The Binding Stone (The Dragon Below, Book 1) (26 page)

The building that she faced now might once have been much like what she remembered. It had the shape of something grand, but it had been a long time since it could have been considered luxurious. Much of the roof had fallen in and the dormers with it, leaving the house looking like a crushed skull. The wood of the house had gone gray with age. If it stood alone on its own platform, it was because its neighbors seemed to lean away, as if shunning the decaying structure.

The blue doors were still there, as tall and striking as in her memory, but the color on them was faded and old, a stain on the wood. One door hung askew. Dandra could say nothing, struck dumb by her memory's betrayal. "This isn't what we saw," she managed finally.

"Dandra, is it possible that Dah'mir's domination of you and the kalashtar began
before
he met them?" asked Singe after a moment. "Some kind of illusion spun into your minds ..."

Dandra nodded slowly. "It's possible, I suppose. This is the house, though. I'm sure of it."

"If this isn't the right place, we don't have anything to worry about," said Geth. "If it is the right place, they'll be expecting us. Be ready." The shifter studied the broken house carefully, then loosened his sword in its scabbard. "We should make getting Natrac back and out of here our goal, but I don't think dealing with Ashi and Vennet would be a bad thing either."

"I agree." Dandra shifted her grip on her spear and took a step into the air, skimming the ground and ready for combat.

They moved forward, stepping cautiously over the gap that had opened between the building's platform and the planks of the street. The murky water that lapped the shadows beneath Zarash'ak was visible far down below. Dandra glided up to the faded doors. She was about to put a hand to them when Geth pointed at the step beneath her feet. "No dust," he said. "It's been swept clean."

"Wind or rain?" suggested Singe.

The shifter shook his head. "Probably not."

Dandra pushed open the door. She recalled a beautiful foyer
with stairs rising up to the second floor and the distant sound of trickling water. What actually lay beyond the door was a rickety, broken room with huge gaps in the walls. Stairs--every second step seemingly broken--rose to a second floor that sagged so badly she wasn't sure she would have risked crossing it. The sound of water was the splashing of the river, echoing up from somewhere below.

A trail of blood led deeper into the house. Dandra gestured silently to the trail and started across the floor.

"No, Dandra!" snapped Geth. "There was no blood outside--"

His warning was too slow. A chunk of hurled wood cracked against the side of Dandra's head and sent her stumbling to the ground. Gasping in pain and with Tetkashtai screeching in alarm, she twisted around. She caught a glimpse of movement as Singe shouted and darted to her side--only to be met by Ashi's screaming battle cry as she leaped down through a broad hole in the ceiling. A kick caught Singe's shoulder, spinning him around and driving him to the floor--

--which cracked and broke under the impact of Ashi's landing. The tall woman's battle cry turned into a yelp of alarm as the crumbling floorboards gave way beneath her and Singe. Stunned by Ashi's blow, Dandra froze as both the hunter and the wizard plunged down into the darkness below.

"R
at!" Geth sprang to the splintered edge of the hole as two solid impacts below shook through the frame of the old house. Debris rained down around him. He held his gauntlet over his head and peered down. Singe and Ashi lay, tangled together and stunned, on the floor of a lower level about fifteen feet down and apparently much more solid than the one above.