
query. On the earthworks beyond, a man's shape, distorted by wings, reared up
against the night sky, questing: an other Quman soldier, looking for his comrade.
Ivar's position at the base of the ditch, within the shadow of the lintel, veiled
him. A moment later the shadow moved on, dropping out of sight behind the
earthworks.
A drizzle of rain wet Ivar's cheeks. With a swelling roar, the river raged in the
distance like a multitude of voices raised all at once, but he couldn't see it, nor
could he see stars above. A bead of rain wound down his nose and, suspended
from its tip, hung there for the longest time just as he was suspended, unwilling
to move for fear of giving himself away.
Finally he set down his sword, rolled up the mail shirt, wrapping it tight with a
belt, and looped the helmet strap over his shoulder. With the sword in his good
hand and his injured hand throbbing badly enough to give him a headache, he
felt his way back under the lintel. Gruesome wings brushed his nose, one
splintered wooden frame scraping his cheek as feathers tickled his lips. Outside,
rain started to fall in earnest. Thunder muttered in the west. If they were lucky,
rain would obscure the signs of their passage and leave them safe for a day or
two, until the Quman moved on. Then they could sneak out and make their way
northwest, on the trail of Prince Bayan's and Princess Sapientia's retreating army.
In his heart, he knew it was a foolish hope. The Quman had scouts and
trackers. There was no way a ragged band of seven, four of them wounded and
most of them unable to fight, could get through the Quman lines. But they had
to believe they could. Otherwise they might as well lie down and die.
Why would they have been granted the vision of the phoenix if God had meant
for them to die in such a pointless manner?
Baldwin was waiting for him where the tunnel floor sloped upward and out of
the water.
"Come see," said Baldwin sharply.” Gerulf got a fire going."
"Gerulf?"
"That's the old Lion." Baldwin tugged him onward, steadying him when he
stumbled. Weariness settled over Ivar's shoulders. He shivered convulsively,
soaked through. He wanted nothing more than to drop right where he stood and
sleep until death, or the phoenix, came for him. Or maybe one would bring the
other, it was hard to think with the walls wavering around him.
Strange sigils had been carved into the pale stone, broad rocks
set upright and incised with the symbols of demons and ancient gods who
plagued the people of elder days: four-sided lozenges, spirals that had neither
beginning nor end, broad expanses of hatching cut into the rock as though straw
had been pressed crisscross into the stone.
Yet how could he see at all, deep in the heart of a tomb? With Baldwin's help,
he staggered forward until the tunnel opened into a smoky chamber lit by fire.
He stared past his companions, who were huddled around a torch. The chamber
was a black pit made eerie by flickering light. He could not see the ceiling, and
the walls were lost to shadow. He sneezed.