Page 3 of The Wind Dancer
Yet the most terrifying thing was right in front of me.
In the middle of the room stood a carved chair made of bone and wood. The massive, majestic piece couldn’t have belonged to anyone besides the owner of the house.
And something was sitting in it.
The figure was draped with a heavy curtain torn from the main window. The thick folds concealed the outlines, but even so I could see that something was very wrong.
I swallowed, clutching the dagger tightly.
All I could hear in this tomb of an office were my heartbeats. The atmosphere was so oppressive that I felt like there were thousands of eyes hidden in the dark, just waiting to see if I would dare to approach.
But I needed to know.
Cursing my curious nature, I reached out and carefully grabbed the edge of the fabric.
And pulled it down.
Revealing a mutilated body.
The dragonblood. The broad shoulders, massive hands with fingers as tough as steel, and long gray hair gathered in a now disheveled knot made him extremely imposing, even in death. His face, once filled with pride and power, now looked more like a theatre mask, one made to depict pure suffering.
The golden brocade robes embroidered with the symbols of power were shredded along with his torso, his wide belt, embroidered with threads of pure silver, was torn in half, and dried blood stained everything, turning the gold dragons red.
What really stuck with me in this grizzly scene were his eyes.
The eyelids were cut off, leaving the eyes open forever. They stared glassily into the great beyond, reflecting themoonlight. The edges of the wounds had turned black, as if they had been scorched, and lines of dried blood left trails on his cheeks, as if he had cried before he died.
His whole body was covered in clear signs of torture. Deep cuts criss-crossed his chest and arms, the lines were clean and precise — the work of an expert. There were deep rope marks on his wrists, and his fingernails were torn off. Someone had broken him. This wasn’t just a murder, it was slow, methodic, and cruel.
Yet, even in death he felt noble. Even cornered and trapped there was still the air of someone truly formidable about him.
But he was dead, I was certain of that.
Even so, when a gust of wind touched his hair, for a moment I thought he was breathing.
I don’t know why I did it, but I made the sign of the fire dragon over the body.
I forced myself to look away from him and focus on my task, the safe. The killer might’ve been looking for something, and there was a good chance they never found the safe. I just had to be quick about this, if I took too long and they were still around, I could end up another body in this carnage.
The dragonblood kept their treasures hidden in unusual ways. The stashes were often protected by both complex mechanisms and also magic.
I finally started scoping out the room like a proper Shadow, and not a crime scene witness.
Everything on the table was scattered and tossed about, as if someone was looking for something in a hurry. The bookshelves are untouched, which means they weren’t interested in the library. The big decorative vases were way too obvious for a hiding spot. There were no gaps between the panels or upholstery on the walls, which meant...
I shifted my attention to the floor.
The dragonblood really loved symbolism, and incorporated it in many aspects of their life so... The center of the room — the center of power.
I walked onto the big carpet that was there, trying to find something.
And then I felt it, the subtlest of differences between two wood panels.
Squatting down, I slowly pulled back the carpet, revealing glossy smooth darkwood boards. I knew just one of these must have cost more than an entire house in the Lower City, so there was no chance there was an accidental difference between the surfaces. To an untrained person it would’ve looked like a perfectly normal floor, but I ran my fingers and found the almost imperceptible line between them.
It couldn’t have been a trap, those were reserved for doors, or were hidden in walls.
I pushed one of the corners... nothing. Then I tried another — a light click.
