Page 49 of Mercy Written in Blood

Minamoto seized her face between both hands.

"Listen to me."

Takeda's eyes found his.

"You leave now."

"How?"

"There is another passage."

Haruki heard him.

"What passage?"

Minamoto looked towards the mural — the white lotus spread across the stone above the bones.

"The map showed the old southern road."

"That corridor was sealed."

"Not from this side."

Another attacker entered through the breach. Then another. Four that Haruki could see. Perhaps more beyond. All wore the same plain masks. All moved with the same controlled precision. One stopped at the threshold and surveyed the chamber.A leader. Haruki knew it without knowing why. The others adjusted around that figure without a word — no orders spoken, no gestures he could identify, and still they understood.

The woman at the table opened a black case. She removed several flat packets and placed them beside the journal.

Accelerant.

Haruki's mouth went dry.

"They're burning it."

Minamoto released Takeda.

"Yes."

"The whole chamber?"

"Yes."

"Then open the passage."

The professor crossed to the mural. Haruki forced himself to stand. The wound in his side pulsed with every heartbeat; blood ran beneath his shirt and soaked the waistband of his trousers. The leader watched him — no rush, no concern. Haruki understood the message. Stand if you like. You still die here.

Minamoto reached beneath the painted lotus at the centre of the mural, his fingers searching along the stone.

"How do you know this?" Takeda asked.

"I have spent forty years looking for it."

"You knew this chamber existed?"

"No."

"But you knew there would be a door."

Minamoto pressed one of the carved petals. Nothing happened. He tried another.