They passed the body of the guard Morgis had killed. Although much of the blood had dried, a few moist drops still glittered in the torchlight. The drake tried to shield Kalena from the truth, but her feline eyes saw quickly how the man had perished.
“I am… sssorry,” he murmured.
“It had to be done, I suppose.” She looked slightly disappointed, but the expression vanished as she eyed him. “With so many so quickly it couldn’t be avoided.” She reached up and caressed his cheek. “It’s forgotten.”
He wanted to hold her hand there, but instead turned away. “Leonin needsss usss…”
Deeper and deeper they descended. Morgis frowned. Soon they would be at the end of the passage and still he had found no trace of his partner. Did the bearded fighter even now wander around the keep, intending to return by the entrance just as the drake had? What folly in the face of horror…
Then, bits of dark moisture on the floor caught his attention. He knelt down, using the torch to study them.
“What is it?” Kalena asked, leaning over his shoulder.
“More blood.” He almost dismissed it, having seen so much already, but then noticed how it left a trail that started from in the wall on his left and headed further ahead down the passage.
Morgis jumped to his feet, holding the torch high and peering as far ahead as he could. The trail of moist, crimson drops led his gaze on…
Another body lay slumped in the narrow corridor.
Forgetting Kalena for the moment, Morgis hurried to the second form. None of the other soldiers had died in the passage, which meant that the body ahead could be only one of two missing men.
And but a moment later, Morgis’s torch revealed a corpse too short and slim to be the remains of Keeper D’Kairn.
Leonin.
Drying blood gave the body a speckled appearance. Morgis set down his sword and gently touched what was left of his companion. For all the faults of both Leonin and Awrak, they had done their tasks well and had never abandoned a comrade.
The drake hissed savagely. He looked past the corpse, but saw only more moist droplets. The fiendish beast had made good its escape.
Suddenly, Morgis frowned. Continually he thought of it as a beast, a monster. It was both, but it was also highly intelligent. Not only did it know how to hide from its prey, but Morgis believed that only an intelligent killer would ever dream of skinning its victims. He thought back to what Kalena had told him of her discoveries and tried to connect that with everything that had happened.
Surveying the scene, something else occurred to him. He looked at Leonin’s grisly form and recalled all the other victims he had come across. His fist clenched tight, but he tried to hide it from the cat woman.
“Ssso…”
“I’m so sorry, Morgis… too late again.” Kalena, cloak shielding her body, shut her eyes for a moment. “He was a strong, good fighter.”
“And it availed him nothing.” Retrieving the blade and rising, he glanced behind them. “Come! There’s sssomething I want to sssee.”
“What, Morgis?”
“I would rather not explain now sssince I am not certain what it meansss.” The drake put his sword arm around Kalena. “I want you to ssstay bessside me at all timesss. Do not fall behind me, underssstood?”
Her expression indicated that she did not understand, at least not entirely, but she nodded.
The trail of blood still shone bright under the light of the torch as they followed it back. A few smears here and there testified to where Morgis had been unable to avoid stepping in some of the dark fluid.
When they reached the area where he had first discovered the trail, Morgis eyed the stone wall. He tapped it twice with the flat of the blade, then saw that for which he had been searching.
“Kalena, I will ssstand ready with the sword and torch, but I want you to touch that area up on the left. That jutting piece there.”
She carefully stepped up to the wall and did as he requested. Nothing happened.
“Harder, pleassse.”
The cat woman repeated her effort.
The wall suddenly slid open like a door. Kalena jumped back.
But Morgis was there to guide her forward with his sword arm. “It isss all right, Kalena. The danger is not within.”
Together they stepped inside. Flickering light suddenly danced about the room and more than a dozen pairs of staring figures stood waiting for the newcomers.
Morgis and Kalena reflected in mirrors.
Most were full-length, but some hung on walls. The majority had cracks. They had once been masterfully-crafted and expensive pieces, for the drake recognized gold and silver in the frames and even several with jewels.
And behind the array of mirrors, set against the walls of this hidden chamber, were several high, wide, and sturdy antique cabinets of the type designed for clothes.
Again, Morgis recalled what he had been told about Kalena’s horrific find.
“It displaysss itssself here,” he muttered, drawing the cat woman along with him. Morgis positioned the two of them before the most elegant of the mirrors, a high, gilded pane with genuine diamonds inset along the surrounding edge. “Thisss would be itsss favorite, I think, where it preensss itssself in its new coveringssss.”
In the mirror, Kalena’s eyes were wide and unblinking. She stepped from the drake’s grasp and in fascination touched the glass. “Each flayed with perfection, not the slightest harsh cut to the skin. That would have ruined the effect…”
“And whenever it wasss finished, it placed its prize in one of the cabinetsss, including one that it kept upssstairs, although why it left those where they could be so easily discovered-”
“Those are the favorites,” the cat woman whispered. “The best ones.” She touched her cheek, watching her reflection mimic her. “The ones without blemish, the ones young and full of life…”
Morgis glanced at the darkened cabinets. “Of course. Ssso simple. Alwaysss keep the favoritesss more handy… until it became evident that they were risked upssstairs.”
He stepped toward the nearest of the closets and with the tip of his sword prodded it open.
Hanging from hooks were seven skins so perfectly taken that Morgis could almost imagine himself being able to put one on. Humans, elves, another Syrryn, some canine-looking creature… the drake suspected that the variety he would find if he opened all of the closets would stagger him. Then he noticed that one looked slightly less than perfect at the edges and something else occurred to him.
“They don’t lassst. Eventually, they decompossse, but it can preserve them for a time.” He sniffed. “And whatever it pressserves it with smellsss like musssk.”
When Kalena did not answer him, Morgis turned to find her still staring into the mirror. Closing the cabinet again, the drake returned to his companion.
“One more thing. It took me a moment to find it, but I’ve ssspotted the late and unlamented D’Kairn’s body over in the corner, behind the first mirrors. Not quite finished with it-were you?”
He thrust the torch into the cat woman’s voluminous cloak.
The cloth garment burst into flames. Kalena opened her mouth, but out of it came no mortal scream of fear and agony. Instead, a monstrous keening, an angry sound, shook the chamber and sent even Morgis back a few steps in astonishment.
“My pretty one!” the cat woman’s mouth said, moving irregularly. “My pretty one!”
The fiery cloak opened up-and beneath the charring flesh that had once housed Kalena, a spider-black form moved in a manner not possible for any normal, living creature, with multi-jointed limbs that seemed everywhere.
Already most of the skin below the head had caught fire, but that did not appear to physically bother the horrid form beneath. It stalked toward the drake, growing taller and wider as it neared. Halfway to Morgis, it already looked down on him.