by Jeffrey Hall
“But you use that name in the wrong company and you could lose your head. Lord Larken will work fine.”
“He’s staring at your neck like a piece of food,” said the shadows.
Dash put her hands to her throat, as if to create a piece of armor should he lunge.
“Lord Larken,” said Dash, afraid if she spoke any louder the apparition she thought was before her would dissipate and she would be alone again. Alone with the shadows.
His eyes worked over her, moving like separate components to his still body. When they at last settled on her face he spoke again. “You do remind me of your sister. Younger, and with hair a shade... different.”
“He is going to screw you now,” said the shadows, and she turned to tell it to be quiet, but caught herself.
“So it’s true then? You’ve a vice about you,” said the Elder.
“I... I do,” said Dash.
“Do not hide it. We all do. Your sister was one of mine. Still is.”
Dash couldn’t believe he was telling her that.
“You looked shocked. Surely she’s told you of our deeds, though I know your relationship has been strained of late.”
“She did, but it didn’t need to come from her lips to reach me. The city is alive with whispers.”
“You are very right,” said the shadows.
The Elder didn’t smile, and for a moment, Dash thought she had upset the man, but it was only when he began speaking that she realized he was just a rational man and such men had no room for humor.
“My desires have long been my downfall. I’d like to say they cost me my father’s kingdom, put it in the pristine hands of my flawless brother. I wanted Glimmer. I stretched my armies too thin. It left me open to attacks.” He nodded in her direction. “Your desires too, I see.”
Dash swallowed, trying to hide how broken she felt. “Desires are the downfall of us all.”
“True. But they can also lead to the greatest accomplishments, stretch you beyond what you think you are capable of. Put you in a world far away from anyone else’s realm of capability. It was my father’s desire to unite the land of Moonsland, to pull it together from its disjointed pockets of mining communities, each with their own knowledge, each battling their own monsters, and look what he did? He created the greatest city in the known world. A beacon for the people. He created roads. A library. A center for humanity to gather itself and spring forward. All from a desire.”
The Elder ran his hand over his head as if he was searching for something lost.
“I too desire the same thing as him, but that desire has been stifled by my brother and his laws and his taxes, trying to rebuild the land in his own making. Trying to make his city into the new Bolliad. Ha. Fool. That was never what our father wanted. It was for all of Moonsland to rise up and realize its potential. For all of its people to get what they desire.”
“And what is that?” said Dash.
“A night that does not end. A sky that does not blue,” said the shadows before the Elder could respond, and its answer made Dash quiver.
“Security. Understanding of their place in the world. Peace. The ability to wake up next to their loved one and know that they can do so again the next day without the threat of beasts or bandits or some gem-made incident taking that from them.”
“You call those desires, I call them dreams,” said Dash, surprised at her own boldness.
“He’ll gut you for that,” said the shadows.
Dash backed away from the bars, watching the Elder’s hands to see if he would reach for a blade and do exactly that.
But he just tilted his head slightly, as if observing an oddity in the wild. “Perhaps you’re right. Or perhaps your own desires have been clouded for far too long to understand rational ambition.”
She put her hands to her head, trying to massage away the confusion she felt mounting there. “Why are you here? Did Chendra send you?”
“Chendra has no idea I am here, nor does she have the power to send me anywhere.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by—”
“I am here because I wanted to see the girl my mistress said once made a chunk of aggrolite get wings and fly into the sky.”
Dash tried to recall such an experiment, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. A thousand trips to the Abyss stood between her and that memory. It was funny that her sister would have recounted such a memory to the one-time, self-proclaimed king. What else did the man know about her?
“The one who once turned her father’s pickaxe into ash with nothing but a lump of ignate.”
“He’s mocking you. He thinks you are nothing but litter crowding his keep,” said the shadows.
Dash’s brow furrowed. “Well, here I am. That girl, wasting away in your dungeon.”
“You mistake my commentary for pandering, but I promise that is not my intent. It is only to express my admiration.”
Dash still didn’t believe him. “That girl you seek is long gone.”
“The girl I seek is right here, exactly as I need her.”
“Need?”
“When Chendra said she needed some place to keep you I almost laughed at the serendipitous timing of it. To think, a simple theft could put a Geomage in my hands. An incredible Geomage that is not afraid to get her hands… dirty.”
“What? Chendra wouldn’t do what you need?”
“You and I both know that your sister likes to keep her hands clean. Besides, my queen has enough problems with her coming around to discuss the progress of the Ode. But you. You are not burdened with such weights.”
“Careful. He is only a predator waiting to pounce,” said the shadows.
She swallowed, her dry throat burning as she did. “Please. You get me out of here and I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“A dangerous offer to someone with big desires.” He wagged his finger at her playfully, and Dash thought it was the first time she had ever seen him show a sign of humor. “My brother’s emissaries are coming within days. They are asking to audit our inventory and stores. Both things that are not wholly accurate, I’m afraid.”
“What do you want me to do? Change their math?”
“No. I want you to change their minds.”
The Elder revealed a set of keys and slipped one into the lock.
“Doesn’t he know you will fail him? Doesn’t he know you will fail yourself?” said the shadows.
“I... I don’t know what you’re asking. I don’t know if I can—”
“Shhh. Shhh. You can. You will. If not, then you’ll be back here.”
She nodded, understanding, even though she trembled with fear. “I have other obligations. Promises.”
“Do this for me and they will be fulfilled.”
“The sack of stones my sister had. There was a black stone inside of it…”
“It is back with her, but it will be returned once you do what I ask.”
The cell doors opened, screaming and shrieking as if they had just committed something horrible.
“I’m wanted by others. By criminals.”
The Elder extended his hand. She looked at it hesitantly.
“I can’t do this in my current state.”
“Do this for me and you’ll have all the black lens you seek.”
“But—”
“You’ll not have an ounce of it until the mission is completed. It’s for our own good. I can’t have you making mistakes with this.”
“But—”
“It’s these conditions or I can return you to the cell.”
The shadows laughed. “If only we could stay here together, forever. But alas, there is more to be done.”
Dash nodded and took the Elder’s hand. His skin was so callous, his fingers thick and strong. It was like he had been handling the world for far too long, a rough and difficult thing. And she was giving him the softness of her own, a thing meant to smooth those difficulties. To make both their lives easier.
She stepped out of
the cell, thankful to leave the oppressive metal that surrounded her, and tripped, falling to the ground.
The king helped her up, grabbing for both of her hands. She only gave him one.
“Freedom is a difficult path to walk, eh?”
“You have no idea.”
She stuffed the two leftover nuggets of black lens into her pocket and let the Elder lead her out of the dungeon.
The shadows laughed all along, causing her to look over her shoulder as she left.
Chapter 14
“You can go play in the Abyss if you think we’re going to help you with a damn thing,” said Garp, sitting across from Requiem in the wagon.
“We’ve no choice, you fool. Or did you not hear the commander over your own yapping?” said Grey.
“I heard him. I heard him say we were being released to help this fool on a mission ordained by the king himself. But never heard us agree to it.”
“Would you rather still be bound?” said Grey, shaking his head. “We attacked a soldier. We’re lucky to still have a head let alone a job.”
“No, you attacked a soldier. I was trying to do what was ordered of us in the first place and protect the cargo.”
Grey glanced at Requiem, and Requiem stared back, trying to understand the man. Grey wanted him gone and dead the first time he saw him, and yet here they were only a few weeks later, both trying to pay off the debts they owed to one another. A hard thing to contemplate, one only made more difficult thanks to Garp’s constant rumbling.
“You’re always telling me I’m screwing up, yet you just took our one clean shot at redemption and threw it in the hole because of what? Him? Some damned Scarred?” Garp waved his handless arm. “Jobs like that ain’t coming my way again anytime soon.”
“Was no job,” said Grey. “Was an order. We showed up short to the Elder’s doorstep again. It was either go out on detail or rot in a dungeon.”
“It would have led to more. The soldiers themselves said they were always looking for more hands.”
“They were screwing with you, Garp.”
Garp blinked, finally understanding the joke. “They can go stuff it, same as you and old Perry here. I would have proved them wrong. Would have protected that wagon to the bitter end if you hadn’t stood in the way.”
“Then you would have been dead,” said Grey.
“Better than having to buddy up with him,” said Garp, indicating Requiem.
“I was trying to help you. Your man is right,” said Requiem, nodding at Grey. “Commander Glassius and his boys would have hung you over the Abyss like they’re gonna do him if I didn’t speak for you.”
He nodded towards the lone caught bandit seen through the window, the criminal sitting on the back of an open wagon, a few carts down, his hands tied behind his back, his feet bound like he was a piece of livestock being sent to the slaughter, his head still hooded like he was to be executed any minute.
Garp put his head against the wood and shook it. “So what do we have to do now? Snoop? Burgle? Kill?”
“We’re just going to have a look around. That’s it.”
“For what?” said Grey.
Requiem shrugged. “Probably nothing. The Younger is so neurotic and uptight that he is probably coming up with enemies where there are none.”
“Great. Gone from a miner to a handless spy all in a matter of days.”
“I’d say your fortune is looking up,” said Grey.
“I’m telling you, there ain’t nothing to be spying on. Only thing bleeding the Elder’s tithes are a lack of men who know their numbers and Purple-dwellers trying to make something of themselves.” Requiem kept looking at the bandit before the caravan turned and he was taken from sight. “I wonder what they were after in there…”
“Don’t look at us,” said Grey. “The chests were locked when we were assigned to them.”
“Couldn’t have been stone,” said Requiem. “Weren’t heavy enough.”
“Maybe after we’re done poking around the Elder’s store we can go have a look in theirs,” said Grey.
“What are we now? Professional spies?” said Garp.
“Sounds like a good profession to me,” said Grey.
Garp grumbled to himself. “What about Drip?”
“What about it?” said Grey. “We ain’t the first load to not come back. We won’t be the last. They’ll probably think we got caught or lost or dead and start sending another load. The Elder will eventually catch up with what is owed.” Grey turned back to Requiem. “What about the girl?”
“Working on it,” said Requiem.
“She safe?” said Grey.
“So I’ve been told,” said Requiem, but even as the words left his lips he thought about Dash and her cavern, so dark and so far from the light. It was out of the way, but was it secure? He had just screwed up his mission to help her sort out her issues. What was stopping Shint and the rest of Proth’s Prodigy from busting down her door and taking the girl or worse?
Requiem shifted uncomfortably, trying to make himself not care, but couldn’t. As he did, he looked out the window and saw Sasha riding beside Glassius, atop a chestnut horse, her hair bouncing upon her shoulders like it was up to some game he could not understand.
“The commander know you have something for his lady?” said Garp.
But before Requiem could answer there was a call from the front of the line.
“Halt! Name yourself.”
Requiem tried to peek through the window to see, but could only see a set of high-backs at the front of the line, blocking his view like a bulwark built to keep him stupefied.
“Oric, what is it?” said Requiem, but the man didn’t address him. Instead his eyes were intent on staring further down the road.
Requiem went to the door and tried it. Locked.
“Oric, let me out.”
“By the order of King Larken, state your name or prepare to meet the consequences.”
Requiem rushed back to the window.
“What is it?” said Grey.
Requiem wriggled his head through the small window just as Oric pulled his sword from his sheath. The high-backs screeched. Sasha’s horse whinnied.
“Let me out,” said Requiem.
But Oric ignored him.
“He ain’t foolish enough to let a monster out of his ca—”
“High-backs!” called Oric, breaking up Garp’s commentary.
Requiem went for Ruse, ready to shatter the wagon to pieces, but just as he did Oric’s face relaxed. He put his blade back into its sheath.
“To my right,” shouted Oric, and he ushered his horse forward. One of the high-backs followed, and they went to the front of the line.
The other soldiers stayed, putting their weapons back on their hips and backs. Only Sasha was left at the side of the wagon.
“What happened?” said Requiem.
Sasha answered him while still staring into the distance. “A mounted figure in a hood in the road. Just watching us come.”
“Just watching?” said Requiem.
“They’re gone now, though. Oric went to pursue them.”
Requiem sat back down.
“You sure that girl is safe?” said Grey.
And they started up again, rumbling upon the road like an upset hag, too slow for its own good.
Chapter 15
Dash looked over the stores in awe. Before her were troves and troves of the world’s stone, unearthed and hewn and plucked by thousands of miners, men and women who had risked their lives in deep, poorly lit caverns that often collapsed to do so.
All for what?
So these stones could sit here, beneath the Elder’s keep, as a way to pay off his brother and keep their relationship from exploding into another war. To keep his sibling’s pockets full so that he and his people may be left alone, while there were dozens of tiny villages that surrounded Bothane that could use the stone to trade, to bolster their defenses against the beasts that roamed the wilderness, so
that they could make themselves more valuable and rise from the holes they made their way of life by.
Yet Lord Ardan Larken, the Elder, walked through these barrels brimming with stones as if they were nothing but nuisances, as if they were children he didn’t want but were still under his care.
It was a sprawling warehouse nestled somewhere beneath his keep. She had followed him up stairs that went deeper into the keep. Past guards who looked as though they had not seen the nourishing light of the sun in weeks. It seemed like the Elder was bringing her into the very heart of Bothane, yet through the last door he swung open there stood what might as well have been another kingdom.
A city of stone.
For the chamber expanded in all directions, and buckets of stone were stacked high, twinkling like buildings still awake at night. She had never seen so many stones in all her life, nor an indoor area so large.
She wondered how there could still be any stone left in all of Moonsland with stores such as these.
Yet that wonder was quickly taken away as the shadow spoke and she was brought deeper into its maze-like alleys.
“This place is your coffin. You’re a fool to trust him.”
“What would you have me do?” she snapped, unable to withstand its plucking any longer.
The Elder looked back at her, his eyebrows raised.
She smiled at him, aware of her own disappearing sanity, and fingered the two shards of black lens stuffed in her pocket. Soon she would have relief. Soon the Abyss would be quiet. All she needed was a moment to herself…
“It’s amazing that anyone could find a problem anywhere in this place, isn’t it? But my brother, his people, are shrewder than a brimling. If there’s a stone missing from their brood then they’ll know.”
“So I hear,” said Dash, refraining from looking at the shadows laughing at her.
“Everyone has heard. Everyone knows this, yet my people still look at me like I’m the leech bleeding them dry.”
“Well, you did…” She caught herself. She was so distracted by her own head that she almost let her tongue slip.
“I did what? Lose the war?”