The City of Towers

CHAPTER 21

The streets of Malleon’s Gate were almost empty. Goblins were nocturnal by nature, and the midmorning sun fell on quiet streets and cracked cobblestones. The inhabitants were beginning to stir as Daine and his allies passed through the streets; a pair of goblin children peered out of a nest of garbage and cloth, and a well-dressed bugbear poured the contents of a chamberpot out of an upper window. A sweet sound filled the air-a woman’s voice raised in wordless song, filling the air with joy and beauty. Almost unconsciously, Daine began walking toward the sound, but after a few steps he found that his leg was trapped. It was Jode, who had latched onto his ankle.

“That would be a harpy,” he said, as the ethereal sound continued. “Not your best choice for a lunch companion.”

Pierce had put a hand on Lei’s shoulder, preventing her from following the sound. They listened to the enchanting melody for a few moments, before it finally faded away. A harpy took to the air from a nearby tower, a piece of dripping meat in one hand.

Daine shook his head as they began to move again. “What are creatures like that doing in a city anyway? Why hasn’t the guard done something about them?”

“You may see these creatures as monsters.” Lei remarked, “but many of them are as intelligent as you or I, and they’re just trying to survive like the rest of us.” She had caught a toe on one of the uneven cobblestones, and was using the darkwood staff to take the weight off of her right foot. “She’s found a place in this community, and I’d lay gold that she paid for her breakfast. Most of the more exotic monsters here are employed by House Tharashk, which sells their services and vouches for their behavior.”

“Outside Malleon’s Gate, maybe,” Jode said. “But remember those statues we found yesterday? I’m going to guess that the laws of the land don’t always apply in this district.”

“It’s possible. I was always told to stay out of the Gate, and I don’t think the watch would care about the death of an innocent goblin.”

“Hmm,” Daine said. “What if those statues weren’t the work of a medusa? We’ve just met someone who could turn people to stone.”

“An interesting idea,” said Jode. “But what would an old seamstress from Cyre gain from petrifying goblins?”

“What would she gain from petrifying Lei? Or me?”

“Well, she’d be able to buy your sword from the pawnbroker when you didn’t reclaim it.”

Daine touched his borrowed sword. “Don’t remind me. Aureon knows I’ve considered killing you to get it back.”

Jode flashed a disarming smile. In the distance, the harpy began to sing again. “You have to admit,” he said, “It is a lovely sound.”

“Lovely,” Daine said, scowling.

An ogress was standing at the door to the temple. She wore a black skirt and a harness of black leather studded with brass spikes. Similar bands of spiked leather were wrapped around her massive, calloused fists. She was remarkably well groomed for an ogress, especially in Malleon’s Gate. She seemed to have washed her dark hair at least once, and there was a surprising glint of intelligence in her eyes as she watched them approach.

“Well?” Lei murmured, as they came closer to the gate guardian. “It looks like we’re in for a fight after all. Think you can handle her?”

“I can’t match her strength. Let’s hope she doesn’t know what to do with it.” Daine steeled himself and stepped up to the ogress. To his surprise, she moved to the side and bowed her head slightly.

“She awaits.” Her voice was gruff thunder, almost too rough to be understood. She struck the door with a leatherbound fist. There was an echoing boom, and the door swung open. Though the sun was high in the sky, the passage beyond was filled with shadow.

“Could you be more specific?” Jode said, peering up at her knees. “Does she have a name? Is she bigger than a bugbear?”

The ogress didn’t even look down at him. “Enter and learn,” she said. It wasn’t a suggestion.

The door swung closed after they passed under the arch, and the darkness was complete. Lei whispered a few words, and the golden studs on her armor burst into light.

From the outside, the building appeared to be a forgotten temple to the Sovereign Host, abandoned centuries ago and left to crack and crumble. In the light of Lei’s glowing armor, it was easy to see why it had been abandoned. A few supporting beams had fallen from the ceiling, and the floor was choked with dust and rubble. The slit windows had been filled in with mortar.

“Somehow, I was expecting something a little grander,” Jode said, looking around. “If you’re going to bother to get your ogress to wash her hair, you’d think you’d dust your temple.”

“Is it safe?” Daine wondered, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m going to be disappointed if we came all this way to get crushed by a falling stone.”

“I think so,” Lei said, squinting up into the darkness. “Though I wouldn’t throw any stones.”

A cool breeze blew through the room. Daine looked for the source, but he couldn’t see any openings. Then he noticed a dim orange light at the far end of the hall-something set into the floor. “Over there. Let’s go. Pierce, fall back and follow.”

Pierce nocked an arrow to his string and held another in his palm. Daine drew sword and dagger, and Lei held the darkwood staff at the ready. Jode started whistling a cheerful Talentan tune but stopped when Daine glared at him.

“What?” he said. “You really think someone is going to set up an ambush by requiring Lei to fight a minotaur with her bare hands? I must admit, I never saw it coming.” Daine continued to stare. “Fine,” he sighed, drawing his stiletto. “Silent it is.”

Lei whispered a word of power, and the magical light faded. In the new-fallen darkness, the glow at the end of the room was even more obvious. The three spread out in a semi-circle and moved forward, with Pierce following thirty steps behind. Daine began to hear a low bubbling, the sound of thick, boiling liquid. The source of the sound was also the source of the light. It appeared to be a pool of molten metal, almost ten feet across. As they drew close, they could feel the heat and smell the fire. Nine stone altars were spread in a circle around the fiery pool, one for each of the lords of the Sovereign Host. The largest of the altars lay directly before them. It was of red granite and engraved with the hammer sigil of Onatar, Lord of Fire and Forge. A large crack ran down the center of the altar, splitting the hammer in two.

“What a fiendish trap!” Jode whispered. “They know we’ll never be able to resist leaping into the pool.”

Daine sighed and lowered his sword.

“You’re already caught in the fire.”

It took a moment for the words to register in Daine’s ears. He was reminded of the harpy’s song; it was pure beauty distilled into sound, unearthly and inhuman.

The voice came from directly in front of them, and suddenly Daine noticed the vast black shadow crouched atop the broken altar of Onatar. Had it always been there? Or had it appeared with the sound of the voice? The figure moved forward, and it was revealed by the light of the molten pool.

A sphinx.

She had the body of a great black cat, with the neck and head of a beautiful elf-maiden, though if the head had been on a humanoid body, she’d have been nine feet tall to match the scale. Her skin was flawless cream, her eyes glittering gold. Her long hair was midnight black, dropping down and mingling with the vast raven’s wings folded on her back. The black of her fur and hair was striped with bands of brilliant orange, and these seemed to glow in the dim light. When she shifted, the stripes rippled like flame. She wore three chains around her neck-one of gold, one of silver, and one of black adamantine-and they, too, glittered in the light of the glowing pool.

Daine was struck speechless. He’d seen strange creatures before. Some of the beasts they’d fought in the Mournland would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life. But he’d never encountered anything with the raw presence and the pure sense of inhuman majesty as the sphinx. Those golden eyes seemed to probe within him, then she spoke again. It was an impressive sight, but Daine found uneasy suspicion warring against his sense of wonder.

“Lei. Daine, Jode. Have no fear. Come in peace, and you will be safe. Come forward, Pierce. I am Flamewind, and I have been expecting you.”

Struggling to find his voice, Daine said, “How could you know we were coming?”

“Calm yourself.” Her voice was so hypnotic that this was almost a command. “Destiny is like a flame.”

“It consumes and destroys anything it touches?” Jode said. Unlike Daine and the others, Jode was not affected by the majesty of the sphinx.

“Be careful what you suggest,” the sphinx said. “Your fate can certainly consume you, and bring about great destruction. But the greater the flame, the more light it sheds, and the farther away it can be seen. I saw your fires burning in the Mournland. I watched as you approached, and I arranged for you to be here today.”

“And if we’d decided not to come?” Daine said.

Flamewind smiled and said nothing.

“So, we didn’t have a choice. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“No. You have choice. You have power. But you do not always see the forces that move you. Why did you come this morning?”

“Well, we tried to visit you yesterday, but the watch showed up.”

“Why?”

“An old friend wanted to see me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. To warn me, I suppose.”

“And how did he know to find you here, in a place the watch does not watch?”

“I don’t know! Are you going to answer any questions, or do you just ask them?”

Flamewind turned her head, her golden eyes catching the light of the pool. “You will find out the answers in time. For now, you must ask yourself the questions. I am not the only one who can see your flames. Others are watching, and they are shaping your path. The death of Hadran d’Cannith, the presence of your friend Alina … these are not accidents. Beware coincidence.”

Lei stepped forward, and now it was her eyes that burned in the darkness. “You know who killed Hadran? Tell me!”

Flamewind reared up and spread her wings. Golden feathers were hidden within the black, and for a moment she seemed to be surrounded by flame. “You killed him, Lei. Those watching you have plans for you, and a life with Hadran was not what they wished.”

“They? They who?”

The sphinx settled onto her haunches, folding her wings again. “I cannot say. I see your fires, but we who watch are hidden in the shadows. I will tell you this. All of your troubles are tied to your past, to who you are, and those who have come before. Your fate is linked to your family-your parents and your brothers.”

“My parents are dead,” Lei said, “and I have no brothers.”

“You carry the legacy of your line, and you have already met one of your brothers. You must forget your house and focus on your family.”

“Stop! Stop!” Lei cried. “Take your stick and leave us alone!” She hurled the darkwood staff at Flamewind. The staff froze in mid-air, then slowly drifted back to Lei and fell at her feet.

“The staff was never mine,” Flamewind said. “I simply arranged for it to come to you. There is little I can do for you. Accept this gift.”

Pierce walked up behind Lei. He picked up the staff and put his other hand on her shoulder. Flamewind smiled slightly. “Your friends will rely on your strength in days to come, Pierce,” she said. “But even you do not know your true strength.”

“What do you mean?” Pierce said. Even Lei looked puzzled.

“Do you know what your purpose is, Pierce?”

“I was designed to serve as a light infantry scout and support unit, specializing in stealth and reconnaissance.”

“That is what you were told. That is what you have done. But it is far from the truth. You too must learn about your family.”

Pierce’s metal faceplate was incapable of expression. “I have no family. I was forged in the workshops of Cyre.”

“By whom?”

“I do not know.”

“If you wish to know your purpose, that is where you must begin.”

“What about me?” Jode said. “Do I have mysterious family issues as well?”

Flamewind looked down at the little halfling. “You know your family, Jode. And you know who you are. What matters are the choices that you will make in the next few hours. There is a key that only you can find, hidden between two stone that only you can move. You must find it alone, but you will pay a terrible price to do so. You have the power to end the suffering of others, but you will need to sacrifice all that you have.”

“Why are you doing this?” Daine said. “If you know so much about our destinies, why the riddles? Why not just tell us what you know?”

The sphinx looked at Daine and smiled. “What answer do you wish to hear, Daine with no family name? That I am bound by divine and arcane laws and have told you all that I can? That I have told you what you need to know to fulfill your purpose in this world? Or that I have my own plans, and I am shaping your destiny as much as any of the others who watch?”

“Which is true?”

“Which will you believe?”

“I suppose you have a mysterious riddle for me?”

Flamewind looked at him. “You have turned your back on your past, Daine. You sold your family sword long before Jode did. You will need to take up that sword again.”

“One sword’s as good as another.”

“You don’t believe that. The wielder determines the value of the sword. If you will not use what you have, you will never succeed.”

Daine said nothing. Her eyes glittered as she continued.

“You will have lost far more than your sword by the time the sun has set. You must make peace with the shadows if you are to survive. Enemies are all around you, and the deepest darkness is hidden within the light.”

“Do you have any more parables, or are we done here?”

“Just one more. There will come a time when you will be asked to give away your closest friend. Be careful. You will have to carry the consequences for the rest of your life.”

“And you already know what I’ll decide?”

“Of course. But you haven’t decided yet.” Flamewind smiled one last time. “I have said all that I can say-or all that I will say. Now go. Your enemies await.”

She spread her wings and took to the air, disappearing into the shadows of the dome. Daine looked up after her, but she was nowhere to be seen.