Chapter 23

“You will need a map of the Kingdom,” Kortazar said. “You will need to mark off the location of every temple with Pointing Chayre. If only one of the three temples in Covanera has one that works, then you need to record that detail. The map you described to me is millennia out of date. We will need to reverse the route of the Ghura as they spread eastward. You will need to map routes and identify waypoints where you can meet your candidates as they travel across the land. Shrines and chapels could work, but they must be built, and if they already exist, you will need to repurpose them.”

“Hmm, I will not fill my pack with supplies for the road,” Zuri said as he tried to fit Kortazar’s orders within his mission. “I only had a cursory look at the library in Ungjin and besides the map of the world embedded in the floor, I saw no maps on the shelves.”

“Maps are incredibly expensive and precious,” Kortazar said. “Mayhap you missed the locked map room.”

“I can go back and check,” Zuri said, warming quickly to the idea.

“No,” Kortazar, “You’ve spent enough time getting here, and galivanting around the province, and in Adana’s bed. You’ve only attempted one trip back to the Kingdom proper, and the results were unsatisfactory. You need to go to Duran, Medawar, and Lewa Provinces. If there is time, you need to explore Sarum and Bordorow Provinces.”

Where then am I to secure a map?”

“If the temples are truly empty, I would peruse their cupboards first,” Kotazar said. “While they value coin first and foremost, who knows what else you may find? Furthermore, empty temples with locked doors are safe places to sleep. I would suggest starting there.”

Zuri emptied out most of his pack in the empty office of a nameless Gura. With a light pack on his back and his staff in hand, he bade Kotazar goodbye and plopped down in the Chayre. Having traveled the path to Covanera, the return was easier.

When he arose from the Chayre, he sensed the room was empty. With a dab of curiosity, he sat in the chair reserved for the Governor, finding the cushion a bit unwieldy. Curiosity sated, Zuri concluded that the building was vacant and there was nothing else of value to him although there were several chalices and candelabra available that would have brought a decent amount of coin.

He found a side door that led to a concealed walkway where Gura could walk to and from the temple without being seen by the public. The walkway ended at another building, which did not have the feel of a rectory but of offices. He slipped through the door silently, listening intently for any noise that would alert him. He glided past an office that had papers on the desktop. Another open door at the back of the active office led out to a stone pavement patio from where two or three voices were conversing in conversational tones. Zuri could not make out the words.

He continued until he found the stairs complete with an ornate cast iron railing. He tiptoed upstairs. The ornately carved door at the end of the hallway was clearly the Gura-sho’s office. Only half of the other offices along the corridor looked as if they were used while the others were either completely empty or just a chair or a table.

The ornate door was locked, but the baroque keyhole was monstrously large. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Zuri murmured as he fished out the corkscrew Adana had given him for a present. The instrument slid in easily. Zuri turned and pushed the probe from side to side and up and down until he felt something catch. With his wrist, he jerked the corkscrew to the right and the door unlatched, pushing open. He stepped inside quickly and shut the door, latching it again.

“Purely for decoration,” Zuri whispered after he shut the door. “They must believe that God will protect them from thieves and the like.” In the large cabinet, Zuri found a donation box, robes, and a staff. The staff was new and not Ghura. No Ahsa would flow. He found bank statements with eye-popping numbers written on them, but no maps. The donation box had handfuls of coins to which Zuri helped himself with a large scoop of his hands.

Footsteps drew near in the corridor, and Zuri froze for an instant. The latch rattled as someone tested the door. Zuri closed the cabinet door and took a stance on the hinged side of the door with his staff at the ready. The person on the other side tried to force the door, which did not give. Something rattled in lock that was definitely not a key. Then two probes scrapped the cylinder of the lock, which gave way quickly.

Zuri took a step away from the doorframe. As the door slowly opened, and the first footfall into the room fell, he stepped around the door and swung the staff. The thin man fell after the staff caught the side of his chin. Zuri quickly dragged the body inside and closed the door before someone arrived to check on the noise.

The man was middle aged, with well kempt hair and buttoned clothes of a clerk. He was burglar, nonetheless. The daytime heist was daring unless like Zuri, the thief knew the building would be nearly empty. Zuri retrieved his stylus and ink again, inscribing the glyph for thief on the man’s forehead, which he sealed with the man’s Ahsa. He dragged the unconscious man back out into the hallway before closing the door firmly and departing. Zuri calculated he was leaving behind enough chaos to keep the lay officials busy for quite some time.

Sitting in the Pointing Chayre once again, Zuri rolled the globe in his hand as he traced the possible routes. One led eastward and one led southward. While he needed to go eastward, southward intrigued him. He tapped and went.

Everything had a layer of dust upon it. Benches had decayed and fallen where they had last stood, leaving piles of sawdust and splinters. Windows were broken and Zuri spotted several old bird nests in the rafters. The Chayre was solid and pristine though. Walking to the door, Zuri guessed decades had passed from the thickness of the floor dust. The front door was closed but not locked.

The low stone fence surrounding the temple was crumbling a bit but relatively intact. The yard was a mass of weeds and small trees that were not substantial. The front gate was missing. As Zuri walked to the gap, something brittle crunched under his feet. The bone was weathered and cracked, and suspiciously human. Using his staff, he poked around the area, unearthing more bones until he came upon a jawbone, which was clearly human. He identified the mostly buried dome of a skull next. Something thin caught his attention a boot length away from the skull. Bending down on one knee to examine his find, he nudged a broken star of a Gura’s sigil. He jerked back from his find, hearing a crunch of the skull as his foot came down upon it. He leapt to the side, franticly wiping his dirty finger on his cloak.

The area gave him no clue where he was, but the prairie-like rolling terrain with thickets of small trees made him speculate he was in the marginal lands of which Yurya spoke so long ago as they traveled in her wagon. He was in the south of Duran Province, a description that covered far too many leagues to be of value.

The Gura had died, and the temple was abandoned; in fact, the immediate area felt uninhabited. Whatever the crime was, it was brutal and public enough that the place was now shunned. Zuri wondered if such a location would be a good place to hide Ghura candidates in flight to Qirin. If the location was still near traveled roads but far enough from Covanera’s thoughts to be under official observation, the waypoint could be ideal. The other Gura had abandoned it. He turned dodging another skull, only to trip over an object. Catching his balance before he fell, he glared at the offending object, which was the tip of a Gura’s staff. The rune was unmistakable. He considered digging but dismissed the idea as too dangerous.

He went back inside to see if he could find any clues to the location. The desk in the front office was somewhat intact, but there was nothing in the drawers that was readable. One Gura office was a shambles where woodland creatures had ventured inside through a hole where a window was missing. The other Gura office appeared ransacked, even after decades had passed. The cabinet had lost both doors and the one drawer had been yanked out and thrown against the wall.