Excerpt Thursday: GHOST IN THE FLAMES
It’s Excerpt Thursday! Today we have an excerpt from GHOST IN THE FLAMES.
It’s the second in the series, but chronologically, it was the first novel about Caina I ever wrote – in 2008, I think, or possibly 2007.
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Caina hurried across the street and plunged into the shadow of Romarion’s mansion, her cloak blending with the darkness. A low ornamental wall surrounded the mansion and its grounds, and Caina hopped onto the corner, wrapped her cloak around her, and waited.
She did not wait long. A guard strolled through the mansion’s well-kept grounds. He wore a studded leather jerkin, sword and dagger at his belt, and carried a crossbow ready in his arms. All his weapons were in good condition, and he looked as if he knew how to use them. Caina remained motionless, watching the guard.
When he vanished around the corner, Caina moved. She raced across the grounds, grapnel and thin rope spinning in her right hand. She flung the grapnel, felt it catch on the red tiles of the mansion’s roof. After a few cautionary tugs, Caina scrambled up the line, her boots scrabbling against the smooth marble walls. The guard came around the corner again, and Caina swung into a darkened window frame, huddling into her cloak.
The guard did not see her. People never looked up. Caina waited until he had passed, and resumed her climb. She stopped at a high window just below the roof. Caina swung into the frame, pulled down the rope, and returned it to her belt. She scrutinized the shutters for a moment, then slipped a knife into the gap and popped the latch. They swung open, and Caina jumped inside, pulling them closed behind her.
She found herself in a bedroom, perhaps a guest room. Her boots sank into a thick carpet, and polished furniture gleamed in the faint light leaking through the shutters. The bed was empty. Caina listened for a moment, but heard nothing. She crossed the room and opened the doorway.
A high-ceilinged hallway stretched the length of the upper floor. Nighmarian and Saddai statues stood in alcoves, while unlit iron chandeliers hung from chains. If Caina remembered right, Romarion kept his offices on the east side. Still listening, she started down the corridor.
She had gone no more than six steps when she heard the voices approaching. Caina looked back and forth. The door was too far away, but a massive statue of an Emperor in antique armor stood to her left, and one of the iron chandeliers hung right over her head. Caina scrambled up the statue, perched on the dead Emperor’s shoulders, and jumped to the chandelier. It rocked a little, but the massive chains held it in place, and with the candles extinguished she cast no shadow. She settled into place, like a spider in an iron web, and waited.
Romarion and another man walked down the hallway, speaking to one another in low voices, four guards trailing after them. Caina tensed, but they didn’t notice her. People simply never looked up…
-JM