Cade could not see what he had offered up, but the Codex soon gave him his answer.

“Remnant is the first-ever bowie knife, developed by famed knife fighter James Bowie in 1830. The design was later popularized for use by soldiers and hunters and still survives in the modern day. The knife was lost by James Bowie in the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 and was never seen again.”

Jens took a sharp breath at the Codex’s words.

“Give her body to me,” he ordered. “You have a deal.”

Cade hesitated. “Retreat your men up the stairs,” he said. “Keep a few with you down here. Then we’ll know you’re serious.”

Jens laughed aloud. “I could just bring them back down after. Or ambush you on your way out.”

“Do it,” Cade said. “Or I burn the body.”

Jens muttered under his breath, but barked out orders to his men.

“You five, with me. The rest of you, return to the entrance.”

Cade listened as the Codex translated, and the stomp of mailed boots receded. Still, Amber and Scott continued their search, shouting at each other in anger.

What could they have overlooked?

“Abaddon,” Cade whispered. “What’s left?”

The little girl’s voice giggled in his ear. “What, and miss all the fun? Not likely, my child.”

Cade felt a bead of sweat trickle down his back, despite the cool confines of the chamber.

“Hurry,” Jens snapped. “Pass her through.”

Cade racked his brains for a way to further delay, but nothing came to him. The slaver’s patience would be wearing thin by now, and there was the chance that Jens would keep his end of the bargain.

“Pass through the body,” Cade instructed.

Legionaries rushed to the corpse’s side, passing forward the cloth-wrapped figure. It was almost childlike in its size, and Cade caught a glimpse of mailed hands cupping the ancient queen’s head, before her body withdrew though the hole and disappeared into the darkness.

Cade waited, the gun’s grip slippery in his hand. Jens would summon his men back if he intended to betray Cade. That, or attempt to breach the hole with the element of surprise after pretending to leave.

Cade could only hope that he attempted an ambush outside. That was what he would do in Jens’s shoes. If he was a sadistic madman, that was.

Time seemed to stretch as Jens remained silent. Cade heard only the ripping of cloth as the slaver inspected the body.

“Oracle,” Jens said. “What remnant is this?”

The Codex remained silent, but Cade repeated the Jens’s question under his breath. The answer came again, repeating what it had said to Cade earlier. Before it had finished, Cade heard the clatter of metal as the slavers began to move.

CHAPTER

54

Cade heard the screams moments later.

At first, they were words, instructions too garbled to hear through the mess of voices, intermingling through the echoing tomb.

But soon they turned into nonsensical, drawn-out screeches of fear. Men’s cries came in chorus, and Jens’s voice called up in confusion.