Citadel of the Sky (Thrones of the Firstborn Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

things that way and said those things and romanced those ladies, she had never seen how it mattered very much what had actually happened. It was all a very long time ago, and even the more recent histories always seemed to examine the older histories through the lens of The Chosen King.
    It had all happened a long time ago, just like these murals had broken long ago. But someone was restoring them, and something was calling her from the depths of the phantasmagory. Something that had to be old. Maybe something even older than The Chosen King. It was disturbing.
    Tiana, Kiar, Lisette, and the lurking bodyguards walked down the promenade, past other gallery rooms that Tiana ignored. Other corridors opened off the promenade too, untended depths only rarely explored by wanderers. They could be dangerous. Even the gallery curators preferred some kind of backup when looking for treasures.
    Kiar led them down one of them, lifting up her lamp. “This way.” She paused and looked at the floor. “I’m not sure if anyone’s been here since Pell. Look, you can see a little vermin trail in the dust. Charming.”
    Tiana closed her fingers around the inscribed lightstone she’d taken from the library. They didn’t need that much light, just to see vermin tracks.
    Slater cleared his throat. “My Ladies, Your Highness… where are we going?” He raised his hands again as Tiana glanced at him. “Just curious.”
    “Exploring,” she said. “You can stay behind, if you’d like.”
    “No, we can’t,” he said. He hesitated. “I’ll get a lamp.”
    Kiar started walking again. After a while, she passed her lamp to Lisette so she could study her map. She led them into a room with a square door frame, which led to a sequence of rooms, each one perfectly square and completely empty. The plaster had long ago chipped from the stone walls, and there was no sign of the chambers’ purpose. Their footsteps were odd, loud clicks. Tiana thought the ceilings were getting lower in each room.
    Kiar paused at a doorway ornamented with carved vines. “Do you think Pell was so used to this he didn’t bother to label it?” Her voice echoed.
    Tiana opened her hand to let the lightstone illuminate a broad staircase and a sunken hall, far larger than could be lit by a single stone. Stacked columns supported a ceiling that definitely seemed too low. Kiar continued, “The door we’re looking for is on the other side of this hall, down several more corridors.” She descended the steps. “I suppose this was some kind of banquet hall, eight hundred years ago.”
    “Eight hundred years ago… that was when Shin brought the Blood into Ceria,” Lisette said, and lifted the lamp higher. “I wonder if they danced here.”
    Tiana pointed ahead. “It’s an Antecession chamber.” There was a broad, shallow basin with a broken fountain in the stone floor. On the far side, a spillway opened into a deep, narrow pool, now dry and dusty. It looked like the channel stretched the rest of the hall; Tiana could just see the shadowy corners and the darkness of doorways.
    She shuddered. “It’s lonely down here. I’m glad we celebrate Antecession in the city now. Though I guess you’d like it more here, Kiar.” The ritual holiday of Antecession involved a public performance, and Kiar hated public anything.
    The corridor on the other side was narrower than the corridors they’d traversed thus far, and it had a mild downward slope. It took them past a room that Kiar guessed was an ancient kitchen, and past two intersections, until finally there were four steps down and a real door, rather than just an opening.
    “Here we are. Metal, not wood,” said Kiar. “It won’t be easy to open.” She gave Tiana an expectant look.
    Tiana said, “Will you try the Logos?”
    Kiar shook her head vigorously. “Absolutely not. Not down here. If I made a mistake, I could bring the whole ceiling down.”
    Tiana said, “You wouldn’t make a mistake. You hardly ever