The Gates of Night

CHAPTER 5

You’re all so gloomy,” Jode said. “It’s not the end of the world. Unless it is, I suppose.”

Daine opened his eyes. He was alone in bed, in his room at the inn in Sharn. He’d fallen asleep nestled next to Lei, and without her the bed seemed doubly empty.

“It’s a lot of space here for the three of you, don’t you think?” Jode jumped up onto the mattress and glanced around the room. “Have you considered the life of an innkeeper? Your charm, Lei’s gruel … that’s gold for the taking, my friend.”

Daine sat up. He noticed that his back wasn’t itching anymore, which confirmed his suspicions.

“Yes, it’s a dream,” Jode said. “And since it’s your dream, perhaps you could imagine something particularly delectable in the pantry.”

“You know what I’m thinking?” Daine said.

Jode rolled his eyes. “I am what you’re thinking, remember?”

“I thought you’d come back with me.”

“It’s hard to explain,” Jode said. “I think I’m dreaming. But I don’t have a body of my own anymore, so I’m dreaming your dream. When you woke up, I was still here. I feel things, hints of your emotions, flashes of events around you, but mostly I’ve been wandering in dreams.”

“But you are real? I’m not just imagining this?”

“Daine, when you ask your imaginary friend if he’s imaginary, what sort of answer do you expect to get?” Jode shook his head. “I don’t know what I am. A ghost, maybe. Does it really matter? You’ve got more important things to worry about.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“What are you planning to do next?”

“Get Lei and Pierce home.” Daine rolled out of bed. The room seemed so normal. After weeks of night terrors and the journey through Xen’drik, he’d gotten used to horror.

“Of course. That’s the noble captain. Just like when we fought our way out of Cyre to get Lei to Sharn. Smash every obstacle in your path until you reach your sanctuary.”

Daine looked out the window. The sun shone down on the streets of High Walls, but they were empty, the district abandoned. “And what’s wrong with that?”

“You’re giving up.”

Daine scowled. He felt anger and frustration building in his mind, and in that moment a bank of clouds passed over the sun. “And what should I be doing?”

“Finding Lakashtai.”

A peal of thunder shook the room, and outside the window, rain began to fall. Daine turned to Jode, and now he felt real anger. “And how would I do that? I don’t even know what she is.”

“Or what she stole, or why she chose you. Or whether you’re still in danger. Or if your little adventure has placed the entire world in jeopardy!” Jode gestured dramatically. “Just imagine, the fate of Khorvaire could hang in the balance.”

“You think so?”

Jode grinned. “Well, no, but wouldn’t it be something if it did?”

The fierce rain began to slow. “I suppose. I just …”

Daine let the sentence trail off, looking away. Lakashtai had made a fool of him. He still didn’t fully understand the chain of events that had led him to Xen’drik. When it came down to it, he was ashamed. His weakness had set all of these events in motion.

“Dorn’s teeth!” Jode bounced off the bed and smacked him in the kneecap. “You didn’t do this. Lakashtai did. Now you need to find out how and why.”

“And how do you suggest I do that?”

“I think that’s a job for the living,” Jode said. “And now, if you’re quite done with the rain, I think you owe me breakfast.

“What do you expect me to …” Daine paused in midspeech as the smell of cinnamon and fresh-baked bread rose up through the floor.

“That’ll do,” Jode said, pausing to savor the scents. “But first, let’s have a look at that arm of yours.”

Daine’s back itched.

Someone pulled at his left arm. He opened his eyes, reaching out with his right hand, grabbing hold of…

Lei.

“Sorry about that,” she whispered. “I was trying not to wake you.”

“That’s fine,” he muttered. He sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was back in the sphere. The air was chilly, and the only light came from the flickering sigils traced across walls and floor. Daine’s thoughts were fogged with sleep, and he had no idea how much time had passed.

“Let’s have a look at that arm of yours,” Lei said.

Daine glanced over at her, and for a moment he wondered if he were still dreaming. The situation hardly seemed real. Then his stomach growled … and this time, there was no fresh-baked bread to appease him.

Lei heard the sound. “I’ve still got some rations in my pack,” she said as she examined his tattered sleeve. “Not much, I’m afraid, but …” Her voice trailed off.

“What?” Daine said.

Pierce had been standing at the edge of the room, but hearing Lei’s tone, the warforged turned to look at them.

“See for yourself,” Lei said. Using both hands, she tore a hole in Daine’s sleeve, widening the gap where Tashana’s claws had torn into him.

“Hey!” Daine said, but he fell silent when he saw the skin below. The wounds Tashana had inflicted were gone, with no trace of bruise or scar. “That’s good work. Can you do anything about-”

“I didn’t do it.” Lei said. “I worked on Pierce while you were sleeping, and prepared a healing charm for you. But I didn’t use it.”

“It may have been the same force that restored your hand, my lady.” Pierce had moved closer, to better examine Daine’s arm.

“I suppose,” Lei said. “If her claws hadn’t cut through the skin, I might think it was all some sort of illusion-”

“Jode did it,” Daine said.

The others just stared at him.

The dream was coming back to him. Unlike his visions from the Keldan battlefield, this one was more like a true dream; the details were faint and fading. “I remember now. He healed me just before I woke up.”

“Woke up,” Lei repeated. “You’re saying that Jode did this in a dream?”

Her tone irked him. “Do you have a better explanation? Something fixed your finger.”

Lei sighed. “Daine, Jode couldn’t have restored my hand even when he was alive. I don’t know why you’re fixated on this, but there has to be another explanation-”

“It was that bottle. The blue fluid.”

“What are you talking about?”

She was unconscious when I drank it. “It’s …” Daine scratched his back while he tried to put words together. “Last year, when we fought that thing in the sewers. Teral said that they were stealing dragonmarks. That they were going to steal your dragonmark.”

Lei nodded. She shivered, no doubt remembering the chamber of horrors in the depths below Sharn.

“You remember how we recovered a few bottles of black liquid down there? And gave them to Alina? Well, one of them wasn’t black … it was blue. And it had Jode’s dragonmark engraved on the seal.”

“You’re saying … you drank his dragonmark?”

“You’re the expert on magic here!” Daine said. “I don’t know what it was. But even the Jorasco healers couldn’t explain what happened to Jode, remember? I drank the potion, and then I saw Jode in my dreams. And now … I think he healed me.”

“That’s impossible,” Lei said.

“Tell it to your fingers,” Daine replied. “All ten of them.”

Lei glanced down at her hand. “But he wasn’t in my dreams. And I told you, Jode couldn’t do that.”

“If you say so,” Daine said. “Me, I’m not complaining.” He glanced at the other bedroll; the drow woman was still wrapped up in the blanket. “Have you checked to see …”

“I wanted to help you first,” Lei said, glancing to the side.

“Well, let’s see if the mystery healer paid our friend a visit.” Daine carefully drew back the blanket.

Whatever force healed Daine and Lei hadn’t touched the dark elf. Her ebon skin bore dozens of cuts, and the blanket was covered with crusted blood. None of the wounds were deep, but the sheer number was appalling. Daine had seen far worse sights, but he still felt a deep weight on his heart. That warforged … thing … was looking for me. She just got in the way.

“Heal her,” he said.

“What?” Lei didn’t sound pleased.

“You said you made a healing charm. I don’t need it. So heal her.”

Lei hesitated, and Daine put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m not asking you to like her, Lei. But the woman helped save you from the firebinders. She risked her life for us-less than a day after I beat her bloody myself. She was guarding our back when this happened.”

Lei said nothing, and they stood in silence. Daine wondered what was going through her mind. Gerrion’s betrayal? “Lei,” he said at last. “Please.”

She nodded and broke away from him, kneeling next to the drow woman. Lei took a silver coin from her purse and passed it over the injured woman, starting at her feet and slowly moving toward her head. A faint, resonant chime filled the chamber, and the multitude of cuts began to fade. The power of the charm was limited, and only a few of the injuries were completely healed. But deep gashes became shallow wounds, and signs of infection disappeared.

The chime came to an end. The drow woman appeared to be sleeping, and Daine studied her. She was unquestionably elven, with fine features, large almond-shaped eyes, and long, pointed ears. Like most of the other elves Daine had encountered, she was short and slender-athletic, but built for speed instead of strength. Where most elves had light complexions, this woman’s skin was pitch black, a shade far darker than he’d ever seen on a human. This darkness was broken up by a web of pale white tattoos, abstract but almost hypnotic in their complexity. Her long hair was the color of moonlight, silvery-white and shimmering in the reflected flame. This cloak of hair covered more than her actual clothing. Vambraces made from some opalescent shell covered her forearms, and she wore shin-guards made from the same material. Aside from this armor, she wore a short, dark loincloth and a few bands of leather wrapped across her torso. Two short scabbards dangled from this makeshift harness, but her knives must have been left behind at the monolith.

The worst of her wounds were healed, and her breathing was slow and even. But her eyes remained closed, and she did not move.

“Lei?” Daine said.

“The charm’s exhausted. If she’s still unconscious, there’s nothing more I can do.” Lei bent to look more closely at her patient.

“She is conscious,” Pierce said.

“And angry.” The voice was rough, the accent strange, the words blending together … anangry. The woman’s eyes opened, pure silver-white with no trace of iris or pupil.

And then everything went black.