The Living Sword (11 page)

His legs protested the abuse, but he ignored it and drew more
chiri
in to overcome the discomfort. He needed a moment to figure out where exactly he'd go. 'I could follow the river up to Lake Bandar Ebon and then head south along its shore until I reach Darui. Or I can avoid the route that is sure to be guarded and head straight in the direction I think the city is. That should save me time, if I guess correctly.'

Closing his eyes, Eurik remembered Rik's words. 'I'll just have to guess correctly then,' he resolved as he started to run with a loping gait he knew he could sustain for the rest of the day. 'Enough people have died already for this murky affair.'

***

The rabbit bolted into its burrow, thinking it brought safety. It found out it was mistaken when the earth took a hold of its head and gave a twist. Grimly, Eurik retrieved his meal for the day. He was still in Linesan territory and didn't want to start using his provisions until he'd reached the Blasted Lands.

He'd read that those lands still suffered from the Rift War, that there was still some sort of corruption affecting the land. It might also mean that it wouldn't be safe to use the Earth
chiri
there, but that was a risk he had to take.

Holding his catch by its hindlegs, Eurik resumed his journey. It was already the second day since Broken Fang got captured, and he still hadn't reached the border. He comforted himself with the thought that the kidnappers had to rest as well, even if their mounts did not. Eurik might not be able to catch up to them, but he was sure he'd be able to reach Darui sooner than Rik had counted on.

***

A series of watchtowers and forts lined the border between Linese and what was now known as the Land of Bone, from the Endria in the north to the Varen in the south. There were even sections that had been walled-off. And that was just the Linesan side of the border. On the other side, armies of skeletons, both animal and human, were supposed to roam the land.

Eurik wasn't sure how the Knights Scapular had managed to slip past the Linesans; he could only hope it was time-consuming. 'Of course, if Rik is content to leave his ground forces behind he can fly over the border. Provided they use the clouds to hide themselves or a mage will just shoot them down'

That danger, at least, Eurik avoided by using his own method to remain undetected. It had been the obvious answer for someone that knew Rise of the Mountain: dig a tunnel. He'd closed the entrance behind him, though even a cursory examination would reveal the disturbed earth, and had just crossed the border.

He hadn't yet detected anything amiss with the
chiri
and didn't expect to feel anything soon. While the corruption still lingered in the Land of Bone, it was only in that part of the country closest to the now closed rift. Indeed, these past four centuries the Bone Lords had strived for the expansion of their territory because it gained them lands that were unaffected.

And yet, for some reason, they didn't live there. The Bone Lords, and many of their people, continued to live in lands they knew to be cursed. Eurik didn't really understand the why, and right now he didn't care about it either.

Grunting, his body shaking a little for having been saturated with
chiri
for days on end, Eurik punched and created another ten paces of tunnel. Walking forward, he planted himself down and got ready to do it again. And again, and again, until he was sure it was safe to surface.

***

Bound by the wrists and ankles, Leraine was dumped onto the unforgiving stone floor. Biting back a yelp, she got up on her knees and sat straight while giving the blooddrinker's back a murderous look. They faced a large window looking out over the Dark Lake and in the distance was the feint glow of the infamous rift. In front of the window was a throne made of bone, with some sort of creature, also made of bone, standing beside it.

“I am fairly certain that this is not a sword,” the man sitting in that throne said in Irelian. He wore a blue velvet robe, with bejeweled rings on several of his fingers and a necklace of engraved plates of bone resting on his chest. This had to be the person that the blooddrinker worked for.

“You know,” the Bone Lord went on, as he started to pace. “I ignored the concerns of my peers when I took you into my employ, Sharverik. I shielded you from the ire of Sarvayna. And this is the results you deliver. You attacked a Linesan village, losing two horses and Sir Benevir in the process, and all you bring me is this,” he bit out as he waved at Leraine. “The fact that I tolerate your little quirks does not give you permission to act as you please.”

She hid her smile of satisfaction at hearing one of her attackers had succumbed to his wound after all. Leraine also noticed a brief expression sliding across the blooddrinker's face at the name, a flash of anger deep within those yellow eyes.

“There is a limit to the price I'm willing to pay for a living sword. Being stripped of my position in the council to placate the Linesans is well over that limit.”

“You knew getting a living sword wasn't going to be easy; that's why you put me on the job,” the blooddrinker countered, his voice betraying nothing of the anger she'd sensed earlier. “There's only a few people that know how to make 'em, and none of them were willing to take the commission. That left buying or stealing, and buying was never much of an option. But I found you a blade, one that wasn't held by some king or obscenely rich guy. So really, this mess is actually a lot better than the one you must have counted on when you told me to get you a living sword.”

The Bone Lord's lips curled up. “You might be right.” He eyed Leraine. “Do you really think this Eurik will come here for this girl? What if he goes into hiding instead.”

“Doesn't matter, he sticks out too much. If he doesn't come to us, I'll just go to him. And as far as the council goes, they'll settle down once you let them know you got one of Raven Eye's daughters.”

Leraine's breath hitched and the blooddrinker noticed. “You raised a stink in Linese, remember? Or did you think you could throw your weight around and then disappear again like nothing happened?” he taunted.

“Even the third daughter of the ruler of Urumoy could deliver some nice concessions,” the Bone Lord mused.

“Even if I was first, Raven Eye would not pay you any ransom,” Leraine fired back through gritted teeth.

“You understand that I won't take your word for that,” the Bone Lord replied mildly. “In the meantime, you will be my guest. I am Lord Merin. It is a pleasure to meet you,” he told her before turning to the knights. “Take her to an unoccupied cell, and make sure the guards know I want her treated well. No need to make her stay unpleasant.”

Remaining silent, she let herself be carried off. Hard to commit the layout of the place to memory when you were knocked unconscious. So Leraine didn't curse or try to wriggle free as they descended down into the bowels of the tower. She observed, noted, and waited for her moment to strike.

***

When he'd finally come across the corruption Eurik had read so much about, he'd been surprised by what it was. Or better said, that it wasn't actually something but an absence that gave the Blasted Lands its dreary, washed-out appearance.

He could feel it now, lying amidst a copse of elms. The Earth
chiri
here was thin; it seemed to be missing something. Eurik couldn't tell what it was lacked; he'd never encountered this situation before. It wasn't only a little
chiri,
like he'd felt back at the inn when he'd tried to sleep on the bed. More like there were a few pieces missing from the puzzle. He wondered if there were other energies that were affected like this, forces that he couldn't sense.

Eurik returned his attention to the here and now and his current obstacle. Out in the distance, when he strained his eyes, he could see the towers of Darui on the horizon. Unfortunately, between here and there were open fields and several busy farms.

Working on those farms weren't only humans, but skeletons too. Not just the remains of cows and donkeys, there were human undead walking around doing the same work in death that they had done in life.

There were differences between these animated skeletons and the mounts of the Knights Scapular. These undead were not clad in a shell of magical energy, but only had bands of it connecting the various bones and animating the remains. A few living people worked alongside them, but he was more worried about the undead spotting him.

Especially the bird skeleton, no bigger than a sparrow, squatting on top of the farm. They seemed to be keeping an eye on their own people as much as they were on the look out for intruders. And they were the reason Eurik had been forced to travel underground half the time.

'And that's what I'll have to do now. No way around it.' He glanced over at Darui again. 'But I better leave most of my stuff here. It'll be easy to find this place again and I'll need every advantage for this next part.' Closing his eyes, he gathered the
chiri
he needed. It took longer than normal before Eurik sank into the ground.

***

Making his way underneath Darui turned out to be both easier and harder than Eurik thought it would be. The city was mostly built on top of bedrock so he didn't have to worry as much that his tunneling might cause a collapse, but he had to do all the tunneling himself. There were no sewers in Darui, something Eurik hadn't expected after coming across them in Linese and Campan.

Another obstacle was the language he overheard. In his headlong rush to get here, Eurik had forgotten that they didn't speak Linesan in these lands, but a dialect of Irelian. A language related to Linesan, but still quite different and Eurik's command of it was poor.

And he would need to find someone who could speak a language he did understand, because he had some questions that needed an answer. Like which of the many towers dotting the city belonged to Lord Merin.

“I don't suppose you can understand them?” he sighed.

“Actually, I think I can,” Misthell revealed, sounding surprised himself.

“You can? That's great, did anybody say anything about a Lord Merin?”

“Nope, not a word.”

Eurik closed his eyes and tried to think. He hadn't slept much, hadn't eating in a week save bread, cheese, and two dried-out apples. He felt grimy from all the dirt he'd been digging through and his water-bottle was pretty much empty. Now he had to find a way to navigate a city he didn't know, filled with people he couldn't understand, and he had to so without getting spotted.

“What if we went to those towers and knocked on their doors saying we had a delivery for Lord Merin?” Misthell asked.

“I don't think they'll buy that act.”

“Right then, how about we pick one at random?”

“I'd prefer it if we could narrow things down a bit. I've spotted fifteen of those towers so far.”

“Oh, that's easy. We can ignore the smaller ones and the ones that look like their owner is skimping on maintenance. The guy we're after has to be really rich to afford the network Rik alluded to. I doubt it was put in place just for you, and maintaining something like that takes serious coin.”

Eurik could quibble with that. Like how someone might skimp on displays of wealth in favor of an intelligence network, but at least it was a way forward.

***

He'd decided not to go for the tallest tower, but for one that was slightly shorter and in close vicinity to two other towers. The tower, a rectangular spire of stark granite, was surrounded by a cluster of buildings which in turn were separated from the rest of a city by a wall of gray bricks.

There were two entrances into the complex, with only the large one being guarded. Not that security was lax, because the same undead birds that had frustrated his journey to Darui, also kept an eye out here.

At least the tunnels he'd made underneath the city would serve in an escape. Eurik had to be careful as he dug underneath the wall. He could sense cellars, wells, and what was probably a cesspit. He steered clear of that one and opted to connect his tunnel to one of the cellars.

Eurik knew better than to just push the cellar's wall out of the way; it created too much noise and the hole would be noticeable for anybody that came investigating. Instead, he careful rotated them to create an opening he could squirm through, before closing the opening behind him.

He'd hoped to find some food here, but had no such luck. He could make out shapes in the darkness, things that looked like crates, and his outstretched hand landed on a roll of cloth. But mostly, it seemed, it was used to store dust. Lots and lots of dust.

'Time to find somebody who I can ask a few questions.' Eurik slowly made his way to what he thought was the door. The feel of its iron hinges was a beacon he couldn't miss. What he did miss, until after he tried to open the door, was the lock.

Laying his hand flat on the keyhole, Eurik connected with the
chiri
in the iron. He'd never tried this, but he was familiar with the theory behind locks. In one position it secured the door, but if you turned it, you could open the door. You were supposed to use a key for that, but Eurik figured he could do without.

It took a while to figure out the parts, what should turn and what should stay as it was, if he didn't want to mangle the lock so that it didn't work at all. But finally it ratcheted open.

The hallway beyond was as cold and dark as the room he just stepped out of, but Eurik still breathed a little freer.

“You know, when they tell these stories about the heroes crawling through dungeons, they never mention the lack of proper lighting,” Misthell said.

“Ah, but we're not in a dungeon,” Eurik countered.

“Yeah, when I tell this story, that's the part I'll be leaving out.”

A chuckle escaped his lips before he clamped his hand over his mouth. Frozen, Eurik listened for any reaction, but there was only silence. Relieved, he started to head for what felt like a staircase again.