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r head, dizzied. She could follow the sense of it for no more than a few turns of the stone, if that.
Well, Kade thought, rolling it from one hand to the other. So I've got it. Now find Thomas, and take this down to its place in the cellar.
She bundled the keystone up in the bag she had brought in a pocket and tied it securely around her waist, then started out of the suite.
Kade listened at the heavy wooden door a moment, hearing no betraying sounds, then opened it cautiously. The next room was dark, but she had expected that. There was the smell of must and dampness and, far away and barely detectable in the frozen air, of death.
Kade hesitated, one hand on the doorframe. The hackles on the back of her neck lifted.
If the black spraggat outside had been a guard, there would be a guard inside, as well.
She crossed the anteroom in three light-footed leaps and reached the opposite door. Let whatever it was come for her then; she had found the keystone. She could do anything.
Stretching before her was a suite of rooms, filled with silent shapes, distorted by shadows.
Kade slipped through the first room, sweat freezing on her back, the heavy lump of the keystone bumping her familiarly in the leg. In the second room she stopped. The cold had changed consistency. She felt it moving over her like a mist, clinging to her face and hair, her clothes.
There is something here. She touched the wall to keep her orientation, straining her eyes in the darkness and slipping the bronze knife out of the scabbard at her belt. Then something moved. She couldn't tell if she was seeing it with her eyes or inside her head.
Kade eased back against the wall, her heart pounding. Whatever it was would attack her in a moment. She didn't want to give it an advantage by bolting out of the room screaming.
The whisper almost made her jump out of her skin. It came from across the room, and she tightened her grip on her knife. The voice was low