Seren Pedac was in the lead, twenty paces ahead, and Udinaas saw her halt and suddenly crouch, one hand lift-i ng. The air sweeping in was rich with the scent of loam and wood dust. The mouth of the tunnel was small, overdrawn and half blocked by angled fragments of basalt from what had once been an-arched gate, and beyond was darkness.
Seren Pedac waved the rest forward. ‘I will scout out ahead,’ she whispered as they gathered about just inside the cave mouth. ‘Did anyone else notice that there were no hats in that last stretch? That floor was clean.’
‘There are sounds beyond human hearing,’ Silchas Ruin said. ‘The flow of air is channelled through vents and into tubes behind the walls, producing a sound that perturbs bats, insects, rodents and the like. The Short-Tails were skilied at such things.’
‘So, not magic, then?’ Seren Pedac asked. ‘No wards or curses here?’
‘No.’
Udinaas rubbed at his face. His beard was filthy, and there were things crawling in the snarls of hair. ‘Just find out if we’re on the right side of that damned fort, Acquitor.’
‘I was making sure I wouldn’t trip some kind of ancient ward stepping outside, Indebted, something that all these broken boulders suggests has happened before. Unless of course you want to rush out there yourself.’
‘Now why would I do that?’ Udinaas asked. ‘Ruin gave you your answer, Seren Pedac; what are you waiting for?’
‘Perhaps,’ Fear Sengar said, ‘she waits for you to be quiet. We shall all, I suppose, end up waiting for ever in that regard.’
‘Tormenting you, Fear, gives me my only pleasure.’
‘A sad admission indeed,’ Seren Pedac murmured, then edged forward, over the tumbled rocks, and into the night beyond.
Udinaas removed his pack and settled down on the littered floor, dried leaves crunching beneath him. He leaned against a tilted slab of stone and stretched out his legs.
Fear moved up to crouch at the very edge of the cave mouth.
Humming to herself, Kettle wandered off into a nearby side chamber.
Silchas Ruin stood regarding Udinaas. ‘I am curious,’ he said after a time. ‘What gives your life meaning, Letherii?’
‘That’s odd. I was just thinking the same of you, Tiste Andii.’
‘Indeed.’