Page 226 of Empire of Shadows

Beyond the mirror, the ceiling on the far side of the cavern lowered to a little more than Adam’s height. The shallow stream of water from the falls collected there, deepening from something that would barely cover Ellie’s boots to a proper pool. The surface of it swirled with movement. That was a clear sign that there must be some further opening in the cave through which the water was running on to somewhere else.

Ellie filed that bit of information away for later.

“We can’t risk prying it up,” Dawson complained. “We have no idea how brittle it is or what sort of damage we might do. It will need to be lifted, with men all the way around the circumference.”

“There is a better way. Perhaps I could show you.”

Ellie startled at the sound of another familiar voice. She risked a farther peek out into the cavern.

Padre Kuyoc stood in the center of it, still wearing his bizarre breastplate of hollowed reeds. He was smiling cheerfully at a sweating, flustered Dawson.

“What the hell is the priest doing down here?” Adam demanded.

“When I saw him in the plaza, he said something abouttryingto get caught,” Ellie offered awkwardly.

“So that he could help a bunch of colonizers steal a dangerous magical artifact?” Adam returned skeptically.

Before Ellie could answer, Jacobs stepped from the shadows bordering the clearing.

“How very interesting,” he said smoothly as he approached the priest. “And why would you do that for us?”

Kuyoc’s eyes glittered. “Because you seem like the sort of men who reward good helpers. And maybe I like rewards,” he replied.

From the shadows of her hiding place at the mouth of the antechamber, Ellie frowned.

“The padre didn’t strike me as the mercenary sort,” she whispered.

“He’s not,” Adam returned bluntly. “The old man’s got another game here. I just hope to hell it’s not going to get him shot.”

As Ellie watched, Kuyoc reached into the pockets of his trousers. His hands emerged with a neatly rolled cigar and a slender box of matches.

Kuyoc set the cigar to his lips, lighting a match and puffing it to a low, orange light.

He smiled at Jacobs and held the tobacco out to him.

“Share a little k’uutz?” Kuyoc asked.

Jacobs took a step closer. He eyed the cigar thoughtfully without reaching out to take it, and then he raised his gaze to Kuyoc’s face once more.

“You wouldn’t be here to cause any trouble,” he asked, his voice dangerously soft. “Would you?”

Ellie’s throat tightened as her pulse quickened with instinctive fear.

No, she thought silently and instinctively.Don’t answer. Don’t say anything. Don’t tell him a lie.

“Me?” Kuyoc replied comfortably. His eyes were still sharp. “What sort of trouble could I be?”

Jacobs tilted his head thoughtfully.

“Why don’t you tell me?” he calmly demanded.

Kuyoc shrugged.

“None at all, patrón,” he returned easily.

Jacobs smiled. The expression was thin as a razor blade. Ellie gripped the stones more tightly.

“Thank you,” he replied.

---