Ghost Relics Read Online Free PDF Page A

be on his way?”
    Admete offered a thin smile. “We’ve hidden in a place even his powers cannot locate.” 
    “I see,” said Caina, thinking. “Then you need help even more than I thought. Tarniar doesn’t want to just kill you. He wants to find you and force you to tell him where the trapbox is. Then he will kill you.”
    “You see my problem,” said Admete, voice dry. “I suppose you have some way to help me?”
    “I do,” said Caina. “Take me to the trapbox, and I’ll have Strake open it.”
    Admete frowned. “Then you and Strake will claim all the treasure for yourself?”
    “No,” said Caina. “I will destroy any enspelled relics in the box. Gold or jewels you can keep for yourself. Or split with Yestik, I don’t care which. Where is he, anyway?”
    “I don’t know,” said Admete. “After the shadow killed Khamil, he ran. I haven’t seen him since.”
    “If he shows up, I’ll help him, too,” said Caina “So long as we destroy any enspelled relics, the rest of the treasure is yours. What do you say?”
    Admete stared at Caina for a long moment. “Why would you do all of this for a stranger?”
    “I’ve given you my reasons,” said Caina. “If that isn’t enough for you…I hate sorcery. It destroyed my life. Andromache of House Kardamnos destroyed yours. I suspect you are familiar with the feeling.” 
    ‘Very well,” said Admete.
    “Good,” said Caina. “Stay here. I will return in an hour with Strake.”
    Caina left the Scimitar and went to make some preparations. Once they were finished, she stopped by one of her safe houses in the Cyrican Quarter and obtained a few items she needed. Then she returned to Nerina’s workshop.
    Nerina was still bent over the table as Azaces let her in, muttering to herself as she worked upon a lock.
    “Ever open a Strigosti trapbox?” said Caina.
    Nerina looked up, an intrigued light in her eerie blue eyes. “Four times. Each one was a splendid mathematical puzzle, a harmony of precise engineering coupled to sound equations.”
    Azaces let out a long growl of displeasure.
    “Five times,” said Nerina. “If one counts the time I accidentally set off the trap. But I was neither seriously nor permanently injured.” 
    Azaces sighed.
    “Ready to open another one?” said Caina.
    Nerina smiled. “You always bring me such marvelous puzzles.”

    ###

    A short time later Caina returned to the Shining Scimitar, Azaces and Nerina trailing after her. Azaces’s ferocious scowl dissuaded anyone from approaching them. Nerina had donned the turban and dusty brown robe of a Sarbian desert nomad, and if not for her pale face and eerie eyes would have looked like Azaces’s younger brother.
    Admete rose as they approached. “You returned?”
    Caina nodded. “You’ve already met my companions.”
    Azaces glared at her.
    “You stand,” announced Nerina, “precisely sixty-four inches tall, and without your clothing and weapons I estimate that you weigh approximately,” she considered for a moment, eyelids fluttering, “one hundred and thirty-nine pounds.”
    Admete gave her a flat look. “You’re Nerina Strake?”
    “If it makes you feel better,” said Caina, “the first time we met she was wrong about my height by about two inches.” 
    “What?” said Nerina. “I was not.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, of course. High heels. I always forget about those.” 
    “We had best go,” said Caina. “Time is likely short. Still no sign of Yestik?”
    “No,” said Admete. “I fear what might have befallen him. You are right. We are going…”
    “To the Tomb Quarter?” said Caina.
    Admete blinked. “How did you guess?”
    “I know,” said Caina, “a thing or two about sorcery.” 

    ###

    Few people ever went to Istarinmul’s Tomb Quarter, especially at night. 
    The Tomb Quarter rose on a series of hills north of the Emirs’ Quarter and the Golden Palace, just south of the Starfall Tower that guarded the straits between the Cyrican