Ghost in the Maze Read Online Free

no way she could overcome twenty of them. 
    Yet they made no move to attack. 
    For a moment she contemplated running to the gate in the Mirror of Worlds, but that was madness. The Immortals could only kill her. There were things in the netherworld that could do far worse than that. 
    A final man climbed the stairs to the laboratory, clad in the leather jerkin and chain mail of a mercenary soldier. He was in his middle forties, his balding gray hair close-cropped, his nose like the beak of a hawk. He had the cold, hard eyes of a hunting hawk as well, and faint scars marked his jaw. A scimitar and a dagger hung at his belt, and from his balance, Caina knew that he could use those weapons well.
    But she already knew who he was. The man was an assassin of Istarinmul’s Kindred family…and one of Grand Master Callatas’s men.
    “Anburj,” said Caina in a rasping, disguised voice.
    A smile flickered over the assassin’s hard face. “Good. You know who I am. But I did not know that it would be so very easy to trap you, Balarigar.”

Chapter 2 - Smokeless Flame
    Caina took a step toward the wall. Neither Anburj nor his Immortals made any move to stop her. With all the exits blocked, they could kill her at their leisure.
    But they didn’t know about the rope dangling from the window.
    At least, Caina hoped they didn’t. If Anburj had stationed men in the mansion to watch her approach, they would have spotted the rope and taken it down. But Anburj and his men must have concealed themselves in the laboratory soon after Vaysaal’s murder. Caina had seen no signs of Immortals or Kindred assassins anywhere else in the palace.
    She took another step toward the window, and still the Immortals made no move to stop her. 
    “A trap?” she rasped. “Are you so certain of that, Anburj of the Kindred?”
    “I am,” said Anburj, his smile cold. “Because I know who you are, Balarigar.”
    “Oh?” said Caina, her alarm growing. “Do enlighten me.” If Anburj had figured out who she was, then Damla and her sons were in danger. 
    “The common vermin and the slaves think you are the Balarigar, a hero come to save them,” said Anburj. “The emirs and masters think you are a thief hoping to get rich. But I know exactly what you are. You are a Ghost nightfighter hunting for secrets. No other man would wear such a cloak. The Teskilati shall be wroth that I found you first.”
    “If I am a thief,” said Caina, “then perhaps I stole this cloak as well.” She felt a twinge of relief. Anburj had not figured out who she really was, had not even discerned that she was a woman. Damla and Agabyzus would be safe for now. But once Anburj killed her, he might return to the House of Agabyzus to hunt for any other surviving Ghosts. 
    “I think not,” said Anburj. “A common robber could not have achieved some of the audacious thefts you have accomplished. The Ghosts have returned to Istarinmul, have they not? I thought we had exterminated every last one of the cockroaches, but more have scurried from the shadows. Tell me, Ghost. When you robbed and humiliated Master Ulvan, did his slaves aid you? When you destroyed the Widow’s Tower, who let you inside?”
    “No one,” said Caina. 
    Anburj laughed. “No. You had help. We shall find the traitors and hang their corpses from the walls of the Golden Palace. Starting, I think, with you.”
    “Then you killed Vaysaal to get at me?” said Caina, taking another step closer to the window. A few more, and she could make a run for it.
    “Do not bother going out the window,” said Anburj. “It would be so very easy to push you from the ledge. If the fall doesn’t kill you, some of Vaysaal’s little flowers can keep a man alive for seven years in exquisite torment.”
    “Then you did kill Vaysaal,” said Caina
    Anburj snorted. “Vaysaal killed himself, the fool. He started ingesting wraithblood for his own use, and the Grand Master requires every last drop of wraithblood for his