The City of Towers: The Dreaming Dark - Book I (46 page)

“I inflicted significant injuries on the creature in our initial encounter,” Pierce said. “At least six of my arrows struck home in the second encounter. I believe that it was dead by the time it fell.”

“If not, I’m guessing the fall finished the job—or whatever that liquid was that it fell into.” Daine said. “We took a few minutes to cut the chains supporting those incubation chambers. Chyrassk never resurfaced, and I didn’t feel its presence in my mind. I think we finished it off.”

“What else?”

Daine frowned. “Well, we smashed the tanks and destroyed everything we could. No one will be making new monsters down there any time soon. But I’m still worried about what Teral said. If he really did come to Sharn with a hundred followers—not to mention those created by Chyrassk over the last two months—that means that there are dozens out there we haven’t seen. I’ve mentioned it to Greykell, but most of the grafts seemed to be easily concealable. And we don’t even know that all of Teral’s followers settled in High Walls. I don’t know. I imagine they’ll be keeping a low profile, but I don’t like thinking about what horrors might still be hidden in High Walls.”

A stout, middle-aged halfling entered the room, the griffon badge of Jorasco on the breast of his brown robe. He was carrying a small tray bearing a bowl of clear broth and a mug of pungent milian tal.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good.”

He set the tray down by the bed and climbed up on a footstool to examine her. The Mark of Healing could be seen poking up from the collar of his robes, and once again Lei’s thoughts drifted back to Jode. The healer touched a finger to her forehead, and she felt a slight tingle.

“You’re doing just fine,” the little man said. He pressed the tal into her hand. “Drink, now.” He looked back to Daine. “I still can’t tell you exactly what happened, but she’s making an excellent recovery. With a few more days of rest, she’ll be as healthy as she’s ever been.”

“Thank you, Suold.”

“The pleasure is mine. I would imagine it’s safe for her to move about at this point. If you would like to remain here for a few more days, you can settle things with Asdren out front.” The halfling bowed, then trotted out the door.

“I’m fine, Daine,” Lei said. “So don’t tell me that I’m confined to bed.”

“Drink your tal,” Daine said. “Personally, I think the rest would do you good, but if you don’t want to stay here, I’m not about to make it an order. It’s up to you.” He stood up. “But now that you’re conscious, I need to make our final delivery to
Alina before she comes to the conclusion that we failed.”

Lei drained the cup of bitter tal and pushed herself out of bed. He legs were a little stiff and she felt momentarily lightheaded, but it quickly passed. “I’m coming with you.”

“What?” Daine said. “Why do you want to do that? I’d avoid Alina, if I had the choice.”

“I can’t just stay here. Especially here. Not after what happened to Jode. Your healer said I was healthy.”

“He also said you needed a few more days of rest.”

She gave him a look. “And you’d lie here drinking broth if you were in my boots?” She took a few steps forward, gingerly at first. “Where are my goods?”

Daine produced her pack from under his chair, and she began to sort through it. She pulled out her leather jerkin. She hadn’t noticed in the battle, but the alchemical bath had eaten through the upper back. She sighed. She could repair it, but it would take time. She pulled out the darkwood staff and frowned.

“Did you do this?” she asked Daine.

When she’d last seen it, the staff had been marred by a half-dozen deep gouges. In places Daine’s blade had almost split the shaft in two. But those marks were gone. It was in perfect condition, even to the polished finish.

Daine shook his head. “I haven’t touched it, other than putting it in your bag.” He scowled. “That squid may have used it to get inside my head. I’ll tell you now. I don’t like that staff, Lei. There’s too much we don’t know. What it can do, why the sphinx wanted you to have it … maybe you
should
get rid of it.”

Lei set her weight against the staff. It might have been her imagination, but she suddenly felt better—a little stronger, a little more alert. “Don’t be stupid,” she said. “Without the staff, we wouldn’t have survived long enough for Pierce to finish Chyrassk. Once we have a little more time, I’ll sit down with it. I’m sure that I can unlock its secrets.”

“Fine.” Daine shrugged. “Come if you want, but let’s get this done quickly.”

After Daine settled accounts with the Jorascos, they made their way to the lift in silence. As they rose into the sky, Daine turned to Lei. “About what happened down there, Lei …”

“You weren’t in control of yourself. Neither was Pierce.”

“I know, but it felt so real … as if they
were
my thoughts. I can’t help but wonder if there was some part of me that could have resisted, that should have known.”

Lei put her hand on his arm. “Daine, it’s not your fault. If not for the staff, I would have been just as vulnerable. It wasn’t you.”

He closed his eyes for a moment then looked back at her. “It wasn’t just the staff, Lei.” He sighed. “You’ve known me for a few years, but there’s a lot you don’t know. What I did before I joined the Cyran Guard, how it is I know Alina. I’ve always kept a certain distance between us, and I hope, when I explain, that you’ll understand why.”

She watched him silently.

“But now … now we need to determine what happens next. If Alina pays us—”

“Is this in doubt?” Pierce asked.

“Probably not,” Daine said, “But with Alina I don’t think you can be certain of anything. The question is, what do we do with the gold? Where do we go from here?”

The question hung in the air. Lei had been banned from her house, her betrothed was dead. Pierce had been built for battle, to fight in a war that had ended. And everything Daine had fought for had come to an end on the Day of Mourning.

Daine turned to face his two comrades. “If Alina pays us, we could go anywhere. But where do you want to go? Lei, if you want to get away from here, I understand.”

Lei shook her head. “No. If this Merrix has issues with me, that’s his problem. I rather like the idea of living the good life under his nose. Show him I’m not going to crawl under a rock and die just because he’s cut me off.”

Daine nodded. “Pierce, how about you?”

“There is little that I need in this world, Captain. I have no interest in this gold, but I wish to remain with the two of you. For that reason, I hope that you will stay together.”

“Which brings me back to my past. Before I joined the guard, I—”

“All the lifts in Sharn, and he comes to mine.”

By now, Sergeant Lorrak’s gravelly voice was a familiar sound. Daine turned. The dwarf watchman was standing by the gate of the lift with a pair of halberdiers.

“I see your little fall didn’t knock any sense into you,” Lorrak said.

Daine walked over to the dwarf. The halberdiers lowered their weapons, but Lorrak stopped them with a gesture. “How long is this going to go on, Lorrak?”

“Why, Mourner? Do you have somewhere to go?”

“My name is Daine, Sergeant.” He dropped to one knee, to look the dwarf directly in the eye. “And you know what? I don’t have anywhere to go. My homeland was destroyed. Your king invited my people to come here. And here I am.”

Lorrak stared at him, saying nothing.

“We’re not at war anymore, Sergeant. I’m not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, I imagine I’ll be taking this lift on a regular basis. If you’d like, we can take turns throwing each other off. I believe it’s your turn. But I’m guessing those feather tokens add up on a watchman’s salary. I know they will for a refugee.”

Lorrak stayed silent, but there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“I didn’t mean to throw you off the lift that first time we met,” Daine continued.. “You charged me. And you know what? You were right. That girl did rob me. I hope you were just trying to scare her. I don’t like the idea of guards murdering anyone, criminal or not. But I owe you an apology, Sergeant. So can we start this over again, one soldier to another?”

The dwarf stared at him for a long while. Finally he nodded. “All right, Mour—uh, Daine.” He didn’t smile. “We’ve both been over that edge once now. You mind your business, and I’ll leave you be. But I don’t want to see any trouble on my watch. Interfere with my work again, and I will have your head, Grazen be damned.”

“Fair enough.” Daine stood and walked back over to his friends. A moment later, the lift arrived at Den’iyas.

A
lina was waiting for them in the room of mirrors. Today she was dressed in a gown of black and gold, with amethyst-tipped rods tucked through her golden hair. Daine idly wondered if these were pure decoration or if they might be magic wands. It would be just like Alina to wear a mystic arsenal as a form of decoration.

“I trust you come to me with results, Daine?” she said. There was a silver-scaled serpent wrapped around her left wrist, and she idly scratched its chin. She wore a platinum ring on each finger, each one set with a different gemstone or dragonshard. “Or is this yet another plea for gold?”

Daine reached into his belt pouch and produced a small cloth bag. He set it down on the table and slid it toward her. “I believe this is what you sent us to find.”

Alina held her wrist up to her hair, and the tiny viper slithered off her arm to coil around one of her long hair rods. She picked up the bag and carefully spread its contents out across the table. There were two large chunks of dark crystal lined with deep blue veins, a host of smaller shards; and two glass vials, corked and sealed with lead. The vials were filled with a shadowy fluid, and the lid of each vial was marked with a complex symbol—similar to a dragonmark, but matching none of the twelve known marks.

Alina picked up one of the vials and examined it carefully.

“The people who stole your goods and killed Rasial had developed a process to remove dragonmarks,” Daine explained. “That’s supposed to be the essence of the dragonmark—at least, an aberrant dragonmark. I have no idea what you’re supposed to do with it. Since the people who’d stolen it hadn’t done anything with it, it may well be dangerous.”

“Fascinating,” said Alina. She glanced over at Daine. “And the tools they used in this extraction procedure?”

“It was a rough fight, Alina. We were almost all killed, and I’m afraid the workshop was destroyed in the battle. You said to recover whatever was left of your shards. You didn’t say anything about limiting property damage in the process.”

Alina shrugged. “I’m sure there was nothing that could be done. A tragic loss, however.” She studied the vial more closely. “I suppose that this battle occurred after your visit to Councilor Teral’s tent in High Walls?”

“It’s good to know you’re keeping an eye on us.”

Alina smiled. “I always like to watch my investments. You know that.”

“If you’ve been keeping such a close watch on us, I suppose you already know about Jode.”

Alina set the vial down and placed a hand over her heart. “Yes. Daine, I am sorry. He will not soon be forgotten, and I can only give thanks that the rest of you survived the experience.” She glanced down at the two dark vials. “What intrigues me is the fact that these villains preserved these aberrant dragonmarks but let Jode’s mark slip through their fingers.” She glanced up at Daine, her violet eyes cold in her otherwise perfect mask of sympathy. “Surely a fool could see how valuable the essence of such a mark might be.”

Daine said nothing, and Lei spoke on his behalf. “There could be any number of explanations,” she said. “Perhaps the process hadn’t been perfected and they failed to capture the mark. Perhaps they already put it to use, though I still don’t know how you’d apply it.”

Alina studied Lei, and for a moment she said nothing. Lei found the experience disturbing. Alina was the size of a human child, but it was hard to reconcile that with her elegance and
intelligence. From the way Daine acted around her, it was clear that Alina was dangerous, but Lei still hadn’t learned what made her such a threat.