Fall of Light (The Kharkanas Trilogy 2)

‘I will take the mundane path to this power,’ he replied, drawing his furs closer. ‘I will walk to the Chamber of Night.’

Her brows lifted. ‘You seek an audience with Mother Dark?’

‘No. With Lord Draconus.’

‘To what end?’

He gestured a long-fingered hand at the Terondai. ‘This was not made by a Tiste. I will find his scent. I will pierce the veil of his eyes, and look upon his soul. Such gifts are untoward, as is he who bequeathed it.’ He faced them both and drew back his hood, revealing feral eyes. ‘I have a suspicion.’

‘And if it proves accurate?’ Resh asked. ‘What then, my friend?’

‘There is a truth here, well disguised. I mean to tear it loose. I mean to reveal the game. Only then will we know the stance we must take.’

‘You will decide this for the Shake?’ Resh asked in soft tones.

Caplo Dreem smiled with tender sorrow. ‘Ah, friend, it seems a worthy sacrifice.’

Finarra’s breath caught. She glanced back at the priests and priestesses, but none paid them any attention. The man on the floor had begun stirring. She looked back at the assassin. ‘You expect to die, Caplo?’

He shrugged.

It seemed that there was nothing more to say. Facing the Terondai once more, Resh gathered himself, and then strode on to the pattern. Finarra followed an instant later.

They stood then, close to the centre, studying the strange scars beneath their feet.

A faint wind brushed her face, smelling of dust. She lifted her gaze and gasped.

The Grand Hall was gone. Instead, they occupied a flagstoned clearing, surrounded by tall trees, beneath a sky dull as stained pewter. ‘Warlock …’

Resh was now studying the forest encircling them. His sigh was uneven. ‘I did not think we would be invited.’

‘What makes you so certain that we were?’

He shot her a glance, and then frowned.

‘Is it not more probable,’ she persisted, ‘that we have slipped through? Had we been blessed by Light, we would have been blunted, perhaps even destroyed. But, in turn, we are not her children. Not any more. Evading commitment, even the realm finds itself undecided about us.’

‘An interesting possibility,’ he admitted after a moment.

‘Something in our nature has placed us between worlds,’ she continued. ‘I wonder … is this even Dark?’

‘It must be. The Terondai is aspected.’

‘Aspected?’

‘Magic comes in many flavours,’ he replied. ‘The Terondai is a gate, a portal. It can take us nowhere but into the heart of its power, and that power is Dark.’

‘Then … where is she?’

‘Imagine a realm virtually without limit, captain.’

‘I see little value in a gate that leaves people lost, unable to take their bearings.’ She gestured. ‘Where is her precious Chamber of Night?’

‘Upon our own world,’ Resh said, ‘there may be but one gate, one egress. But what if there are infinite worlds? What if the Terondai leads to countless other gates, each affixed to its own world?’

‘Then we are truly lost, warlock.’

‘But is Mother Dark?’