The fading dream

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Pit B arrakas 25, 999 YK

I hope you’re prepared for a long climb,” Thorn said as she entered the gate chamber.

“I love climbing,” Drix responded. He appeared to be disassembling the dragonshard mosaic. “When I was younger, my father would take me to the cliffs of Seaside, and we’d climb for hours. I always wanted to design an extra pair of hands, something that could hold a book and turn the pages so I could read while I was-”

“Wonderful,” Thorn said. “Any moment now, a group of trolls are going to turn this place into Shavarath. I want to give them enough time to draw all the guards, and then we’ll be making our run. I don’t know who’s going to be left standing when this is all done, and we’re not going to wait to find out.”

“Trolls?”

“Yes, trolls,” Thorn said. “I found savants from Vadalis and Jorasco carving bits off of them. Arms, actually. Any idea why they might do that?”

Drix contemplated that as he stuffed dragonshards into his pouches. “Vadalis is always interested in studying the unnatural abilities of wild beasts,” he said thoughtfully. “I’d imagine they were trying to replicate the troll’s powers of regeneration.”

Thorn nodded. “So Vadalis and Deneith could make their own immortal soldiers? That’s just what we’d need. Perhaps we should show them your stone-”

A roar interrupted her. The trolls were in the hall. Thorn hoped they’d remember the directions she’d given them and that the guard hadn’t lied to her; as long as he’d told the truth, the beasts were on their way to the barracks. She’d left the wards of silence active; they might have been designed to muffle the sounds of torture, but they’d done an admirable job covering the noise of the battle. The trolls were in the hallway, however, and they could likely be heard throughout the rest of the workshop, which served her purposes just fine.

She waited until the snarls and roars had faded slightly and until she heard the first human voice raised in terror. “Now. Follow me!”

Previous missions had taken Thorn to subterranean cities with miles of tunnels stretching beneath the earth. Fortunately, the place they found themselves in wasn’t nearly so complex: a storeroom, a barracks for the guards and a dormitory for the savants, a simple dining facility-not much to see. The only question was if there would be guards stationed in the tunnel shaft leading to the surface. Thorn was certain there would be more bloodshed before the night was through, but she was just as happy to leave it to the trolls; at least they had a right to their revenge.

There was blood on the white tiles when they reached the intersection of two halls. “This way,” Thorn hissed. Drix paused, listening to the roars and the whine of some of magical weapon, and Thorn grabbed his arm and pulled him along. A ramp brought them to the pit itself.

“That’s higher than Seaside,” Drix remarked. “I wish I had my arms. And a book.”

“And a ladder,” Thorn said. They were standing at the base of a tunnel that rose up out of sight. Crates were scattered around them, and she noticed posts and hooks she recognized as the mooring and charging facilities for a small airship. A set of stairs rose up about forty feet off the ground, up to where someone would need to be to board the airship. But as for stairs or rungs rising to the top of the shaft itself, there was nothing.

She heard a sharp howl-the sound of a troll in agony. “If those guards can subdue four trolls, we don’t want to be here when they’re done,” Thorn said. “Any ideas?”

“I could probably weave a levitation charm into one of these crates,” Drix said thoughtfully, studying the boxes and pulling a few dragonshards out of a pouch.

“How long will that take?” Thorn said.

“I’m not entirely sure. I haven’t tried it before. Ten minutes? An hour?”

“I don’t think we have that sort of time,” she said, listening to the sounds of battle. While she could still hear the snarls of trolls in battle, she guessed that a few of them had already fallen, and it was possible the guards had another savant capable of stopping their regeneration. “Wait… what about that hole of yours?”

“What about it?” Drix said.

“If you were to climb inside, could I fold it up and carry you?”

Drix shook his head. “You can’t fold it up all the way when someone’s inside it. And if you spread it out, it’s got to be on some sort of surface.”

Thorn tried to remember that moment in the Mournland, Drix closing up the opening. She pulled the lid off of a crate and set it on the ground. “What about this? If you put the hole on it and climbed inside… would I be able to lift it?”

Drix looked at the lid dubiously. “I suppose so,” he said. “But how are you going to climb while you’re carrying me? Do you have an extra pair of arms?”

“Let me worry about that,” Thorn said. “You just get inside. Quickly.”

Drix spread the black cloth over the lid and lowered himself inside, disappearing into the dark opening. A moment later he drew it tighter until the black spot was merely the size of Thorn’s fist.

Thorn picked up the lid. It was heavier that it should have been, but she could manage it, and more important, the hole stayed fixed in one place. The last thing she needed was for it to slide off while she was climbing. Balancing the lid against a crate, she sorted through her pouches, finally finding a small vial. Flipping the cork off of it, she quickly swallowed the spider inside.

“Shalitar,” she whispered.

Thorn had already drawn on a considerable amount of magical energy, between invisibility and the changeling disguise. Grasping the power for the spider charm was like trying to hold water in her hands while she made a fist. She struggled with it, refusing to let it go, and at last she felt the energy flow into her. Grabbing the wooden lid and tucking it under an arm, she began to sprint up the shaft.

The spider charm had served her well over the years, saving her life in Sharn and Droaam. As long as the enchantment lasted, she could walk a sheer cliff as easily as cross the floor. It took only a few minutes before she could see the top of the shaft. Elation came with an entirely new challenge.

Of course, she thought. A door.

There was a massive double gate sealing the shaft, and it was closed. With time and tools, she likely could have opened it, but working one-handed, she’d never succeed before the spider charm failed.

She drew Steel. “What do you think? Can you carve a way through it?”

I see precious little to joke about, Steel said. Kundarak locking mechanisms and enchantments. Not a simple piece of work by any means.

Thorn sighed. “Some days I’d like to drown all dwarves on general principle.” The dwarves of House Kundarak bore the Mark of Warding, and she’d had to face their tricks and traps far too often.

“What’s wrong?” It was Drix’s voice, drifting from the hole in the board.

“Can you hear me?” Thorn said. “We’ve got a locked gate. I’m not sure we can get out.”

“For a shaft that size… a gate would need to have levitation charms. Something that would trigger when it was activated, to shift the weight.”

Yes, Steel said. To your left, there’s a circle carved into the stone. There’s a concentration of energies there.

“What about it?” Thorn said.

“Get over there. Hold me up next to it.”

“That’s me,” Thorn muttered. “Defeating all challenges with dagger and board.” Sheathing Steel, she made her way over to the carved disk. Holding the board in both hands, she positioned the hole by the circle. “Can you see it?”

“Yes, just hold it there.”

It was a strange experience. Thorn could feel Drix shifting around. It wasn’t the same as the motion of a body, but it was motion nonetheless. And she could feel the pressure of each moment, knowing that the spider charm would soon fade.

“Drix, I don’t want to rush you-”

“There!” he cried.

Thorn felt the rumble through the wall of the tunnel. The gate shifted up and out, moonlight breaking through as a crack formed between the two halves. Thorn darted up and through as soon as there was room, collapsing onto the soft earth and grass outside.

“Arawai be praised,” she murmured. “I’ve never been so happy to see a tree.”

She was in a field with moons above and a starry sky overhead. A few trees were scattered around, and she could hear the distant song of night birds. After the gloom of the Mournland and the stone of the pit, the color was a blessing.

“Thorn?” Drix’s voice was muffled. “You need to turn me over.”

“Oh.” When she’d dropped the board, she’d set the hole against the ground. She lifted it up and flipped it over, and as she did so, she caught sight of the beast that was watching them both, licking the blood from its claws.

“Hello, little one,” it said. “I have come to settle our debt.”