Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) (25 page)

Hard wind blasted
from
the depths of the tunnels.  Depending on which tunnel it came from,
that wind
smelled like
dead animals or
raw
ice, industrial smoke or human waste.

The ecology of the Netherwere had been forever altered not only by the presence of the Cruj, who twisted everything they touched with their arcane genius, but by th
os
e
who
came after
the giants fled,
the humans who took over the Cruj’ most powerful stronghold
.  In many ways the new masters of
Meledrakkar
were far, far worse.  They
didn’
t seek to alter the subterranean ecology out of experimental interest or coy malice
, nor
did they
intend to build an empire. 

All the new masters
of the Netherwere
wanted was money.  Money, and more money, and they didn’t care who or what they had to kill or destroy to take it.  Where the Cruj would sometimes let life flourish if it’s continued existence piqued their curiosity or provided
a favorable
variable to one of their experiments, the new lords of Meledrakkar – Black Scar, they
now
called it – were nowhere near so amiable or forgiving. 
In their own way, these humans were even m
ore monstrous.

They were
T
he Revengers.  And there was no escaping their wrath.

Danica’s eyes strained against the dark. 
She rode
atop a platform
on the back of a
Razorwing
that
slowly fl
ew
down
T
he Way
.  Miles of
frost
-wracked stone lay
behind them
.  The air rushed past her and
lashed
her face with
tiny
snow
crystals
. 

Her skin
was
frozen.  She was on her knees,
with
her arms bound behind her back.  Her dark armor was stained with blood, dirt and
ice dust
.  Blood had crusted to her forehead, and
her skin was filthy with grime
.  Her body ached with fatigue.
  Tears stung her
eyes
.

“Oh, stop
crying
,” Burke said from the front of the
platform
.  “T
ears
don’t suit you, you heartless bitch.”  He turned and looked at her.  “We both know
what
you did while you were here, Danica Black.  We both know what you’re capable of.  Don’t play like you’ve suddenly grown a soul.”

Danica said nothing, because she knew that he was right.

The platform of wood and steel was wide enough to house a contingent of Revenger guards and a handful of prisoners, with enough space to s
ecure
each
passenger
to the deck
with
chains
.  The entire contraption was secured to the back of the Razorwing
, one of many
such
giant draconic
creatures
purchased at a discounted rate from the Ebon Cities
.  Each Razorwing was
controlled by a warlock or witch who formed a special telepathic bond with the creature using a strange parasite provided by the
Ebon Cities
’
beast handlers
.  The parasites grew in pa
irs, and one was affixed to each the
mage’s
and the Razorwing
’s necks
,
which
allow
ed
the stronger-minded of the
duo
to exert control over the other.  Lucky for
T
he Revengers, Razorwings weren’t terribly intelligent. 

Burke, Raven, six armed sentries, the warlock pilot, a pair of leath
ery undead and two more warlock wardens
stood guard over their prisoners: Danica, Lara Cole, and the unconscious body of Eric Cross.

You stupid bitch
, she told herself. 
You couldn’t have messed things up any more than this.

She looked at Cole.  Cole wouldn’t look back at her. 

It had been two years since
they’d last seen each other
,
when
they’d
barely survived the Battle of Karamanganji.  Black had aban
doned
T
he Revengers, stolen prisoners and gone to hell and back to save Cole’s life, but in the end
that
still wasn’t enough to erase their romantic difficulties.  Danica still wasn’t entirely sure
what had happened between them…
things had
seemed
fine.  Lara had
always
had
some difficulty reconciling Black’s career choice, but Danica made sure she got out
and saw
Lara as often as possible, and they were very careful to make sure that nothing about their relationship in any way violated prison protocol or put either of them in
danger
. 

They used to drink and go out on the town, carouse
and shout
and have fun, stay out late and sleep in later, get into trouble and never look back. 

Danica might have saved Cole’s life, but
by
that point
Lara
had
already
saved Danica
’s soul
.  When the nightmares
that
the prison
g
ave Danica
had all but destroyed
her
, Cole’s love and companionship pulled her back out of the darkness. 
Lara
was
so exciting, so joyous to be around, so full of
life
. 

And then, one day – just a few weeks before Cradden decided to kidnap her
so as
to force Danica to give him valuable prisoners – Cole told Danica it was time for them to move on,
and
that she didn’t want to see her anymore.

Is this a second chance?
Black wondered. 

She looked at Cross.  She’d betrayed one person she loved in a desperate bid to save the other.

You didn’t have much of a choice
, she told herself. 
They would’ve tortured and killed you both.  And they still might.

Danica
felt
like she’d swallowed freezing water.  Her skin chilled as
a
gust of black wind sliced
down
the enormous tunnel.
 
The platform on the Razorwing’s back creaked loudly. 
Everything shifted
beneath her
, and it was only the chains around her wrists that
kept her from rolling into the air
as the massive reptile twisted and
flew
deeper into the bowels of the earth
. 

Danica’s stomach lurched.  The Way was so vast she couldn’t see the bottom
.  Black rock stretched over their heads, endless miles of stone reamed in ice and shadow.  Outcroppings appeared out of the gloom like granite phantoms. 

The Razorwing ducked beneath a
massive
stalactite, an iron and stone watch post that hung suspended from the
endless
ceiling.  Rotating chain guns turned and tracked the reptilian flier.  Gargoyles
silently
hovered
through
the air.  The
inverted tower
hung over a
giant
fissure that ran
up the face of the wall
like a wound
.  The
flaw led from one behemoth cavern to another.

Black Scar
waited on the other side of the crack
. 
The s
ight of it always
took Danica’s breath away
.  I
ts dismal grandeur
was awe-inspiring. 

She always knew she’d return.
  It had somehow seemed inevitable.

Steel towers stretched
out
across the cavern
.  Pillars of dark fire roared to
wards
a
ceiling
so tall it might have been the sky.  The air tasted like
sweat and iron.  D
istant
and
d
ark
walls glowed
in
the blaze of
furnaces
.
C
rystalline f
laws
in the stone shone
like false daylight in the gloom.  Thick iron shields built over natural fissures
helped
maintain the cave’s stability. 

The cavern stretched for over two miles in either direction
.  At its center stood an
underground city made of cold iron, black structures molded together to form an edged metropolis.

The central Black Scar complex sat at the
nexus
of
it all
, a dome of pitted steel surrounded by needle-like towers
webbed together with
crackling electric-thaumaturgy.  Circling blasts of cold
ene
r
gy
cast the ceiling in ghostly light.
 
Grinding machines echoed and crashed in the distance.  Droning Razorwings cried out,
and
their strangely hollow voices echo
ed
like tortured cries.

The prisoner population of Black Scar was l
ocked
within
the
iron walls,
guarded by
rotating watchtowers
covered with
ball
turrets and arcane trebuchets
.  They
lived in squalor in a tight arrangement of prison buildings, tiny structures packed like honeycombs and locked down around the clock.  Those few prisoners visible on the grey lanes were chained together and held under careful watch by more of the gaunt wight
-giants.  Yet more
of the undead
stood
on the towers and on the walls, their grinning skull visages unmoving, their cold white
eyes
glowing like torchlight.

The diamond mines
were
to the west, a scar in the rock.  Danica saw streams of workers ushered in and out of the wide opening
to the mines
, their skin
red with
dust.  Gouts of explosive vapors erupted from the
open shafts and
paint
ed
the air in a bloody haze. 

Mechanical dreadnaughts strode through the city, faceless automa
tons
built
like massive tin men
with motorgun arms
.  Swivel-
mount
ed
cockpits
sat where the heads should have been, and they
hous
ed
Revenger
pilots
who kept a careful watch on the metropolis of prison structures
.

Black cables ran between the taller buildings. 
S
pirit unguent
race
d
along
lines
of
iron
wire
. 
S
trands of arcane energy crackle
d and fe
ll
in
sparks of
electric
rain.

“He’
s looking forward to seeing you,
” Raven
said.  She
smiled at Danica.  Danica
didn’t say
any
thing.  She didn’t even look at the Revenger, and after a moment the woman turned away.

“Lara,” she said. 

“I’m sorry, Dani,”
Cole
said. 
She was crying. 
“I’m sorry.”

“Shut up,” Raven said coldly.  Burke laughed.

T
he Razorwing dipped down and flew
beneath
hex wires and razor
ed
turrets.  Hot wind from the furnaces blasted up into
Danica’s
face, and when flame
s
poured
from
one of
the central factories
she went blind for a moment
from
the blazing white light.  S
he
had to blink several times
before her vision returned
.