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“Illusion?” said Seraph, dismounting. “It doesn’t have that feel, though there is some magic here, right enough.”
She touched the gates, then jumped back as they began to open. Not swinging inward or outward as the city gates of most places did; nor did they rise up like the smaller gates of a keep or hold. These slid back on oiled tracks set below the road surface and into the walls themselves until the only remnant of the gate was a handspan-wide bar of brass up the middle of the wall edge.
A wagon length in front of them was another wall wider than the gate, that blocked them from the city so people entering would have to go to the left or the right of it. On either side of it, set between the city walls and the i
Tier dismounted and crouched beside the brass door’s track, bending down to sniff. “If this is an illusion, it’s on par with the mermora,” Tier said. “This oil smells fresh.”
“There are people here,” said Kissel. He loosened his sword and tipped his head from side to side, loosening his neck muscles in preparation for battle. “This can’t be a deserted place. Not looking like this.” He pointed at the dirt just the far side of the gate and He
“It’s too quiet,” protested Toarsen. “A city is never this silent, Kissel. Not even a city the size of Leheigh. You can hear the sounds of Taela miles away.”
“It’s magic,” said Jes quietly. “The city was left this way. That’s what the Guardian says.”
“He’s been here?” Tier gave his son a surprised look.
He
If so, then when she and Seraph solved the mystery of what to do with the Ordered gems, they might also stumble upon a way to help make the Guardian Order less dangerous to its bearer. Not that she wanted to change Jes or the Guardian, just keep him safe. But if the Guardian knew about Colossae, then it wasn’t just bits of the previous bearer that the Order contained—it was the first one, one of the survivors of the death of Colossae.
Jes stared determinedly down at the ground for long enough that she thought he’d not answer Tier’s question. Finally, he said, “He doesn’t know. He just remembers that the wizards left the city as it was.”
“Let’s go in,” said Phoran, with all the impatience of a young man, reminding He
Tier got to his feet and stared at the rake marks before he nodded. “All right. Loosen your swords, boys, those of you who have them. Be alert. Remember that according to Traveler stories there is something evil here. It may be bound, but the Travelers didn’t trust those bindings.”
Jes didn’t wait for the others but went to the closed gate and jumped over it; his dog followed him. Seraph led her horse through the open gate.
He
Lehr waited.
“Go ahead,” she told him.
He smiled. “I’m not telling Jes I let his lady take rear guard.”
She stiffened. “I can protect myself.”
“Doubtless,” he agreed, and held his chestnut mare where she was.
She smiled and shook her head, but urged her gelding through the gate ahead of him anyway.
The narrow passage dumped them in a large plaza cobbled in the same reddish stone as the walls. Water puddled in the spaces between the cobbles and splashed under the horses’ hooves.
In the small houses that crowded together around the plaza and continued to line narrow streets were some of the signs of age He
By the time He
“It still doesn’t look deserted enough,” said Phoran, rubbing his stallion’s neck absently. “There are places in Taela that look worse than this.”
“And it doesn’t smell,” agreed Toarsen.
Lehr hopped off his horse as well and wandered over to one of the houses. “I can’t get the door open,” he said in surprise.
“Is it locked?” asked Tier, going to see.
He
“I tried that. I can feel locks, and there are none here, Papa,” Lehr said. “It just won’t open.”
He
She reached out to touch it, and it didn’t give under the weight of her finger either, even when she pressed down on it.
“Try the window up there,” she heard Phoran say to Lehr. “It’s got an open-air window.”
She glanced behind her and saw Lehr jump to catch the lintel of a window and chin himself up. He dropped back down after a moment. “There’s a curtain across, but it feels more like a wall.”
“I know what’s wrong with your door and the window,” she said, standing up and looking around the streets again. When she knew what she was looking for it was obvious. The thatch on the houses was dark and grey with age, but not with rain. The wood of the walls of the houses was not wet either—and none of the horses were nibbling at the weeds.
Seraph frowned at her.
“The Elder Wizards somehow froze the city in time,” said He
They spent a while exploring the little square. None of them seemed to feel the way He
Seraph had taken the map satchel under the overhang of a building for protection from the rain. When she saw He
“You’re the only one who can read this,” she said, handing He
He
“I’d have thought they’d build first on top of the ridge,” said Seraph, distracted from her original question.
He