The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

corridor with quick, decisive steps.
    Rollett had to stretch his stride to catch up to her. He hadn’t had time to fix the exact pitch of the hum in his mind.
    At the junction, Rollett paused. He wanted to dash into the Justice Hall and confront Piedro but knew that course would only lead to more trouble than he could handle.
    “Storeroom first,” he mouthed. His two comrades followed him up the slope to the site of last night’s ambush.
    The room echoed emptily. If any foodstuffs had been stored here, they were gone now. Someone had even wiped the room clean of remnant aura traces. No telling who had been here and who hadn’t.
    He closed down his magic senses quickly, ruthlessly conserving his energy.
    Silently he motioned the others to follow him. At the junction again, Yaala stepped into the dead-end tunnel. “Dead end,” Rollett whispered. He waved her back along the main corridor.
    “Hidden staircase behind a door. I can open the door with your ’mote,” she returned.
    “Next trip. I need to see what is happening among the guards first.” Rollett clamped down on his curiosity. Everything of import happened in the Justice Hall. Everyone in the city passed through there at some point of almost every day.
    “I think you need to see what is up there,” Yaala replied, stepping resolutely into the corridor.
    “Wait, Yaala,” Powwell said as he chased after her. His aura seemed to detach from him and follow like a ghost. The wraith?
    Stargods! Was the wraith trying to steal Powwell’s body?
    Then Rollett paused and smiled. The wraith was Kalen, Powwell’s sister, almost his alter ego. That meant that Hanassa was in Kalen’s body, the consort. He knew he’d never trusted the veiled woman for more reasons than the obvious. Kalen was immature, self-centered, manipulative, and sneaky. A prime candidate for the renegade dragon to use.
    “We’re supposed to stay together!” Rollett rushed to keep up.
    “Then follow me. I know what I’m doing.” Yaala threw the last words over her shoulder as a challenge.
    Gritting his teeth, Rollett marched behind her that last two dozen paces to the dead end. He searched the apparently blank wall with all of his senses and found nothing. Powwell shrugged at him in confusion. He probably couldn’t find anything there either.
    Yaala grinned at him in sarcastic triumph as she held up a ’mote and pointed it at the top right corner of the end wall.
    Slowly the rocks behind him groaned and protested. The noise became louder as rust and inertia fought with the overwhelming command of the ’mote.
    Rollett resisted the urge to cross himself. Yaassima could have hidden any number of dead bodies behind that stone door.
    Instead, the weak light from the corridor behind them revealed a narrow staircase that wound upward. “How far up does it go?” he asked when he’d found the nerve to speak again. A tiny bit of respect replaced some of his distrust of her.
    “Nearly to the top of the crater wall,” Yaala replied, setting her foot on the first step.
    “I’ve seen small openings up there. I thought they were windows to parts of the palace.” Rollett followed her as closely as he could without stepping on her.
    “Windows, yes. But this is the only entrance to that part of the palace. I don’t know that Yaassima knew of the treasure hidden up there.”
    “Treasure? Don’t let Piedro or his people hear about this or we’ll be dead in a moment for the knowledge.” This time Rollett did cross himself. Piedro’s greed for power would kill the entire city. In the Rover culture, money and jewels represented power to be hoarded.
    “Not this treasure.”
    Yaala paused for breath on the first landing, fifteen steps above the corridor. At the next landing, twenty steps above the first, the passage narrowed. Rollett had to slide up the steps sideways. At the fourth landing they all bent double, gasping for breath in the rarified air.
    And then finally, after the sixth landing, sunlight filtered down from the top.
    Rollett squeezed past Yaala to greet the refreshing light of dawn. Dazzle-blinded at first by the natural light after the dim stairwell, he couldn’t see anything beyond the five narrow windows cut into the stone walls. His magic sensed openness around him. He closed his eyes and let the light bathe him a few moments. Then, slowly, he opened them again to better awareness of his surroundings.
    “Books!” Powwell gasped from behind him.
    “Almost as many