The Binding Stone

CHAPTER 9

Singe stared at the crystal band in the half-elf’s grasp, then studied his face. His eyes narrowed. “Have you worn it already, Vennet?”

He heard Dandra draw a sharp breath and stretched out a hand to her. Vennet’s cutlass twitched sharply. “Don’t move,” the captain said. “Not a muscle.”

Singe let his hand fall slowly back to his side.

Vennet nodded as Ashi came up beside him. “That’s good,” he murmured, “that’s very good.”

“Vennet, what are you doing?” Dandra said.

“He’s turning on us,” Singe answered for Vennet. Everything was clear in his mind. “He planned this. Convincing us to stay behind on the ship, arranging for the crew to be busy in the hold so we couldn’t check on our gear until the last minute.” He glanced at Ashi then asked Vennet, “Was the crew really too scared to go into the hold or did you order them to stay out so you could talk to her alone?”

“A little of both,” Vennet said tightly.

“And House Lyrandar’s prohibition against throwing people overboard?”

“Ironically,” said the captain, “that’s the truth.”

“Singe,” Dandra said, “what’s going on?”

The wizard risked turning slightly to give her a dark smile.

“The cults of the Dragon Below aren’t something you find just in the Shadow Marches.”

Dandra turned pale.

Singe looked back to Vennet. “I think our good captain has decided to make a move for power. If he hasn’t done it already, he’s going to contact Medala and offer his services to Dah’mir.”

Vennet’s face tightened. “You’re too smart for your own good, Singe.”

“I’ve been told that before,” Singe said casually. At least he hoped he sounded casual. His stomach felt like it had squeezed down into a rock. “Why did you drug Natrac? No, let me guess.” He followed a line of reasoning through his head. “Natrac was the only other one in your cabin when we told our story. He was the only other person on the ship besides us who knew that Ashi was a follower of the Dragon Below. You had to be sure that he didn’t let that information slip out, so you made sure he couldn’t talk to anyone on the ship and you spread the word that he was giving up his business and traveling on to Sharn. That way no one would suspect his disappearance afterward.” He smiled. “And there’s Captain Vennet d’Lyrandar, with no one left to give away his secret.”

“Storm at dawn!” Vennet snapped. “Would you shut up?” He slid closer cautiously, cutlass at the ready. “If either of you moves or makes as much as a sound to cast a spell or-” the cutlass wavered slightly toward Dandra “-do whatever kalashtar do, you’ll regret it. Ashi, hide by the rail. When Geth comes back aboard, make sure he dies.”

The hunter nodded and darted across the deck, hunching down to stay out of sight. When she reached the rail, she peered over cautiously. She grimaced and snapped the fingers of her free hand softly to attract Vennet’s attention. He turned slightly, enough to see her and still keep an eye on his captives. Ashi mimed someone wandering back and forth on the dock below. Vennet’s teeth clenched and he cursed softly.

In the instant that the captain’s attention wandered, Singe felt the brush of Dandra’s mind on his, just as he had when she’d shared her memories on the morning after Bull Hollow. Trying his best to keep his face neutral, he relaxed and accepted the touch of her thoughts. The voice that rang in his head was taut. Singe, what are we going to do?

It took a conscious effort not to turn his head and look at the kalashtar as he answered her. Can you warn Geth the same way we’re talking?

He’s too far away. He’d need to be almost at the top of the gangplank for me to reach him and if he’s that close, it will be too late!

Vennet was turning his full attention back to them again. Be ready to tell Geth to get back fast, Singe told Dandra. A plan was taking shape in his mind. He formed an image and sent it flickering at her-then swiftly focused back on Vennet as his cutlass flicked close.

“Call Geth!” the half-elf ordered. “Get him up here.”

Singe looked him straight in the eye. “How long have you followed the Dragon Below, Vennet?” he said, buying time. If he called, Geth would come bounding up the gangplank. The shifter needed to come up slowly if Dandra was going to have any chance at warning him.

Vennet tensed. “Just call him!”

“Not too long, I think,” Singe continued. “You don’t seem obviously insane yet.”

“You’re baiting me,” Vennet said. He pushed the cutlass forward until its tip pricked Singe’s chest through his shirt. The wizard held back a wince. Vennet looked at him coldly. “You think I’m going to get angry and you’re going to distract me? It’s not going to work. You want to know how long I’ve followed the Dragon? Nine years-and that faith is the only thing that saved my sanity. I know you’ll understand why.” His eyes were hard. “You’re a veteran of the Last War. You saw the things that men and women who claim to be good and righteous are capable of doing. That almost drove me mad. The powers of Khyber don’t make those claims. The cult of the Dragon Below draws power from darkness. Two years after the darkest day of my life, I came to the cult and it made sense.”

He leaned close, pressing down on his cutlass. A bright spot of red sprang up on Singe’s shirt. Over Vennet’s shoulder, he could see Ashi, still watching the dock-and, presumably, Geth down on it. The wizard swallowed and looked back at Vennet. “I saw dark things during the War, too. I got through it.”

Vennet gave a thin smile. “Are you trying to convert me, Singe? Bring me back to the light?” His hand, the one holding the crystal band, trembled. “Geth told me there are things about the War you don’t like to talk about. Like Narath. Narath bothers you.” His lips twisted as Singe stiffened. “Well, I was on one of the ships that sailed against Narath. I had to stand on the docks and watch while our fine Aundairian soldiers ripped Narath apart.”

Blood roared in Singe’s veins, pounding in his head and burning hot across the skin of his face. Ashi, Dandra, and even Geth vanished from his mind as he met Vennet’s gaze. “You weak, pathetic coward,” he breathed. “That’s your darkest day? Watching Narath die?” He seized Vennet’s sword hand and shoved the cutlass away from his chest, heedless of the line of pain that the blade’s tip traced across his skin. “I was in Narath.”

It was only Dandra’s piercing shout inside his thoughts that broke through the rage that gripped him. Singe! Geth’s coming!

Singe’s head shot up. The gangplank was shaking as someone climbed it. Ashi crouched like an animal ready to pounce.

Clenching his teeth, Singe flung Vennet back hard. The half-elf growled and charged back, the sharp blade of his cutlass raised.

Out of the corner of his eye, Singe saw Geth’s face appear above the gangplank-only to stiffen with Dandra’s silent warning and vanish again, even as Ashi leaped out of her hiding place. In the same instant, the wizard flung himself down and back before Vennet’s blade, dropping onto his hands and kicking out blindly with his feet. The kick was wild and soft, but it was enough to make Vennet stumble back a pace. Singe rolled over and came up onto his knees, shouting the words of a spell.

It felt strange, given the time he had spent studying magic that wouldn’t harm Lightning on Water, that it was still a fire spell he invoked. Bolts of flame leaped from his hands to sear across the ship’s deck, setting wood ablaze in a fiery streak that pointed straight toward the gangplank. Ashi shouted and jumped aside as the fire reached for her, but the hunter had never been Singe’s target. Thrusting himself to his feet, he grabbed Dandra’s hand and charged directly along burning path he had created, protected by his ring as Dandra’s powers protected her.

But for all that the fiery path roared and crackled, it wasn’t very wide-only an arm span or so. Vennet or Ashi could have reached through the flames and skewered him or Dandra easily. If he had judged the captain correctly, though, violence would not be his instinctive reaction to fire on his ship.

He heard the half-elf bellow with rage.

“Get ready!” Singe gasped at Dandra.

The powerful wind generated by Vennet’s dragonmark struck them from behind so hard that it sucked Singe’s breath away. The flames around them stretched out flat, guttered once, and vanished, utterly extinguished.

Just as it had battered Ashi when Vennet had trained it on her in the ship’s hold, though, the wind also caught both the wizard and the kalashtar in its grip, forcing them along before it. Where Ashi had tried to struggle against the wind, however, Singe and Dandra ran with it. Singe caught a brief glimpse of Ashi, clutching the ship’s rail helplessly, as they swept by her.

Then the top of the gangplank was in front of him. Still propelled by the wind, he seemed to leap out into empty air, only to come crashing down about halfway along the gangplank’s angled length. He fell, rolled heavily, and spilled out onto the dock as limp as a rag doll.

Dandra twisted in the air, landing like a cat in a graceful crouch.

Before Singe could even catch his breath, Geth was kicking him out of the way. The shifter planted his feet on the surface of the dock, grabbed the rails on the sides of the gangplank, and heaved. With a groan almost as loud as Geth’s own, the gangplank lifted away from the brackets that held it steady at the edge of the deck above. Geth staggered back a step, grunted, and released his grip. The gangplank grated against the ship’s side, then slid down to splash into the water. At the same time, the eerie droning chorus of Dandra’s own fiery powers hummed in the air. Singe twisted around in time to see her release a cascade of carefully aimed flames at three of the thick mooring ropes. Intense whitefire burned into the twisted hemp and the ropes, already under tension, snapped like whips. Lightning on Water shifted and swayed out from the dock sharply.

In the half-dark of early evening, the docks of Zarash’ak were far from abandoned, however. People turned to stare at them-and up on the deck of the ship, Vennet and Ashi leaned out over the rail. Singe scrambled to his feet, grabbed Geth with one hand and Dandra with the other, and pushed them across the dock into the nearest and deepest shadows.

“Keep going!” he spat. “Dandra, keep your feet on the ground-we don’t need any more attention!”

The shadows were the mouth of a narrow alley and Singe found himself squeezing between tight walls toward ruddy light at its far end. Geth, with a broader chest, had to force himself through. His great-gauntlet, wrapped up and stuffed in a bag that hung across his back, scraped the walls harshly.

“What happened back there?” the shifter asked. “I start back up onto the ship and all of the sudden Dandra’s screaming in my head, Ashi’s jumping out at me, there’s fire and wind …”

“Vennet has loyalties to more than just House Lyrandar,” said Singe.

“He follows the Dragon Below! He was going to sell us out to Dah’mir!” Dandra’s voice was hot with outrage, but Singe shook his head as he squeezed another pace closer to the alley’s exit.

“You, Dandra. I’m pretty certain he was only selling out you. I don’t think Geth and I figured as anything more that obstacles. Like Natrac.”

“Natrac?” grunted Geth. Singe told him what he had discovered in the half-orc’s cabin. “Tiger’s blood!” cursed the shifter.

They popped out of the alley onto the edge of a market, still bustling in spite of the gathering night. Singe breathed a prayer of thanks for undeserved blessings and led the way into the crowd, slowly and casually. “Follow me,” he ordered. “Geth, keep an eye out behind us.”

The crowd in the market was mixed, mostly humans mingling with brawny half-orcs, but a few full-blooded orcs, delicate-looking elves, and lithe little halflings moved through it as well. Geth’s shifter features and Dandra’s exotic beauty barely stirred a second look. Singe himself felt practically invisible. Still, it seemed like forever before the press of bodies opened up ahead of them and they were on their own again, heading deeper into Zarash’ak with the crowded market between them and the docks. Singe let a little of the tension to ease out him. “Geth?” he asked cautiously.

The shifter shook his head. “No sign of Ashi or Vennet,” he reported.

Singe gave a slow sigh of relief. “Twelve moons. We’re away.”

“We are,” said Dandra thinly. Singe glanced at her. Her face was pale. “Light of il-Yannah, Singe-Vennet still has Natrac!”

It took an effort of will to hold back the memories of the horrors Dah’mir had inflicted on her. The thought that Natrac might suffer similar tortures was almost too much to bear and sent Tetkashtai retreating to the furthest recesses of her mind. When Dandra looked at Singe and Geth, though, she saw only harsh determination on both men’s faces. They shared a glance-and pressed on along the street, putting more distance between them and the docks. Dandra stopped dead. “We can’t leave Natrac as Vennet’s prisoner!” she protested.

Singe paused long enough to hook his arm around hers and pull her forward. “Dandra, I know.” He glanced into her eyes. His gaze was dark. “We shared your memories, didn’t we? But we can’t go back to Lightning on Water, not tonight. They’ll be waiting for us.”

“Vennet and Ashi? There are three of us and two of them!”

“You have a go with Ashi then, Dandra,” said Geth. The shifter’s voice was a quiet rasp. “She was tough with her fists and now she’s got her sword back. Have you watched the way she moves? She’ll be waiting if we go back. If she gets a chance to ambush us in the dark, the odds won’t be in our favor for very long.”

Singe’s arm tightened on hers. “And remember, it’s you they want. If we go back, we’re delivering you right to them.”

Dandra tensed. “But Natrac …”

“Vennet went to the trouble of drugging him,” Geth pointed out with cool practicality. “He’s not going to kill him now. He’ll be all right until the morning.” His hands tightened on the bag containing his great-gauntlet. “We’ll go back then.”

Singe still had a little money left from the sale of their horses in Yrlag. They found a small inn well away from the docks and took a room for the night. The innkeeper looked at Geth, but a smile and a word from Singe eased his worry. Once they were in their room, Geth flung himself down on one side of the bed and seemed to be asleep almost instantly. Dandra stared at him.

“How does he do that?” she asked. “How can he do that?”

“He’s been able to sleep whenever he wants for as long as I’ve known him. No matter what’s been happening, give Geth a moment of quiet and he can go to sleep.” Singe shook his head in awe. “It’s a valuable gift when you’re a mercenary.”

The wizard turned away, moving to the room’s window and throwing back the shutters. The window faced away from the street and out over the low rooftops of Zarash’ak’s ramshackle sprawl. A cool breeze drifted in from the distant sea, pushing back some of the pungent marsh smell that clung to the city. After a moment, Dandra slipped across the room to join him.

“You haven’t said much about the time that you and Geth served together in the Blademarks,” she said.

Singe looked down at her, then away. “No, I haven’t,” he said.

“Being an inanimate crystal gives you a lot of time to watch what’s going on around you. The only time I’ve seen people with the depth of anger you two have is when they were friends before they became enemies.”

Singe’s face twisted. For a moment, Dandra wondered if maybe she’d pressed too hard, but then his eyes closed and he let out a long sigh.

“Not too long after I joined the Frostbrand-our Blademarks company-the commander of the company, Robrand d’Deneith, took a few of us on a recruiting mission,” he said in a low voice. “Folk from the Eldeen Reaches generally make good scouts and the Frostbrand had developed a specialty in taking winter assignments, so we headed into the northern Eldeen. Not quite so isolated as Bull Hollow, but still more wild than civilized. In a little place that was hardly more than a crossroads, Robrand started his recruiting speech.” Singe’s expression grew nostalgic. “Twelve moons, the old man could talk! Recruiting was a hard sell in that region-the Eldeen Reaches had seceded from Aundair only a generation or so before and most Reachers didn’t want to have anything to do with the world outside their forests. But there was one eager young shifter who came forward with a hunger for adventure in his eye and signed up on the spot.”

“Geth,” said Dandra and Singe nodded.

“There’s a tendency in every Blademarks company for new recruits to band together. Eight of us joined the Frostbrand within a couple of months of each other. I was the first, Geth was the last. The bunch of us were practically inseparable for the next five years.” He reached up and ran a finger along his cheekbone, high under his left eye. Dandra looked closely and saw a thin scar. “Geth gave me that during a tavern brawl in Metrol. He was aiming for the Cyran soldier who was holding me from behind and missed.”

“That can’t be what broke you up though.”

“That was nothing. We laughed about it.”

“Then what happened?” Dandra hesitated, then said, “Tonight when Vennet mentioned ‘Narath’… you’ve said that name to Geth before and he doesn’t like to hear it either.”

The wizard gave no response.

“Singe,” Dandra said, “what happened at Narath?”

“Go to sleep, Dandra,” said Singe. His voice was cold and empty. “Take the bed next to Geth if you want. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Dandra glanced at the bed. There was plenty of room for three people to lie side by side. She looked back to Singe. He was still staring out of the window, his face a harsh mask. Dandra held her tongue and turned away, leaving him to whatever dark memories were running through his head.

The sound of the room’s door closing woke her. Dandra sat upright, her mind snapping alert and the drone of whitefire throbbing on the air. On the floor under the window, Singe came to his feet with his rapier in his hand.

Geth stood inside the door, a big bundle of rags and three broad conical straw hats in his arms. He looked at both of them critically. “I walk out of here and you don’t stir, but I come in and you’re both ready to strike me down?” He walked over to the bed and dropped the bundle. “Here. I’ve been to market.”

The rags were clothes, simple and well worn-by fisherfolk previously if the smell that rolled off them was anything to judge by. Dandra wrinkled her nose. Singe stared. “Did you actually pay for those?” he demanded.

“More or less.” Geth tossed a muddy brown shirt to the wizard. “We can’t just walk up to Lightning on Water. We need something to disguise ourselves.”

“No one will recognize us by smell at least,” Dandra pointed out with a grin. Singe gave her a dim glower.

It was the middle of the morning by the time they left the inn and stepped back onto the street. Zarash’ak was alive around them. The air was humid and close, but the people of the City of Stilts moved around in a hurry, as if eager to get their errands finished before day grew any hotter. Dandra found herself staring around as she, Geth, and Singe wandered back toward the docks, unexpectedly aware of what she had missed of Zarash’ak when she had passed through as a crystal around Tetkashtai’s neck. The city had sounds, sights, and smells she hadn’t really appreciated before. Musicians on a street corner made strange music that mixed a chirping stringed instrument with a deep, thrumming pipe. On streetside grills, vendors cooked long strips of meat brushed with a thin sauce that smelled both spicy and sour. Other vendors made thick rounds of dark gold bread, flapping a pale yellow dough back and forth between their palms before slapping it onto hot iron griddles. People seemed to buy the yellow bread at one stall, then wander on to another to buy meat or blackened roast vegetables to stuff inside.

“What is that?” she asked as they passed one grill stall.

“Snake,” said Geth. He pointed at the bread. “That’s made out of a flour pounded from a kind of marsh reed called ashi.”

“When it’s cooked, it’s the same color as Ashi’s hair.”

Geth grunted at the observation. “Let’s buy some and ask her about it, shall we?”

They followed a different route to the docks than the one that they had taken the night before and approached Lightning on Water from a distance. Singe had suggested they would find Vennet’s crew busy unloading the ship-the half-elf might be a treacherous serpent, but he was also a Lyrandar captain and clearly took his business seriously. To Dandra’s surprise though, they could see as they approached that activity on the ship was subdued. Most of the crew seemed to be hanging over the side, watching as crowds surged around on the dock below. Geth held both her and Singe back while he scanned the dock and the ship thoroughly for any sign of Vennet or Ashi. Finally, he shook his head.

“I don’t see either of them,” he reported.

“What do you think’s happening on the dock?” asked Dandra.

“Let’s find out.”

Dandra tilted her hat slightly toward the ship as they passed, trying to conceal her distinctively dark skin from the sailors above. Although it didn’t seem likely that any of the crew shared their captain’s vile faith, even a casual greeting could give them away. Once they were among the crowd, it was a little easier to hide and she relaxed a bit-at least until she realized that the attention of the shifting, gawking crowd was focused on the narrow alley down which she, Geth, and Singe had made their escape. The three of them pushed their way carefully to the front of the crowd.

A long, thick stain of dried blood painted the wall to one side of the alley mouth. At the top of the stain was a deep ragged hole, as if a spike had driven into the wood. The hole was also bloodstained.

Beside the stain, two words had been scratched into the wood: blue doors.

“Rat!” breathed Geth. He nudged the man who stood next to him. “Do you know what happened here?”

“Dagga. Word is that the ship over there”-the man gestured to Lightning on Water-“was transporting a mad woman. I hear she got loose, kidnapped someone from his cabin, and even tried to set fire to the ship. When that didn’t work, she came down here, hacked off her prisoner’s hand, pinned it up to the wall, and ran off with the rest of him!”

“It was more than his hand!” chimed in a half-orc woman on his other side. “It was a whole arm. My boy saw it hanging there before the watch and took it away!” She held up one hand and made a circle over it with the finger and thumb of her other hand. “Big ruby ring on it too! The woman would have to be mad to leave that behind.”

Natrac’s ring, Dandra realized. Her hand sought out Singe’s and squeezed it tight. If they’d come back last night, they could have stopped this.

The wizard must have realized the same thing. He looked slightly pale. “The watch,” he said, “will they investigate? Will they look for the man whose hand or arm it was?”

The half-orc woman laughed. “Not unless someone wants to come forward and pay the fee!”

“Or unless this mad woman starts cutting off more parts,” said the man darkly with a glance at the woman. “Only the cult does that and not even the watch will stand for their type in the city!”

“Any idea what ‘blue doors’ means?” asked Geth.

The man and woman shook their heads, but Dandra seized Geth’s hand as well as Singe’s and pulled both men out of the crowd and down the dock. When they were out of sight of Lightning on Water, she stopped and looked at them. “I know what ‘blue doors’ means.” She took a deep breath. “When Tetkashtai, Virikhad, and Medalashana came to Zarash’ak, they met Dah’mir in a house with blue doors.”

“Are you sure?” asked Singe.

She nodded. “It’s all a message for us,” she said. “Do you remember what Natrac said after the fight with Ashi? The cult of the Dragon Below kidnapped his cousin and left parts of him in the canals. Vennet and Ashi left Natrac’s hand and ring as a message to say that they had him. They left the words to show where they’ve taken him, knowing I’d understand but not anyone else.”

Singe’s eyes narrowed. “But how could Vennet know about this house?”

“The crystal band,” Dandra told him grimly. “Vennet has used it to contact Dah’mir and Medalashana. One of them must have told him what to do.”

“Twelve bloody moons,” cursed Singe. He looked at Dandra. “Suppose Dah’mir wants to come to Zarash’ak. How long do you think it will take?”

“More than a week,” Dandra answered. “Even if he left the Bonetree mound as soon as Ashi told Medalashana we were coming to Zarash’ak, he’d still be days away from here.”

“And you can find this house with blue doors again?”

She nodded.

A growl rumbled up out of Geth. “It’s going to be a trap-and after all that last night about not going back because we’d deliver you right to them …”

“I know,” Dandra answered.

Tetkashtai’s presence shook inside her. Dandra, this is too much! We don’t even know that Natrac’s still alive. Light of il-Yannah, he’s had a hand cut off!

Then we have to go to make sure he’s dead, Dandra said. I won’t leave him to the cult of the Dragon Below.

Dah’mir and Medalashana will know we’re in Zarash’ak for certain now.

The suggestion sent a tremor through Dandra’s belly, but she forced it away. All the more reason to confront Vennet and Ashi and get the crystal band back. She glanced up at Singe and Geth. “When should we go?”

“I don’t think we have anything to gain by waiting.” Geth tapped a fist against his right arm. Hidden under a loose sleeve, the metal of his great gauntlet rang solidly. “Let’s go now.”

Dandra looked to Singe. The wizard nodded. Dandra steeled herself. “All right then,” she said. “This way.”

The ship that Tetkashtai and the other kalashtar had taken from Sharn had made port at another part of Zarash’ak’s dock.

Dandra led Geth and Singe along the waterfront until she found the point where the ship had berthed. Dredging her memory, she began pacing through the city, following landmarks and tracing the route that the kalashtar had taken those months ago. At one intersection, though, she had to stop. To the right, the plank street broadened into a wide and busy thoroughfare lined with fine, large homes.

To the left, it became narrow and crooked, leading away into an older, more rundown part of the city.

It would have made more sense for the house with blue doors to be to the right-it was big and very pleasant and would have fit that neighborhood. Memory, however, suggested that the kalashtar had turned left at this spot.

Tetkashtai, she asked, which way?

The frightened presence confirmed her memory. Left. Dandra moved on, turning where memory prompted her. The district, however, was nothing like she remembered. Empty windows gaped like black eyes form the faces of dilapidated houses. Occasionally, feet scampered on the wood ahead as figures scrambled back into the shadows.

“Squatters,” said Singe.

Not all of the figures ducked away. A lanky orc-full-blooded, with coarse features, lean muscles under his gray-green skin, and heavy tusks that made Natrac’s look small-stared at them from the shadows of one house, red eyes gleaming. His clothes were rough and swamp-stained; he looked like some kind of marsh nomad, looking for easier prey in the lawless places of Zarash’ak. Dandra’s grip tightened on her spear and Geth made sure that the orc saw the heavy sword at his side.

“Dandra,” he asked, “are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” she said. She turned a corner.

In her memory, the house with blue doors was a grand and luxurious building, three stories high with dormers along the pitched roof. It stood alone on its own platform, surely a luxury in a city where walkways and platforms had grown haphazardly together over time. The doors that had stuck in her memory and in the minds of the kalashtar were tall and striking, their bright polished surface painted a deep blue that was exactly the color of an autumn night’s sky.

The building that she faced now might once have been much like what she remembered. It had the shape of something grand, but it had been a long time since it could have been considered luxurious. Much of the roof had fallen in and the dormers with it, leaving the house looking like a crushed skull. The wood of the house had gone gray with age. If it stood alone on its own platform, it was because its neighbors seemed to lean away, as if shunning the decaying structure.

The blue doors were still there, as tall and striking as in her memory, but the color on them was faded and old, a stain on the wood. One door hung askew. Dandra could say nothing, struck dumb by her memory’s betrayal. “This isn’t what we saw,” she managed finally.

“Dandra, is it possible that Dah’mir’s domination of you and the kalashtar began before he met them?” asked Singe after a moment. “Some kind of illusion spun into your minds …”

Dandra nodded slowly. “It’s possible, I suppose. This is the house, though. I’m sure of it.”

“If this isn’t the right place, we don’t have anything to worry about,” said Geth. “If it is the right place, they’ll be expecting us. Be ready.” The shifter studied the broken house carefully, then loosened his sword in its scabbard. “We should make getting Natrac back and out of here our goal, but I don’t think dealing with Ashi and Vennet would be a bad thing either.”

“I agree.” Dandra shifted her grip on her spear and took a step into the air, skimming the ground and ready for combat.

They moved forward, stepping cautiously over the gap that had opened between the building’s platform and the planks of the street. The murky water that lapped the shadows beneath Zarash’ak was visible far down below. Dandra glided up to the faded doors. She was about to put a hand to them when Geth pointed at the step beneath her feet. “No dust,” he said. “It’s been swept clean.”

“Wind or rain?” suggested Singe.

The shifter shook his head. “Probably not.”

Dandra pushed open the door. She recalled a beautiful foyer with stairs rising up to the second floor and the distant sound of trickling water. What actually lay beyond the door was a rickety, broken room with huge gaps in the walls. Stairs-every second step seemingly broken-rose to a second floor that sagged so badly she wasn’t sure she would have risked crossing it. The sound of water was the splashing of the river, echoing up from somewhere below.

A trail of blood led deeper into the house. Dandra gestured silently to the trail and started across the floor.

“No, Dandra!” snapped Geth. “There was no blood outside-”

His warning was too slow. A chunk of hurled wood cracked against the side of Dandra’s head and sent her stumbling to the ground. Gasping in pain and with Tetkashtai screeching in alarm, she twisted around. She caught a glimpse of movement as Singe shouted and darted to her side-only to be met by Ashi’s screaming battle cry as she leaped down through a broad hole in the ceiling. A kick caught Singe’s shoulder, spinning him around and driving him to the floor-

— which cracked and broke under the impact of Ashi’s landing. The tall woman’s battle cry turned into a yelp of alarm as the crumbling floorboards gave way beneath her and Singe. Stunned by Ashi’s blow, Dandra froze as both the hunter and the wizard plunged down into the darkness below.