Wolf Omega: The Lykanos Chronicles 2

Chapter Seventeen

When Duccio seemed satisfied that he'd given me time to examine the sight before us, he proceeded to lead me forward.

As we approached, I looked up anxiously at the soaring roof, no doubt weighing tons. I marveled at how something so immense could float above us. We walked through the center two columns to a rectangle cut into the building's face, which stood almost to the roof. Within it was an exquisite bronze relief depicting a forest of evergreen trees, each defined in spectacular detail by some master's loving hand. The trees rose several feet above our heads to end at a sky populated by men and women flying in flowing robes around a giant orb. A dozen shafts of light emanated from this orb, and the people who soared around it seemed drawn like moths to a flame.

Duccio reached forward to touch the relief and then pulled on a bar that was cleverly hidden among the bronze tree trunks. I heard a lock disengage, and he revealed a tall door that broke the relief's facade. When he had it open fully, Duccio nodded for me to pass through before him.

Inside, my breath was retaken from me as I stepped into a giant, circular chamber that rose unimpeded at least one hundred feet. I squinted to see the endless details of its design. At the top was the dome I had marveled at from outside, though now I realized it was incomplete. The builders had left an enormous space open at the very top.

"The oculus," Duccio whispered.

It was a perfect circle that let sunlight beam down into the chamber, lighting the walls, and at least a dozen marble statues that surrounded us. These statues were of magnificent people with perfectly shaped bodies in stately poses, each easily twice the height of any man or woman.

Despite the wonder of this place, I could not stop the pulling sound from filling my mind. It was as if I could sense it through my very bones.

The circular room had several doors around its perimeter, and Duccio led me forward through the largest. We came to a long hallway with walls filled with stunning murals of more forests. Breaking this visage were windows of colored glass that filtered sunlight into dozen colors that blazed across the shimmering white stone floor. Above us, the rounded ceiling was adorned with more gold patterns, the whole reflecting the light such that we could well have been walking outside.

At the end of the hall, we descended a flight of stairs that opened to another epic room. The style here was dissimilar to the places we had passed, much more like the designs I knew, only far more decadent than anything standing in Morbegno. Black stained wood covered the ceilings, intricately cut and styled into countless distinct shades, each lacquered into a glassy shine. The floors were covered in large red carpets, each woven with inlaid gold and black thread designs. There were furnishings of every sort: desks, lounge chairs, dining tables, and more golden oil lamps than could ever be needed.

Sitting together in one corner were two people, a man and woman, dressed as impeccably as Duccio in delicate, noble garments. They looked up from their books to stare at me, and I turned my eyes away out of intimidation. After several steps, I wanted to look back, but Duccio's pace made it impractical, and I continued to follow him down another corridor.

Here, windows filled the walls down the entire stretch as we walked. Through the glass, my heart stopped to see a sweeping vista of Como and the lake before it. Both sat under the soaring rise of the gorgeous mountains beyond. The striking site, amplified by our astonishing height, cause me to stumble as it drew my attention.

Duccio caught my arm and steadied me.

Be careful, he thought.

"Forgive me," I said instinctively.

I would have said more, but the words got caught in my throat when I looked ahead through the open doors ahead of us.

A very old man rose anxiously from a large chair. He was taller than me but shorter than Duccio. Dressed in simple garments of faded linen, he seemed out of place among all the splendor that surrounded us. His frame seemed very lean, as was the case with most older men, but this one stood with a graceful posture that made him appear to float forward. The man's bald head was crowned with a ring of silver-white hair, slightly unkempt.