They came up to a ridiculously small gate in the base of one of the corner towers. Duke Boros pulled the silver knob that jutted out from the center of the gate. Incredibly faint and far away, a bell tinkled. Then the gate slid aside, opening on a dark tunnel. It slanted upward, and Blade could see light at the far end, so distant that it seemed no brighter than a firefly.

They strode forward into the tunnel and began to climb. As they did, the gate swung shut behind them and they were in total darkness except for the pale speck of light far ahead. Kul-Nam was obviously going to leave nothing undone to keep his visitors nervous and unsure of themselves right to the end.

They moved up the tunnel slowly, feeling their way a step at a time. The floor seemed smooth and regular underfoot, but none of them was willing to trust it. Blade could not believe that the Emperor had built his impregnable castle with a tunnel running straight up into its heart. Doubtless there were spyholes, traps, gates that fell, pits that yawned, shafts for boiling oil or stones. It would be best to move slowly and make sure that those who watched took no alarm.

Whatever traps may have lain in wait, none were sprung. After what seemed like hours, the three men came to the end of the tunnel. Boros and Tulu stepped to either side and let Blade look out upon what lay beyond.

The chamber was square and nearly a hundred feet on each side. The floor was entirely covered with polished, blood-red tile separated by strips of black marble. The walls were gleaming white, set with great swirling, glittering mosaic patterns done in slivered glass. The roof swelled out of sight into what seemed to be a dome. Some complicated array of mirrors high in that dome caught the last remaining daylight and focused it down in a vertical, glowing, reddish shaft into the center of the chamber.