And the metallic sounds of swords clanging slightly in their scabbards.
Then whispers.
Whispers…
So hushed she couldn’t tell if they were voiced by a male or female. She couldn’t hear if they were deeply burred or more anglicized. She couldn’t tell anything about the people who were approaching…
Except that their intentions were not good.
David quickly blew out the flame in the lantern he carried, setting it down in silence. He barely mouthed words against Shawna’s ear. “Don’t move.”
The whisperers began to argue with one another. The sound increased, amplifying and echoing as they entered into the vaults Shawna and David had so recently vacated.
“Corpses, all.”
“You said?—”
“I said that I heard movement.”
“You fool! You heard nothing.”
“Make sure that they are all corpses!”
Shawna winced as she heard a chilling ripping sound. She could visualize swords slashing into the shelves of shrouded bodies…
“I should have slit her throat before!”
“Y’can’t! Y’don’t ken what must happen!”
Shawna felt David begin to move forward and heard the sound of his knife being drawn from a sheath at his calf. She grabbed the back of his shirt and started to follow him. He stopped her, his fingers biting into the flesh of her arms.
“Don’t move!” he mouthed against her ear once again.
“Don’t go!” she mouthed back.
“I must!”
“They’ve swords, perhaps guns.”
“I have my knife and the element of surprise, my lady.”
“David, no!”
“Shawna, I beg of you, hush!”
He left her.
The intruders had ceased to talk.
There was no sound at all while the seconds ticked by.
Ticked into minutes.
Endless minutes…
Then there was the sound of gunfire.
A single shot followed by the sounds of a scuffle in the corridor. Despite David’s words to her, Shawna could not remain still. She moved through the darkened vault carefully, but as quickly as she could. There was more light in the corridor—the light from the lantern the whisperers had brought. Shawna made her way to the vault’s gate just in time to see David racing after a cloaked figure hurrying toward the stairway that led to the cemetery and the night beyond.