The City of Towers

CHAPTER 35

It 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.”

The tenth bell was ringing when they returned to the streets of High Walls. Rhazala had stayed below to investigate the tunnels.

“How are you going to pay her?” Lei asked.

“Let me handle that. What was your thought on the missing dragonmark?”

“I should examine Jode and see what he can tell me. I’ll need to make a divining rod. I should warn you, though, I can’t do many more infusions tonight.”

Daine nodded. “I know. We’ll need to be careful. But I’ll never be able to sleep until we’ve done all we can.”

Sorrow crossed Lei’s face. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep in any case. It’s … I keep trying to forget about it, to think that he’ll be waiting for us at the Manticore.”

Daine put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t give up hope. If anyone could find a way to swindle the Keeper of Souls, it would be Jode.”

She nodded, but she had no cheerful words.

Pierce was waiting in the common room when they arrived. “Ca-uh, General Daine, my lady Lei. I have seen no signs of Jode, and Mistress Dassi says that he did not return in our absence.” He paused. “What became of your armor and clothing, captain?”

Daine and Lei looked at one another. “Jode is dead, Pierce.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s what the goblin needed to show us. She found Jode’s body down in the sewers.”

Pierce was silent for a moment. “Was he attacked by our enemies from yesterday evening?”

“It seems likely. The sewer was fed from High Walls. But we don’t know how they found him or why they killed him. Yesterday they seemed to want him alive.”

“Perhaps he did not have what they were looking for.”

“Perhaps.” Lei said.

Pierce was silent again. His metal face gave no hint of his emotions. Finally he said “There is no war here. This death has no purpose.”

“That may be where you’re wrong,” Lei said. “One of you, help me back to our room.”

“Pierce, go with her. I have something else to attend to.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Once Lei and Pierce had left, Daine found the innkeeper, Dassi. “Where’s the nearest message station?”

“Halfstone Street in Black Arch, General.” She smiled sweetly. “Has there been any progress on establishing your credit?”

“Perhaps,” he said. “I’ll tell you when I get back.”

Black Arch housed the garrison of Tavick’s Landing. It was the most austere district Daine had been in yet. Located on the ground and close to the gates of Sharn, it was even more heavily fortified than Daggerwatch. It didn’t take long for Daine to find what he was looking for-the crest of House Sivis, hanging from a gilded board over a large black door.

Even late at night, the message station was a bustle of activity. Gnomes were scurrying about and the air was full of whispers. One entire wall was covered with bookshelves, filled with identical black leather tomes. The opposite side of the room was dominated by three marble busts on high pedestals. The busts had the features of elderly, sagacious gnomes, with faceted dragonshards in place of eyes. Two gnomes sat by each bust, each holding a quill and book. Occasionally the gnomes would talk to the statue, but most of the time they seemed to sit and listen, furiously scribbling notes in their books. There were a few more chairs by the door. A woman wearing the courier’s badge of House Orien was fast asleep in one chair, while a messenger in the livery of the Sharn Watch sat in another.

The message stations of House Sivis were the backbone of long-distance communication in Khorvaire. While they called it the Mark of Scribing, the dragonmark of House Sivis related to all forms of communication. By speaking to the stone figure, a gnome could send a message across the continent. It was far from instantaneous but still far faster than any human or beast. When the message reached the intended speaking stone, a gnome at the stone station would copy it down, either holding it for pickup or passing it to a courier for local delivery. Daine had heard that House Sivis had developed its own language just for sending and recording messages. It wouldn’t surprise him. The gnomes were obsessed with the security of their system.

Daine approached the gnome spokesman. “Good evening, sir!” the gnome said cheerfully. “Are you sending or receiving?”

“Sending,” Daine said, “though there is a complication.” The gnome raised bushy eyebrows and waited for Daine to continue.

“I need to send the message at the recipient’s expense.”

“Well, sir, there are a few nations that have made such arrangements with the house, but unless you are an accredited member of the court in question, I’m afraid that I cannot-”

“The message is for Alina Lorridan Lyrris.”

“And what is it you wished to say?” The speaker produced a parchment and quill and smiled.

Back at the Manticore, Pierce set Jode’s body on one of the ragged pallets. He studied the terrible wound that had shattered his comrade’s head.

“Whoever did this must be punished,” he rumbled.

Lei was rummaging through her backpack, pulling out mystical charms and sheafs of parchment. “I never knew you to have a sense of vengeance, Pierce.”

“This is not a matter of vengeance, my lady. This is war, and war is my purpose.”

She nodded. “Then let it be mine, as well.”

She saw a minotaur falling at her touch, a warforged soldier collapsing into pieces, and for that moment, pure hatred chased away all sorrow. The moment passed, and she was left in the squalid room with her charms and her papers and the corpse of her friend. She sighed, determined to hold back her tears.

Lei spread her tools around the pallet. She took a wooden rod and whispered to it, weaving a minor spell of divination. When this task was completed, she found a flat shard of black crystal and etched the symbol of a skull into its surface. She set the stone disk aside.

“What are you doing, my lady?” Pierce asked.

Lei picked up the rod. “First, I’m going to examine him more closely and search for any sort of mystical energies. Then we’ll see what he can tell us.”

She ran her fingers across the rod, activating the enchantment she’d placed within. Slowly, carefully, she passed the rod along the body.

“There is residual magical energy here-ever so faint, but definitely there.” She studied the shattered skull more closely, then gagged, dropping the wand.

“My lady?” Pierce said, moving to take her shoulders.

“I’m … I’m all right,” she said, returning to her feet. “It’s …” She knelt again. Steeling herself, she examined the wound more closely.

“What is it?”

“This injury … it’s not what it appears.” Lei picked up a small glowing crystal, illuminating the jagged edge of the wound. “Look. This was caused by one or two powerful blows with a large, blunt implement.”

“Yes?” Pierce said.

“But beneath, it looks as if his brain was removed before this injury occurred. There’s no trace of brain matter against the inside of the skull.”

“Why would someone do such a thing?”

“I don’t know, but it means he was dead before the crushing blow, that someone was trying to cover up that first injury. I can only assume that the killers were trying to hide the subtle wound with this savage blow.” She shivered and picked up the disk of black crystal. “Let’s see if Jode can tell us.”

“How could he do that?”

Lei positioned the disk on what remained of Jode’s forehead. “The enchantment I’ve woven within this stone will let us speak with Jode, if only for a few minutes. It’s … not really him, just the traces of his spirit left behind. But he should be able to tell us what happened-at least, as much as he knew before …”

Lei was trying to hold things together, to focus on this as an academic challenge, but this was her friend, and she knew this was the last time she would ever speak to him. Pierce put his hand on her shoulder, and for a moment she clung to his arm, squeezing the cold metal as hard as she could. Then she took a deep breath and let go, moving back to the corpse.

She touched the stone disk and unlocked the energies with a whisper and a thought. “Jode,” she said quietly. “Tell us who did this to you.”

The silence was absolute.

“Jode,” she repeated. “Tell us what was done to you.” Nothing.

“Jode!” she screamed, though she knew he could not hear. “Jode!”

A moment later Pierce was holding her, gently shaking her. “Be calm, my lady. Your enchantment has failed, that is all. Be calm.”

Lei shook her head, touching the stone. She could feel the mystical energies still running through it. “No. No, that’s not it. He’s gone, Pierce. There’s nothing there at all. It’s all gone.”

She grabbed hold of Pierce and clung to him, and her tears began to flow.

“They didn’t just take his mark,” she whispered. “They destroyed him completely.”