Raveler: The Dark God Book 3 (9 page)

The weem spasmed and shuddered, then lay still on the forest floor.

Talen sniffed at it, but the soul and Fire he’d smelled before was gone. The weem was dead.

Talen paused, shocked.

He’d just stolen Fire. His mind reeled. And that shining—had he eaten its soul? That’s the last thing he needed, to start growing insect eyes and chitin skin.

Holy creators
, he thought.

But his hunger surged; he wanted to feed again. It had been so . . . delicious.

Back in the hut, another small roamling exited his wrist. Then another. They hovered over River.

No!
Talen thought.
No!
He fought the two new roamlings, pulled them back into his wrists, then pulled the others back as well. He dragged all his parts back in and slammed his doors shut.

He opened his eyes to the darkness of the hut and held up his arms. What were these things? His mind cast back to the battle with the Devourer and the monster stuffing his parts back in. Had it stuffed a part of itself back in with him?

The Devourer had said the Glory would oversee the harvest of souls. He hadn’t known exactly what that meant. But he knew he desired it.

He’d been bred to be a butcher. The truth of that sounded through him—he’d been bred to be a butcher, and to go at it with an appetite.

Sleep fled him, and he lay in the dark hut, listening to the breathing of Harnock and River, holding his roamlings tight in his flesh. His blend was awakening. Surely tonight he’d crossed some line. How long would it be before he lost control?

9

Blue Towers

SUGAR CLUNG in the darkness to the precarious slope that fell away from the outer wall of Blue Towers and ran to the edge of a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff flowed The Lion River. The wind was blowing, and there was nothing but starlight to see by. Unless, of course, you could see in the yellow world.

Behind her, Argoth and a fist of dreadmen clung to the face of the slope. There were eleven of them in all: strong men, hardened by many battles. Oaks was there, as were two other dreadmen that had been raised long before Shim had started his rebellion. Urban and his men were not there. Even though Sugar hadn’t said one word about him, Argoth knew they’d deserted, and it infuriated him.

The wind whipped about the men clinging to the steep slope. Sugar peered out of her body and waited for Argoth, who was below her, to feel his way to where she stood. The whole fist of men had tied themselves together so that if one fell, he would be supported by his brethren. They could not afford to lose members here, much less make the noise a fall would create.

At the top of the slope above the fist, a dogman and his pack paused. Sugar would not have known he was coming, but his dogs had barked. Argoth said the dogmen could see in darkness, not as well as other animals, but better than the men of the Western Glorydoms. She was sure the dogs would have better sight, and so she froze where she was. The dreadmen behind her clung to the rocks, all of them clad in the darkest of grays and black. They were lucky the dogs stood upwind, otherwise she suspected they would have smelled her and the fist of men.

Sugar wasn’t at an angle to see the dogman, but she could hear his beasts panting and sniffing above the wind. One barked and growled deeply. The dogman said something in his language and came to the edge of the slope above.

She peered at him with the eyes of her soul. From this angle, he looked taller than seven feet. Huge, broad shouldered. His dark hair was long and shone in the yellow world. He carried a poleax. The wind carried his musk. It was strong and peculiar.

Despite the fact that she was multiplied, her left leg began to burn with the strain of holding her. She wanted to shift position, but didn’t dare. The dogman took in a big breath through his nose, sniffing the wind. He paused to look down, but obviously did not see them in the darkness, for he turned and began to walk upriver with his hounds.

Even after she lost sight of him, Sugar waited just to be sure. Then she scanned the parapet for Walkers. When she saw all was clear, she continued to traverse the slope. The fist took what seemed like an hour, working their way across the rocky face, until they came to a spot just west of the south tower. Then they began to climb straight up.

Luckily, they did not have to worry about dogmen in this location for the slope joined with the fortress wall, and there was no place for a patrol to walk. They continued to climb in the darkness, slowly, carefully. Later a thin moon would come out and give them a bit more to see by, but now it was black as pitch, and the men behind her could do nothing but feel their way along.

She undershot the stone the woman who had escaped Lord Hash had told them about by a number of yards. But Sugar eventually found it in the yellow twilight and rolled the stone away to reveal an opening that looked like a large burrow. She crawled through the narrow entrance and found that the cavity opened up farther in, allowing her to easily rise up on her hands and knees and then stand with a crouch. A few yards later, she came to a wooden door set in the rock ceiling under the thick fortress wall.

The abused servant woman claimed a secret spiral staircase led up from the door to the lord’s chambers on the second floor of the tower. If the fortress ever fell, each tower could be sealed off and defended independently. It appeared Lord Hash had planned a retreat for himself should that fail as well. But the woman had discovered the secret passage when Lord Hash had used it to hide the dead body of a man he’d killed.

There was another secret passage, she said, leading from the lord’s chamber to the apartments that had been built inside the walls at that corner of the castle. Tonight, the grandest of those apartments on the second floor was their destination. Lords often took the upper levels of a tower for their living quarters. But Lord Hash saw no reason to limit himself to the small space of the tower. So he had built himself a grand apartment that connected to the tower by a hallway. It was the finest accommodation in the fortress. And, therefore, it would have been an insult had Lord Hash remained there while a Divine was visiting. Shim’s spies had confirmed that Mokad’s Skir Master had taken it. There were other lesser Divines in the army, but this is the one that controlled the urgom, the skir that they used in battle.

Sugar wondered if Ke had been taken. If so, he might be in the fortress as well. She would keep her eyes out for him, but didn’t have much hope he’d be with the Skir Master.

The first step in tonight’s plan was to get up to Lord Hash’s room in the tower. “I’m going to look above,” she whispered.

“Don’t we need to open the door?” asked Argoth.

“We’ll see,” she said.

Up to this point, she’d been merely peering out into the yellow world. Now she walked out of herself. As she did so, she felt a great tearing, a pain more intense than what she normally felt. It took her breath away, and she had to pause for a few moments. She wondered if she wasn’t wounding herself every time she walked, and if there would come a time when the wound wouldn’t heal. But she couldn’t worry about that now. They had a job to do.

She unpacked the skenning and put it on. The skenning felt good, better than naked soul, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to wear it at all times on tonight’s mission. She could not take the skenning with her back into her body, and she suspected there would be times when she would need to beat a hasty retreat, and it took time to take the garment off and stow it. Still, she didn’t want to walk through a door unprotected.

With the skenning snug about her, she tested the wood of the door above. Even though it was thick and banded with iron, this old wood gave like sand, just as the wood of the trees did. In fact, it was easier to push through than living wood, and she soon pulled herself up through the door and into the end of a narrow and dark passage built inside the outer wall of the fortress. The passage ran forward for a few yards to a staircase. Out on the slope, it was twilight in the yellow world. In here, it was darker. However, there was still enough light to see by. It certainly wasn’t the rays of light from the moon and stars illuminating the stone walls of the passageway. It seemed the rocks themselves produced the illumination. She walked over to the low spiral staircase and looked up. It was clear as far as she could see.

She reported it all with the mouth of her flesh, and then Argoth asked about the door at her feet.

She explained the door was barred with a stout piece of wood. Argoth called for the saw and two-handed carpenter’s auger he’d had his men bring. He carefully bored a hole through the wood, then inserted the saw to finish the job. When the hole was big enough, he reached through, unbarred the door, and pushed it open.

Sugar went back to her body, then climbed through the opening in the flesh. The passage was black as pitch, but they dared not use any flame for fear of revealing their presence. So she peered out of her body again as she’d done on the slope. Behind her, each man held the hem of the tunic of the man in front of him. In this way, she led them up the stairs.

None of them were wearing heavy armor. Mail would clink with each movement. Plate was out of the question. So each man wore a thick padded tunic as well as leather gloves and a boiled leather cap. What they needed was silence and speed. Each of them carried a knife and a short sword or war axe, weapons suited for the close spaces of hallways and rooms.

Up the stairs they climbed, past what she estimated was the ground floor of the tower to the second level where the stairs exited onto a short landing that could accommodate no more than Sugar and three other men.

The wooden door she faced was about chest high. Lord Hash, soldiers, Divines—anyone could be on the other side. This was where the real mission began. Whoever was in this room would need to be silenced and the door leading from the room to the rest of the tower barred from the inside. Then Argoth could find the second door that opened to the secret passage to the apartments.

Sugar braced herself. Skir masters lost the ability to see with the eyes of their flesh, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t see the world of flesh. It only meant they looked with the eyes of the soul. And, in fact, Withers had said that was exactly why their eyes turned black. But Withers said it was possible to lose the ability to see with the eyes of the soul as well. They could be gouged out or burned, just as someone who looked into the sun could burn the sight of his normal eyes. Or they could dim with age. Skir masters spent most of their waking hours in that world, and so it was no surprise when some went blind. Withers himself had been partially blinded by a great mysterious flash in the soul world. But the Skir Master here was not old, nor reported to have a guide, which meant she needed to be careful.

She leaned out of herself until her head and torso were free. Then she slowly pushed through the door. When her face emerged on the other side, she stopped and looked around. The door to the wide tower room was shut. No candles or lamps burned; however, a large window did let in some of the starlight. More importantly, a fire burned low on the hearth. There would be enough light in there to see by. A woman slept on her side in the large bed. A medium-sized dog lay on floor beside her. The dog was awake, alert, looking in her direction. It must have heard them as they ascended the stairs.

Sugar whispered with her body, “There’s a woman in bed and a dog on the floor to the right of us. No more.”

Argoth whispered for her to move back.

She pulled herself back in, then whispered into Argoth’s ear and explained how the door worked and guided his hand to the locking mechanism.

Inside the room, the dog woofed.

Sugar then moved back onto the stairs to make room for those that would go in first. Argoth whispered his command, which was whispered down the line. Then he knelt and gently felt for the lever that would open the door. The plan was six men in, followed by Sugar and the rest.

Argoth gently pulled the lever and swung the door inward. The dog woofed tentatively, but Argoth shot through the gap with multiplied speed. The next five men followed. The dog had time to bark once, loud and clear, before it was Sugar’s turn to go through. But by the time she was into the room and moving away to give those behind her space, Argoth had already silenced the dog. Two of the dreadmen had taken care of the woman. One held a pillow to her face, the second was pulling his knife from her chest.

Sugar’s stomach lurched. She tried to tell herself the sleeping woman was nothing more than a Fir-Noy, but she couldn’t help but feel the horror of it—what had that woman done to them? Another dreadman rushed to the shut door that opened to hallway and carefully lowered the bar into place.

Then all of the fist stood still and listened. The fire in the large hearth popped. The murmur of men’s voices could be heard outside the door, but they were very distant, as if they were down a hallway or stair. Sugar and the others had rehearsed this. A guard was likely to be posted in the hallway outside the door. Even though the bar would prevent them from coming in, a man outside could hear and rouse the castle. And so they waited for a few minutes more to let anyone who might be there assume whatever noise had been heard was nothing.

The room had a high ceiling. The walls had been covered with a thick plaster above and dark wood paneling below. The plaster had been painted with a brightly colored landscape mural and festooned with the heads and horns of various animals. The dark wooden paneling ran around the bottom. The secret door had been disguised as part of that paneling.

Argoth signaled to his men, then walked to the section of the paneling the woman had told him about and searched for the entrance to the other passage. Sugar looked at the dead woman lying in her blankets and cringed at the murder. The woman in the bed could have been another abused servant just like the woman who had escaped.

Argoth found the other door and clicked it open. He motioned for Sugar to come. Again, they walked without light, for who was to say Lord Hash himself wasn’t in the passageway, spying on his guests?

The men followed Sugar into the narrow passage in the tower wall, leaving one person behind to watch the room and alert them should anything happen. She pressed her face out of her body to see. The walls here showed raw stone and mortar that ran along the back of the apartments. However, Blue Towers was not shaped in a perfect rectangle. It was forced to follow the rocky ledge it was built upon. So the passage ran straight for a number of yards, then turned. The grand apartment was behind the bend up ahead.

She and the others crept along the narrow passage, each man holding the shoulder of the man in front. A few mice scurried away at their coming, and she caught a strand of spider web on her face, but the passage was clear of anything larger. The grand apartment was preceded by a number of smaller apartments for clerks, guards, and other ranking officials. They passed by these, some with peep holes, others with hidden doors. She wondered if Ke was being held in any of these, but knew finding him wasn’t their mission.

Before they reached the bend in the passage, they came upon a spiral staircase descending to a lower level. Sugar paused. She couldn’t imagine anyone patrolling these passageways, but if Lord Hash or someone else were down there, she needed to know it. It wouldn’t do to be surprised. So she walked out of her flesh and quickly descended the spiral stairs.

A group of the amber knuckle skir clung to the stair wall and scurried into the rock at her coming. When she reached the bottom, she found a passageway stretching left and right, shining in the dim stone light, but it too was empty. She walked down the passageway to her right and peeked around the bend. The way was clear as far as she could see, so she climbed back up the stairway where Argoth and the others waited. She was about to move forward when she heard a grunt with the ears of her soul. The sound came from around the corner of the passageway ahead. She reached out to feel with her hair, but could only sense the people in the rooms about her.