The Killing Song: The Dragon Below Book III (20 page)

“You have us,” Ashi said. “Help us to find Dah’mir and—”

She didn’t finish. The chimes from the shop ended and replaced by a loud impact and the sound of splintering. Nevchaned’s eyes went wide. “My shop!”

Hanamelk’s face slackened for a moment, colors danced in the depths of his eyes, and he appeared to look into the distance. “There are humans at your door,” he said. “Five men. They’re trying to break in—” There was another crash. Hanamelk blinked and corrected himself. “They’re in.”

“What?” Nevchaned sprinted for the stairs.

“Wait!” Hanamelk called after him, but the old man didn’t stop. Hanamelk turned to Singe. “He’s not going to be able to stop them.”

Singe glanced at Dandra. She nodded to him. He and Hanamelk raced after Nevchaned. Ashi’s eyes followed them longingly. She still had her sword drawn. “Should we go?” she asked.

Dandra leaned against a wall. Her head still spun slightly from Erimelk’s kick. “Just a moment—”

“No, don’t go!” Shadows moved on the stairs. Moon stepped
down into the corridor. It seemed he hadn’t followed either her request or his father’s orders—he hadn’t washed and he was still in the house. He looked unsteady or nervous, and when he met Dandra’s eyes, she once again saw that same soft love in them.

This time, however, it was mixed with a strange determination. She frowned in concern. “Why not?”

“There’s something I need to tell you—” The young man seemed to brace himself, then added “—Dandra.” He flinched as she stood up straight and Ashi tensed, and continued in a rush. “Last night at the Gathering Light, I eavesdropped on what you told the elders. I know what you told them—”

She looked at him. “I spoke to them through
kesh.”

He blushed. “When there are so many people participating in
kesh
, it’s easy for one more to join. I’m sorry. But I heard what you told them. About Dah’mir. About his herons. I heard what you were just talking about now too. I can help—”

There was a shout from above as Nevchaned raised his voice in challenge to whoever had invaded his home. Ashi’s head snapped up like a dog scenting prey.

“Moon, we have to help your father!” Dandra said. “Tell us later!”

“No!” the young kalashtar blurted. “You have to listen
now!
I’ve seen the herons in another part of the city. I know where you can find Dah’mir!”

For an old man, Nevchaned could move fast. Singe supposed that he would move quickly too, if someone were breaking into his home and shop.

He caught up to the smith and grabbed his arm before he could race up the stairs to his shop. A hand over Nevchaned’s mouth and a hard look silenced him before he could say anything. Singe pulled him back from the door to the stairs, pushing him into Hanamelk’s hands, then stepped up to the doorway himself and listened. He could hear the men moving around, but it didn’t sound like they were trying to steal anything. The sounds of the square outside the shop were muffled. They must have closed the broken door behind
themselves. The wizard frowned. Broad daylight—who would be so bold and why?

Floorboards creaked at the head of the stairs and someone finally spoke. “Stairs,” growled a soft voice. “Dol Dorn’s mighty fist, what’s that screaming?”

The response that drifted down the stairs answered Singe’s question and left him cold at the same time. “Forget the screaming and go down,” said Mithas d’Deneith. “I can feel the mark. She’s close!”

  
S
inge’s heart seemed to stop. He stepped back, his hand darting to his sword. He felt a touch on his shoulder—Nevchaned—at the same moment that he felt a touch against his mind. He opened his thoughts to the elder and felt Hanamelk through the
kesh
as well.

Nevchaned’s mental voice was stronger than his speaking voice, and Singe could imagine that he must have commanded impressive respect in his younger days.
What’s going on?
he asked.

House Deneith
, Singe said.
They’re looking for Ashi
.

Even communicated at the speed of thought, the whole story would have taken time they didn’t have. How, he wondered, had Mithas managed to find them? He didn’t doubt that the sorcerer was using some kind of divination magic, but he shouldn’t have been able to locate them all the way across the city. Singe still couldn’t believe that he would try to draw on the resources of Deneith—he’d want to keep Ashi’s secret to himself.

Ashi’s secret … With a sinking heart, Singe remembered Ashi’s cry of glee during their escape: “I like Deathsgate much better than Overlook!” Someone had probably sold the memory of that shout to Mithas. As much as Singe disliked the man, he had to admit that he wasn’t stupid.

Nevchaned didn’t ask any further questions though.
There’s a back door
, he said.
Take it and run
. An image flickered into Singe’s head of the buttress-towers, one of them with Nevchaned’s shop
at its peak, that hugged the side of the greater tower. More images followed in a rush: a door on the lower level of the apartment, a long and twisting flight of stairs past other apartments, an exit onto a lower street well away from Mithas and danger. Singe blinked at Nevchaned.

The elder scowled.
Go! We’re not helpless!

Their leader is a sorcerer
.

We have powers of our own
, said Hanamelk. A
seer can confuse as well as clarify. Go the Gathering Light. You’ll find refuge there if you need it
.

Booted feet were already treading softly down the stairs.
Be careful
, Singe told the elders and dashed away. He had barely left them behind when he heard Nevchaned raise his voice in a loud demand. “What are you doing in my home?”

He almost wanted to stay and watch the two elders stand up to Mithas—he could imagine the frustrated look on Mithas’s face—but escape was a better alternative to fighting. Hanamelk had said five men, and Singe guessed that Mithas had brought four Blademarks mercenaries with him. He, Dandra, and Ashi could have taken the mercenaries, but he wouldn’t have put it past Mithas to prepare some special magic to use against them. And they couldn’t afford to fall to Mithas.

He ran down the stairs to the lower level as softly as he could, blessing Erimelk’s screaming for the cover that it gave him. “Ashi! Dandra!” he hissed. “We need to—”

He slid to a stop at the sight of Moon standing before the two women. Both Ashi and Dandra looked startled by something—and Singe knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t him. “What’s going on?”

Moon turned and looked at him with such hatred that Singe wondered what he’d interrupted. “Moon says he knows where Dah’mir is,” Dandra said.

“Twelve bloody moons.” The door that Nevchaned had shown him lay at the end of the corridor. Could they spare an instant? Nevchaned and Hanamelk both had their voices raised. Singe clenched his teeth. “Where?”

A nasty cunning entered the young kalashtar’s expression. “Take me with you,” he said. “I’ll show you.”

Dandra’s eyebrows rose, and she glanced at Singe. Their spare instant was over—on the floor above, Mithas shouted
down Nevchaned. “Get these old fools out of my way and find me that woman!”

The elders’ voices just grew sharper. Ashi drew a sharp breath. “Is that Mithas?”

“Yes. Nevchaned and Hanamelk are buying us time. We’re getting out of here.” Singe pushed past them all and went to the back door. Two stout bolts held it closed. He pulled them back and wrenched the door open. “Moon, you’re coming with us for now at least!”

He didn’t bother to look at Moon’s expression. Moon could have been staring holes in his back for all he cared. On the other side of the door, stairs dropped down into a well of flights and landings lit by everbright lanterns. He glanced over the rail. The bottom of the stairwell was a long way down. He clenched his teeth and prayed that no one would be coming up the other way, then waved the others through the door. “Come on! Hurry!”

Ashi passed him without a second glance, sheathing her sword as she moved. Dandra looked at him in a little surprise. “How did he find—?”

“I’ll explain later.”

Moon was the last through and looked at Singe with loathing. The wizard resisted the urge to punch the love-drunk youth, and closed the door behind himself. Maybe Mithas’s men wouldn’t think to check the door.

That hope lasted no longer than two turns down the stairs as the echoes of their racing boots filled the stairwell. The landings between the flights of stairs were lined with the doors of other apartments in the tower and people were beginning to open their doors to see what was happening outside. Singe had to dodge around a portly old dwarf as he stepped out from his apartment. Fortunately, the old man was faster than he looked, and he got back inside in time to avoid Ashi. Curses and shouts followed them. Periodic glances over the rail gave Singe a rough idea of their progress down the height of the tower. A third of the way down. Halfway—

Exclamations from high above joined the curses of the disturbed inhabitants. Mithas and his men had discovered their quarry’s escape. Singe, teeth bared against the exertion of running, allowed himself a taut smile. There was no way
Mithas could catch them on the stairs. They’d be out of the tower and away onto the street before the sorcerer was even close. Maybe Mithas had realized that too. Or maybe he thought his tracking magic could find them again—Singe hoped that Hanamelk’s comment about confusing things was true. In any case, no footsteps followed them, and they approached the last few flights of stairs, Singe slowed. “We’re away,” he said. “They’re not chasing us.”

Dandra glared up at him. “They’re not chasing us because this is
Sharn!
Keep running!”

She didn’t slow—Singe increased his pace to keep up with her. They burst out of the doors of the tower and onto the street a few moments later. Heads turned briefly to stare at them. Singe looked at Dandra with curiosity, but the kalashtar had her face turned up toward the sky. He followed her gaze, but couldn’t tell what she was looking for. Dah’mir’s herons?

Then five forms launched themselves off the courtyard-roof of the great tower overhead. The energy that crackled around the soarsleds under their feet was dim in the afternoon sunlight, but the silver and blue of their Blademarks uniform jackets was bright. Soaring like birds, the figures arced out from the tower wall, then curved back and dived toward the street.

The crowd on the street scattered with cries of alarm.
“Deneith claims its own!”
screamed Mithas as he plunged down from above. “Stop the kalashtar first!”

The sorcerer hadn’t chased them through the tower because he’d known they’d come out the bottom—and because this was Sharn, he had a faster way to intercept them. Singe didn’t waste energy cursing. Options flashed through his head instead. They were all but alone on the rapidly clearing street, an easy target. Mounted on the soarsleds, the mercenaries could easily run them down if they tried to flee—the scattered crowd offered no concealment and the nearest cover was far along the street. If they ducked back into the tower, they’d be trapped. Mithas would just send men in from top and bottom to catch them in between. There was only one thing he could see to do, but at least it made the anger he felt toward Mithas burn with a joyful heat.

“Take them down!” he shouted. He thrust a hand toward the diving mercenaries and called out the words of a spell. A
bolt of orange flame erupted from the air, streaking the sky with fire as it leaped for the men. Singe caught a glimpse of eyes that were suddenly wide and faces that were suddenly pale. The soarsleds curved away from one another, and the flame flashed through in empty space.

Exactly as he’d intended. Their charge broken, the mercenaries circled, trying to reorient themselves. “Scatter!” ordered Singe.

Dandra broke to the left, Ashi to the right. Singe stuck with Ashi, grabbing her hand as she reached to draw her sword once more. “No! No weapons—kill them and we’ll have the city guard after us.”

“Rond betch
, what am I supposed to do then?” Above the scarf over her face, her eyes widened. “Moon!”