Son of Khyber

CHAPTER THREE

Dragon Towers Lharvion 15, 999 YK

It seems the life of the aberrant isn’t all bad, Thorn thought. Sure, there’s the fear and prejudice. Possible madness and disfigurement. But for a bed like this, it just might be worth it.

She stretched, enjoying the sensation of silk against her skin. A flask of Zil brandy had helped to dull the throbbing pain of the shard in her neck. She could still feel the shard burning, but the drink put a comforting distance between her and the pain.

Fileon had brought her to the manor in the Dragon Towers district of Sharn. Thorn had spent the last week on the streets, living in alleys and living on scraps and salvage. A warm meal and strong drink were blessings, and it had been years since she’d slept in a bed to match this one. The private chamber was a pleasant surprise, but it confirmed the fears Zane had raised in her mission briefing. House Tarkanan was on the move.

The King’s Citadel of Breland had been monitoring the house since it first appeared and carved out a bloody niche in the underworld of Sharn. So far, it was just another criminal guild, and organized crime was a part of life, especially in the City of Towers. Now the Twelve claimed that the Tarkanans were involved in a plot that threatened dragonmarked houses and nations alike. True or not, the aberrant house were up to something. The Citadel had a rough idea of just how many members House Tarkanan had in Sharn, and if this data was remotely accurate, the house had moved its primary base of operations. Thorn expected she’d be sharing a room with half a dozen Tarkanan soldiers, but she’d barely seen that many in her brief tour of the manor.

Following dinner, Fileon had brought her to her quarters and instructed her to rest. “Tomorrow you will be tested,” he told her. “Muster what strength you possess.”

She’d tested the door and found it locked. Nothing she couldn’t handle, but there was no need to risk raising suspicions. She had to gain Fileon’s trust so he would lead her to the true heart of the house.

So rest it was. Lying back against down pillows, she let her thoughts drift. The shard in her neck continued to burn, a dull beacon of pain that faded as she fell asleep.

Thorn dreamed…

The guard never heard Thorn’s approach. She clapped her hand over his mouth and drew her blade across his throat. He struggled wildly, but his strength quickly faded as the blood poured from his neck, and within seconds he was still. Thorn dragged his body behind one of the many crates scattered around the room. She pulled a cleansing token from her cloak and dashed it to the ground; it evaporated in a silent,iridescent burst that wiped the blood from the floor. Thorn took the wand that had fallen from the guard’s hand and tucked it into her belt. No trace remained of the death.

Secure, she thought.

Let’s go, Mayne’s voice returned.

Two shadows slipped out from behind the crates and joined her. Mayne and Lharen, her partners. It was Lharen’s magic that linked their thoughts. Mayne was their muscle, when it was required. So far, this job had taken more finesse than force. Whatever Minister Adal was developing here, he’d sunk a great deal of resources into protecting it. The mystical wards were lethal and well hidden. And the guards were surely members of the elite Knights Arcane, armed with powerful wands in addition to their own skills with sword and spell. The least of them could fill a room with flame with just five words. When facing such enemies, stealth and speed were the only options. Thorn and her companions couldn’t give these enemies time to bring magic to bear.

The target’s just ahead. Mayne’s thoughts pressed into her mind, calm and steady. Just ahead, beyond a narrow corridor. Two guards in the chamber.

If the information is good, Thorn replied.

Mayne shrugged.

Thorn slid along the nearest crate, peering carefully around the edge. She could see the passage, and it was narrow indeed. Barely wide enough to walk through, let alone swing a sword. She fixed her eyes on a point at the very center of the entrance. Watch and wait.

As she’d expected, there was a faint ripple, something an untrained eye might dismiss as a trick of the imagination. Thorn knew better. She drew a lens from a belt pouch and stared through the glass at the empty space; then she rotated the lens, looking through the other side.

An alarm, she thought. And the hallway becomes a chokepoint for whatever they can bring to bear.

Can you silence it? Lharen’s thoughts were a comforting presence in Thorn’s mind.

Given time. But the focal point is inside the corridor. I’d be completely exposed, and with the amount of time it’s likely to take-I’m sure they’d see me.

So turn invisible.

Thorn shook her head. Not all of us are master sorcerers. I drew on all the energy I could muster to hide our tracks. If this is the end, I think surprise and confusion are our best weapons. She pointed to the ring on her left hand. Time to put these to work.

Lharen nodded. Night’s shadow.

As far down the corridor as possible. Mayne, take point and left. I’ll follow. Lharen, stay back. Cover if you can, but we can’t risk you getting caught in the fire.

She could feel Lharen’s reluctance. He hated staying back when she was in danger. But his mystical skills were the key to accomplishing their mission. Thorn and Mayne were expendable, but Lharen needed to reach the target alive.

Mayne caught Thorn’s eye and raised his arm. A rectangle of shimmering energy appeared across his forearm, a shield almost as wide as the passage itself.

Thorn reached out for Lharen with her thoughts. Now.

Stepping out from the crates, Lharen swept his hand toward the hallway. “Mabar asht tol!” he said, flexing his fingers in an intricate pattern. A bolt of energy flowed from his hand, a narrow column of dark mist that moved with astonishing speed. The murky beam expanded as it moved forward, filling the corridor entirely.

Mayne charged, his shield raised in front of him. Thorn was right behind him.

She stepped into the shadows, and everything went black. But only for a moment. The ring on her finger was enchanted to let her eyes pierce the dark, and even as she pressed forward, her surroundings snapped back into view, painted in stark shades of black and white.

She felt a burst of heat, and Mayne staggered as something struck his shield. But the guards ahead were casting blind. They couldn’t see what was coming.

Mayne slammed into the soldier standing in the archway ahead, knocking him back and to the side. Thorn slipped in behind him. The second knight had raised his wand and was tracking Mayne’s movements, following the sounds of battle. Thorn knocked the wand from his hand and followed the blow with a quick thrust at his throat. She didn’t expect it to be that easy, and it wasn’t; the soldier was fast and called out a word of shielding the instant his wand slipped from his grasp. Thorn’s dagger flew back from his neck, and it was all she could do to keep hold of it. He made a sharp gesture with his hand. A wind rose in the room, a gale that pounded into Thorn, pushing her back from her foe.

No time to waste. The soldiers were blind, but there was no knowing what alarms or wards they could activate. The knight raised his hand to cast another spell, and Thorn threw her dagger. The blade lanced straight through his outstretched palm, the point driving through his hand and pinning it to his chest. Hardly a lethal blow, but enough to cause him to choke on his spell.

He reached up with his good hand, but Thorn was on him. She drove her elbow into his chest, felt ribs crack, then slammed the heel of her hand against his nose. He fell to his knees, but Thorn couldn’t afford to give him a moment’s respite. Another blow sent him tumbling to the floor. She pulled her dagger free from his maimed hand and made a certain end of him.

An awful cry came from behind her, along with the foul stench of burning flesh and hair. Thorn turned in time to see the second guard collapse, struggling to put out the flames that had engulfed his head.

Lharen stepped out of the tunnel, flexing his fingers. “Arcanix be damned. When it comes to the mystic arts, no one beats a Brelish mage.”

“Really?” Mayne said. “So I suppose you could build that?”

There was no question as to what Mayne was talking about. They had come in search of the arcane core, and now it lay before them. It was a massive pillar of twisted metal, pipes of mithral, silver, and adamantine coiled around the darkwood core like steel serpents twisting around the trunk of a tree. Glowing runes covered the exposed wood, and Thorn could feel the magical energies shift in the room as the sigils pulsed and flickered.

“Sovereigns and Six…” Thorn murmured.

It wasn’t the size of the pillar that brought on the curse, nor the sensation of power tingling against her skin. It was the glittering wall surrounding the column, a tornado formed from shards of glass.

“What is it?”

“Dragonshards,” Lharen breathed. “The balance is amazing. Khyber, Siberys, Eberron-thousands, each one linked directly to the power of the core.”

“Lovely,” Thorn said. “Can we destroy it?”

Lharen shook his head. “I wasn’t expecting this. Stand back.” He raised his hands and whispered in an ancient tongue. Light and heat filled the air, a brilliant burst of eldritch power that flowed from Lharen and played across the stones… with no effect at all. Lharen maintained the mystic barrage for ten seconds before he had to stop, gasping for breath. “It’s as I feared. The shards will absorb any energy I throw at them. The ritual I’ve prepared can’t penetrate it.”

“There’s got to be something we can do,” Mayne said.

Lharen stared into the tower of glittering stones then sighed. “There is. Mayne, I’ll need your shield. And your cloak. Is it still charged?”

“A few moments left, no more,” Mayne said, unpinning the cloak and pulling off the bracer that held his mystic shield. “What do you have in mind?”

“The shards protect the core. So I’m going to have to get through the shards.”

“Don’t be a fool,” Thorn said, grabbing Lharen’s arm. “You’ll be torn apart.”

“Mayne’s cloak will provide me with a few moments of protection, and the shield will help.” Lharen grimaced. “I don’t expect to walk away from this. But I’ve beaten the odds before. Perhaps I’ll do it again-if not, I’ll finally pay my debt to the Keeper.”

“There’s got to be another way.”

Lharen pulled free from Thorn’s grip. “There’s no time for this, Nyrielle! Reinforcements will be here soon. It’s the job. Breland has to come first.”

Thorn still wasn’t convinced. “If I came alongside you, if I held the shield…”

“Then we’d both die. There’s no time for this. We need to act now.”

Thorn bit back her words. He was right. They were agents of the King’s Citadel; they’d all sworn to lay down their lives in the service of Breland. But walking into a wall of razors… she took his hand again, gently this time. “This will not be forgotten,” she said.

“I doubt you’ll get the bards singing of it, unless you want to start the war anew,” Lharen said. He was right, of course; none of their work could ever be known beyond the Citadel. Still, he smiled as he held her hand. “You remember. You survive this. That will be enough.”

He pulled free of the others and activated Mayne’s shield. Raising the hood of his cloak and wrapping the garment around his body, he took a deep breath and ran towards the whirling shards.

Rattling thunder filled the room, the sound of shards smashing and shattering against his shield. The fabric of Lharen’s cloak rippled, but its defensive enchantment was holding. Lharen was slowly pushing his way through the storm, and the charm repelled the stones before they could harm him.

He was almost through the barrier when the enchantment broke.

Lharen shuddered as the shards slammed into him. He howled, and he was surrounded in a bloody mist. The sound was a knife in Thorn’s heart. She’d told the truth when she had told Fileon that the scream still haunted her; she’d simply lied about its source.

And then he was through. He collapsed against the pillar, blood seeping through the torn cloak.

Thorn came as close to the barrier as she dared. “Lharen?”

The sorcerer coughed, blood spraying across the core, and Thorn thought he would fall. But he wrapped his fingers around a mithral tube and pulled himself to his full height. “I’ll survive,” he said then coughed again. He fumbled in his satchel and pulled a scroll from its steel case. “Long enough. Now move away.”

Lharen began the ritual as Thorn joined Mayne by the tunnel mouth. Blood dripped onto the parchment as he spoke, but Lharen’s voice never faltered. The words on the scroll burst into iridescent flame, a cold fire that flowed up Lharen’s arm. His voice grew stronger and deeper as the flames surrounded him. The scroll dissolved into ash and silver dust; the blaze flowed up along Lharen’s left arm and was gone.

Lharen dropped to his knees, but a handprint remained where he’d touched the core-a hand of fire, growing brighter with each moment that passed.

“Go,” he said, the pain making his voice tight. He coughed more blood. “My thoughts… hold the power in check. Get clear.”

Thorn nodded. Lharen’s blood was pooling on the floor. And none of them could survive another trip through the whirling wall. She still didn’t want to leave him. “I meant what I said, Lharen. This won’t be forgotten.”

“I know,” he said. “And I know-”

He jerked, choking. Then Thorn saw the crystal embedded in the side of his head, a shard that had pierced his skull. He fell forward into the deadly wall. Thorn spun and shoved Mayne with all her might, pushing him down the corridor.

And the core exploded.

A wave of force lifted Thorn and flung her down the corridor. This wave had teeth. Crystal shards filled the burning wind. Impact with the floor drove the breath from her lungs, and she could feel the dragonshards piercing her flesh, blood running down her back.

A strong hand pulled Thorn to her feet. Mayne. Blood ran from a few wounds, but Thorn had saved Mayne from the worst of it. “Can you stand?” he asked.

Wait, Thorn thought. This isn’t right. This isn’t how it happened. In reality, the force of the explosion had knocked her out. It had been days before she’d woken.

She felt dizzy. She reached out to stabilize herself, pressing her hand against Mayne’s chest.

He screamed. Her hand felt as though it was on fire, and she could feel energy flowing up from her arm. Mayne’s scream faded far too quickly, and he collapsed, dead weight against the ground. For her part, Thorn felt stronger than ever, as if Mayne’s strength had been added to her own. It was a familiar sensation. It had happened once before. In the Great Crag of Droaam, she’d been wounded by a werewolf who had once been her ally. She’d touched him, and he’d fallen, just like this-as if she’d stolen his lifeforce to survive.

“But that’s not what happened here,” she whispered.

“How do you know?” The voice rang out from behind her. A woman’s voice, familiar and full of cruel mirth.

Thorn spun, her dagger in her hand. A mirror stood before her. She was dressed in a gown of black and red silks, the colors of a moonless night and fresh blood. Long boots of red leather covered her legs, and matching gloves ran up her arms; the fingertips had been removed, revealing curving nails painted with black enamel and sharpened into claws.

It’s only a dream, Thorn told herself. She’d passed out when she’d struck the ground, and she’d never seen Mayne again. They’d told her that he succumbed to his own injuries after getting her to safety-that a tiny dragonshard had found its way to his heart. But all that she knew for certain was that she’d passed out at Far Passage, and she’d never seen Mayne again.

“Who are you?” she demanded, dagger at the ready. Dream or no dream, she was ready for a fight. “What do you want?”

Her dark reflection laughed, tossing back her hair. The light caught a stone at the base of her neck, and Thorn felt a piercing pain against her own spine And then she was awake. Lying in her bed in Dragon Towers, the Khyber shard throbbing in her neck. She ran her fingers across the mark surrounding her right eye. It was a forgery-part Citadel magic, part Riedran living tattoo-and it seemed it was good enough to fool Fileon.

But was Fileon the one being fooled? When she had been assigned to the Far Passage, she’d been given her magical ring, told that it would let her see in the deepest shadows. That had been a lie. Thorn pulled the ring from her finger, as she had done many a night before. Her vision was unchanged, every detail revealed in sharp black and white.

Never a gift at all. It was the crone Sora Teraza who had said that-the infamous oracle of Droaam. Never a gift at all, she’d said, handing Thorn her ring. This is not the gift you were given, and what you were given was not a gift.

There was nothing for it. She needed to talk to her partner.

She leaned over and pulled her belt from the bedpost. She drew Steel and laid the blade across her legs.

We are not being observed by magical means. His voice was clear and calm, a deep whisper in her mind.

“Good,” she said. “Let’s talk about the first man I killed.”