Descent Into Darkness (Book 2) (26 page)

"You should have just let me kill them," Azalea growled, catching the attention of two wagon drivers that Ean had seen before. He waved them off with a smile and dragged Azalea further down the road.

"Quiet! Do you want to get us in more trouble?"

When she spoke again it was in more hushed tones. "I'm just saying, two men--"

"Two armed and heavily armored men."

"Two heavily armored men would have been simple even without my skills."

"And you could have taken care of them quietly?"

"Well...no, probably not..."

"And do you know how many more might have been waiting up by the mine? Or even in that house we were next to, or the other ones close by?"

Azalea's face scrunched up as the point behind Ean's questions began to sink in. "Fine, fine, mister know-it-all. What's your big plan then?"

Surprisingly, a plan was starting to come together in Ean's mind. Nothing overly dramatic or exciting, but more subtle than he thought he was capable of. A safe plan. Well, safe-ish. Closing his eyes for a moment, he tried to ignore the weight pushing in on him and started feeling out for energy from the Abyss...

And was nearly crushed by the enormity of what he found...

The energy was EVERYWHERE. He had simply been trying to find Zin, but that was impossible. He felt the energy in the grass, the buildings, even the air. He could even feel the people, for the most part hiding away in their houses, the guard by the warehouse, the two closer to the entrance of the mine.

And the mine itself...it pulsed like a heartbeat, the strength of each beat hammering against him. The energy coming out of it had the power of a dozen Scars. So much energy...

But something was off about it; it wasn't quite right. He could feel the difference between the energy he held inside his own body and the energy all around him. The energy inside of him was like running his hand through a raging stream--raw power and completely pure. The energy around him--the energy that had soaked into everything in the Deadlands--was like running his hand through a viscous bog. Its stagnant funk had settled into everything. Ean didn't know how energy could feel dirty, but it was the only way he could describe it.

How could this Plague-bringer have corrupted the power this badly and have it spread out to the lands in the south.

Closing himself off from the outside energy and its filth, Ean turned to Azalea. "Would you be able to find Zin? I'm...having trouble feeling where he is."

Ean expected some kind of argument about how they didn't need the imp but was surprised when she simply nodded.

"I can find the imp. Nothing else around here smells as bad as he does." She sniffed at the air three times and in three different directions before nodding again. "He's in town. You wait by the wagons, I'll go get him and bring him back."

The Yulari walked off at a brisk pace. Ean watched her go, smiling slightly every time he saw her lift her nose slightly in the air. When she was a decent way down the street, he shook his head and turned back towards the wagons. It didn't take him long to walk the rest of the way back, and what he found was a flurry of activity.

Wagon drivers and loaders alike had formed human chains to carry large sealed crates off the wagons and into the warehouse. Off to the side of the doors sat three people: the guard Ean had seen earlier, Meganan, and a new person that Ean had never seen before.

The newcomer was dressed in old-fashioned fancy clothes. He wore a broad-collared, light-blue coat that hung down to his knees, with golden embroidery and large gold buttons holding it closed. His pants were solid black and neatly pressed without a single wrinkle. The color of his boots matched his coat, with red-dyed laces running up their fronts. Finishing off the outfit, a dark red sash covered the lower part of his mouth, tied tightly around his face and neck.

From far away, the outfit looked very impressive, but as Ean got closer, he could see the wear that could only come from dozens of years of use. Patches of the coat were darker in color, making it clear that the coat had once been a dark blue but had faded over time. Both coat and pants had a variety of stitches in different places, well done as to not be obvious, but it was clear those clothes had been used well past their intended lifetime. Even the boots looked worn, the fabric barely holding at some places, the laces frayed.

The man held a clipboard in his hands, his eyes darting from it to the people carrying the crates and back. Each time his eyes returned to the clipboard, he made a mark on it, in sync with each crate that was carried inside. Occasionally he would make a comment to Meganan, who then would say something to one of his men. The man then walked into the warehouse and returned carrying a red crate different from the ones being carried inside. The man then took the crate to the nearest wagon, dropped it off, and returned to wait nearby.

Ean was very curious about what could be in those red crates. Everyone had made it very clear that most things in the Deadlands contained at least some residue of the Plague. That meant that as soon as it crossed whatever magical barrier separated the Deadlands and Ven Khilada, it would dissolve. The Ciantar family apparently kept it very quiet what they were able to acquire from the people in the Deadlands. It would be interesting to see what could make it out of this land.

But Ean had more important things to worry about, namely getting up the path and into that mine without having a few of those thin swords the guards were carrying run through his body. Once inside, Zin should hopefully remember enough to take him to where he needed to go. And that was the third thing Ean was going to have the imp do. The first thing was going to scout out the path so they knew exactly how many guards they had to deal with and if there were any other surprises waiting for them. The second was going to be to cause a distraction so they could get into the mine.

Between the three of them, Ean knew they could come up with something. Their real problem was going to be time. Ean wanted to wait until nightfall, as that would give them the best chance of sneaking up to the mine. Unfortunately, he had no idea how long the unloading and loading of goods was going to take or how long they would need to spend in the Plague-bearer's old lair. One more thing he would have to ask Zin when the imp returned.

Deep in thought, Ean almost jumped as a hand slapped down on his shoulder.

"Complete waste of time, this was," Iacane's deep voice was filled with disgust. "I come all this way to spend a day studying the condition of the people here and not a single one is available. The only ones I've seen are those in the funny red armor and the one by the warehouse, but no chance of interacting with them. This place is practically a ghost town."

"So that's why you wanted to come. The great Iacane wanted to cure the Plague."

Iacane smiled, clearly missing the sarcasm in Ean's voice. Maybe the man didn't know what sarcasm was. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, lad, but I doubt I could completely wipe it out. I was just hoping that I could cure individuals of the infliction, or at the very least find a way to determine if someone had passed the point of no return."

"And you don't think if it was possible, someone else would have figured it out by now?"

"No."

"But you can?"

"Given the chance to examine a few citizens here and some of the men on the caravan that haven't been corrupted? Yes, I believe I could."

Ean just had to laugh at the man's confidence. If you could cure things on pure self-confidence alone, Ean could believe the man could cure death. But no, Ean highly doubted it was as easy as he thought. It would probably take someone with the ability to--

"Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you had seen Fredren. The boy said he was off to map the village. I haven't seen him since, and I've been wandering around the main street most of the day."

"No, and I've been doing a little exploring myself and I haven't seen him either."

Shrugging, Iacane looked around slowly. "I'm sure he is fine. He's a smart boy. Oh look, here comes your sister."

Sure enough, Ean caught sight of Azalea strolling towards them, a smile already on her face for Iacane. While the Saniteal was happy to see the beautiful illusion of the Yulari, Ean was happy to see the shimmer at her feet that marked Zin.

"If you'll excuse me, Iacane," he said quickly. "My sister and I have some things to discuss. Family matters. You understand."

Ean heard the man start to grumble as he moved away. Clearly, Iacane wanted to flirt with Azalea some more, but Ean didn't have time for that. They had plans to discuss, and judging by how close the sun was to the mountains in the west, not a whole lot of time.

Reaching Azalea, he gently grabbed her arm and began leading her further toward the wagon grounds. She batted her eyelashes at Iacane as they passed by the man. Ean gave her a small shake in annoyance and received a smile in return.

"What?" she said. "I don't want to get out of practice charming the men."

"I highly doubt that's possible."

"Oh, you are such a flatterer."

Ignoring the comment, Ean took them to a nice, secluded spot in between two wagons. After checking inside both for workers, he sat down and motioned for Azalea and Zin to join him. They sat close, Zin still completely invisible.

"Alright, here is where we stand," Ean began. "We know where the mine is and how to get there. We also know that they take trespassing there very seriously, which makes me think that they know what it really is. We've seen two guards, but there could be more up the path."

"Six." Even after years of hearing Zin's voice float up from seemingly nothing, it was still strange.

"Six what?"

"Six guards. There are six guards sitting at the entrance to what they are calling the mine. That's where I was, scouting it out."

"Oh, uh, well...good. That's one question answered. The next thing we have to think about then is how we can distract those guards long enough to sneak inside."

He looked at each of them expectantly. Azalea just returned a blank look and eventually shrugged.

"Clearly, they aren't affected by my tricks so I can't help there. I might be able to take the two guards at the bottom of the path and then the six at the top, but not without attracting the attention of the entire village. And then who knows how many more of the Living Dead would come after us."

Ean knew, he had felt them earlier. There were probably over a hundred in this small village, and even if only half of them could fight, it would be too many for them to handle.

"Alright, well, obviously the direct approach is out. Any ideas, Zin?"

"We could set a few houses on fire."

"WHAT?"

"That might actually work," Azalea chimed in. "That one near the base of the path and then a few houses leading away from it. The guards would leave their posts to handle a bunch of house fires."

"Wait a minute, we can't just go around lighting buildings on fire. People could get hurt or killed." Azalea looked at him blankly again, and Ean could feel Zin's gaze. "Listen, there has to be another way. Maybe we should come back to that. Zin, how much time do you think we will need to really explore your master's old lair?"

"I don't know," Zin replied. "It's been a long time since I've been in there. I
think
I know the general layout, but I'm not certain. A lot can change in however many years it's been."

"That's not exactly helpful," Ean grunted.

"Once we're inside, things will be easier. There is a way to find what we are looking for."

"And what way is that?"

"I'll let you know when we get there. It's hard to explain."

"Do you even know what we should be looking for?"

"I know the names of some rooms where we might find something interesting or helpful." The imp sighed as the blur shifted again. "Listen, much of this will be easier for you to find, as opposed to having me try to explain it poorly. Let's just get inside and see what we can find."

"Fine, then that leads us back to how we are actually going to get inside."

"I still like the fire idea," Azalea chimed back in.

"You could just summon a fire spirit and see what happens," Zin agreed.

"Yes, yes! A fire spirit!" Azalea clapped. "They are so cute and small in the Abyss, but with so much here for one to feed on, it would grow quickly. I would love to see one fully grown."

"No fires!" That earned Ean a stuck-out tongue from Azalea, which he ignored. "If we start destroying the village, obviously the first people they are going to blame are the outsiders. It's enough that we are putting ourselves in serious danger here, but I don't want to drag the entire caravan with us."

The other two grew silent. Ean hoped it was because they agreed with him but knew it was probably the opposite. There had to be some way to get all of the guards away from the mine long enough for them to get in. But how?

A yell broke his chain of thought, and he swung his head about trying to determine where it came from. A moment later, a few men went running past, followed by a few more. Then another yell. Glancing at Azalea for a moment, Ean climbed to his feet and took off after the men. As he rounded the side of one wagon, he saw the majority of people moving in the direction of the warehouse. Ean followed the rest of the workers with Azalea close behind him.