One man from the group motioned, then hurried to a spot across and a little farther down the corridor. He quickly traced out something in the gray veining. From where Verna stood she couldn't see it, but she assumed that it was probably another face. He rushed to another spot along the corridor and traced out a small face there in the stone looking out at them. He rushed to another place and pointed out a larger face.

Verna was beginning to understand. These people were down here all the time. They had learned the individual markings in what appeared at first glance as indistinguishable slabs of white marble. But they weren't indistinguishable to these people. To the crypt staff, who spent their lives down here cleaning and caring for the place, these markings were like street signs. They recognized them all.

Comprehension had come onto Cara's face as well. She was also looking more worried.

"Show me again what's wrong," she said in a serious but quiet voice.

The people, excited that Cara was now following along with what they were telling her, all rushed back over to the section of wall where they had shown her the first face. Standing before the wall, all of them moved both hands back and forth, toward and away from the wall.

They paused, the whole group turning to Cara to see if she understood. She watched them.

One of the men then pointed at the wall and beyond in an arcing movement, as if indicating something away over a hill in the distance. Verna was confused again.

Cara stared at the face in the wall. Her brow drew down. She was suddenly looking gravely concerned. Verna was still in the dark, as was Dario, but Cara's blue eyes were alive with dawning comprehension.

Cara suddenly circled her arms around the backs of several of the group and ushered them on their way back toward Verna and Dario. She put a hand on the backs of others and gently pushed, herding them away from the troubling wall. At the rear of the group, arms out, she shepherded the rest of them back up the corridor.

Along the way, Cara gathered up Verna and Dario, turning them around and moving them along. The mute crypt staff all followed close on her heels, looking both concerned that Cara was alarmed about something, and proud of themselves at the same time.

Cara leaned close to Verna when they had retreated up the corridor and around the corner of the intersection.

"Get Nathan," she said in a tone of clear command.

Verna's brow twitched. "Does it need to be tonight? Don't you think that we-"

"Get him now," Cara said in a deadly calm voice of authority.

Her blue eyes were cold fire. Verna knew that, as kind and understanding as Cara had been with the staff, she was not to be argued with now. She was now in charge of the situation. Verna had no idea what the situation was, but she trusted the woman and knew that she needed not to question Cara's word in this.

Cara snapped her fingers at the men waiting nearby. The commander rushed forward to see what she wanted. As soon as he arrived, he stood leaning close, focused on what she might say.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Get General Trimack down here. Tell him it's urgent. Tell him to bring men. Lots of men. Alert the Mord-Sith. I want them down here, too. Do it now."

Without question the man clapped a fist to his heart and raced away.

Verna clutched the Mord-Sith's arm. "Cara, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure."

"We're about to throw the palace into full alert, drag hundreds if not thousands of people all the way down here-General Trimack, the First File, Nathan-and you don't know why?"

"Didn't say I didn't know why. Said I wasn't sure. I think there are faces looking at us that shouldn't be looking at us."

Cara turned to the faces all watching her.

"Am I right?"

The crypt staff broke out in excited, mute grins, thrilled to have someone understand and believe them.

CHAPTER 40

Richard peered out from under the canvas tarp as the wagon rolled through the outer fringes of the Order's camp. Every time a gust of wind buffeted the wagon he had to keep a good hold on the tarp to keep it down. The towering monstrosity of the ramp loomed overhead. Up this close he could see just how immense it had already become. It didn't seem a false hope that it could eventually reach the palace at the top of the plateau.

After Adie had used her gift to help them make it through the fighting around the Ja'La field, it had been a relatively uneventful journey across the rest of the vast Imperial Order encampment. Regular soldiers wanted nothing to do with the potential trouble offered by a small wagon escorted by what appeared to be a high-ranking royal guard and a Sister. Men mostly ignored them as they passed.

The riot, as large as it was, had primarily been confined to the spectators at the Ja'La match. While it seemed that perhaps hundreds of thousands of men were involved in the fight over the outcome of the game, and it was a vast, gruesome bloodbath, the trouble was still limited to a fraction of the encampment. In much of the rest of the camp commanders had rushed armed men in to clamp down on movement and contain the trouble.

Despite that effort, the turmoil had spread to a certain extent. Most of these men had not joined a struggle to be cold, hungry, and spend their lives digging dirt. They were becoming resentful of having to work at menial labor rather than being about the business of murder, rape, and plunder. Waiting for the prospect of conquest was one thing, but now the remaining spoils looked rather limited and the work of getting to them was considerable. It seemed that self-sacrifice for the cause of the Order had its limits. The line appeared to have been drawn at actually having to work.

Authorities, though, were not only quick but brutal in crushing pockets of trouble as they broke out. As unhappy as many of the men were with their conditions, when they saw what happened to some of those who stirred up unrest, they lost the stomach to join in.

Several times General Meiffert had had to bluff his way through groups of men. Once his bluster had needed to be reinforced by killing a man with a swift slash across the side of his neck. Other times Adie had quietly used her powers to ease their way through potential trouble. Having the soldiers think she was one of Jagang's Sisters ended a lot of questions before they even began. Several times, when she had been stopped and questioned by soldiers foraging for loot, she merely stared at the men without answering. Looking into her completely white eyes as she glared at them, they lost their nerve and vanished back into the darkness.

Far behind them at the Ja'La field there were pockets within the riot that were finally being brought under control, but for the most part the night there had been abandoned to chaotic battles between drunken soldiers. The emperor's guard hadn't really cared about restoring order; they had only been interested in saving the life of the emperor.

Nicci's trembling pain told Richard that Jagang was still alive and able to exert his influence. That didn't mean he was conscious, though. What Richard didn't know was if Jagang at some point, when unable to force her to return, might decide to kill her through the collar. If he did, there was nothing Richard could do to stop him. Getting the collar off from around her neck was the only solution, and to do that they needed to get to Nathan up in the palace.

Peeking out from under the tarp, Richard spotted a confusion of vast pits spread out ahead in the torchlight. Richard could see lines of men, animals, and wagons leading out of pits where material was being dug up. Clouds of dust streamed away from areas where men were actively digging. The lines of men and wagons coming out of those pits stretched all the way to the ramp. Those lines were all in constant motion as they conveyed the dirt and rock to the construction site.