The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

currencies in Hanassa.” He aimed the little black box at various control panels as they passed. Lights came on and diminished as he pressed the buttons.
    “I’ll be interested to see who the veiled consort sides with if we manage that shift of power,” Powwell mused. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he saw something or someone the other two couldn’t perceive.
    “So will I,” Yaala joined in. “From what you’ve said, Rollett, she’s the one who directs Piedro’s every move. He strikes me as a man with ambition but not a lot of forethought. If we take out the consort, he’ll be indecisive.”
    “The consort is the one I plan to watch most closely on this mission. Remember we just watch and learn this time.” Rollett approached the gate slowly. He listened with all of his senses for evidence of Piedro’s Rover guards.
    He heard a mouse scuttle through the dust. A snake slithered behind it. The corridor remained quiet except for those tiny sounds. He checked the light quality for evidence of body heat or auras—though Rovers managed to suppress the visible radiation of heat and energy from their bodies. Last of all, he opened his mind to stray thoughts. Rovers had great armor around their minds when they traveled to places where they were a persecuted minority. But here in Hanassa, where one of their own ruled, the tribe had become lazy.
    Silence except for the small rustlings of creatures who belonged down here and the subtle shift of rock and dirt.
    The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his stomach lurched in apprehension. “Kardiaquake coming,” he warned the others, grabbing a wall well clear of the gate.
    Powwell and Yaala pressed themselves against the wall of solid rock beside him. Interestingly, Yaala faced the rock while he and Powwell instinctively faced outward so they could watch for falling hazards and dodge them if necessary. He edged closer to Yaala so that he could shove her away from danger if necessary.
    The ground beneath his feet seemed to roll. The corridor wall across from him rippled. Then quiet descended. He waited for the crash of a passageway collapsing. A few rocks rolled together, nothing bigger.
    “How’d you know about that?” Powwell asked, pushing himself away from the wall. He touched Yaala’s shoulder gently as a signal for safety.
    “I was listening for evidence of the guards. I heard the shift in the kardia,” Rollett replied, still listening to the kardia for an aftershock.
    “If we could maintain a light listening trance, we could predict all of the kardiaquakes. We could awe the populace into obeying us rather than Piedro.” Powwell bit his lower lip and ran his hand through his hair in thought.
    “Takes too much energy without a dragon or ley lines. I’ve tried it,” Rollett dismissed the notion. “Come on. We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s see what Piedro is up to.”
    When they had passed through the gate and closed it behind them, Yaala pulled a new ’mote from her inside tunic pocket. How many did she have? “When you use magic to open a lock, you just move the inside pieces around until they fit a pattern that releases it. Right?”
    Puzzled, Rollett looked to Powwell. How did she know so much about the process of magic? He thought those secrets were kept from mundanes. Powwell shrugged and grimaced.
    “Correct,” Rollett replied, looking over Yaala’s shoulder as she flipped open the black casing with a tool she kept hidden in a pouch tied to her waist.
    “That’s what a key does. And that’s what a ’mote does.” Yaala fussed with the insides a little. “So what we have to do is make the closure a puzzle.”
    “Rovers are canny with puzzles. They don’t think in straight lines,” Rollett said, watching her closely.
    “If I reverse the polarity, and retune the resonance . . .”
    Rollett felt more than heard a high-pitched hum in the back of his head. He tried duplicating it in the back of his throat. Too deep. He moved the vibration higher into his sinuses. Closer.
    “There. Now we can open the gate with this ’mote and only this one, but Piedro will probably exhaust himself trying to manipulate the lock with magic and there is no mechanical keyhole.
    “Will the wands the guards used to carry work on it?” Powwell ran his fingertips over the metal plate that housed the lock. A faint red aura followed his hand.
    “Not anymore. They are tuned differently.” Yaala pocketed the ’mote and marched up the