into a dark hole where the rocky ground should have been.
As if his eyes had wings, the image moved, following the perspective of the filmy picture as it dove downward past the walls of the round interior canyon to a small, grassy field at its bottom. The rockwalls that he had seen from above now seemed to tower over the field, as if to indicate that the canyon was deep underground and hidden within the peaks.
After a moment, the translucent image shifted, and once again moved. Dranth’s eyes followed it as it sped to the edge of the canyon’s field to the south, ending at the shore of a dark, underground lake, a lake within a massive cave with a high vault of stone above it. The image sped across the lake, past an island at its center that had the remains of a gazebo at its far edge surrounded by nothing but rubble where a small house, trees, and extensive gardens had all been reduced to ash.
Dranth, who had no idea what he was seeing, watched woozily as the image sped across the other side of the lake to a shore that led up to an underground passageway, finally opening into the light of a much larger but very much similar canyon, this one also a circle with high, towering walls, its field above the ground riven by an enormous hole in the center.
The walls that rimmed it reached up to the open sky above.
The tiny image continued to move, heading to the tall circular wall, a seemingly unbroken stand of rock, until it came to a hallway of a sort hidden by the bends and crevasses in the canyon wall. Dranth watched as it sped down the hallway in the rock, the sides of the small pass reaching up on either side of it, until it finally opened into a heath that overlooked a colossal city, carved from the very face of the mountains themselves.
Hirsute, demi-human soldiers in studded leather armor were patrolling the mountain passes around the city.
Dhranth blinked.
Canrif.
He had seen inside Canrif itself, in detail.
As if on a spool of filmy thread, the image rewound itself, speeding back down the hidden hallway, into the wide-open canyon with the broken meadow, back to the passage that led to the underground grotto, across the dark subterranean lake, over the desolate ruins on the island in the center, across the other side of the lake to the tiny tunnel that led to the smaller, underground canyon, up into the sky that opened into a seemingly endless range of fanglike mountain peaks.
The image faded and disappeared, leaving the scale in the titan’s hands blank and gray again.
“This, I believe, is the only unguarded entrance to Canrif,” the Emperor Presumptive said. “From the maps that Esten sent you, and what you have just seen, can you determine how to get inside?”
“Absolutely.” Dranth’s almost skeletal face stretched into the first true smile Talquist had seen since the guild scion had entered the room.
“Good. Now, let us be clear in our understanding, as I always try to do in business. I have shown you not only the way into Canrif, but the scrying instrument I use to look into distant places which are often otherwise hidden from my sight. I want you to forget that you have seen this instrument, Dranth, to let it utterly disappear from your head, leaving the image it showed you remaining there. If you ever reveal its existence, if I ever hear of it on the wind, it would have been better if your own head had been placed in the box along with that of your mistress that the Bolg delivered to you after discovering who she was, and that she was inside their mountain. I assume I don’t have to explain to you what you have given me in collateral for this information?”
“Of course not, Majesty,” Dranth said darkly.
“Excellent. I just wanted to be sure. The Dynasty of the Dark Earth is gone, crumbled to dust with the death of the Empress Leitha last year. Tomorrow I will ascend to the new dynastic throne to undertake the beginning of the Empire of the Sun and, like its namesake, it will be a
As if his eyes had wings, the image moved, following the perspective of the filmy picture as it dove downward past the walls of the round interior canyon to a small, grassy field at its bottom. The rockwalls that he had seen from above now seemed to tower over the field, as if to indicate that the canyon was deep underground and hidden within the peaks.
After a moment, the translucent image shifted, and once again moved. Dranth’s eyes followed it as it sped to the edge of the canyon’s field to the south, ending at the shore of a dark, underground lake, a lake within a massive cave with a high vault of stone above it. The image sped across the lake, past an island at its center that had the remains of a gazebo at its far edge surrounded by nothing but rubble where a small house, trees, and extensive gardens had all been reduced to ash.
Dranth, who had no idea what he was seeing, watched woozily as the image sped across the other side of the lake to a shore that led up to an underground passageway, finally opening into the light of a much larger but very much similar canyon, this one also a circle with high, towering walls, its field above the ground riven by an enormous hole in the center.
The walls that rimmed it reached up to the open sky above.
The tiny image continued to move, heading to the tall circular wall, a seemingly unbroken stand of rock, until it came to a hallway of a sort hidden by the bends and crevasses in the canyon wall. Dranth watched as it sped down the hallway in the rock, the sides of the small pass reaching up on either side of it, until it finally opened into a heath that overlooked a colossal city, carved from the very face of the mountains themselves.
Hirsute, demi-human soldiers in studded leather armor were patrolling the mountain passes around the city.
Dhranth blinked.
Canrif.
He had seen inside Canrif itself, in detail.
As if on a spool of filmy thread, the image rewound itself, speeding back down the hidden hallway, into the wide-open canyon with the broken meadow, back to the passage that led to the underground grotto, across the dark subterranean lake, over the desolate ruins on the island in the center, across the other side of the lake to the tiny tunnel that led to the smaller, underground canyon, up into the sky that opened into a seemingly endless range of fanglike mountain peaks.
The image faded and disappeared, leaving the scale in the titan’s hands blank and gray again.
“This, I believe, is the only unguarded entrance to Canrif,” the Emperor Presumptive said. “From the maps that Esten sent you, and what you have just seen, can you determine how to get inside?”
“Absolutely.” Dranth’s almost skeletal face stretched into the first true smile Talquist had seen since the guild scion had entered the room.
“Good. Now, let us be clear in our understanding, as I always try to do in business. I have shown you not only the way into Canrif, but the scrying instrument I use to look into distant places which are often otherwise hidden from my sight. I want you to forget that you have seen this instrument, Dranth, to let it utterly disappear from your head, leaving the image it showed you remaining there. If you ever reveal its existence, if I ever hear of it on the wind, it would have been better if your own head had been placed in the box along with that of your mistress that the Bolg delivered to you after discovering who she was, and that she was inside their mountain. I assume I don’t have to explain to you what you have given me in collateral for this information?”
“Of course not, Majesty,” Dranth said darkly.
“Excellent. I just wanted to be sure. The Dynasty of the Dark Earth is gone, crumbled to dust with the death of the Empress Leitha last year. Tomorrow I will ascend to the new dynastic throne to undertake the beginning of the Empire of the Sun and, like its namesake, it will be a
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