The City of Towers

CHAPTER 43

Lei sat up. Daine had been half-dozing, but the sudden motion jarred him to consciousness.

“Lei! Lei, are you all right?” He reached out and took her hand.

Lei looked from side to side. Daine was sitting next to her, and Pierce was to her left. The sight of Pierce brought an involuntary whimper from her throat. His impassive metal face brought back the image of her dream and the blinding pain in her eye.

“Can you speak, my lady?” Pierce said, his voice deep and calm.

“I can.” Her ribs still ached with a dull, throbbing pain, but her energy was returning. She raised an arm, touching her forehead and her cheeks. “Where are we?”

It looked like a room in a small and comfortable inn-a considerable step up from the Manticore. There was a pillow beneath her head, and while the pallet beneath her was hardly remarkable, it was the softest thing she’d slept on in at least three years.

“It’s a Jorasco house,” Daine said. The Jorasco halflings were masters of the healing arts, and every large city had at least one Jorasco enclave. “We couldn’t rouse you, and we still had some money left over from Alina’s last advance.”

While her ribs still ached, after she’d had a moment to collect her senses, Lei realized that her legs felt fine. She pulled back the blankets. There wasn’t even a mark where Daine had stabbed her.”

“I … wanted that dealt with quickly,” Daine said, somewhat sheepishly. “I didn’t want you to have to limp around town because of me.”

The thought of Jorasco’s healing touch brought back other memories. “Jode?”

“He’s gone, Lei. It wasn’t a dream. He’s not coming back.”

Lei nodded. Her head was quickly clearing, but she felt empty inside. What had been a dream? She looked over at Pierce and started to reach out to touch him, but at the last moment she drew her hand back. “Are you all right?”

“I have fully recovered,” Pierce said. “I am grateful for your actions. Whatever the risk, I would not wish to be responsible for the death of a friend.”

I thought I was going to kill you, she thought, but she did not say it aloud.

“I do feel … different, however,” Pierce continued. “I cannot explain it, exactly. My senses seem sharper, my movements more precise. May I ask what you did when you stopped me?”

“I don’t really know, Pierce. I just reached within you, hoping to find some way to slow you down. I’m still not sure what the mindflayer was doing before I escaped. I was exposed to a number of different alchemical substances, and my memories are somewhat unclear.”

Pierce nodded. “It appears to have worked out for the best, and all in all it was an interesting experience.”

“What about Chyrassk?”

“I inflicted significant injuries on the creature in our initial encounter,” Pierce said. “At least six of my arrows struck home in the second encounter. I believe that it was dead by the time it fell.”

“If not, I’m guessing the fall finished the job-or whatever that liquid was that it fell into.” Daine said. “We took a few minutes to cut the chains supporting those incubation chambers. Chyrassk never resurfaced, and I didn’t feel its presence in my mind. I think we finished it off.”

“What else?”

Daine frowned. “Well, we smashed the tanks and destroyed everything we could. No one will be making new monsters down there any time soon. But I’m still worried about what Teral said. If he really did come to Sharn with a hundred followers-not to mention those created by Chyrassk over the last two months-that means that there are dozens out there we haven’t seen. I’ve mentioned it to Greykell, but most of the grafts seemed to be easily concealable. And we don’t even know that all of Teral’s followers settled in High Walls. I don’t know. I imagine they’ll be keeping a low profile, but I don’t like thinking about what horrors might still be hidden in High Walls.”

A stout, middle-aged halfling entered the room, the griffon badge of Jorasco on the breast of his brown robe. He was carrying a small tray bearing a bowl of clear broth and a mug of pungent milian tal.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good.”

He set the tray down by the bed and climbed up on a footstool to examine her. The Mark of Healing could be seen poking up from the collar of his robes, and once again Lei’s thoughts drifted back to Jode. The healer touched a finger to her forehead, and she felt a slight tingle.

“You’re doing just fine,” the little man said. He pressed the tal into her hand. “Drink, now.” He looked back to Daine. “I still can’t tell you exactly what happened, but she’s making an excellent recovery. With a few more days of rest, she’ll be as healthy as she’s ever been.”

“Thank you, Suold.”

“The pleasure is mine. I would imagine it’s safe for her to move about at this point. If you would like to remain here for a few more days, you can settle things with Asdren out front.” The halfling bowed, then trotted out the door.

“I’m fine, Daine,” Lei said. “So don’t tell me that I’m confined to bed.”

“Drink your tal,” Daine said. “Personally, I think the rest would do you good, but if you don’t want to stay here, I’m not about to make it an order. It’s up to you.” He stood up. “But now that you’re conscious, I need to make our final delivery to Alina before she comes to the conclusion that we failed.”

Lei drained the cup of bitter tal and pushed herself out of bed. He legs were a little stiff and she felt momentarily lightheaded, but it quickly passed. “I’m coming with you.”

“What?” Daine said. “Why do you want to do that? I’d avoid Alina, if I had the choice.”

“I can’t just stay here. Especially here. Not after what happened to Jode. Your healer said I was healthy.”

“He also said you needed a few more days of rest.”

She gave him a look. “And you’d lie here drinking broth if you were in my boots?” She took a few steps forward, gingerly at first. “Where are my goods?”

Daine produced her pack from under his chair, and she began to sort through it. She pulled out her leather jerkin. She hadn’t noticed in the battle, but the alchemical bath had eaten through the upper back. She sighed. She could repair it, but it would take time. She pulled out the darkwood staff and frowned.

“Did you do this?” she asked Daine.

When she’d last seen it, the staff had been marred by a half-dozen deep gouges. In places Daine’s blade had almost split the shaft in two. But those marks were gone. It was in perfect condition, even to the polished finish.

Daine shook his head. “I haven’t touched it, other than putting it in your bag.” He scowled. “That squid may have used it to get inside my head. I’ll tell you now. I don’t like that staff, Lei. There’s too much we don’t know. What it can do, why the sphinx wanted you to have it … maybe you should get rid of it.”

Lei set her weight against the staff. It might have been her imagination, but she suddenly felt better-a little stronger, a little more alert. “Don’t be stupid,” she said. “Without the staff, we wouldn’t have survived long enough for Pierce to finish Chyrassk. Once we have a little more time, I’ll sit down with it. I’m sure that I can unlock its secrets.”

“Fine.” Daine shrugged. “Come if you want, but let’s get this done quickly.”

After Daine settled accounts with the Jorascos, they made their way to the lift in silence. As they rose into the sky, Daine turned to Lei. “About what happened down there, Lei …”

“You weren’t in control of yourself. Neither was Pierce.”

“I know, but it felt so real … as if they were my thoughts. I can’t help but wonder if there was some part of me that could have resisted, that should have known.”

Lei put her hand on his arm. “Daine, it’s not your fault. If not for the staff, I would have been just as vulnerable. It wasn’t you.”

He closed his eyes for a moment then looked back at her. “It wasn’t just the staff, Lei.” He sighed. “You’ve known me for a few years, but there’s a lot you don’t know. What I did before I joined the Cyran Guard, how it is I know Alina. I’ve always kept a certain distance between us, and I hope, when I explain, that you’ll understand why.”

She watched him silently.

“But now … now we need to determine what happens next. If Alina pays us-”

“Is this in doubt?” Pierce asked.

“Probably not,” Daine said, “But with Alina I don’t think you can be certain of anything. The question is, what do we do with the gold? Where do we go from here?”

The question hung in the air. Lei had been banned from her house, her betrothed was dead. Pierce had been built for battle, to fight in a war that had ended. And everything Daine had fought for had come to an end on the Day of Mourning.

Daine turned to face his two comrades. “If Alina pays us, we could go anywhere. But where do you want to go? Lei, if you want to get away from here, I understand.”

Lei shook her head. “No. If this Merrix has issues with me, that’s his problem. I rather like the idea of living the good life under his nose. Show him I’m not going to crawl under a rock and die just because he’s cut me off.”

Daine nodded. “Pierce, how about you?”

“There is little that I need in this world, Captain. I have no interest in this gold, but I wish to remain with the two of you. For that reason, I hope that you will stay together.”

“Which brings me back to my past. Before I joined the guard, I-”

“All the lifts in Sharn, and he comes to mine.”

By now, Sergeant Lorrak’s gravelly voice was a familiar sound. Daine turned. The dwarf watchman was standing by the gate of the lift with a pair of halberdiers.

“I see your little fall didn’t knock any sense into you,” Lorrak said.

Daine walked over to the dwarf. The halberdiers lowered their weapons, but Lorrak stopped them with a gesture. “How long is this going to go on, Lorrak?”

“Why, Mourner? Do you have somewhere to go?”

“My name is Daine, Sergeant.” He dropped to one knee, to look the dwarf directly in the eye. “And you know what? I don’t have anywhere to go. My homeland was destroyed. Your king invited my people to come here. And here I am.”

Lorrak stared at him, saying nothing.

“We’re not at war anymore, Sergeant. I’m not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, I imagine I’ll be taking this lift on a regular basis. If you’d like, we can take turns throwing each other off. I believe it’s your turn. But I’m guessing those feather tokens add up on a watchman’s salary. I know they will for a refugee.”

Lorrak stayed silent, but there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“I didn’t mean to throw you off the lift that first time we met,” Daine continued.. “You charged me. And you know what? You were right. That girl did rob me. I hope you were just trying to scare her. I don’t like the idea of guards murdering anyone, criminal or not. But I owe you an apology, Sergeant. So can we start this over again, one soldier to another?”

The dwarf stared at him for a long while. Finally he nodded. “All right, Mour-uh, Daine.” He didn’t smile. “We’ve both been over that edge once now. You mind your business, and I’ll leave you be. But I don’t want to see any trouble on my watch. Interfere with my work again, and I will have your head, Grazen be damned.”

“Fair enough.” Daine stood and walked back over to his friends. A moment later, the lift arrived at Den’iyas.