Read Online Threshold by Sara Douglass - Free Book Online Page B

are almost there,” he said shortly. “Yaqob, I hope you remembered to bring your measuring tape with you.”
    Yaqob patted the tool kit hanging from a belt about his hips. “Yes, Excellency.”
    Kofte had already disappeared about the next curve, and Yaqob and I hurried after him. I kept my eyes low, not as scared as I had been earlier, but certainly more wary.
    I had no time for further thought, for the Infinity Chamber opened before me, and my previous intuition of loss ripened into full-blown grief and despair.
    Despite the intensity of the emotion, I was more controlled now, and refused to let it overwhelm me. I took several deep breaths, and concentrated on Yaqob’s back as we stepped into the central chamber.
    Then I mustered every last piece of courage I had, lifted my head, and looked about me.
    The Infinity Chamber itself was shaped as a pyramid. Four walls angled from the floor to a central shaft that led, I realised, to the peak of Threshold where the capstone would eventually rest. So that is what Yaqob meant when he said the chamber had no ceiling. The floor was perhaps fifteen paces square, and from its centre to the apex of the walls another fifteen. I studied the floor more closely. It was one sheet of massive, solid clear plate glass, and I could see that there was a space underneath it for the golden and caged glass to eventually slide under – for one could not walk directly on fragile, caged work.
    I looked across the walls. About a fifth of the area had been covered with Orteas and Zeldon’s work, and now I could see how the small pieces they (and, more recently, we) had been working on fitted into an intricatepattern of calculations in numbers, words and geometric symbols.
    A sickness bloomed in my belly, and I think I must have paled, for Yaqob took a concerned step in my direction.
    “Yaqob!” the Magus barked, and I waved Yaqob away.
    “It was just the climb…breathless…”
    He could see the lie in my face, but he turned back to Kofte, taking out his measuring tape. Yaqob was one of the most skilled glass cutters on the site, and I saw that Kofte needed him to measure for some fine connecting panels of uncaged golden glass that would form bridges between the main areas of caged work.
    As they measured, I stepped closer to one of the completed panels. I raised my hand, then, my fingers trembling so badly I thought they might actually break the glass, I touched the panel.
    Instantly I felt the wrongness of Threshold flood into my body in one crushing wave. The glass was screaming, pleading, weeping, trapped in an existence that was not life but which was worse than death.
    Help us! Help us! Help us!
    I took a shuddering, despairing breath, and gratefully fainted.

6
    I CAME to with my head in Yaqob’s lap, listening to his voice as he thought of every possible excuse to explain my faint to the Magus.
    “She is young, and still recovering from a harsh journey to Gesholme, Excellency. The climb into the chamber taxes the fittest of men, and has proved too much for her. The excitement, perhaps. She has wanted to see the Infinity Chamber for many weeks, and has been overawed. Perhaps the time of her moon flux is upon her, and…”
    The excuses were sounding increasingly thin, so I opened my eyes before he moved even further into the intimate details of womanly weakness.
    “Ah, Tirzah. What happened?”
    But his eyes pleaded into mine, and I knew he wanted me to say anything but what really happened.
    I sat up slightly. Yaqob had dragged me into the passageway outside the Infinity Chamber, for which I was thankful. Nevertheless, the despair of the glass still reached me in palpable waves of grief. Kofte stood to one side, his face a mask of irritation that was rapidly darkening to anger.
    “The climb,” I stumbled, “and the excitement…the beauty…” I hoped it would do.
    Kofte opened his mouth to say something, but Yaqob hurried to speak. “I have the measurements I need, Excellency,