Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 526
causeway was left to the mercies of the desert. What Enneas
and a few others had known, however, was that other
processional causeways built in the same era as this one all
sappers had found the "spirit walk" right where Enneas had
said it would be. They had penetrated all the way to the palace,
and turned back only when they came to the labyrinth of the
old catacombs. Enneas would be the guide through those;
"You understand the plan," Lavin said to Hesty as he
followed Enneas into the dark square mouth that opened under
a half-fallen wall of yellow stone. "The assault on the walls is
a diversion, but it has to genuinely tie up their forces. We want
to pull them out of the tower to the walls. My force will
penetrate the tower and take the queen. When we signal by
trumpet you will cease the assault."
Hesty shook his head. "I understand that. What I don't
understand is why you have to be the one to go inside."
point."
He stared Hesty down. Finally the man saluted. "All
right." Lavin ducked his head and entered the cool darkness of
the tunnel. Enneas waited there with fifteen men, the elite of
They were crowded into a little antechamber next to a narrow
slot in the wall. Had he not known this was a tunnel, Lavin