City of Scars (The Skullborn Trilogy, Book 1) (32 page)

Kol looked back at the house where the Dream Witch had been.  Even if the man and his children knew nothing, they’d helped her.  He smiled, for he knew Kaerog would make them suffer before they died.

Fifty-One

Kath followed Ijanna though the pounding rain.  Night fell quickly, and moving through the back streets was like walking through a dark tunnel.  The weather made it practically impossible to see anything more than a few feet away, even with the covered streetlamps.  Kath was soaked, and his head pounded. 

He felt lost.  Everything Ijanna had told him had left him terrified. 

Not only am I going to help her kill herself, but I’m going to help her bring back someone who slaughtered thousands.  What does that make me, besides a coward?

Kath wasn’t old enough to have seen the times before the Rift War – he’d been born twelve years after it had ended – but his father has lived through it, and he’d told Kath and his sisters a great deal.  The Empires had once been strong, and life before the war had been stable.  Then the Blood Queen came, and both Jlantria and Den’nar were nearly brought to their knees.  Vlagoth’s armies ravaged city after city and destroyed any who challenged her, and for nearly a decade she seemed unstoppable.  Entire family lines came to an end.  Malzaria was thrown into a state of chaos from which it still hadn’t recovered, and the world was forever polluted with the vile taint of dark magic.

And Ijanna – a woman Kath would follow to the edge of the world and back – was going to bring the Blood Queen back to life.  It didn’t matter how impossible it sounded.  She believed it was what she’d been born to do, and now she had Kath under some unbreakable enchantment which forced him to help her.  How could she possibly justify the notion of resurrecting a mass murderer like Carastena Vlagoth?  She’d tried to explain, but Kath wouldn’t hear it. He hated her, just as he loved her.

They came to an alley off Temple Street.  Ijanna said something about how it had been raining the last time she’d been there, but Kath only half heard her.  He knew that part of Ebonmark well.  Before his mother had disappeared he used to come to the Basilica of Corvinia at the end of Temple Street almost every day, but he hadn’t been there since his family had gotten word of her death. 

The rain came down hard, and the air grew colder by the minute.  There were only a few people about, all of them racing into the welcome doors of the One Goddess’s many churches.  Kath knew he and Ijanna must have looked like idiots standing around in the downpour at the neck of an alley.  The warm illumination from the Temple of Light across the street looked inviting, but Kath wondered if he’d ever feel welcome or comfortable in a Church again.

Please, Goddess
, he mouthed silently. 
Grant me strength.  I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know what’s right anymore.

Ijanna stood next to him, coolly composed in spite of the horrific weather.  He could only see her mouth and jaw under her hood. 

I still want to help her, but not like this
.  He knew if he’d been strong he’d have just walked away, even if what Ijanna said was true and doing so would cost him his life. 
But I’m not strong.

Cold wind blew the rain sideways.  Kath shivered.  He normally enjoyed the rain, but now it was just making him tired.  He gently took hold of Ijanna’s arm and pulled her closer.  He was much more broad of shoulder than she was, and he could shield her from the wind.  She seemed hesitant at first, but after a moment she was the one who pulled
him
closer.

“I’m sorry, Kath,” she said.  He wasn’t sure what to say.  “We should go.  There was a man I thought would be here, someone who’d help me find Bordrec, but I don’t intend to stand around and wait for him.  We’ve already lost too much time.”

“Will he still be able to help you?” Kath asked as they started down the alley.  “Will he
want
to?”

“He will,” Ijanna said.  “He doesn’t have much of a choice.  We’ll come back when it’s time for us to go to Chul Gaerog.  He’ll be angry, but he’ll understand.”

They dodged past puddles of rainwater and piles of trash.  Hooded lanterns glowed through the murk.

“Ijanna?”

“Yes, Kath?”

“I’m scared,” he said.

“I know,” she said.  “So am I.”

They carried on through the rain-soaked alleys and crooked lanes, and before long they were out of Ebonmark.

Fifty-Two

Bordrec Kleiderhorn was used to getting bad news.  Just a week ago he’d learned that one of his shipments had been seized by the White Dragon Army, a loss which had cost him a great deal of money and the inconvenience of having to make amends to a number of buyers.  A few days later Ijanna Taivorkan had made her request that he help her break into Colonel Aaric Blackhall’s tower.  That morning he’d learned intruders had made their way into Black Sun. 

And now this.

“What do you mean ‘She’s gone’?” he demanded.

Kleiderhorn’s office, if it could truly be called such, was cold and poorly lit and smelled of mold and ice.  He guessed it had once been a parlor for some maddened Voss scientist, for the blackrock walls were covered with crude stone shelves which at one point had been littered with bizarre items like iron kegs of foul-smelling liquids, boxes of rusted rivets, even an unborn human fetus preserved in a semi-translucent jar of green and salty-smelling liquid.  Naturally, he’d sold it all, and now the room was essentially bare.  He felt tiny in it.  The cavernous chamber had been built to comfortably house at least two giants, and Kleiderhorn, like all Drage, was less than four feet tall. 

But despite his size Kleiderhorn was one of the giants in Ebonmark’s criminal underworld, which was precisely why the Veilwarden Toran Gess looked so nervous beneath his illusory smile.

“That about sums it up, Bordrec,” Gess said.  “She left.  And it’s about time.  She went north, into the Bonelands – not the direction I’d anticipated, I assure you.  At any rate, once I’d realized who she was I held off further searches, at least for the time being.  I can track her easily enough when the time is right, and she seems to be faring…relatively well, all things considered.”

Kleiderhorn threw his glass of brandy so it shattered on the floor.  He half wished a broken shard would fly up and hit Gess in the eye.

“Well, was she looking for
me
?” he asked.

“How would I know?” Gess laughed.  “I didn’t ask her.”

“You know how important she is, Gess!” Kleiderhorn thundered.  His voice echoed through the torch-lit room.  He caught himself screaming, and made an effort to calm himself.  “Well?”

Gess paced.  He eyed Kleiderhorn’s bodyguards and the other two sentries posted by the door. 

“Well what?  I held up my end of the bargain, Bordrec, and now you need to hold up
yours
.  We need the Bloodspeaker to go on her little mission.  She’s going to lead us to the other Skullborn.”

“That’s what your Empress wants,” Kleiderhorn scowled, “and I don’t give two turds about the White Dragon.  Ijanna Taivorkan is my responsibility…”

“No,” Gess smiled.  “No she’s not.  Not anymore.”  Kleiderhorn thought the Veilwarden looked like a skeleton when he smiled.  “Now you have other things to worry about.  Like the Phage.”

Kleiderhorn walked over to a crate he used as a makeshift table, where he’d left a bowl of plums and a bottle of brandy.  Bordrec wasn’t hungry, but he plucked up a plum and rolled the soft fruit in his hands as he angrily wondered what he should do next.  Gess was right, of course, but Bordrec hadn’t expected Ijanna to just up and leave like that.

“I don’t like this,” he told Gess acidly.  “You’ve got a damn legion down here, and I’m somehow supposed to keep them out of sight!”

“A legion we provided for
your
use,” Gess pointed out kindly.  “Remember, you’re only doing yourself a favor by working with us.”

Kleiderhorn smiled coldly.  “And I’m doing
you
a favor, as well.  But there are still a few things I’d like to clear up.”

Bordrec pointed to a low crate and indicated to Gess he should sit.  The Veilwarden looked at him indignantly, but after a glance at Kyrin and Hask he politely sat down.  Kleiderhorn paced back and forth for a moment while he chewed on his thoughts.

“What’s the matter, Bordrec?” Gess asked.  He sat with one leg folded over the other and his hands on his knee.  Gess’s short-cropped hair and dress lent him the appearance of a military man, but he held himself in such a foppish manner it was difficult for Bordrec to take him seriously, which was likely the point.  There was no question Toran Gess was a bizarre creature.  “If you’re worried about the woman,” Gess said, “don’t be.  I told you, she won’t be harmed.”

“I wish I could believe you,” Keldierhorn said.  “Just like I wish I could believe you won’t try to double-cross me like you’re double-crossing Harrick.  You had an agreement with
him
, too, didn’t you?”

Gess gave Bordrec a terribly insincere smile.  “That’s different.  Harrick double-crossed
us
first.  He was the one who set off that explosion.”

“What?” Kleiderhorn balked.  “How did you deduce that?”

“We have our ways,” Gess said.

Kleiderhorn scowled. 
I won’t be intimidated by this fop.
  “You’re not convincing me,” he growled.

“You’re a tad paranoid, aren’t you?” Gess asked Kleiderhorn.

“Is that an insult?”

“An observation.  To answer your question, earlier today our man Slayne took a Black Guild lieutenant prisoner, and she gave us a great deal of insight into the truth behind the recent explosion.  Based on what she told us, we’ve come to the conclusion it was the Phage who destroyed that building and killed all of those people, not the Black Guild.”  Kleiderhorn wanted to point out the obvious fact that the Guild would tell him they were Vossian battle goats if they thought it would save their skins, but he held his tongue.  “There’s more to it than that, of course, but that’s all you really need to know.”

“So what’s the plan?” Kleiderhorn laughed.  “The Phage is going to come marching down here and we…kill them?  Just like that?”  Kleiderhorn laughed again, but Gess didn’t.  His pale eyes were deadly serious.

“That’s the idea,” the Veilwarden said.  “We’ve provided you with more than enough weapons and mercenaries, as well as the majority of Wolf Brigade.  And then there’s the Empress’s…special stock of soldiers.”  Gess was referring to the war trolls, those hideously malformed brutes.  The creatures terrified Kleiderhorn, and they smelled so bad the entire accursed underground city reeked of their briny breath and sulfurous dung.  There’d been one violent incident involving a troll already, and Bordrec knew it wouldn’t be the last.  “Between those forces and your own men,” Gess continued, “you’re more than adequately equipped to deal with Harrick.  I’ve taken care of luring him down here – now it’s your job to make sure he never leaves.  Once that’s done, you’ll get your reward.”  Gess smiled.  “I’m sure you’ll agree it’s quite ample.”

Kleiderhorn could barely contain his anger.  He’d never dealt with the Jlantrians before, and now he knew why he’d always been told not to.  “You’ll have to pardon my ‘paranoia’, as you put it, but nothing you do makes any sense to me.”

“As we like it,” Gess said.  He stood up to leave.

“Like almost killing Ijanna when you claim you need her alive,” Kleiderhorn said.  Kryin and Hask stood ready.  They’d tear off Gess’s head with their bare hands at his command.  Kleiderhorn doubted it would come to that, and he had to wonder if his henchmen would actually be effective at all against a Veilwarden, but their eager presence gave him a small amount of comfort.  “Explain
that
.”

“
That
was a mistake,” Gess said impatiently.  “When you told us she was coming into the city we’d intended to follow her – no more.  We need her to lead us to another one of the Skullborn.  We can’t use the
thar’koon
blades ourselves, but they’ll lead Ijanna to the woman we seek.  That’s why we were going to give the swords to you in the first
place – so you could give them to her.  Simple.”  Gess smiled.  “But then she stole them.  Slayne had no idea who she was or else he wouldn’t have skewered her like he did.”  Gess smiled again.  Kleiderhorn decided the Veilwarden smiled far too much.  “But everything worked out.  She’s alive, she has the
thar’koon
, and since I can track the blades I can also find
her
.”  Gess surveyed the room.  He’d mentioned before what a wonderful find Black Sun was, and his enthusiasm and curiosity burned behind his eyes. 

He can have it
, Kleiderhorn thought.
I hate this damned place.  I hate being underground.  And most of all I hate these damn games.  If this idiot’s plan doesn’t work I’ll be ruined, and maybe killed.

“It’s been a pleasure, Gess,” Kleiderhorn said.  “You can leave now…right after you pass on whatever it was you were supposed to bring me.”

“They’re right there.”  Gess pointed at the cloth-wrapped weapons leaning against the wall.  “Try not to loose them.”

“Go away.”

“Be ready,” the Veilwarden warned.  “It won’t be long now.”

“We’ll be ready,” Kleiderhorn said dismissively.  He had to figure out what to do about the intruders.  “Just make sure Harrick gets down here.  And keep the Guild off of my back!”

“You won’t have to worry about them for long,” Gess said.  “Don’t worry, Bordrec – soon you’ll be the only crime lord left in Ebonmark.  It’s our gift to you for all of your help.”

“Your ‘gift’,” Kleiderhorn spat.  “Ebonmark isn’t yours to give.  It belongs to those us of who
live
here.”

Gess’s smile melted.  His cold eyes locked on Kleiderhorn.  The air around the suddenly menacing man turned dark.  “No it doesn’t,” Gess said.  “Ebonmark is the Empress’s city now.  Count yourself lucky you’ll be allowed to live, let alone handed something we are not obligated to give away.”  Gess kept his icy gaze on Kleiderhorn a moment longer, then turned and left the room.