Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 216
swept along with them, thinking that by doing so she might
find Jordan. Linden raised a hand. "Silence!" he
thundered. "Where?" he said to the man who had told them of
Yuri’s death.
"In his bed-chamber!"
"Oh, pray he was not butchered in his sleep." They
hurried out into the courtyard, which was ablaze with torches.
The sky was lit by the crepuscular glow of a vagabond moon,
huge and lowering over the estate. Servants crowded
everywhere, gawking. Linden's men were rallying under the
main doors to the manor. "Where is Sheia?" roared Linden.
"We've got his men barricaded in their rooms!" crowed a
lieutenant. "Don't know where he is--doubtless he's run, like
the cur he is."
"Where is Marice?"
"With Yuri."
"Come then." Linden hurried into the manor. They
followed. August stayed close to Calandria, but said nothing.
Yuri’s bedchamber was on the third floor, at the front of
the house. It had a commanding view through many floor-toceiling
leaded glass windows. Two fireplaces faced one
another across the room; Yuri’s giant, canopied bed hulked
near the one to the right. Linden’s men crowded in after a
whole mob of people, who were babbling and wailing
incoherently.
Everything had been knocked about in the course of
Yuri’s final battle. Tables were overturned, chairs smashed. It
was astonishing no one had heard the fight--but then, the walls
were thick stone, and the door was four centimeters-thick oak.
Yuri lay on his back on the bed. His belly was slit, and
intestines bulged blue out of the wound. His eyes were still
open, glaring at the ceiling.