City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)(88)

“There’s evidence, though. Someone’s been here, restoring the Kolkashtani atrium. They even put a stone door frame in here, though I’ve no idea why. It … It must be whoever’s working with Wiclov!”

“Are you certain of it to the extent that you would risk Continentals discovering this place?”

Shara rubs her eyes, then sits back and stares out at the Seat of the World. “Looking at it, I just know,” she says, “that I could spend a lifetime studying this.”

“If you were a historian,” says Mulaghesh. “But you’re not.”

Shara flinches, stung.

“You’re a servant, Ambassador,” says Mulaghesh softly. “We both have a duty. Neither of us will be doing it down here.”

In Shara’s head, Efrem Pangyui is saying, What truth do you wish to keep?

The candelabras stutter. A thousand shadows dance. Ancient faces glower, vanish.

“Do it,” says Shara.

*

The trudge back up the stairway feels interminable. Shara commits herself to memorizing everything she saw, everything she read. By all the seas, she tells herself, we won’t lose this, too.

“So there was nothing miraculous down there?” asks Mulaghesh.

“Not that I saw,” says Shara absently.

“That’s a relief,” Mulaghesh says. She pulls an envelope from her coat pocket and holds it out to Shara. “We’ve been reviewing the stolen pages of the list from the Warehouse. The idea of finding any more of this, out in the open, gives me nightmares. These twenty pages are what we think got the Restorationists so excited—or something in them, at least. But they probably got much, much more.”

If there is one thing that can break Shara’s concentration, it’s this. She snatches the envelope from Mulaghesh’s hand, tears it open, and reads:

356. Shelf C4-145. Travertine’s boots: footwear that somehow makes the wearer’s stride miles long—can cross the Continent in less than a day. VERY IMPORTANT to keep one foot on the ground: there were originally two pair, but the testing wearer jumped, and floated into the atmosphere. Remaining pair still miraculous.

357. Shelf C4-146. Kolkan’s carpet: Small rug that MOST DEFINITELY possesses the ability to fly. VERY difficult to control. Records indicate Kolkan blessed each thread of the rug with the miracle of flight, so theoretically each thread could lift several tons into the air—though we have not yet attempted such, nor will we. Still miraculous.

358. Shelf C4-147. Toy wagon: disappears on nights of a new moon, reappears on the full moon full of copper pennies bearing the face of Jukov. Once returned with a load of bones (not human). Still miraculous.

358. Shelf C4-148. Glass window: originally was the holding place of numerous Ahanashtani prisoners, trapped inside the glass. When Ahanas perished, the panes bled for two months—prisoners were never found or recovered. No longer miraculous.

358. Shelf C4-149. Edicts of Kolkan: Books 237 to 243. Seven tomes on how women’s shoes should be prepared, worn, discarded, cleaned, etc.

“Oh,” says Shara softly. “Oh my word.”

Mulaghesh stops briefly to light a match on a stone protruding from the tunnel wall. “Yeah.”

“This is what’s in the Warehouse?”

“They just had to get ahold of a part of the list with an unusually large amount of active, miraculous items. A lot of glass pieces, though.”

“The Divinities were fond of using glass as a safe place,” Shara murmurs.

“What do you mean?”

“They stored things in them, hid in them. All Divine priests knew many Release miracles—they’d be sent a simple glass bead, perform the appropriate miracle, break the glass, and then”— she waggles her fingers—“mountains of gold, a mansion, a castle, a bride, or . … whatever.” She trails off as she reads, struggling between fascination and horror as she flips through the rest of the entries. She’s barely aware when they emerge from the tunnel, registering only the bright light from the candelabras in the mhovost’s room.

Mulaghesh nods to two young soldiers with axes and sledgehammers. “Go on,” she says.

The soldiers enter the tunnel.

Shara reads the last pages.

Her hands clench: she nearly rips the paper in half.

“Wait!” she says. “Wait, stop!”

“Wait?” asks Mulaghesh. “For what?”

“Look,” says Shara. She points at one entry:

372. Shelf C5-162. Ear of Jukov: an engraved, stone door frame that contains no door. Iron wheels on the base. Speculated that it has a twin, and no matter where the other Ear is, if the doors are operated in the correct manner one can pass through one and come out the other. We speculate that the twin has been destroyed. No longer miraculous.

“Do you remember,” Shara asks, “the stone door in the Kolkashtani atrium we just saw?”

“Yeah …” Mulaghesh’s face does not change as she lifts her eyes from the page to Shara. “You … You think …”

“Yes.”

Mulaghesh has to think for a moment. “So if that’s the other Ear down there …”

“And if its twin is still in the Warehouse …”

The two stare at each other for one second longer. Then they dash back down the stairway.