to find her,” Drakis yelled as he ran down the alleyway toward Abratias Road.

“We've got to leave while we still can!” Ethis said, stopping Drakis just short of the road. People were flooding into the street, a river of panic as they tried every way to leave the town for the relative safety beyond the walls. All the gates were open wide but the sudden mob rushing toward them choked the openings. Children were crying everywhere, their panic spurred more by their parents gripping them in fear than their own concern.

“Why do they even
have
these walls?” Drakis said grimly as he tried to push his way along the edge of the panicked crowd. Ethis followed closely as they slipped, pulled, and occasionally pushed their way down the edge of Abratias Road. Drakis was sweating profusely by the time they reached the intersection of Tyra.

Ethis shouted something, but his words were swallowed up by the keening voice of the gray-mottled dragon as it rushed over the length of the town.

“What did you . . . ?”

“I said LOOK!” Ethis shouted, pointing down Tyra Road toward where the curving path rose up toward the Commons.

Drakis looked. The road was packed with panicked townsfolk blindly shoving their way toward them. A cart had overturned in the intersection in front of them, causing many of the terrified Ambeth to rush down toward the river bridge as well as in every other direction. All this Drakis took in even as his heart went cold in his chest.

Two of the dragons had landed at the far end of the road on Ambeth Commons while a third turned slowly overhead, seeking to land there as well.

“Mala,” Drakis said, then grabbed the closest of the chimerian's four arms. “Come on!”

“And just where are we going?” Ethis demanded.

“To the river!” Drakis replied, charging across the street, dodging and shoving his way through the mindless panic. It was easier going with the fleeing host than against them. Drakis and Ethis quickly reached the river's edge. As Drakis had surmised, the villagers were intent on crossing the bridge or, in some cases, attempting to swim the wide river, leaving the shoreline far less crowded than the streets. They made their way quickly along the shamble of buildings and ruins bordering the shoreline.

“This is your plan?” Ethis said with an intense hoarse whisper. “To get
closer
to these dragons?”

“It's Mala,” Drakis said as though that were the final answer to all arguments.

“Mala?” Ethis replied. “Haven't you learned anything? She sold your life's breath to the Inquisitors and you're still trying to protect
her
?”

Drakis did not even acknowledge the question, but continued moving along the southern end of Elucia Road where it followed the riverbank. The road soon turned back up the slope with the Keep on their right and the Commons at the top of the rise. The three dragons had all landed in the Commons, each sitting back with their wings folded and facing the Keep. They all seemed to be staring at something.

Drakis was suddenly shoved to one side, pressed firmly against the rough planks of a wall. He instinctively reached for his sword, but a larger hand encased his own against the grip, holding the blade firmly in its scabbard.

“Think, Drakis,” Ethis said, pinning the human against the wall. “She's probably not even there! She's fled with the rest of the town, and if you're looking to save her, you should be looking for her
out there
!”

Drakis struggled with all his considerable strength but the chimerian held him fast. Rage filled his vision with red.

“You're not going to save anyone by dashing in and challenging a dragon with your sword drawn—let alone three of them at once,” the chimerian said urgently. “You've got to listen to me!”