The blue light from overhead fell on what appeared to priests in hooded tunics filing forward to reverently place their offering at the feet of a large statue. The tall figure appeared to be a rat on its hind legs, but the worship of rats didn’t exactly fit Saray’s description of the once majestic capital city of the Cor. Then again, he doubted the people of Kadir had ever intended to worship the statue of a lizard.

  Watching the worshippers bowing before the statue, then scuttling off to one side, he realized they were not people. The pointed tunics where the heads of other rats, just not as large as the statue. Corvan was thrusting his head out for a better look when the statue lifted its head to stare in his direction. Corvan froze as it squinted into the blue light. Pointy ears swiveled independently of each other, scanning for any sound. Its face was a hairless mottled gray and there was a black studded collar around its neck. The large rat, like the watchers, must serve TaKalian and protect him. Getting close to the old man might prove to be more difficult than he first thought.

  A hot gust of fetid air burst out the hole around Corvan’s face, and he had to stifle a cough. Instantly, intelligent eyes were searching around the ventilation shaft where he was hidden. Corvan froze, waiting until the creature was distracted by two smaller rats stumbling in with a large eel wriggling in their claws, it’s contortions almost knocking them to their feet. They heaved the eel onto the stone pedestal, then darted away from the eel’s snapping jaws. The large rat on the dais was not concerned, it crouched on its haunches, then pierced the live eel with a long claw. The eel writhed wrapping itself tightly around the rat’s muscular forearm and sinking its teeth into its shoulder. Without flinching, the large rat held the prize aloft and stepped from its podium. The smaller ones scattered as it strode through the door they had emerged from.

  As soon it was gone the smaller ones swarmed over the dais in a tangle of fur and claws, fighting over the offerings they had placed there. One was injured in the fray and was immediately set upon by the others. The gruesome scene lasted a short moment before they all vanished into doorways and holes around the dais, dragging their prizes and their dead companion along with them.

  As soon as the coast was clear, Corvan flipped on his back and sent the free end of his krypin up and over the balcony railing. The only way out was up and as soon as it was anchored, he pulled himself from the ventilation shaft, dangled momentarily below the edge of the balcony, then climbed over the railings and crawled across to crouch at the base of the inner wall. Above his head, strong blue light streamed from one of the windows he had seen from his lily pad. Further along the curved wall would the doorway where the person he believed was TaKalian had appeared.

  He was about to creep towards the door on his silent slippers when something flew out the window above him and landed with a sloppy smack on the balcony. The wounded eel was wriggling and slithering toward the balcony’s edge, leaving a slick trail thick blood in its wake.

  “I am sick of eating fish and eels! I need one of the underwater lumiens, and soon!” TaKalian’s creaky voice with its distinctive lisp reawakened a powerful fear of meeting the man in person. He shouldn’t have tried this on his own—he was no match for such an evil person.

  A low guttural voice replied, sending a fresh shiver up Corvan’s spine. “The smaller tarks cannot get to the lumiens without your water creatures eating them. Even a tarken swarm acting as a sacrificial decoy at my commands does not succeed.”

  “Then send that one into the water to find a way past them!” TaKalian shouted. “If I don’t get more lumien seeds, Shael, both you and I are both going to fade away. Send him for a lumien right now and get him to take that slimy thing with him.”

  Corvan caught a few clicks of the Hoksa language and in an instant the hairless rat-like creature was on the balcony, snatching up the eel, then gulping it down headfirst. As the eel’s flat tail disappeared between twin rows of needle-sharp teeth, the creature’s head came down, and its eyes met Corvan’s. Standing on its hind legs it was almost his height. They stared at each other for a long moment, before the huge rat flipped around and ran in the door.

  A flurry of whispered clicks and lisping words came from inside, then silence. The blue light faded off and was replaced by a softer amber glow.

  Finally, the voice of TaKalian floated out the window overhead. “You may enter, Kalian.”

  Corvan stood and looked in over the window ledge. In the center of the large round room, TaKalian was sitting on a raise throne, dressed in a dazzling white cloak. It was open at the neck to display the master medallion hanging at his scrawny neck. Its glow was barely visible against the light of the glow globe on a stand.

  TaKalian’s throne was flanked by two large rats. On his left, the large grey hairless that had just been on the balcony and on his right, a slightly smaller one covered in short black hair, except for a whitish triangle in the center of its chest. It stared at Corvan through narrowed eyes, a sneer on its thin lips, then bent and whispered in the old man’s ear.

  The man nodded and waved Corvan forward. “Do join us,” he said with an attempt at congeniality, then nodded stiffly to the balcony door. Leaving the window, Corvan circled around on the balcony, loosening the black knife lashed to his forearm as he walked. If it came to a fight with the rats, he would need to defend himself.

  Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and entered the throne room of Dubok Kholm.

  TaKalian smiled and beckoned him forward. “This is a great surprise. You didn’t even inform me that you were on your way back. Why didn’t you tell Kate? She has been continually asking about you and pining away.” He paused and when Corvan did not respond, the man gestured over his shoulder at the black one. “Shael has been watching for you, to bring you here. It would have been much easier to use the stairs instead of climbing up the walls.” He forced a smile, his false teeth hanging loosely from his dark gums.

  In behind TaKalian’s throne and the ominous creature he called Shael, a wide round staircase wound up from a hole in the floor. Off to Corvan’s right, three steps led to a small landing where a door stood open, revealing a tight staircase spiraling upward.

  “I assume you would like to see her?” The lisping voice held no compassion, only a taunt.

  Corvan pulled his attention from the open door to the left side of the room where a round table had been flanked by stools, three of which were broken and tossed aside in a heap.

  “Yes,” TaKalian crooned, “please have a seat. You must be tired after finding your way from Bandur and across the water.” The man paused, waiting for a response, and getting none added, “that is quite the feat since my traitorous son had the bridge destroyed. I’m impressed. Especially to have invaded the detection of my watery guardians and Shael, she has the keenest of senses.”

  The black creature glared at Corbin and bared its teeth.

  Corvan walked over to the side of the table closest to the door and sat bolt upright on a stool. It was true that he was tired from the journey from Kadir, but if TaKalian believed he came from Bandur that was fine with him. Keeping the man guessing was not a bad thing.

  A thick tablecloth covered the top of the round table. Resting one hand he was surprised to find it hot and also hollow beneath the cloth.

  TaKalian stepped off his throne and made his way to the opposite side of the round table. His two rat guardians followed and stood at attention behind him. The hairless one that gulped down the eel stared at him like it would welcome the chance to eat him as well. The black one’s eyes were ice cold and held an intelligence that left no doubt as to is intentions. It might not eat him, but it would certainly enjoy watching him suffer. Although it was smaller in size, it was definitely the most dangerous of the two.

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  He focused his attention on TaKalian. Now that he was in the physical presence of the old man, Corvan could see just how weak he really was. On his own he had no power to hurt or control Corvan in this setting. If it weren’t for his two guardians, Corvan could simply take the medallion away from him. But Saray had been specific. The master medallion had to be freely given if it were to save Kate’s life.

  Corvan loosed the neck of the outer tunic Tsarek had given him back under Castle Rock and sat back from the table. Resting his hands in his lap, he focused his thoughts on tension of the black knife strapped to his forearm, rehearsing in his mind how me might quickly pull it out if needed.

  “How did you come by that tunic?” TaKalian pointed to the edge of a crest on the inner shirt from his grandfather’s clothes. “I have not seen anyone in the official uniform of the original Kadir council for a long time.”

  “They were given to me,” Corvan replied.

  “Yes, of course.” The deep wrinkles around TaKalian’s neck bunch up as he nodded deeply. “He was likely about your size given who his father and mother were. It’s such pity that Jokten had to ruin the Cor with his deceptions and then corrupt his own offspring. If I am not mistake, you appear to be cut from the same cloth for you have not brought the scepter with you as you promised. I hope it is hidden somewhere safe.”

  He raised his eyebrows and Corvan looked out the window. “I did not hide the scepter because I did not find it at my home. Before I got back the boy I told you about had already broken into our home. Both the black box and the scepter were gone.” Corvan turned his gaze back to the old man. It wasn’t the full story but there was no way Corvan was going to let him know that his mother had returned to the Cor with the scepter.

  Anger tightened the wrinkles around the old man’s mouth and his false teeth clicked. “Then why are you here. Did you think if you met me in person that I would give you the master medallion out of the goodness of my heart? That I would let you take Kate away?” He gestured past the glow globe to the open door. “You are mistaken. I do not care if she dies.”

  “Yes, you do.” Corvan’s words hung between them, and he pointed to the medallion hanging on TaKalian’s chest. “Not for her sake, but for yours. Kate’s compassion was stored in that medallion, but I can see it has grown weaker as Kate’s life ebbs away. If she dies, you will also die, even if your rats can manage to pull a lumien or two out of the water without getting eaten by the great fish.”

  TaKalian opened his mouth to speak but Corvan leaned forward, put his hands on the table and pressed on. “I know that ever since you were deathly ill, and recovered by abusing the Lifelight, you have been terrified to die. You will do anything to avoid it.”

  The old man shut his mouth, leaned away from the circular table, then studied Corvan a long time before speaking. “It would appear that Jokten is alive and continues to pass on his lies.”

  Corvan thoughts went to Jokten’s cairn of stones by the waterfall in Kadir. As far as he was concerned, Jokten was a hero and he was proud to have known the man, even for such a short time.

  TaKalian’s eyes narrowed. “Your face confirms that Shael’s reports are correct. Jokten may have finally died but now it is Saray who talks far too much. I always suspected that she was the one filling Jokten’s head with grand schemes for the Cor. I warned him not to trust a woman and I caution you as well. Do not be deceived by her stories of the ancient ways of the women of the Cor. Its all a bunch of made up lies.”

  Corvan pulled his hands from the table and sat back. Whatever was under the tablecloth felt like it was getting hotter and across the table, TaKalian’s face was getting redder.

  TaKalian continued. “Other than Kael, Saray would be the only one left in the Cor with such knowledge.” He looked intently at his long fingers drumming softly on the thick fabric before a thin smile lifted the frowning wrinkles around his narrow lips. His head tilted up on this veined neck. “Then again, perhaps it is your own mother that fills your head with false information.” His fingers stopped drumming. “Yes, that could be it. I would not put it past her to return on her own with the scepter, perhaps to rescue your father? That would certainly explain what Shael is hearing about the goings on in Katay Alba.”

  Corvan calmed himself and stared at the old man, thankful that Saray had warned him about giving away information. He would let TaKalian talk himself in circles. The old man had obviously lived alone with his rat creatures so long that he had grown used to talking to himself.

  TaKalian gestured to the black creature standing behind him and it bowed beside him. The old man bent in close and whispered in its pointed ear. The black rat dropped to the floor and scurried away on all fours down the wide spiral staircase behind the throne.

  TaKalian looked back to Corvan and studied his face as if he expected some reaction. “It may take Shael a bit of time to find out where your mother is, but Shael is much more cunning than any of my watchers ever were.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the larger gray one. “The male is not so smart, but I have bred him with Shael and even now I am raising more large females with her abilities. I trust Shael and her daughters.” He cocked his head to one side. “How strange that it is completely the opposite when it comes to humans. With people it’s the females you can never trust.” His hands caressed the tablecloth. “If your mother has indeed returned to the Cor with the scepter, she will eventually bring it to me. I don’t mind waiting for Shael to find her as I have more time left to me than you know. If Kate happens to die in the meantime, and the medallion loses its power, my life will go on as before. As you already overheard, from time to time I still desire a seed from the lumiens under the water, but I don’t need them to stay alive.”

  He rolled back the tablecloth and bright blue light shot up to the ceiling. “Each day fresh lumien power flows up here from below the Kholm.” Corvan lifted the edge and folded the cloth back onto itself, blinking against the light. It wasn’t a table after all, it was a round tub of brilliant blue steaming water—swirling bubbles releasing a heavy mist into the air. The tub was the source of the intense light that Corvan had seen from the secret alcove across the water. It did not shine on the back side of the city as there were no windows from the throne room on that side, only the stair leading to the chamber where Kate was being held prisoner.

  The old man stirred a finger across the bright surface and blue light rippled across his blotched face. “I had the water diverted up here long ago, when I still had builders left, to allow me to bathe in the healing waters. It comes from a special place full of huge lumiens, far below the city. When I bathe in it each day, it not only soothes my aching bones but also keeps me energized and alive.”

  He smiled thinly at Corvan, and the stretching of his cheeks twisted the patches of decaying skin. The top row of his black false teeth hung from his mottled gray gums like shriveled black current berries in middle of winter. Bathing in the lumien infused pool might be keeping him alive but it certainly wasn’t making him any stronger.

  The old man scooped up a handful of the bright liquid and slurped it past his teeth.

  “This water is also a healthy drink. You should try some.”

  Corvan grimaced. The thought of drinking water with flakes of the old man’s dead skin floating about almost made him gag.

  As if he senses Corvan’s disgust, TaKalian covered his side of the pool back over and gestured for Corvan to do the same. “It’s a powerful tonic but it’s a bit bright for my eyes. I usually cover my eyes with a mask when it is time for my bath. Shael or the male one help me get in and out.”

  Instead of covering the the pool on his side, Corvan leaned back on his stool. It was not only good to see clearly around the throne room, but the light illuminated the worry etched around the man’s blue veined eyes. It seemed TaKalian needed more than just the lumien infused water to stay alive, he was lying about needing his creatures to bring him underwater lumien seeds.

  TaKalian stood stiffly to his feet and leaned over the tub to flip the cover back over on Corvan’s side of the pool. His bathing every day was not helping reduce the heavy odor of decay clinging to his body. He gazed down at Corvan. “So how did you get across the water from Bandur? If I could make the trip, I would certainly like to visit Bandur again.”

  Instead of answering, Corvan left the table and walked towards the outer balcony. He did not want the old man to keep asking questions and studying his reactions, but he also needed to get away from the man’s foul smell. It was even worse than the sewers.

  Behind his back he heard TaKalian speak in Hoksa and turning around Corvan saw the gray creature run down the stairs on its hind legs, glaring at him arrogantly, as if Corvan should be impressed with how it walked upright.

  Corvan moved into the doorway and nonchalantly looked out over the water. With both the large guardians gone, this would be his chance to get the master medallion. Teek had given him the potion that could put TaKalian to sleep but that wouldn’t be useful unless he poured it in the tub and the man drank some. But he needed the man to give him the medallion of his own free will.

  He needed to trade for the medallion. Sticking a hand into the front pocket of his tunic he fingered the round globes of fermented juice he had taken from Saray’s kitchen. If she was right, the old man would desperately want the kokur fruit. If he ate one, its potency might make him more amenable to a deal for Kate’s life.

  Leaving the door, he stood behind the round tub and gestured out the window. “You threw your supper away because you are tired of eating the same food all these years. I have something different you might enjoy.” He pulled out his hand but did not open it. “An enjoyable memory of your former days here in this once great city.”