The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

stairway up the crater walls to the fence. We will have access to the outside world again, when I deem it safe,” Piedro replied. “My Rover magic tells me that the outside world is not safe at the moment.”
    Rollett couldn’t penetrate the man’s emotions with or without magic. Rovers had strange powers that few outsiders understood or could participate in. One had to have Rover blood to use Rover spells.
    “Safe for you or safe for honest workers who were brought here as slaves against their will?” Rollett asked, forcing an air of innocence into his tone. “You don’t feed the city, Piedro. You keep us on starvation rations so you can pretend to control the rabble. But you are still sleek and strong. Where do you get your supplies if all the exits are blocked?”
    He held back the anger that sent heat through his veins. He hadn’t the strength to challenge Piedro openly. And now he’d exhausted himself holding the tunnel together during the kardiaquake.
    What do you have hidden in the labyrinth beneath the palace, Piedro? He and the Rover Kaaliph stared at each other for a long moment, assessing, weighing, mutely challenging.
    “Mix the mortar,” Rollett ordered the mason. The broad man scuttled out of the tunnel. Rollett could taste the man’s fear as it permeated the air.
    Piedro licked his lips, savoring it.
    “Invoking terror only gives an illusion of control,” Rollett said, as much to himself as to the upstart Kaaliph. “You don’t have Yaassima’s cunning or her magic.” The late Kaalipha had governed with a bloody fist. Infractions of her few rules met with swift and fatal retribution. But she had rules. Those who broke the rules knew the consequences.
    Piedro made and broke his own laws on a whim. No one knew for sure what was legal and what wasn’t. Like this tunnel. Yesterday Piedro had welcomed the efforts to dig out. He’d openly told Rollett that the excavation toward the outside world kept troublemakers too busy and tired to wreak havoc within the city—or foment open rebellion.
    Rollet wondered why Piedro hadn’t assassinated him yet. He’d had many opportunities in the last year and a half. Perhaps the Kaaliph feared that Rollett’s men, who worked and lived as a cohesive unit, protecting each other, might rebel at the loss of their leader. Perhaps Piedro had secret plans to use this crew for something else. Perhaps . . .
    The hair on the back of Rollett’s neck rose in atavistic fear. He searched first for signs of a ghost. The blocked end of the tunnel remained quiet.
    Slowly he turned back to the tunnel entrance, knowing who awaited his notice. A short figure stood beside Peidro. Her head barely reached the Rover’s shoulder. A black lace veil covered her from head to toe. The intricate pattern of open and dense thread shifted with each movement, revealing haunting hints of a feminine figure robed in a finely cut black gown. A paler blob indicated the location of her face, but no hint of hair or eye color, distinguishing features, or age filtered through the veil.
    She maintained a tighter control of her emotions and her aura than the cadre of Rovers who accompanied Piedro everywhere. Even if Rollett had the energy to spare to probe her, he knew from experience he’d find nothing. The probe would pass right through her.
    Rover magic was mysterious. Her magic was unfathomable.
    The woman rose up on tiptoe and whispered into Piedro’s ear. In the year and a half since the Rover had seized power, no one but Piedro had heard her voice. All that anyone knew of her was that Piedro never went anywhere without her—except the brothels.
    “I shall attend you in a moment, my dear.” Piedro patted her hand solicitously. She backed away, as if floating in a mist of her veil.
    “Leave this excavation, Rollett,” Piedro ordered. “The great winged god Simurgh is hungry. His temple—the only temple remaining in all of Kardia Hodos dedicated to him—lies empty within my palace. Don’t give me an excuse to feed him your blood. Much as I have enjoyed them, I grow weary of your challenges.”
    “Who ordered the end of this project, you or your consort?”
    “I rule Hanassa. No one else!” Piedro screamed in a voice on the edge of hysteria.
    Rollett merely raised one eyebrow in question.
    “Guards, post five men here at all times. The work will cease immediately.” Piedro turned on his heel and stalked out. His temper made little ripples in his aura, like watching air