CHAPTER 31
Aunn gaped, trying to see past the deathless guard and up the stairs. Silence had fallen over the temple, and he was desperate to know what was happening on the upper floor. Why had Gaven killed an Aereni priestess? What was he doing here at all?
'You had better come with me,' the soldier said, clutching Aunn's arm in his shriveled hand. His touch was ice cold and seemed to sap the strength from Aunn's muscles.
Without thinking, Aunn wrenched his arm from the deathless soldier's grip and bolted past him up the stairs.
The soldier shouted, 'Stop!' and then something in Elven.
Revulsion and terror impelled Aunn up the stairs. He leaped out of the path of the guard's poleaxe as it swung at his feet, vaulting up a few more steps to the first landing. The guard was still shouting in Elven as he scrambled up the stairs behind him, jabbing his spear at Aunn's feet.
A few more guards stood at the top of the stairs. Mostly their attention was focused upward, looking at something on the next flight, though one woman was drawing a curved sword and shifting to block Aunn's way. Aunn hesitated, but a clatter on the stairs at his feet warned him just in time-he hopped up as the other soldier's poleaxe swept under him, and kicked down, trapping the weapon against the stairs. The haft broke with a loud crack, drawing a string of Elven curses from the guard.
The guard at the top of the stairs barked something to her companions, but whatever was happening on the stairs above them must have been riveting-they barely gave Aunn a glance before looking back up. The soldier below him shook the axe head free of the splintered haft and repeated the eerie growl he'd made before. Aunn still hadn't drawn his weapon-he didn't want to kill any of the guards, but he was starting to wonder, as rational thought reasserted itself, how he could get out of this mess without the use of his mace. Not giving those thoughts a chance to settle in, he charged up the rest of the stairs, keeping a wary eye on the curved blade of the guard above him.
Instead of blocking his path, the guard fell back from his charge, and Aunn saw the other soldiers around her fall to their knees, heedless of any danger. He cleared the stairs, put his back to the wall, and looked past them.
An elf woman draped in a simple gown descended the last few stairs, carrying Gaven's unconscious form in her slender arms without apparent effort. Her face was a mask of death, tattooed to resemble a stylized skull, but her eyes were green flames. The other elves had their faces to the ground, ignoring him, and he decided to follow their example rather than draw the ire of this being. She reminded him of Senya's ancestor in the City of the Dead.
Senya!
Aunn looked up, and the elf's fiery eyes burned into his. Her head was shaven clean, the skull tattoo obscured her features, and her eyes were not the sapphire blue they had been, but this was unmistakably Senya.
'I know you,' she said. Her voice was not Senya's husky purr, but a cool, clear song.
How could she know him? Senya had never known what he was, as far as he knew.
'You were with this one and my daughter Senya in Shae Mordai.'
The terror that had gripped him through their entire stay in the City of the Dead returned, a cold hand on his heart. As frightening as the haunted City of Night had been, years ago, to a young spy on his first mission, Shae Mordai had been far worse, a place where the undead walked openly among the living. Senya's ancestor had been the most terrifying part of a truly horrible day, for in the brief moment when the burning eyes in her empty sockets had met his gaze, he had felt himself utterly exposed to her. It appeared that, somehow, he was facing Senya's ancestor again-enshrined in Senya's body.
'Senya?' he said quietly.
'My daughter is dying.' She looked down at Gaven's limp form in her arms, as if suddenly remembering what she was doing. 'You will help me. Come.'
'Revered One,' the deathless soldier behind Aunn said, 'these men are intruders into the sanctity of your temple.'
'Do you presume to bind what I have chosen to loose? You may assist us if you wish, but you will not stand in the way any longer.'
Senya strode forward and started down the stairs. Aunn followed close behind her, giving the deathless soldier a wide berth. The soldier glared at him, clutching the haft of his broken poleaxe, but he obeyed Senya and stayed out of Aunn's way. Senya seemed to float down the stairs, still showing no sign that carrying Gaven's heavy body was the least bit difficult. Indeed, each step she descended-each step that brought her closer to the sanctuary at the heart of the temple building-seemed to increase the sense of power or presence that emanated from her.
The entry area at the bottom of the stairs was deserted and deathly still. Aunn wondered where the dozens of elves who had been there a moment before had gone, but then he saw them all gathered in the sanctuary, kneeling on the floor in silent prayer or contemplation. Senya walked directly to the sanctuary, but Aunn hesitated.
'Stay with me,' Senya said, not looking back at him. 'I need your help.'
What is going on? Aunn wondered, hurrying to catch up.
In Shae Mordai, Senya's ancestor had been imperious, angry with her wayward descendant, and uncooperative. Now she was imploring him for help. Was Senya engaged in some elaborate hoax, pretending to be a representative of her ancestor in order to swindle her distant relatives? It didn't seem likely-Senya was a mercenary, not a thief. She could be manipulative, but she usually preyed on men's desire rather than their piety. And if all this was an act, it was a very convincing one.
The elves gathered in the sanctuary had left a path open from the door to a raised area at the far end of the room, flanked by smoldering braziers that breathed billowing clouds of perfumed smoke. Senya drifted between the kneeling crowds, an almost palpable aura of holy power surrounding her now that she was in her sacred place. The elves pressed their faces to the floor, and Aunn stumbled along behind her, not sure what to do but unwilling to be separated from the one person who accepted his presence in the temple.
Senya dropped to one knee and laid Gaven on the floor between the braziers. Aunn hurried to his friend's side. He hadn't noticed upstairs how ashen Gaven's face was, or the cut across his upper arm. Gaven was still breathing, but slowly. Aunn pulled Gaven's broken armor out of the way and examined the wound. Its blackened edges suggested the work of a poisoned blade.
'What happened?' he asked Senya. 'Who did this?'
'I do not know,' Senya said. 'There was another body on the floor.'
Aunn glanced at the door, and saw two elf soldiers carrying a body between them. Wisps of smoke still rose from the figure they carried. Elves kneeling near the door turned to look and wrinkled their noses.
An assassin? he wondered. Here? Why did Gaven come here at all, and how had an assassin found him here?
'You asked for my help, lady,' he said softly. 'What would you have me do?'
'Save Gaven.'
Aunn pressed his fingers to Gaven's neck to feel his pulse. It was an excruciating moment before he felt a single beat. 'Have you no power to aid him?'
'First I must heal this body. That will require time that Gaven does not have.'
Aunn slid his healing wands from his pouch and chose the most potent of the three-the one he had once told Dania could bring her back from death's door. Remembering Dania's face and Tira's holy kiss, he breathed a silent prayer that its magic could help Gaven. He felt the wand tingle in his hand, and power coursed through his other hand where it rested on Gaven's chest. A blush of color spread at once across Gaven's face, and he drew a deep, shuddering breath.
Aunn sighed with relief and slid the wand back into his pouch. The wound on Gaven's arm had closed, and the blackened flesh was slowly regaining its normal color as the healing magic continued its work.
Gaven heard the sound of a great kettle drum, a single beat that echoed once, like distant thunder. He was
