Light illuminated the threshold and, beyond that, the chamber. No sound pierced the quiet. No deacons attacked from the shadows. Not yet. She’d been surprised twice before in this very location and didn’t wish to add a third. The five of them entered and spread out. Stone benches and a large stone altar decorated the hexagonal room. Behind the altar, King Tamburah’s smug face filled the wall. Blue and purple sand lined his skin, and red grains of crystal filled his empty eye sockets and dripped down his cheek, indicating blood—it was all very dramatic.

“Let’s check the other hallways of the dead,” Shyla said. Six doorways led to other areas of the temple, but she wanted to ensure they were empty of attackers. Satisfied they were alone, for now, she took a druk and examined Tamburah’s giant face while the others guarded her back.

Like she’d suspected, the lines formed a pattern that resembled a…maze…or it could be a complex map. Either way there wasn’t a big X marking the location of another vault or anything else. Studying it with the power of The Eyes also failed to reveal any secrets—because that would have just been too easy. Still…the design seemed clearer than before.

Shyla dug into her pack and removed a blank scroll, a stylus, and a vial of ink. She copied the pattern. As the lines filled the velbloud skin, a nagging sense that she’d seen this before grew. It was a map to a maze, and at the center of the maze should be the prize, whatever that was. Yet the problem still remained of where in Zirdai or the surrounding desert the map detailed. It could be anywhere. Also there wasn’t a key or a compass rose. The area might be kilometers wide, or all contained within a single level. Except…

Tamburah considered the temple his seat of power. Following the logic that he wouldn’t want anything important to be too far away from him, the map would start in the temple. But where?

When she finished the copy, she let the ink dry. She stepped back from the carving. Once again she studied the pattern. Tamburah’s obsession with eyes meant they would be a focus point—an important part of the map. Perhaps the location of the maze. So where was the starting point? The judgment room! She glanced around. Six possible directions. She would have to explore each one, following the map. Too bad she no longer had the map to Tamburah’s temple. The last time she examined it the map had been in Banqui’s work rooms on level thirteen. No doubt Rohana and her diggers now occupied the three large caverns.

“Are you done?” Lian asked. “It’s getting late.”