A large domed ceiling arched over the octagonal room. Shelves filled with maps lined seven of the eight walls. Beautiful stained-glass doors comprised the final side. Standing in the middle, she held up the druk, illuminating the stacks of scrolls.

The good news—one or more of them was bound to be a map of an ancient site filled with treasure.

The bad news—she didn’t know which ones.

And she wasn’t going to find one just by standing there. She strode to the closest shelf, grabbed the first scroll and examined it. One down, a couple thousand more to go.

She lost track of time as she studied map after map after map. None of them met her criteria: close to their headquarters, shallow enough to be accessed in a reasonable amount of time, and allegedly filled with treasure. If she found a structure that met the first two, then she would investigate its history to determine the possibility of the third.

When her vision blurred with fatigue, she returned to the First Room of Knowledge for a break. Research was not for the impatient. She returned the materials she’d collected on Tamburah and decided on a change of scenery…well not quite as the layout of the Second Room of Knowledge mimicked the First. Only the information held inside was different.

As she crossed to the northwest corner of the monastery and descended two levels, she recalled that Banqui had only been focused on Tamburah’s temple when he had worked to uncover The Eyes. And not for the first time, she wished she could talk to the archeologist. Shyla would bet he’d know the location of a few nearby treasures. She hoped he was well and not imprisoned in a black cell.

All this hoping and wishing and yearning for both Rendor and Banqui drained her energy. She had people depending on her. As much as it tempted her, she could not wallow in self-pity. Instead, she pushed those complicated emotions deep within her. She would deal with them later. Much later.

She entered the Second Room of Knowledge and collected all the tablets and scrolls that might contain a reference to Tamburah’s vaults. It was quite a large pile and bigger than the one in the First Room. Sighing, she settled in and read.