The Ancient Ones (The Legacy Trilogy Book 3) (46 page)

‘How close? They will see us,’ Captain Merryweather warned.

‘Have faith, man,’ Salu said gruffly.

They kept the Farstride heading straight up the inlet towards the hub of the city on its eastern shore. Somehow, none of the tiny fishing boats or soldier-bristling warships saw them. They sailed straight past as the vessels rushed out to sea.

The sun had dawned, rising over the distant mountains and, as they neared the palace, the burning sphere appeared as if set upon the apex of one of the narrow spires that decorated the palace roof.

‘The great ships were once forged along these banks,’ Kali informed them. ‘The Eudans have not dredged since they took over, but the river still runs deep right to the palace.’

They kept going and brought their vessel to bear within sight of the long walls that ran around its perimeter. The landing site had long since been destroyed, and only great logs that had once formed the foundations could still be seen, wavering like ghosts beneath the water.

As they skilfully manoeuvred the enormous vessel into place, Leopold could not help but marvel at the change that had overcome Salu. In his present alert state, he seemed twenty years younger at least.

‘What has happened to you, old man?’ he asked.

The pale-eyed magician turned slowly to give his gruff reply. ‘Nothing has happened. No one else is capable of getting us out of this sorry situation, so I am forced to act.’

‘So you are not as mad as you seem. Perhaps that is why Toby seems to like you?’

‘Toby?’ He then followed Leopold’s gaze to the small boy tiptoeing along an edge, balancing with his hands on his head. ‘Oh, him. I don’t know why he follows me. Perhaps it is because we both are open to the world. He seems to enjoy my company.’

‘Open?’

Salu’s piercing gaze locked onto Leopold, glaring out from beneath his thick, white brows and penetrating him. ‘Most people are barely alive. They function as if they’re half asleep, never seeing the details in their surrounds, closed to stimulation. Only children observe the world to full capacity, with a sense of wonderment, absorbing every skerrick of information. Adults spend their years learning to ignore such things, concentrating instead on the banal. Travelling can help undo some of this clog, opening the eyes, the ears, the senses. I like to think of myself as a traveller. Perhaps he does, too,’ he added, nodding towards Toby. ‘He is on a voyage of discovery; a mind soaking up every sensation it can possibly gather, learning the way of the world.’

‘So you have heard everything we say?’

‘No. I ignore you as best I can while I listen to things more important, in the distance or near to my ear, seeking things huge and things miniscule that might otherwise go unnoticed, discovering the beauties of existence. I often get lost in my wanderings. Sometimes, it is harder to find the way back, but I have managed to do so this time, given the need is strong.’

‘How long will you stay?’ Leopold asked him.

‘I suppose that depends on how long this all remains interesting. Now stop bothering me, it is time to go.’

The away team readied themselves, for Kali had identified their point of entrance, a massive rounded sewer pipe that poured into the river. It ran underground beneath the palace walls and would get them into the heart of the grounds, perhaps into the dungeons themselves where any captives would be held. Crewmen pushed a long plank directly out to it. It was much too high to be accessed from the river, but the deck of the Farstride was just the right height to reach it.

‘I don’t like the look of that,’ Leopold said, glancing towards the pipe’s entrance.

‘I don’t like the smell of it, but we’re going anyway,’ Daneel replied.

Leopold sniffed the air, and sure enough some offensive odour was exuding from the pipe. Rusty brown water poured steadily from its end. Leopold scrunched up his nose at the thought of what it may contain.

Daneel went over first with six of his men, three bearing lanterns. Leopold recognised a couple of them as Daneel’s personal guards—the ones who had disposed of Tulan’s body long ago in Cintar.

A tiny crack of worry appeared in Leopold’s mind, for once within the pipes, he would be entirely at their mercy. Those men would do anything Daneel told them, emperor or not. His only solace was that Kali was coming. Given her abilities, he hoped she would side with him if needed.

Kali and her sisters—Eagle, Storm and Destiny—followed, wearing matching blouses and trousers designed to allow them total freedom of movement. They wore light, black shoes, little more than cloth wrapped around their feet and tied with laces. Their hair was tied tightly away from their faces and bound up out of the way. They crossed lightly and easily, with the dexterity of cats on a fence top. Each one looked primed for battle, determined, almost angry, and Leopold felt sorry for whichever Eudan they came across first.

Leopold followed the women, nervous as the plank bounced with his steps. Salu came last, showing none of the caution that the others had exercised whilst crossing the gap. He shuffled along and appeared to stay on it by sheer luck—although they all knew enough by now to realise that was not the case.

The men on the ship were drawing back the plank, when the tiny figure of Toby came running across it, climbing while their backs were turned and bolting across before they noticed, leaping from its tip and landing with a gleeful splash beside the landing party.

‘No, Toby!’ Leopold told him, scolding him like a wayward puppy.

Daneel tried to catch the boy, but he weaved around the man, hiding between Salu’s legs.

‘Come here, you little devil,’ the one-eyed man said with tested patience, but Salu raised a hand, then put it fondly on the boy’s head.

‘I guess that means he’s coming,’ Daneel said. ‘You’d better mind after him,’ he told Salu, who showed no sign of hearing him.

Iron bars blocked their entrance, but Daneel’s men had already tied a dozen sturdy ropes to them and now threw the other ends back to the ship.

‘Can you not open it, Salu?’ Leopold asked.

‘Let the soldiers do their work,’ was his grumbled reply. ‘They are keen to display their genius and their task is almost done.’

‘Release!’ one of Daneel’s men called once the knots were firm.

‘Let go anchor!’ Captain Merryweather called in response, standing upon the ship.

Leopold was still trying to figure out how they were going to open the barrier, when the Farstride’s far anchor pounded into the river. As the anchor descended, the slack in the ropes disappeared across the deck. They drew tight at the last instant and with a deafening clang, one side of the cylindrical mesh in front of them was pulled out of place, cracking it from its housing. Any more slack in the rope and it would have achieved nothing, any more and the barrier would have come flying out into their faces. It had all been closely measured and calculated with marvellous precision.

‘Good job,’ Daneel said, patting his man on the back. He was first to slip through the crack.

‘Won’t they hear all that ruckus?’ Leopold asked.

‘Let them look over their walls,’ Daneel replied. ‘All they will see is the river. No one has noticed us until this point and I trust the old goat’s magic will keep it that way.’

A grunt issued from Salu, but looking towards him, it seemed coincidental rather than caused by any lack of civility on Daneel’s part.

The soldiers squeezed through next—only just fitting through with their leather chestplates on—followed by the lithe Koian women and Leopold, with Salu and Toby coming through last.

Once through, the old man examined the warped bars, exploring their surfaces with his hands. He grasped one firmly and stroked it within his palm, eyes closed, immersed in the sensations upon his skin. With a sudden wrenching movement he twisted the whole bar free, letting a reverberating clamour echo down the tunnel.

The bar was kinked in the middle, and Salu ran his hand down the length of it, straightening it in one smooth motion, giving him no more resistance than a coil of rope. He marched after the others, using it to aid his walking. Each time it struck the ground, a solid clump shuddered along the pipe. It was thick enough so that Leopold would need two hands just to get his fingers around the thing. He doubted if he could even pick it up, yet Salu strode along nonchalantly, ignorant of the burden in his hands.

The Turian soldiers let their lanterns light the way, Kali beside them acting as guide. Inwards they ventured, splashing up to their ankles in wastewater.

They moved quickly, breaking into a trot more often than not, and whenever Leopold looked over his shoulder, old Salu was never far behind, never hurried. He was always one corner behind them, moving along in the enfolding darkness, aided by his rod of steel, with Toby dancing about him like a little demon in the darkness. The old man’s pupils reflected the lamplight, silver rings hovering through the dark.

They stopped at a junction while Kali gained her bearings and discussed their route with her sisters.

Salu caught up to them. ‘Leopold,’ he beckoned, and as the Emperor turned, the old man prodded him sharply in the neck with his forefinger.

Leopold was stunned with pain and surprise, and Salu followed the motion with a series of solid pokes to his ribs and stomach, seizing his elbows and thrusting his thumb deep into the joints, squeezing his fingers deep into his loins, finishing with a sudden brush of his knuckles down Leopold’s spine. Leopold would have screamed if he was not already paralysed by the pain. He would have fallen, for he could no longer move to maintain balance, but the old man’s final act was to grab him and enfold him in a crushing hug, lifting his boots out of the water.

Held within the fierce embrace, Leopold panicked. He could not breath, he could not move. He felt his life trickling out of him. He fought for release, but as he made his futile efforts the pain subsided and a sublime feeling of peacefulness filled its place. Salu set him gently to his feet, and Leopold took a deep breath and sighed.

Everyone was staring and Leopold wanted to say something in response, to describe how he felt, but he dare not interrupt the heavenly feeling coursing through his veins. He felt light, powerful, taut as a spring. He was alert, and his muscles felt primed for action, yet relaxed. He just felt ready for anything and his mind was stimulated, alive with sensation.

‘What did you do?’ Leopold’s voice was a whisper, full of awe. ‘Was it magic?’

‘It is not magic,’ Kali answered before the old man could speak. She was staring at Leopold, captivated. ‘He has opened your vital channels. It is a way to improve one’s strength, speed, reactions ... everything; but it is only temporary. I thought I knew all there was to know about such things ...’ She shook her head. ‘The old man has shamed me, shamed our clan for our ignorance. I cannot conceive of how he did it. Take heed, sisters.’

‘Fascinating,’ one of the women whispered.

‘The world will need you once this is done, young Emperor,’ Salu said. ‘We can’t be expected to mother you forever. I hope this assistance will see you through what awaits ahead. After that, you can take care of yourself.’

He retrieved his rod from where he had impaled it into the floor. No one but he would have been able to remove it.

‘Leopold, are you all right?’ Daneel asked, for he and his men could only observe what was happening, unable to understand what was being said.

‘I’m fine,’ Leopold responded, feeling native Turian passing across his lips. ‘I just ...’ He trailed off, not quite able to find the words.

Daneel leaned closer to him. ‘You look so strange. Can you go on?’

‘Oh, certainly,’ Leopold confirmed with an enthusiastic smile. ‘I would not have it any other way.’

Daneel raised the eyebrow above his patch, then stepped aside to let the eager young Emperor on his way.

They soon came to another set of bars. Kali and her sisters huddled in a circle, while Daneel and his men scratched their heads, trying to resolve the quandary of this latest obstacle. Without hesitation, Salu shuffled past them and grabbed the bars and folded them aside, snapping them away from their ends like nothing more than dry brushwood.

‘Why did you not do that the first time and save us all the effort, old man?’ Daneel asked him.

Salu smiled like a mischievous child, eyes squeezed tight. ‘Time is short, but you looked so contented playing with your ropes ... how could I interrupt a mastermind at work?’

They left the rounded tunnels and were now in square, bricked passages. The smell was no less putrid, but at least there were ledges where they could step up and out of the muck. Although, Leopold was the only one bothered to do this—everyone else carried on along the centre of the passage, in too much of a hurry or uncaring of what they walked in. By now they were all already saturated in it up to their knees, so he supposed it made little difference.

Kali hesitated after a short distance, looking questioningly at the walls, while Daneel and his men waited impatiently behind her.

‘It’s no use,’ she said finally. ‘I recalled the directions perfectly, but the way is not correct. There should be a passage.’

‘Did she forget which way to bring us?’ one of Daneel’s men asked, looking to Leopold.

‘Tell your man to hold his tongue,’ she said, glaring at the man, knowing his discontent by his tone. ‘The directions given to me were flawed. There should be a way through this wall.’

‘She is right,’ agreed Eagle, the shortest of the women.

‘I can see the way,’ Salu declared.

He speared his rod into the floor once more and approached the wall, rubbing his palms together briskly. The others backed away cautiously.

He placed the flat of his hands against the stone. With one gentle shove the brickwork collapsed. Left in its absence was a broken archway in the stone and rising dust.

The echoes of hurried footsteps approached along the tunnel.

‘They have found us!’ Daneel said.

‘Hurry,’ Salu implored, stepping through the newly formed doorway. They followed after him, Toby skipping through last. ‘The lanterns,’ he grumbled.