Free Ghost in the Seal (Ghost Exile #6) by Jonathan Moeller Page B

Morgant.
    “Regrettably so, I fear,” said Nasser. 
    “Where in the Tomb are the Staff and the Seal?” said Kylon. “I assume it is a large place.”
    “It is,” said Annarah. “A vast maze of galleries and tunnels and chambers, all dug into the stone of the island. We put the regalia near the surface, just within the library.”
    “Library?” said Kylon. 
    “Every Great Necromancer of Maat was buried with a complete library of scrolls detailing their spells and secrets and history,” said Annarah.
    “Gods,” said Caina. “Those would be almost as dangerous as the Staff and the Seal in the wrong hands.” One Maatish scroll had killed Caina’s father and had almost killed everyone in Malarae. She wanted to reach for the leather cord around her neck, the cord that held her father’s worn old signet ring. “We should probably burn them on our way out.”
    “That would be inadvisable,” said Nasser. 
    “Why not?” said Caina, but the answer came to her as she spoke. “They’re warded, aren’t they?”
    “They are,” said Annarah. “There were many traps and sorcerous wards within the Tomb, and the Words of Lore were able to override some of them. I suspected that if I dispelled the wards completely, the backlash would feed into Kharnaces himself…” 
    “Who would then awaken from his hibernation,” said Caina. 
    “You see the danger,” said Nasser. “Our objective, therefore, is to enter the Tomb, retrieve the Staff and the Seal, and then to depart Pyramid Isle without altering Kharnaces of our presence.”
    “Can we be sure he is still asleep?” said Kylon.
    “Oh, it’s easy to tell, Kyracian,” said Morgant. “You can tell on account of how the world hasn’t ended yet.”
    “For once, the Razor’s words contain a larger than usual kernel of truth,” said Nasser. Caina let out a short laugh. “Pyramid Isle is outside of the largest extent of the ancient Maatish realm, but the Great Necromancers entombed Kharnaces there. He was a heretic, and turned from the worship of the Maatish gods to revere the nagataaru.”
    “Callatas learned about the nagataaru from Kharnaces, I’m sure of it,” said Annarah. “He went to the Tomb after he forsook our order and left Iramis. Whatever happened to him there…it changed him. It turned him from the man he was to the monster he is today.” 
    “The point, Lord Kylon,” said Nasser, “is that Callatas seeks to harness the nagataaru as a tool. Kharnaces revered the nagataaru as gods. Callatas needs the Staff and the Seal to summon and bind large numbers of nagataaru. If Kharnaces awakens from his hibernation and discovers the Staff and the Seal in his tomb…”
    “Then he will do exactly the same thing Callatas would do, but for a different reason,” said Kylon. 
    “I should have chosen a different place to hide them,” said Annarah. She shook her head, her silvery braid sliding against her back. “I thought I would be absent only a few years at most. Not a century and a half. It…”
    “It has also,” said Nasser, “kept Callatas from finding them for a century and a half. Yes, he worked great evil in that time. He would have done far worse if he had been able to claim the entirety of the regalia.” 
    “So,” said Caina. “How will we get to Pyramid Isle?”
    “By ship, of course,” said Nasser, flashing his white smile. “We require a smuggler with a knowledge of the treacherous waters around Pyramid Isle, and a willingness to travel there. The Princes of Iramis no longer keep travelers away from the island, but it has a well-deserved evil reputation, so most pirates and smugglers refuse to go there at all. We therefore need a captain and a ship with whom I have worked before, who is willing to make the voyage, and is at least reasonably trustworthy. Given those limitations, our only viable option is a man named Sanjar Murat.” 
    Caina blinked. “I’ve heard of him. He’s an Alqaarin corsair, isn’t