12“No beams, just a plain pyramid ceiling,” Kendra said, crowding in. Above the glut of artifacts, the ceiling rose to a point in the middle.
“Not even painted,” Aaron said.
Chione tipped her head back to view the assortment of artifacts that reached toward the ceiling in a claustrophobic muddle. “The pyramid is why nothing's deteriorated,” she said.
Clifford moved closer to study some of the pieces. “Chione's right. Nothing's broken. Nothing's sagged and collapsed.”
“Most women are happy if they have few precious gems,” Marlowe said, pointing. “I can't imagine what it would be like to own as many as adorn that one chair alone.”
“In our society,” Kendra said. “These are only semi-precious stones, carnelian, lapis, amethyst and so forth. We'll have to identify them later.” Something in
