Page 52 of The Empty Throne

There was also something that looked far toomuch like an altar off to one side, with tall candelabra made fromiron on either side and a small table against the cave wall thatheld forgotten tools and rotted components of whatever… rites… hadbeen performed here.

On the side of the cave opposite the altarwas a sort of alcove or hollow that had been turned into abedchamber of sorts, with a bed, a trunk that probably heldadditional blankets, and a small table with a lamp and forgottenbook on it.

The bedroom was stranger somehow than themonster holding corpses aloft.

Lysa had already approached the wall,studiously examining each skeleton, the swords that held them inplace. "These slots were made with the rest of the monster; they'recarved to blend in perfectly. Was the whole of it made when theseven were killed? They were definitely killed at the same time,not more than hours apart, more likely minutes. They're all adults,for what that's worth."

"Hmm," Kite muttered absently, still focusedon the bedroom. Bed area? He threw open the trunk and rifledthrough it, but as he'd expected, it contained nothing butadditional blankets, along with a couple more books and a sparelamp. "Strange, to say the least."

"I'll say. These swords are crafted to matchthe monster as well, even etched with octopus arms and squidtentacles and arms along the metal, and the etching turns intosilver that wraps around the green hilts. That is a ridiculousamount of effort for swords that were used to murder traitors andsubsequently be left to rot in a forgotten chamber."

Kite snorted as he gave up on the trunk. "TheGreat Houses of Cremisio are nothing if not showy and ostentatiousfor no reason except to be showy and ostentatious."

Lysa cast him a sly little grin beforeturning back to the bodies. Kite had never seen anyone stare atrotting skeletons so avidly, but if anyone would, it was a scholar.Sobeki would be right there with him.

Sobeki. Fear and self-loathing washed overhim anew, along with the clawing worry that he would not be able tosave his brother. Shoving the unhelpful thoughts aside, he turnedhis attention to the bed. "Who in the hell wouldsleepdownhere."

"Bloodstone sacrifices, I'd imagine," Lysasaid idly, clearly not remotely interested in the bedroom. "I mean,they did use twenty of the damned things. That's twenty people whohad to die to create them, and another twenty died using them."

Kite grimaced, both at the obvious answer heshould have figured out for himself, but mostly for all thepointless death. Forty people. At least. There was no guaranteeevery sacrifice would succeed in a bloodstone. Forty was thebest-case scenario.

As Lysa turned his attention back to thegrisly display, though, faint amusement rose up. "You do rememberwe're here to find a bloodstone to save your life, right?"

Lysa flushed. "I know. Sorry, I'm justfascinated by what the significance of such a sacrifice could be.Simple vengeance? Restoring family honor? Sacrifice to some god?All of the above tied up in a horrifying bundle? I would need morelight to be certain, but I think two of these large tentacles hidecarvings of Takar and Tamar, and I'd be willing to bet the othertentacles hide either the lesser gods bound to them or other majorgods. Even both."

"Save your life, save my brother and thekingdom, and then I will bring you back here myself to analyze andstudy to your heart's content. Focus, little scholar."

"I liked 'pretty' better," Lysa retortedbefore striding off to the altar, carefully avoiding his gaze.

Kite stifled a sigh. He liked 'pretty' bettertoo, and that was the problem.

Lysa was kneeling on the far side of thealtar, the table of miscellany a few paces behind him. He trailedhis fingers over every carved dip and swirl, some abstract designthat appeared to have no particular meaning, though Kite had faithLysa would shortly tell him he was mistaken.

To his surprise, Lysa said nothing, justcontinued to trace his fingers along all those delicate whorls,muttering to himself, what almost sounded like counting—inTerekian, which he seldom used, save for when he occasionallymuttered in his sleep.

Sometimes, most times really, it was easy toforget he was the son of the man currently on his way to killSobeki and take Cremisio by force. How such a despicable manproduced a son so pure of heart and generous of mind, only Shatarwould ever know.

"Aha!" Lysa said, sending Kite's thoughtscattering. "I think I found all the switches. Now it's merely amatter of figuring out if they must be pressed simultaneously or ina particular order. So much beautiful work! I would love to havemet the person or people who managed all the clever work in thisplace."

Scholars. "I hope it's simultaneously,because if we have to figure out a certain order, that means wehave to try as many as twenty-four combinations. I hope you havepen and paper."

"I'm good at memorizing, but I think it'smore likely they have to be pressed all together, as that would befar more difficult for a random interloper…" he grinned, "…or twoto manage." These are the hidden switches." He went around thealtar, pointing to something vaguely flower like, something almosta circle, a bit that resembled a wing if you squinted, andsomething that approached a square. It really was the oddest, andfrankly ugliest, pattern he'd ever seen.

Kite wasn't certain it even qualified as apattern, but he also did not care. "So we have to anchor two ofthem in place, then press the other two, and hope that's closeenough to 'all at the same time' for this to work. Hmm…" He prowledaround the room, looking for anything that would serve to hold downtwo buttons. Switches? Whatever.

He could just stop and go get Wishta and theothers, but he really didn't want to have to go up and down thosestairs more than strictly necessary, and that would also waste timethey didn't have, not really. Lysa wasn't saying anything, but atleast an hour had passed since he'd found Kite in the ugly parlor,and probably more like two hours, which meant his protections werealready starting to degrade.

This needed to be done.

He turned away from the bed area he'd alreadyexplored twice—and accidentally kicked a stone, sending ittumbling-rattling across the ground.

Of course. Why hadn't he thought of them fromthe start? He was overcomplicating things like always. On a missionnow, Kite went around the chamber gathering up rocks of slightlyvarying sizes, until his hands were too full to carry more.

Returning to the altar, he crouched besidethe square-ish button and dumped his finds in a little pile.Pushing the button in until he heard the muted click, he thenstarted experimenting with cramming in stones until he found onethat wedged in just right, locking the compressed button inplace.

"That's brilliant!" Lysa said, and laughed."So simple and obvious."

Kite grinned briefly in shared ruefulness,and then went to work on the next button. When the two on the frontof the altar were anchored, he and Lysa knelt in front of theremaining two.

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