The City of Towers: The Dreaming Dark - Book I (36 page)

The coachman was an unusually dour gnome who had no interest in conversation. He stayed completely silent, keeping his hand on the tiller as they sailed down through the night air to the glittering spires below.

This gave Lei the time to focus on Pierce. Laying her hands on his armor, she reached within, tracing the magical web that gave him life. The web was damaged, and in places it had snapped entirely. Physically, Pierce seemed perfectly healthy, but to the eyes of an artificer, it was clear how close he had come to being destroyed. Drawing on the energy of her own spirit, Lei reinforced the threads, patching those that had been cut.

“I don’t like this,” she said. “Only another artificer could do this much damage. He resisted my heating charm, as well.”

“But he did turn to his sword after the first attack, my lady,” Pierce said. “Perhaps the power had been placed within him by another and he was only releasing what he’d been given to hold.”

“All we really know is that we know nothing. The man who came after me had a glamour concealing his features, so we can assume that Lord Dantian didn’t know about it. He wasn’t a changeling, though, and nothing about him indicated any sort of connection to our friends in High Walls. As for the other one … given my recent experiences with Daine, while it’s possible he chose death over facing you, I imagine he had a feather charm.”

“Could this have been arranged by a member of your own house, my lady? Your cousin Dasei—”

“Doesn’t have the skill or the courage to do this on her own. I don’t know. We need to be careful, Pierce.”

“High Walls, lady. The Manticore.” The gnome’s voice was a mixture of boredom and despair. He brought the coach to a stop just outside the inn, and they clambered out. The instant they had cleared the boat, he rose back into the air.

“Eager to be on his way, I guess,” Lei said.

“Pierce! Lei!”

It was Daine. He came running down the street toward them, and before they could respond, he wrapped Lei in a powerful embrace.

“Daine?” she said.

Instantly, he let go and took a step back. Even in the dim light, she could see the flush rising on his cheeks.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s been … well, it’s been a strange few hours. Was that a skycoach? Where have you
been?”

“That’s a long story,” she said.

“Then you can tell it inside. I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t had any sort of dinner. Let’s see what wonders Dassi has to offer.”

The common room of the Manticore was filled with the smell of the evening meal, and Lei thanked the sovereigns she’d been able to dine with the Lyrandars. Dassi was serving a thin stew with string meat that Lei guessed to be some sort of lizard—and none too fresh from the smell. Looking around the room, she saw no sign of Jode. But another tiny figure standing in a dark corner caught her eye.

“Rhazala?” said Daine, following Lei’s gaze.

“There you are,” the goblin girl said. “I thought I might have heards you wrong this morning when you said the place.” While it was difficult for her to avoid being adorable, her voice was level and grim. “You need to come with me. Now.”

“Why?” Obviously Daine had trouble placing his trust in a girl who’d picked his pocket just two days before.

“You must come and see.” Rhazala said. “It is about your friend. The little one.”

“What?” Lei broke in. “Where is he?”

“Come and see,” Rhazala said. She darted out the door of the inn and they followed.

R
hazala wouldn’t speak as she slipped through the shadows. She dismissed any questions with a wave of her hand. “Quiet and quick,” she said. “Enemies about.”

While Daine didn’t trust the goblin, the previous night had proven that there was danger lurking on the streets of High Walls. He drew his dagger, concealing the dark blade against his forearm. Pierce retrieved his bow from Lei’s pack and put an arrow to string. Lei drew the darkwood staff out of the depths of her pack.

Rhazala led them through a winding labyrinth of alleys. The streets grew narrower and narrower, and there were fewer and fewer bystanders to be seen. Eventually the alley came to a dead end. A steel door was set into the final wall, but there were no signs of any sort of lock or handle. An arcane seal, Daine thought. No mere thief could open this door, for there was no lock to pick. The door was sealed with pure magical energy. Before Daine could say anything, Rhazala barked a short phrase in a harsh, rasping tongue and traced a complex pattern on the front of the door. Sparkling light followed in the wake of her finger, and a moment later the door swung open.

Daine exchanged a glance with Lei. Rhazala had already proven herself to be a talented pickpocket. She seemed to have a gift for sorcery as well. He wondered how old the girl actually was and how she’d developed her skills.

The steel door opened into a small, bare chamber. The only feature was a hatch on the floor. Rhazala lifted this trapdoor, revealing a long tunnel that dropped down into utter darkness. Rungs had been carved into the stone wall; at was impossible to see how far they extended.

“Down!” said Rhazala.

“Wait,” Daine said. “Just because you can see in the dark doesn’t mean the rest of us can. Lei, a little light?”

Lei brushed her fingers across her armor, and the studs began to radiate a golden glow.

“Captain,” Pierce said, studying the passage, “I will be unable to shift position within this tunnel. My presence may be a hindrance.”

He was right. Daine would have a hard time fitting into the tunnel. For Pierce, it would be all but impossible.

“If you need me with you, I could—”

“No, that’s fine,” Daine said. “Stay here. Hold this position until the ninth bell, if you can hear it from here. If we haven’t returned by then, go back to the Manticore.”

Pierce nodded and stepped out into the alley, an arrow to his bowstring and a second tucked between his fingers. He calmly sighted down the alley and waited for an enemy to appear.

“Quickly!” Rhazala hissed. She had already started down the tunnel.

Daine looked at Lei, then back at the tunnel. Sheathing his dagger, he climbed into the tunnel and began his descent. Lei dropped her staff into one of the unnaturally large pockets of her pack and followed close behind.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever.

“Where are we going, Rhazala?” Daine asked.

“Down.”

“I noticed that.”

“Cogs. Sewers. Undercity beneath Sharn.”

“Ah.” Now they were getting somewhere. The Cogs had been mentioned frequently during their earlier travels with Greykell. Many of Sharn’s largest and least attractive industries
were located beneath the city. Workhouses, tanneries, and foundries lay buried in the subterranean Cogs. The sewers were even further below, and some said that there were ancient ruins hidden even below the sewers.

“Many passages to the depths were built long ago. Forgotten now, but the quiet folk remember.”

“And would you care to tell me what we’re doing down here?”

“You must see.”

“What
must we see?” Lei said from below. “You will see.”

“Oh, I see.”

“No, you
will
see,” Daine corrected.

“Hush,” Rhazala said. “Many dangers lurk below. No time for laughter.”

They continued the descent in silence.

The stench was appalling. A stream of sewage and wastewater flowed down the center of the tunnel, and the walls were crusted with mold and filth. Lei’s armor was the only source of light, and swarms of insects and other vermin scurried away from the circle of illumination.

“Interesting,” Lei said, examining the design of the roof. “I’ve heard a lot about the design. Sharn’s the largest city in Khorvaire, and the towers make traditional systems of plumbing difficulty to implement.”

“And the water is served in mugs of scented clay,” Daine said.

“Hush,”
Rhazala said. “Almost there, but very dangerous.”

“Are all goblins such worriers?” Daine said. “There’s no one anywhere to be seen.”

A gray ooze exploded out of the water in front of him.

Wastewater dripped off of the creature as it dove for Daine. It was long and narrow, a strip of dull gray protoplasm almost ten feet in length. It slammed into Daine, and he staggered back against the wall. He threw himself to the side just in time to avoid being caught in the coils of the monster.

The creature snapped at him again, but this time he was
ready. Darting beneath the tendril, he thrust his sword into the slimy mass. It felt like stabbing a bag filled with mud, but the creature pulled back.

“Doraashka!”
the goblin called out.” Gray eater! Look to your blade! It burns!”

Daine’s eyes dropped to his sword, and he cursed. The blade was pitted and scarred, as if it had been exposed to powerful acid. A lesser blade might have been destroyed with a single stroke. The odds were poor that his sword would survive another attack.

Daine saw Lei about to strike the ooze with her staff. “Lei, stop!”

She paused, puzzled, and the creature struck, throwing him across the hallway. His left shoulder ached, and the acid began to eat away at cloak and armor.

“It’s covered with acid! We can’t hit it!” Daine rolled forward, dodging the next blow and rising to his feet in one fluid motion. He tried not to think about the sewage soaking his clothes.

“So what do we do?” Lei shrieked.

He remembered the wand he’d taken from Dasei d’Cannith. He still had it, tucked in his belt. The Cannith heir must have forgotten about it in the chaos.

“Lei, catch!” he cried, tossing the shard-encrusted wooden wand to Lei.

She caught the wand, but even as she did, the ooze caught Daine. The gray tentacle wrapped around his torso, constricting with terrible strength. He cried out in pain as a few drops of acid seeped below his armor.

Daine didn’t see what Lei did, but there was a brilliant flash of light. The creature spasmed, tightening its grip, and now the acid was burning his arms and chest.

“Lei …” he gasped.

There was another flash of light, and the pressure was gone. The ooze collapsed, dissolving and flowing away into the water. Daine collapsed, gasping, on the floor. His chainmail byrnie was ruined, and his cloak had been eaten away. I guess I’ll be buying a new cloak after all, he thought, wincing from the acid burns.

“Just sit still,” Lei said. She drew a bloodstone shard out of
her pouch and whispered to it, weaving an enchantment to neutralize the acid and heal the burns. It wasn’t as quick or efficient as Jode’s healing touch, but Daine breathed a sigh of relief as a relaxing numbness spread across his chest.

“You destroyed a gray eater!” Rhazala said, and for an instant she was a child again. “I’ve only seen it done once before.”

“What
was
it?” Daine said, slowly getting to his feat and examining his sword.

“Part of the sewer system, I think,” Lei said. “I told you it was fascinating. A living system for dissolving and disposing of the garbage that gets sent down here.”

“It’s always a race to find the true treasures before the doraashka arrives,” Rhazala said. “I hope we’re not too late. Come, quickly!”