The only advantage in the mindless scale of the place as 1 could see it was that the enemy would have a hard job finding us. There was so much space to search.
After what seemed like an hour, we were still a very long way from the tomb. I checked my chronometer to determine precisely how long it had been since we accessed the interior of Ghiil, but it had stopped. Stopped isn't right exactly. It was still running and beating seconds, but the time was not recording in any way.
I recalled the clock in Aemos's suite, chiming to mark out times that had no meaning.
As we closed on our destination, I was able to make more sense of the lights. Tiny dots, they had seemed, casting little fields of light.
They were massive lamps, high power, of the sort used to light landing fields or military camps. Mounted on suspensor platforms, they floated at various points in front of the face of the mausoleum, lighting up surface details in patches of glare the size of amphitheatres. There were forty-three of the platforms, each with its own lamp. 1 counted them.
There were men on the platforms, human figures. Glaw's men, I was sure, some of them mercenary guards, most of them adepts of arcane lore enlisted to his cause.
As we watched, some of the platforms drifted slowly or adjusted the sweep of their light.
They were reading the wall.
By whatever catalogue of means, Glaw had learned of this place, found it and made his way inside to plunder its vile treasures. But its innermost secrets clearly still eluded him.
That was why he had wanted the Malus Codicium so badly.
To turn the final lock, to get him through the final barrier.
One of the platforms began to climb vertically, its lamplight flickering across the passing relief of the tomb face. It climbed and then halted far up above at what seemed to be the top of the wall. Its beam picked out an open square, an entrance, perhaps, though who would put an entrance at the top of a wall without steps?
I scolded myself for asking. The warped ones.
'Glaw is up there/ Cherubael said.
It was right. I could smell the monster's mind.
We hurried the last distance to the foot of the mausoleum wall. Several cargo fliers and two bulk speeders were parked down here, alongside metal crates of equipment and spares for the lamp platforms. Their base camp.
We waited. I considered our options.
Almost at the same time, two of the platforms descended the wall to ground level, dimming their huge lamps. There were about six men on each one.
One settled in and two men jumped down, hurrying towards one of the cargo fliers. I could hear them, exchanging words with the crew on the platform. A moment later the other came down softly beside it.