Chapter 62
Hoku raised his eyes from the flyleaf.
Lunhard sat near one corner of the desk, one leg crossed over the other, absorbed in thought.
"…Lunhard?"
Lunhard straightened and took his hand from the page. "Mm?"
"Is this supposed to happen?"
"It is." Lunhard glanced down. "Why not lift it and have a look?"
'—?'
Hoku swiftly turned his hand over to inspect his palm, but there was no trace of ink. When he glanced back at the page, the symbol had vanished as well.
Lunhard began undoing the clasp at his cuff. It fell between them with a clink as he folded back the loosened linen and withdrew a compact copper-coloured box from his sleeve.
Rosettes and scrollwork ornamented the lid and sides, with minute markings threaded through the intervening spaces. A stout chain had been wound twice around the box and drawn across the lock.
Lunhard fitted the little key into the lock. One turn slackened the chain into his palm, and the lid yielded beneath his thumb.
Something dark slipped across his fingers, brushed the rim, and vanished inside.
After a moment, Lunhard withdrew a flat, round medallion, its surface mottled with verdigris and rimmed in muted gold. He closed the lid, wound the chain twice around the box, and fastened it across the lock.
Lunhard placed the medallion in Hoku's free hand.
'This…'
Hoku lowered his chin toward his collar.
Li had once found a similar medallion inside the statue and given it to him. That one had borne Lunhard's name. Not long afterward, the peculiar garden around him had vanished, leaving nothing but the illusory darkness.
Just off-centre, Hoku's name was incised in a line of minute characters.
"How am I meant to use them?"
Lunhard touched two fingers to his brow. "Perhaps I should have explained this before you began."
"They are only the means, I'm afraid. When this basilite was formed, each person involved left a vestige within it, and the ritual still depends upon the affinity those remnants preserve. Restore the symbols to their proper order, and they can perform the part for which they were left."
Hoku listened without interrupting.
"Since you had no part in its formation, the medium had to be an instrument already attuned to your essence, so that the divination cast through it would take on the same affinity and become bound to you in turn."
Hoku's brow twitched.
'…But the compass is bound to my essence as well, isn't it? Then why couldn't it have been the medium? Why did I have to cast a divination first? Unless the compass and the divination it produced were treated as separate things… But even then, why had the fob been necessary? The compass did not require the fob to cast according to the circumstances, and the divination would still have fallen to me. So all the fob had done was allow me to choose.'
Hoku went over the sequence once more, but it led him no further.
Lunhard waited until his expression settled, then inclined his head.
"Place the medallion at the centre. I'll keep the card level."
Hoku laid it upon The Inverted Threshold as Lunhard leaned over and supported his hand from below.
'His skin is almost as cold as brass left out overnight.'
The instant the medallion touched the card, its sudden weight forced both their hands lower.
At first, Hoku thought a glint had swept across the illustration.
Then a painted fingertip curled, followed almost at once by the rest.
One slender joint after another emerged from the black surface with a dry, minute rasp. Even outside the illustration, the bones were no broader than the lines that had depicted them.
The unnatural cold of Lunhard's skin was already receding as the four hands arched inward.
Hoku's arm started back when their pointed fingers touched above the medallion, and the small bones closed around the rim.
From between the bones, a dark vapour seeped into the minute characters, blackening Hoku's name upon the mottled green.
Fine gold dust sifted from the medallion and vanished into the darkness.
The mottled green turned translucent where it bordered the gold band. From there, layer after layer dissolved into the illustration, taking the skeletal hands with it.
As the last trace disappeared, the bones settled into painted lines and the gold circle contracted to the size of a ten-pence coin.
Black motes spread over The Inverted Threshold from every side until neither illustration nor card remained. A dark disk hung where it had been, a finger's breadth above Hoku's hand.
Several seconds passed before dull red emerged through the black, followed by bronze and the dense yellow of old gold. The final dark patch dissolved, and the disk dropped against the base of his fingers.
'Is this… a coin?'
Lunhard left the desk and approached the mural without haste. "Is there anything on its other side?"
Hoku rolled the disk over with his thumb. It was heavier than its size suggested and ice-cold against his skin.
The face now uppermost bore a long, curved relief coiling toward a shallow hollow, its crest worn almost silver while the surrounding metal remained a deep antique gold.
"Is this meant for the mural?"
Lunhard stopped before the largest translucent star.
Hoku followed him through the uneven candlelight. Encircled by the mural's symbols, the star held a shallow recess in which he rested the coin.
The nearest flame streamed toward the coin.
A heavy force swept through the chamber, passing through Hoku without stirring the air. Every flame guttered low; most went out, leaving only a few alight among the shelves.
Hoku retrieved the candelabrum and moved briskly from bracket to bracket, securing the remaining candles in its trays. Their light fell upon bare stone where the mural had been.
The polished floor split with a succession of hard cracks. Fractures branched across the chamber, heaving broad slabs upward while others subsided into the packed soil, which spilled through the gaps and over Hoku's boots.
Through the din of breaking stone, a low grinding rolled along the long wall opposite the door.
Hoku whirled around with the candelabrum as one of the tall shelving bays shuddered in its recess. A seam opened above the cornice and ran down the narrow stiles on either side. The whole case tipped outward from the wall.
Along the upper tiers, several spines slid past the shelf, then the entire row spilled down.
Hoku stepped clear as the volumes struck the soil, their loose pages springing open and stirring dust around his boots.
A row of iron braces sprang from the recess beneath the emptied bay and locked into place with hard, orderly clicks. The shelving settled onto them at a steep incline, each vacant tier forming a tread.
The bay above it jolted loose from its moulding. Its books poured out before the case swung down to meet the first, iron tongues shooting from either side into sockets hidden within the stone. A third bay followed farther up, then a fourth. Some descended in a single jolt; others shifted by inches until the masonry released them.
Hoku kept the final bay within the candelabrum's light until the ironwork locked into place.
The book-lined wall had opened into a crooked stair that vanished through the gap behind the shelves. Candlelight found only the first few treads. Fallen volumes lay open beneath the settling dust, while a draught rose from below carrying damp soil, old stone, and paper shut away too long.
"I may have to stop expecting the walls to stay where they are."
He rested the candelabrum upon the first tread and eased one boot onto the shelf beside it. The wood answered with a low creak, but the iron braces remained firm. Hoku took up the light and stepped down.
Lunhard followed several paces behind. Beyond the last shelf, the descent narrowed into a flight hewn through the wall. Only the next few treads lay within the candlelight, and Hoku kept his other hand along the masonry.
The next tread was worn hollow. His boot slipped into it, turning his ankle and sending him into the opposite wall.
The candelabrum lurched outward, sweeping firelight across the stone. Wax surged to the lip of one tray before Hoku forced the stem upright.
Lunhard halted several steps above.
Hoku waited until the flames settled. Pain spread through his ankle. Beneath his palm, three narrow gouges ran through the masonry, their broken margins jutting toward the stair.
Whatever had made them had torn outward through the wall.
More ran beside the stair, bending with its descent and nearly matching the width of the three Hoku had found in the hall.
He cast the light back along the stair. Darkness concealed most of Lunhard, leaving only a muted red along one shoulder and a gleam near his collar.
"What left these?"
Lunhard descended several steps. Candlelight passed over one cheekbone, the line of his jaw, and the hollow beneath his eye. His expression had returned to its familiar stillness, remote and composed.
"You have seen traces like these before, haven't you?"
As Lunhard passed him, the nearest flame turned blue at the wick and vanished. The others went out in his wake until only one remained, pale and unsteady, revealing Lunhard several steps below. Darkness closed over the stair before he reached the next bend.
Hoku kept the candelabrum close and continued, letting the gouges guide his other hand.
A tremor passed through the stone beneath his boot, and he stopped.
Bang!
The impact travelled up through the stair. A second followed before the vibration faded, shaking grit from the wall.
Hoku quickened his descent. Loose soil shifted under one boot, and the candelabrum struck the stone with a dull ring, but he kept moving.
Three more blows struck in quick succession.
Beyond the next bend, a line of light showed along one jamb and beneath the lintel. Each blow widened it, bowing the boards toward the stair.
Hoku reached the bottom and found no handle on his side, only an iron ring fixed low in the wood. He hooked his fingers through it.
Another blow struck before he could pull, tugging the ring against his knuckles. Hoku used the movement to haul backward.
The door scraped across the floor, then dragged inward with a groan. Light spread across the threshold as a cold current swept through.