She undid the latch and lifted. The hinges squeaked and the door was very heavy. She attempted to ease it to the flagstones, but her fingers slipped and there was a muffled thump as it dropped. She waited, but no answering footsteps spoiled the night, no cryptlings shuffled from their quarters in the shallow cellars nearby. A waft of cold, stale air hit her in the face as she peered into the darkness beneath.

Constance tapped her cane three times against the ground—a steady purple glow flickered to life from the pommel. The stone steps led straight down, down, down, wide enough for four men to walk abreast: large enough for the grandest of funerals. The darkness was so complete that she couldn’t see where the staircase met the floor below.

She took the first few steps, suddenly afraid. Entering the world of the Ancestors outside of funeral rites was a crime punishable by death. According to legend, the Ancestors knew. Understood. And the Ancestors were vengeful.

Superstitious nonsense, she told herself firmly. She had left the Ancestors behind long ago, pledged her faith to a different power altogether. But it had been much easier to ignore them from the grand temples of the City of Kings than it was on the threshold of their world.

Her cane-light reached the first sarcophagi as a rat scuttled across the corner of her vision. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, other tombs emerged into view. This chamber contained the bodies of the dukes and their families across the centuries and was truly cavernous, stretching far beyond the foundations of the great hall itself. There must have been hundreds of bodies down here—and yet more in the network of catacombs burrowed throughout the mountain. Each grave was an individual stone platform, elaborately carved with the deeds and accomplishments of its inhabitant, most of whom lay out on top in varying states of decay. The dukes’ graves alone were surrounded by intricately carved screens, hiding the bodies from sight. At the back of the chamber was another staircase, tucked into the wall, leading to the next level down.