“If you think you’ll avoid punishment by having our meeting in a chapel, you’re destined to be disappointed,” Nebrov said. “I promised Draken his life and safe passage, but the bargain did not include your own.”
She braced herself, stood up from the pew on which she had been sitting, and turned to face him.
Nebrov’s large eyes were glittering with excitement and triumph as he moved down the aisle toward her, closely followed by Jordan and four soldiers dressed in the green-and-gold uniform of Nebrov’s army. “Good afternoon, Your Grace,” she greeted him.
“The Jedalar,” he said impatiently. “I do not have to tell you how annoyed I will be if you try to trick me again. So annoyed, I will be forced to cut your throat from ear to ear.”
“There’s no need for threats,” Jordan said. “She’s promised to show you what you want.”
“I will give you the Jedalar.” Marianna looked at the soldiers. “But do you really want them to see it? Czar Paul found witnesses both a danger and an inconvenience.”
He hesitated and then waved his hand in dismissal. “Wait outside in the hall.”
Marianna waited until the door closed behind the guards before moving toward the altar.
“Where are you going?” Nebrov asked sharply.
“The Jedalar is behind the altar.” She retrieved the glass panel. “I’ll have to climb on the sacrament table to replace the left lower panel in the window with the Jedalar. I’ll need someone to hand me the panel.”
“I’ll do it.” Jordan strode down the aisle to stand beside the altar. He took the Jedalar and looked down at it. “A rainbow…”
“Grandmama always said that life was always full of rainbows and that we must follow them,” she said in a low voice. “She said great treasures always follow.”
“What treasures?” Nebrov was beside them, peering down at the panel. “Was the tale true? Is there really a treasure room in the tunnel?”
“She said the czar had plans for such a room. I suppose you’ll have to see for yourself.” Marianna lifted her skirts and climbed up on the high marble table. She worked gently at the panel she had previously loosened and withdrew it from the window. She handed it down to Jordan in exchange for the rainbow Jedalar. It took her only a few moments to secure the Jedalar in place.
She glanced over her shoulder and nodded with satisfaction. “It’s positioned correctly. The sun is behind a cloud now, but I think we should see something in a few minutes.”
“See what?” Nebrov asked.
“I imagine we’re about to see what we came for.” Jordan lifted Marianna down from the table. “The map?”
“Yes.” She moved out from behind the altar. “The complete map of the tunnel. The sunlight pours through the panel and-”
A brilliant stream of sunlight flooded the chapel, and no further explanation was necessary. Magnificent colors and dark shadows were cast over the chapel.
Nebrov made an exclamation and moved toward the left side of the chapel where the rainbow panel’s shadow fell on one of the large white-veined marble blocks that composed the floor of the chapel.
Jordan followed him, but Marianna stayed where she was beside the altar. She knew what they were seeing. The arcs of the rainbow intersected with the veins in the marble in a pattern that was both complicated and detailed. “Zavkov marble. All of the marble for this palace was taken from a small mine in Zavkov, Siberia. My grandmother spent weeks there searching for just the right veining in that marble block so that it would form the precise blend with the Jedalar.”
“The lock and the key,” Jordan murmured. He lifted his head to look at her across the chapel. “Brilliant.”
“There’s a small square here that might indicate a treasure room.” Nebrov bent over the block. “It appears to be at this end, near the beginning of the tunnel.” Nebrov whirled to face her and snarled, “But it does not show the entrance. What good is the map without the entrance?”
“The czar knew where the entrance was,” Marianna said. “The passages were intricate and required a map, but he knew exactly how to get into the tunnel.”
“And so do you.” Nebrov’s gaze narrowed on her face. “Where is it?”
“I’ll tell you.” She paused. “When you promise me safe passage as you did Jordan and Gregor.”
“I don’t have to promise you anything. I could force the information out of you.”
“Yes, but that would take time, and I can see you’re eager to find the tunnel. Isn’t that worth the satisfaction you might have from any revenge against me?”
“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “Very well. You have my word.”
Which meant nothing, as she well knew, but it had been necessary to pretend reluctance to avoid suspicion. She indicated the floor behind the altar. “The third stone. It’s hinged from below and lifts easily. There are stairs leading down into the tunnel.”
Nebrov strode eagerly forward.
“Wait.” She went to the table and lit one of the two oil lamps she had put there in readiness. “You’ll need this.”
Nebrov had already lifted the stone and was peering down into the darkness. He took the oil lamp from her and started down the steps. He stopped on the third step and cautiously tried the stone door to make sure it lifted easily from below before looking up at them and smiling grimly. “Oh no, I have no intention of going down there alone and have you seal me away in the tunnel.”
“Shall I call your men?” Jordan asked.
“Not until I see what’s in the treasure room. You both shall accompany me.” Nebrov added to Jordan, “I wouldn’t think of denying you the pleasure of seeing what you’ve striven to find all these years, Draken.” He climbed back to the floor, pulled his pistol, and gestured toward the waiting darkness. “After you?”
Jordan started down the steps.
Nebrov turned to Marianna. “And now you.”
She tried to keep her expression impassive. “If we’re all to go, then we’ll need another lamp.”
When he nodded curtly, she lit the second lamp on the sacrament table, turned, and started down the steps.
Jordan was waiting for her at the foot of the stairs. “What a strange scent there is down here,” he murmured.
Or perhaps not, for he took a step back, training his eyes on Nebrov.
Nebrov gestured with the pistol. “Go on. Straight down the main tunnel, no branching off.” His glance was eagerly flicking back and forth as he followed them down the dark corridor. “The treasure room was on the left,” he muttered. “Where the devil is it?”
“We haven’t gone very far,” Marianna said. Jordan was hesitating in front of her. No, he mustn’t stop now!
She deliberately stepped on the back of his boot to nudge him forward a few more steps. “Perhaps it doesn’t-”
“There it is!” Nebrov’s gaze was on a dark square opening now on his immediate left. “You fools, you would have gone right past it!”
“It’s too dark down here,” Marianna said plaintively. “I can’t see anything.”
Nebrov was already in the middle of the room, lifting his lamp high. “Chests,” he said excitedly, looking all over the large room. “Chests and… kegs! His eyes widened in fear as he realized where he was standing. He started to back from the room.
“Run!” Marianna shouted at Jordan as she hurled the oil lamp to the ground. “Back to the chapel!”
The gunpowder she had spread across the threshold exploded into a wall of flame imprisoning Nebrov within the room!
Jordan grabbed her elbow, and they tore down the corridor toward the steps leading to the chapel. “Christ, there was no treasure room, it was a powder magazine.”
“Hurry!” she gasped out. “Those kegs will explode soon. I spread gunpowder for a little distance down every branch of the tunnel. The timbers supporting the tunnel will catch fire…”
A shrill scream that chilled her blood caused her to glance over her shoulder.
Nebrov had plunged out of the room, but he was engulfed in flames as he tottered after them like a horrible creature from a nightmare.
