Read Online Soulbinder (Book 3) by Ben Cassidy - Free Book Online Page A

of stairs going down.”
    Joseph nodded, staring around at the statues. “Seteru?”
    The Ghostwalker grunted. “Yeah. Adds a nice touch, don’t you think?”
    Joseph adjusted his belt. “Well, Galla did say this was originally a pagan temple—” He paused a moment, as if in mid-thought. “Shouldn’t there be five?”
    Kendril tapped his hand uneasily on the handle of his pistol. “Belrannu?”
    “The god of the underworld.” Joseph scratched his chin. “Odd that he’s not included.”
    “Come,” said Galla excitedly. He lifted a lantern, and motioned to the stairs. “We’re wasting time. Our answers lie down there.”
    Lanterns bobbing in the shadowy darkness, they headed towards the stairs.
     
    “Oh, this is simply impossible!”
    Maklavir batted wildly at the cobwebs entangled around him, ripping them from his arms. “Did you see those spiders back there? I swear they were bigger than my hand.”
    Kendril swatted a cobweb out of the way himself, suppressing an exasperated sigh. “Yes, Maklavir, we all saw the spiders.”
    He stepped off the last stair, the lantern swaying in his hand.
    It was another room, much larger than the first. Rows of carved stone slabs stretched out in two rows before them, disappearing ahead into the darkness. Spider webs choked the ceilings and the spaces between the aisles. Dust lay across everything like a thick carpet.
    Galla stumbled up behind Kendril. “This must be the central antechamber,” he murmured. “If there is anything of value to be found, it will undoubtedly be here.”
    Kendril turned and gave the priest a suspicious glance.
    Maklavir whipped his cape away from a lingering cloud of dust. “Wonderful,” he said, peering into the dark room before them. “ More spiders.”
    “Look at this.” Kara stepped out into the room, carefully avoiding a tangle of cobwebs. “There are things carved here, on the slabs.”
Kendril and Joseph stepped in closer, knocking their way through several webs.
    Galla licked his lips nervously, looking around the room with both fear and excitement.
    Joseph leaned forward, brushing dust off one of the stone slabs with his sleeve. “Strange,” he said. “They’re images of some kind, but I don’t know—”
    He stopped mid-sentence.
    “What is it?” Kara asked.
    Joseph stood, tugging at the handkerchief around his neck. “The Endless Winter,” he said.
    Kara stared down again at the carved pictures, half-obscured by the dirt and dust covering the slab. She was just able to make out pictures of men and women, standing in swirling eddies of snow, their hands reaching up to the heavens and their mouths frozen open in a silent scream.
    Kendril stepped over to another slab, the light from his lantern playing over its surface. “This one is the Endless Winter, too.”
    Galla stepped forward, passing through the rows of the slabs. “It’s a history,” he said in an awed tone. “A history of the ancient time. This looks like the fall of the Rajathan Empire, when the northern tribes descended upon it.”
    “The beginning of the First Despair,” said Kendril.
    Maklavir shivered. “I say, is anyone else getting a little spooked being in here?”
    “There!” Galla pointed, then leapt forward. His eyes blazed with excitement.
    Kendril and Joseph both turned, their hands instinctively reaching for their weapons.
    Galla ran through the row of stone slabs, and trotted up several stone steps to a raised dais.
    There, sitting amidst a mesh of cobwebs, was a large stone box, almost five feet long and three feet high.
    Kendril strode forward, breaking through the webs as he went. “What is it?”
    Galla bent down next to the stone box, his fingers working over its surface. “A box, and that means there must be something inside.” He blew hard against the side, sending a great cloud of dust rolling off. “There’s writing here. Pagan, by the look of it.”
    Kendril stepped up onto the dais, his eyes darting around. “Can you