The City of Towers: The Dreaming Dark - Book I (37 page)

She raced down the tunnel, and they followed as quickly as they could.

A few minutes later they came to the midden heap.

It was a cavernous chamber. The walls and arched ceiling stretched far beyond the dim light of Lei’s armor. Filthy water flowed around their feet, carrying waste down the passage they’d come from. Ahead of them was the heap.

Daine had never seen so much garbage in one place. It was a mountain of filth and rotting material mixed with various scraps and damaged goods. As they walked forward, a cascade of rotten vegetables fell from the ceiling. Daine couldn’t see the roof, but it seemed that there were a series of chutes that channeled waste down from the city.

The heap was teaming with rats and insects, but the vermin had competition. Goblins. At least a dozen were crawling through the garbage, sifting through the refuse and looking for anything of value. Daine noticed a few more goblins standing near the entrances of the chamber, armed with makeshift clubs and spears. He imagined that these were scouts, watching for “gray eaters” or other dangers.

Rhazala approached one of the scouts. Speaking in the guttural tongue of the goblins, she said, “Are they still safe?”

The man nodded.

“Pay him,” Rhazala said to Daine.

“What?”

“Pay him. They mine the garbage to survive. He has something you must see. Pay him.”

“Look,” Daine said. “I appreciate that you may actually be trying to help us. But I don’t have any money. Everything I had was stolen by a goblin who looked remarkably like you. So if you want me to pay him with my own coins … I’m afraid you’ve got them.”

Rhazala watched Daine carefully, then her hand darted into her robes, and when it emerged she was holding a double crown. She tossed it to the sentinel without saying a word, and he led them deeper into the chamber.

As they moved to the center of the chamber the water grew deeper, coming up to the hips of the little goblins. Slowly, they made their way around the massive garbage heap.

And that’s when they saw the bodies.

There were four corpses lined up along the midden heap. Their bodies were bloated from exposure to water, and they were in varying states of decomposition. The first was a dwarf, whom Daine didn’t recognize. The second was Jode.

Lei cried out and sloshed forward through the water. Daine found himself at a loss. For a moment he couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He’d lost soldiers before—even friends—but this was
Jode
. He couldn’t imagine a world without him.

Lei knelt by the corpse and gasped. Daine made his legs move and staggered forward. Jode’s skull had been caved in. Very little was left of the back of his head.

“Who …?” Lei said, her voice muted. She turned to look at Daine.
“‘Why?”

Daine was still in a daze. “I told him,” he said, more to himself than to Lei. “I told him not to go.”

“Last night they wanted him alive!” Lei cried. “Who would do this?”

Daine turned away. He couldn’t look at the corpse any more. “When was he found?” he said.

“Around the sixth bell,” said Rhazala, glancing over at the
scout for confirmation. He nodded. “They found all four of them together. It’s rare for flesh to escape the notice of the doraashka, so they were not in the water for long. I thought you should know. I liked the little one.”

All four together? Did Jode go to meet these people? Daine walked over to the bodies. Lei was wiping the filth off of Jode’s skin and clothes. Daine still couldn’t bear the site of his best friend’s face, so he turned to examine the remaining two corpses.

Once again, he found himself at a loss for words.

He knew both of these people. One was Korlan, the half-orc he’d met in the company of Bal Tarkanan, and the other was Rasial Tann.

I
t was hard to focus with Jode’s body lying there, but Daine had to push on. He knelt to examine the bodies. He was no expert, but Rasial’s corpse seemed to be in worse condition than the others. Perhaps he’d died before the others. All the bodies had the same sort of massive head injuries as Jode—the backs of their skulls shattered, probably with a mace or a club. The skull cavity was almost completely empty. Rasial had a series of light, raking cuts along his chest—claw marks, most likely, and not deep enough to be lethal. The head wounds were the only ones that seemed significant. Daine searched the bodies, but neither was carrying anything. He turned back to the goblin scout.

“Did this one have any pos sessions?”

The goblin shook his head.

“Are you certain? I can get you gold, if you have what I’m looking for.”

The mention of gold lit a fire in the goblin’s eyes, but he shook his head again. “He had nothing.”

Daine cursed. He walked over to Lei. “Let’s get out of here, Lei. We need to take him back to the surface.”

Lei said nothing. Her eyes were wide as she looked down at Jode.

“What is it?”

“Daine, his dragonmark … it’s missing.”

She was right. The Mark of Healing had been spread across Jode’s head, a proud symbol of his magical gift. Despite the terrible wound, it was easy to see. The mark was no longer there.

“How is that possible?” Daine said. “Is it not really him?”

Lei examined the body more closely, studying the forehead. “I don’t know, but dragonmarks don’t disappear after death. They don’t disappear
ever.”
She ran her hand across his face. “I’d like to believe this is some trick, but I don’t think so.” A tear ran down her cheek as she looked at Daine. “The sphinx said you’d suffer a loss today, Daine. She didn’t say we all would.”

Daine closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “We’ll find out who did this, Lei. We’ll make them pay. But right now, we have to keep moving. We’ll mourn him when he’s been avenged.”

She nodded, though her face was still a mask of sorrow. “I know.”

“We need to find a way to carry him. Here.” He took off the remnants of his ruined cloak. “Use this.”

“What about the others?”

“We can’t take them all. Worry about Jode.”

Lei nodded and wrapped Jode in the cloak. She whispered to the cloth.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Weaving an enchantment. It will keep his body from decomposing.”

Leaving her to her business, Daine turned to Rhazala. “Are you or your friends here looking to make a few more coins?”

“Always!” the girl said cheerfully.

“Then go to the Illian Apothecary in … Dragon Towers, I think. You want to talk to a man named Bal. Tell him you’ve found the corpses of two of his friends.”

“That we will do. But what of you? You claim to have no coin, then you offer gold for stolen goods.”

“I can get more money. Possibly a lot more. If you’ll help us, you and your friends will get your reward.”

Rhazala and the scout had a hushed exchange. Rhazala turned back to Daine and nodded. “I will help you. If you need the quiet folk, I know where to find them.”

“Good. I want to talk to whoever found these bodies. I need to see where they were found.”

“You’ll be wanting Hazg,” said the goblin scout. “I’ll fetch that one.” He waded away into the murky depths. “Daine!” Lei called.

He turned back to her. She’d stripped the wet rags off of Rasial and was studying his naked body. “What are you
doing?”
he said. “He doesn’t have a mark either, Daine.”

“What do you mean?”

“According to Bal, their powers come from aberrant dragonmarks. Rasial was supposed to be able to kill with a touch. So … where’s his mark?”

“Hmm. Any more ideas?”

“Perhaps. I need to get back to the Manticore.”

“What about Jode? Is he … ready?”

Lei grimaced and indicated the cloth-wrapped bundle at the foot of the heap. “I’ll need your help.”

Daine waded through the sewage and picked up the body of his friend. Lei took off her pack and opened it. A length of cord defined the size of the opening into the central compartment of the pack. Loosening the cord, she pulled at the mouth of the opening, creating a funnel-like cone. “I think he’ll fit,” she said. She extended the opening toward Daine.

Looking into the opening was like staring into deep, black water. Daine could sense something there, but he could see nothing. Blinking back tears, Daine pushed Jode’s body through the opening. There was a slight sensation of resistance, as if he was pushing the corpse through mud, then it was gone and so was Jode.

Lei tightened the cord and buckled the pack.

Hazg was a surly goblin with patchy hair and flaking gray skin. He spoke little but moved with surprising speed along the slippery stone. He took them up one of the routing tunnels that brought waste into the central chamber. About two hundred feet down the passage, a large chunk of rock had fallen
from the ceiling. Hazg stopped and perched on the stone.

“Here,” he croaked, his voice rough and raspy. “The stone’s a recent falling. Things been getting caught. Bodies was here.”

“My thanks, Hazg,” Daine said.

“Not wanting thanks.” He rubbed thumb and forefinger together.

Daine glanced at Rhazala. She pouted and finally produced a crown for Hzag, who scampered back down the tunnel. “When do
I
get more money?” Rhazala asked. “Why? Have you already spent all mine?”

Rhazala showed no signs of shame. “You shouldn’t have made it so easy. Someone else would have taken it if I hadn’t. You’re lucky. If not for me, who’d be paying the quiet folk now?”

Daine decided not to argue the point. “Where does the waste in this tunnel come from?”

Rhazala looked around and spotted a few worn markings on the wall. “High Walls and Khyber’s Gate.”

“Two districts through this one tunnel?”

“Khyber’s Gate is
under
High Walls,” Rhazala said. She used her hands to indicate multiple levels. “It’s like the Cogs, but there’s not really any business there. Just rat’s markets and people fearing the light. It’s wider than High Walls, and it goes deeper than even here, down to old places where even the quiet folk won’t go.”

“And where’s the nearest passage to the surface?”

“Not far. Want to go?”

Daine thought for a moment. “Do you know where it comes out?”

“No, but someone does, I’m sure. Shall I find out?”

“Show us the way back first. Then find out and meet us at the Manticore in two hours. If it turns out to be dangerous, we’ll want Pierce along. I’ll have your gold, I hope.”

“If you have the gold, I’ll have your information,” Rhazala said, beaming.

“Lead on, then.”