The City of Towers: The Dreaming Dark - Book I (24 page)

“The staff was never mine,” Flamewind said. “I simply arranged for it to come to you. There is little I can do for you. Accept this gift.”

Pierce walked up behind Lei. He picked up the staff and put his other hand on her shoulder. Flamewind smiled slightly. “Your friends will rely on your strength in days to come, Pierce,” she said. “But even you do not know your true strength.”

“What do you mean?” Pierce said. Even Lei looked puzzled.

“Do you know what your purpose is, Pierce?”

“I was designed to serve as a light infantry scout and support unit, specializing in stealth and reconnaissance.”

“That is what you were told. That is what you have done. But it is far from the truth. You too must learn about your family.”

Pierce’s metal faceplate was incapable of expression. “I have no family. I was forged in the workshops of Cyre.”

“By whom?”

“I do not know.”

“If you wish to know your purpose, that is where you must begin.”

“What about me?” Jode said. “Do I have mysterious family issues as well?”

Flamewind looked down at the little halfling. “You know your family, Jode. And you know who you are. What matters are the choices that you will make in the next few hours. There is a key that only you can find, hidden between two stone that only you can move. You must find it alone, but you will pay a terrible price to do so. You have the power to end the suffering of others, but you will need to sacrifice all that you have.”

“Why are you doing this?” Daine said. “If you know so much about our destinies, why the riddles? Why not just tell us what you know?”

The sphinx looked at Daine and smiled. “What answer do you wish to hear, Daine with no family name? That I am bound by divine and arcane laws and have told you all that I can? That I have told you what you need to know to fulfill your purpose in
this world? Or that I have my own plans, and I am shaping your destiny as much as any of the others who watch?”

“Which is true?”

“Which will you believe?”

“I suppose you have a mysterious riddle for me?”

Flamewind looked at him. “You have turned your back on your past, Daine. You sold your family sword long before Jode did. You will need to take up that sword again.”

“One sword’s as good as another.”

“You don’t believe that. The wielder determines the value of the sword. If you will not use what you have, you will never succeed.”

Daine said nothing. Her eyes glittered as she continued.

“You will have lost far more than your sword by the time the sun has set. You must make peace with the shadows if you are to survive. Enemies are all around you, and the deepest darkness is hidden within the light.”

“Do you have any more parables, or are we done here?”

“Just one more. There will come a time when you will be asked to give away your closest friend. Be careful. You will have to carry the consequences for the rest of your life.”

“And you already know what I’ll decide?”

“Of course. But you haven’t decided yet.” Flamewind smiled one last time. “I have said all that I can say—or all that I will say. Now go. Your enemies await.”

She spread her wings and took to the air, disappearing into the shadows of the dome. Daine looked up after her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

W
ell, that certainly cleared things up.” Daine said, kicking a piece of rubble. When they’d left the temple, the ogress was nowhere to be seen. However, the people of Malleon’s Gate were beginning to stir. Bands of goblins were setting off for the workhouses, and up the street a few bugbears were wrestling on a stoop. “Lei and Pierce are supposed to go have a family reunion, you should start turning over stones, and I should get ready to suffer a big loss. And we’ve got three days to sort all this out before we’re out on the street.”

“I don’t know,” Jode said. “I thought it was worth doing. When’s the last time
you
saw a sphinx? I wonder if she participates in the races.”

Lei had taken the darkwood staff from Pierce, and they had been walking in silence. Now she spoke again, though her thoughts seemed distant. “I don’t think so. Back when I was studying in Sharn, I remember hearing a story about a Morgrave expedition bringing a sphinx to the city.”

“Where’d she come from?” Jode asked. “Droaam?”

“Xen’drik, I think.”

Xen’drik was a continent to the south, a land of secrets and mysteries. Daine had never been there, but he knew it was said to be the homeland of the elves, and the home of an ancient civilization of giants that had been destroyed millennia before the rise of humanity.

“A group of explorers found her in the jungles,” Lei continued, “or she found them, depending on how you look at it. As I heard the story, the sphinx said she’d been waiting for the explorers and that she would be returning to Sharn with them. They took her along because you don’t meet a sphinx every day. Supposedly she was hidden away at the university, talking to sages about Xen’drik. No one ever said anything about a temple in Malleon’s Gate. That I know for certain.”

“So do you think that we should give any weight to this?” Daine asked.

“I don’t know. She knew we were here. She knew who we were. And Uncle Jura seemed to take her seriously, for whatever reason.”

“The ogress wasn’t there when we left,” Jode said.

“Yes, I think we all noticed that,” Daine said.

“I was just wondering if you’d ever seen a female minotaur before. Is it easy to tell the genders apart?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Never mind. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Daine began to protest, then he looked down the street and the words died in his throat. Three hobgoblin warriors were spread out across the street, all wearing the spiked leather armor common to Darguun. Stealing a glance over his shoulder, he saw a bugbear and two more hobgoblins stepping out into the street behind them.

“Hold,” he said quietly. His comrades paused in mid stride, and they formed a loose circle to guard their backs.
“Tsash ghaal’dar!”
Daine called out, hailing them in the Goblin tongue. “Strength to your arms.”

The hobgoblins seemed slightly surprised to hear their own language. One of the warriors in front stepped for ward. Hobgoblins stood between the tiny goblins and massive bugbears in height and build. While they lacked the inhuman strength of the bugbears, hobgoblins were tough and quick. This wasn’t one of the largest hobgoblins Daine had dealt with, but he moved with a sinister grace. He had striped his black armor with streaks of crimson. An odd design, but that wasn’t what disturbed Daine. The hobgoblin carried a heavy chain
studded with spikes. A chainmaster. Daine cursed under his breath. He had fought Darguul chainmasters before, and they weren’t pleasant memories.

“What brings you to this place, outsider?” said the hobgoblin.

“I could ask the same, chainmaster,” Daine said, continuing to speak in Goblin. He had served with Darguuls both before and after he’d joined the army of Cyre, and he could tell that these five were looking for a fight. But there were many ways he could make it difficult for them. “This is not the land of the Ghaal’dar. What brings you to a city of men?”

“Your failure, homeless one. With your land destroyed, the other humans have called a halt to battle. There is no war to the north, and so we have come here. Perhaps you can pay for the mistakes of your country.”

Daine felt his anger growing. “Who failed first? Our greatest mistake was trusting the honor of the Ghaal’dar. Your ancestors were paid to protect the nation of Cyre, and you turned on those who trusted you.”

The hobgoblin bared his teeth and set the end of his chain whirling. But as Daine had hoped, the other warriors held back. Daine had made this an argument between the two of them, a contest of honor. One way or another, the leader needed to prove himself against Daine before the others would support him.

“It was always our land,” the chainmaster said. “Your kind stole it long ago. Our king has reclaimed what was ours by right!”

The other warriors nodded, but Daine had anticipated this response. “My ancestors claimed this land with fire and sword, and the Ghaal’dar fled before them. Is treachery the only way you can win it back?”

The hobgoblin hissed and sent his chain spinning forward, but Daine was ready. In one move, he leaped up and over the chain and lunged for the hobgoblin, blades in hand. Stepping backward to keep Daine at a distance, the hobgoblin shifted his grip and the chain came whirling out again, catching Daine’s sword and pulling it free. But Daine had fought chainmasters before, and he’d expected this move. Sword now gone, he
lashed out with his dagger, and the adamantine blade sliced through the steel links as if they were cloth. A second slash scattered spiked links across the street, leaving the warrior holding a tiny scrap of chain.

Daine raised the point of the dagger and kept it in line with the hobgoblin as he knelt to recover his longsword, pulling it free from the entangling chain.

“I hope this time you will have the honor to admit your defeat,” said Daine, smiling.

Perhaps it was the smile that did it. Perhaps he’d overestimated the honor of the Ghaal’dar hobgoblins. Whatever the case, Daine realized he’d pushed things too far. The hobgoblin flung the remnants of his shattered chain, and as Daine side-stepped away, his opponent drew a jagged broadsword.

“Shaarat’kor!”
he cried. This goaded his companions into action. The warriors began to circle Daine and his allies, searching for an opening.

“Stand ready!” Daine said, sliding into guard and waiting for the charge.

But the attack never came. A high female voice called out in Goblin, interrupting the battle. “Leave him alone, Jhaakat! Leave him be unless you plan to drink your own blood!”

The hobgoblin hissed, but he paused and looked over his shoulder to the source of the source of the voice. Daine stole a glance as well and blinked in surprise. The speaker was the goblin girl he’d met on the lift from Deni’yas—the thief who had stolen his purse.

“Begone, girl!” the hobgoblin snapped. “This is business of the Ghaal’dar. No place for cityfolk who have long lost touch with our ways.”

“You are in
my
home, Jhaakat, and you do not know
our
ways. We know better than to drink poisoned korluaat, but I’ve seen a number of you Darguuls make that mistake. Besides, the Stone Eye wants to see him. Perhaps
you’d
like to explain the delay?”

Jhaakat looked askance at that. The other hobgoblins lowered their weapons and took a step back. “Fine,” said the hobgoblin.
“Take him.” He looked at Daine, spat at the ground, then turned and walked away.

“Daine,” Lei whispered. “As someone who doesn’t speak Goblin, would you tell me what is going on?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said. He looked over to the little girl. “It seems that there’s more to you than meets the eye,” he said in the common tongue of Galifar. “I suppose I should thank you for helping us. I’m not in the habit of being rescued by thieves.”

Looking at her now, it was clear that the girl had been playing a role on the lift. Daine remembered hearing that the short-lived goblinoids matured faster than humans, and clearly the girl’s wide-eyed “I just wanted to see the sky” burbling had been an act. He’d been thinking of her as a child of six, but her level gaze had the focus of a young adult.

“You saved me on the lift,” she said in the tongue of Galifar. Her voice was so childish and sweet that it was difficult to take her seriously. “And you did give me all that money. It was the least I could do.”

“I didn’t exactly
give
you that money.”

“I know … but you had it just hanging there. And I know
you
saw me.” She looked at Jode, who grinned. “I thought you just didn’t want to give it to me in front of the guards.”

“What did you just do?” Lei asked. “Who are you?”

The girl studied Lei carefully. “I’m Rhazala. Those mean Darguuls sleep at my father’s hostel, so they know better than to cross me. And I told them someone important wants to see you.”

Daine nodded. “Well, thanks, Rhazala. Since I imagine you don’t have the money any more, I guess we’ll just have to call it even and be on our way.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“I told you. Someone important wants to see you.”

“You weren’t just making that up?”

“You don’t joke about the Stone Eye. If you don’t come, I don’t know what he’ll do to me.”

Daine sighed and looked at the other three. “Well, I suppose
we can take a few more minutes before following up on all of our other leads. What do you think?”

There were general nods of assent.

He turned back to Rhazala. “Fine. Lead on.”