Storm Breaking

the pry bar and shook his head at the Imperial mage.

'Not Urtho, and especially not in his own Tower,' the kestra'chern said decisively. 'He was a compassionate and considerate man, safe and resourceful but not vengeful. He would only create wards to protect things, not to punish. He wouldn't have taken the risk that a curious hertasi or some other innocent might set such a thing loose.'

Sejanes looked skeptical, but didn't say anything. Silverfox, however, read the look correctly.

'You're not dealing with the Empire, Sejanes,' he said. 'You're not dealing with people looking to gain in rank by whatever means it takes. Urtho's personal servants and close friends were loyal enough to die for him—and many did, to his sorrow. Here in the heart of his personal stronghold, he would not have used safeguards that could harm his own people as well as intruders.'

Master Levy inserted the tongue of the pry bar in the crack, and pulled.

The stone grated, and moved slightly, then kept on moving for a little after Master Levy stopped pulling. Now the gap was about as wide as a large man's palm.

'Do we want to investigate before we open this any further?' the Artificer asked Silverfox. 'I defer to your judgment, since you seem to know more about the master of this place than anyone else here.'

Silverfox looked pointedly at An'desha, who shook his head in answer to the silent question. 'My knowledge is tainted, since it comes from his enemy,' he said at once. 'Ma'ar is far more likely to have underestimated a foe he considered sentimental and soft.'

'It wouldn't hurt to drop a lantern down on a string,' Silverfox said to Master Levy. 'Then at least we'll be able to see what we're dealing with. For all we know, this is just a well, and not any kind of a storeroom or workroom.'

'A source of water other than melted snow from the surface would be welcome,' Lo'isha murmured quietly. Master Levy heard him, and nodded in answer to both statements.

This time it was An'desha's turn to go off and rummage for a lantern and some appropriately strong string. They hadn't needed lanterns since they arrived here, although the Shin'a'in had brought some, just in case the magical lights failed. The magic lamps hanging from the center of the ceiling of each room had been quite enough to serve their needs and showed no signs of being harmed at all by the mage-storms that made magic problematic outside the Tower. An'desha dug one of the lanterns out of a pile of articles no one had found a use for, and got some string from the kitchen area. He filled the lamp with oil, trimmed the wick with thread clippers from a sewing kit, and lit it before bringing it out to the rest.

Master Levy made the handle fast to the string and lowered the lantern down into the cavity while the others crowded around. An'desha couldn't see anything from his vantage, and neither could most of the Shin'a'in.

'Well?' called Che'sera. 'What's there?'

'Stairs, mostly,' Master Levy replied. 'So this isn't a well. I believe I see something like furniture at the bottom, but the light doesn't go very far down.'

'It's not dimming in bad air, is it?' An'desha asked anxiously, vague memories of tomb openings intruding from one of Falconsbane's previous lives. 'Even if there are no poisons, the air could have gone bad from what's been sealed inside.'

'No, it's burning brightly enough. It's just a long way down to the next floor and the light is between me and what's down there,' Master Levy replied. 'It is an issue of contrast and visual acuity. Well, no help for it. Back to hard labor.'

He inserted the tongue of the pry bar and continued to lever the stubborn stone out of the way, while at least a couple of the observers looked at each other, wondering why the Artificer used such flowery terms to say he couldn't see well. Suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, the frozen mechanism gave way. The stone slid beneath the floor into hiding, and Master Levy, taken completely off guard, fell over backward, the pry bar dropping out of his hands and clanging end-over-end down the staircase.

Only An'desha remained to assist the winded Artificer to his feet; the rest of the spectators made a rush for the stair with Firesong in the lead. In mere moments they had descended out of sight; then Firesong spoke a single word, light poured up from below, and muffled exclamations were drifting up through the hole in the floor.

'You might say 'thank you!'' Master Levy called after them, and sighed, rubbing his hip where he had landed. 'We may as well go find out what they've discovered. I only hope it isn't Urtho's treasury; there isn't a great deal of good that gold and gems would do us in this situation.'

'Urtho's treasury would have books, not baubles,' An'desha assured him. 'But we ought to go down, too, before they all get carried away in their enthusiasm.'

Master Levy went with An'desha following him, taking the stone stairs carefully, for they were quite steep. They also went down farther than he expected, for the stone floor of the room above was at least as thick as his hand was long, perhaps a little thicker, which accounted for the fact that it hadn't rung hollow and had sounded like solid stone to their footsteps. It looked as if this room had actually been hollowed out of the bedrock after the Tower itself had been built.