by Sarah Hawke
I heard the sound of voices and laughter a few minutes before Silhouette finally brought us to our destination. The instant we crossed beneath a bizarre archway, the veil of shadows surrounding us dissipated. We found ourselves standing on a walkway overlooking a huge, sprawling area that genuinely looked like someone had plucked out a piece of Highwind and plopped it down here. Hundreds if not thousands of people casually went about their business below as if we had just walked into a parallel version of the Moonshadow Plaza above.
“Some of the newer folks have taken to calling it ‘Darkwind,’ though that’s a touch ominous for my tastes,” Silhouette said as she leaned against the railing. “It is more of a safe haven—a place where people like us can gather without the condemnation of the Mage’s Guild or the judgement of the Council.”
“All of these people are sorcerers?” I asked breathlessly.
Silhouette chuckled. “No, of course not. Some are wizards who failed out of the Academy, while others are priests of gods that aren’t recognized by the Highwind elite. But most are simply outcasts. Half-orcs born after the Winter War two decades ago, dark elves who fled from the tyranny of the Spider Queen’s priestesses in the Underworld, Roskarim barbarians from beyond the White Ridge...” She grinned. “Some are even refugees from Vorsalos like yourselves. The only thing we all have in common is that Highwind doesn’t want us.”
“You are not describing the same city I heard about in Nol Krovos,” Kaseya said.
“When the Black Mistress arrived in here last year, she quickly realized that the truth of the city was far different that its mythos,” Silhouette said. “Highwind may be a beacon of light compared to Vorsalos or Falcon Ridge, but that doesn’t mean it is free of corruption. With a few exceptions, most of the city’s institutions have been rotting for a very long time. The War of the Three Cities may have ushered in an era of peace, but arrogance and complacency have wrought just as much damage as any band or orcs or gnolls. And I fear it’s about to get worse.”
“It is,” Valuri said gravely. “That’s why we need to speak with your mistress. Is Telanya normally up at this hour?”
Silhouette turned and cocked an eyebrow. “Telanya?”
Valuri snorted and crossed her arms. “There’s no reason to play coy anymore. We already figured it out. The Headmistress has been waging her own private war against the Inquisitrix, often without her husband’s knowledge. What better way to do that than to build her own little underworld empire.”
“Telanya isn’t the Black Mistress,” I said. The girls both turned to stare at me like I had gone crazy.
“What are you talking about?” Valuri asked. “We’ve been over this.”
“Yeah, and we were wrong,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Earlier, you said you didn’t understand how someone who had carved out her own underworld Empire could have been outmaneuvered by the Senosi so easily. Telanya trusted foreign mercenaries like the Falcon Guard, assuming gold alone would secure their loyalties. And worst of all, she didn’t secure her source of vatari at the source. Someone smart enough to build all of this wouldn’t make mistakes like that, but an arrogant, wealthy high elf who has never really gotten dirt on her hands might.”
Valuri shook her head. “But if it’s not Telanya, then who…?”
All three of us turned to look at Silhouette at the same time. The half-elf’s face remained completely impassive.
“‘I wear whatever face needs to be seen,’” I whispered. “That’s what you said to me before we left. I feel like an idiot for not recognizing it earlier. All the illusions, all the deception…and of course, you’re actually a sorcerer. You have far more reason to need a refuge than a pampered woman like Telanya.”
Silhouette eyed me for several more seconds, and I started to wonder if I had just made another huge mistake. But then a knowing smile tugged at her lips, and she took a deep breath and stood up straight. Even though nothing about her physical appearance actually changed, the sudden shift in her body language was so pronounced I could have sworn I was looking at a completely different woman.
“I had a feeling you were smarter than you looked, Jorem Farr,” the Black Mistress said. “And I know that you and I are going to accomplish great things together.”
To Be Continued
DAUGHTER OF DESTINY
1
Barely a month had passed since I’d fled Vorsalos, the crazy cult capital of the Shattered Coast, but it felt like a completely different lifetime. Over the last few weeks I had been magically bonded to an amazon warrior (and fucked her), rescued my old lover (and fucked her), entered into a business arrangement with the Headmistress of the Highwind Academy (and fucked her), and learned that an otherwise unassuming half-elf whore was apparently the city’s underworld crime boss. Oh, and naturally I had fucked her once, too.
I couldn’t have concocted a more ludicrously implausible scenario if I had been a lonely sixteen year-old boy stroking himself into his bedsheets. And yet here I was, surrounded by beautiful women who couldn’t get enough of my cock. It wasn’t a lotus-induced hallucination; it wasn’t a hastily-scribbled fantasy penned by a bard desperate for sales. It was my life now, and it was pretty fucking wonderful.
Well, other than the fact that almost everyone we met these days wanted to kill me.
“I do not understand how you could have possibly built of all of this in just over a year,” Kaseya commented as Silhouette escorted us through her underground city, dubbed “Darkwind” by the people who lived here.
“I didn’t have to build much of anything,” the silver-haired half-elf explained. “Nearly all of these caverns were here before I arrived. I just encouraged a different group of people to move in.”
I grunted softly. “In other words, you drove out the thugs and replaced them with refugees.”
“Something like that, yes.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Even though I had solved the mystery myself, I was still a bit flustered by the fact that Silhouette was the Black Mistress. Judging the age of elves—full-blooded or half—was notoriously difficult, but she only looked a year or two older than the rest of us. And while I had seen the power of her enchantment and illusion magic first-hand, it was still difficult to accept the scope of the underworld empire she had created in such a short period of time.
Then again, the Inquisitrix had all but conquered Vorsalos in just a few years, too. The comparison did not make me feel better.
“They say you butchered half the Grim Fangs in one night, then finished the job a week later,” Valuri put in. Of the three of us, she was definitely the least enamored—and the most suspicious—of everything we had seen so far.
“I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but suffice to say that’s not a particularly accurate portrayal of what happened here,” Silhouette replied mildly. “I am not the leader of a lotus cartel. I do not have an army of goons at my command.”
“So then how did you wipe out your competition so quickly?”
“The Fangs weren’t my competition—they were my enemies . And for the most part, I didn’t need to take direct action at all. I merely helped the ‘proper’ authorities in their search. The Silver Fist and the Highwind Guard deserve much of the credit.”
“I’ll bet,” I murmured, studying our surroundings again. I had spent most of my youth eking out a meager existence in the warrens of Vorsalos, so I was no stranger to life in the proverbial cistern. The people down here—probably several thousand of them, at a quick glance—weren’t exactly living it up, but the conditions were far better than anything I had experienced. Darkwind wasn’t just a big cave with rocks and cubbies; there were actual houses and roads down here, almost like someone had teleported a random Highwind neighborhood underground.
“I’m serious,” Silhouette insisted. “Ask any knight on the street—they’ll gladly take credit for destroying the Grim Fangs and the Lecasi Brotherhood and every other gang that used to plague the city. It took the better part o
f a year, but I provided the Silver Fist with all the information they needed to win their little crime war.”
“At which point you moved in,” Valuri reasoned. “And thanks to your magic, they can’t find their way back down here.”
“Not just my magic, but yes. The Highwind Council is convinced that I’ve merely consolidated the gangs into a new, more powerful group of slavers and smugglers, but they couldn’t be more misguided. Darkwind is a safe haven for those who have nowhere else to go—and for those who will one day save this city from itself.”
“Meaning what, exactly?” I asked.
Silhouette smiled. “All in due time. First, I have a few allies I’d like you to meet.”
She escorted us past the residential area towards a large, palatial structure that had obviously been shaped by magic. Faint trails of Aetheric energy still clung to the purplish stones, and when I stretched out I could sense the presence of much more powerful enchantments lurking within. Something about the design of this building and many of the others struck me as familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why or how. Perhaps they reminded me of a painting or illustration I had seen somewhere…?
Two impressively large men—a half-orc and a human who was every bit as ugly as a full orc—guarded the entrance, but they calmly stepped aside when we approached. Neither of them were wearing armor or carrying weapons, but I could sense the Aether swirling around them. I wondered idly if they were Academy drop-outs or exiled sorcerers. Either way, Silhouette obviously had plenty of protection if she needed it.
The sweet scent of bath oils greeted my nose inside, and I whistled softly as I my eyes drank in the sights and sounds. The chamber was essentially one big circle with numerous cubbies evenly-spaced along the walls. The ceiling was quite high despite the fact the spire had several floors—probably six or seven at least—all of which were connected by a winding staircase near the back wall. This particular level appeared to be something of a public bathhouse.
To my left, crystal blue water drizzled down from a natural fountain into a central basin that fed at least eight other distinct pools. Dozens of people—at least half of whom were stark naked—were currently bathing or swimming or otherwise relaxing in the water. To my right, dozens of other folks were enjoying baths of pure steam from the eruptions of magically-enhanced geysers.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, genuinely impressed. “And not at all what I expected to find in an underworld lair.”
Silhouette grinned. “The dark places of the world are often the most beautiful, so long as you know where to look.”
“What does that mean?” Kaseya asked.
“It means she spent time with the drow,” Valuri said, her eyes narrowing as she examined the fountains. I followed her gaze to an elven man with grey skin, white hair, and smoldering red eyes sitting near the side of one of the pools.
I gasped as I belatedly solved my own mystery. A few years ago, Valuri and I had hidden in a network of caves beneath Vorsalos. We had later learned that the passageways had been built by the drow—that was where I had seen this type of architecture before. The dark elves had abandoned the caves a long time ago, but many of the structures remained intact, including a spire magically sculpted from this same purplish rock.
“You are very perceptive,” Silhouette said, one of her silver eyebrows arching in surprise. “I would not have expected a Senosi Huntress to know much about the drow.”
“I don’t, but I’ve seen this type of architecture before,” Valuri said. “And everyone in the Northern Reaches had heard stories of raiders from the Underworld kidnapping surfacers and taking them as slaves.”
Kaseya’s brow creased with concern. “You were a slave?”
“Yes,” Silhouette confirmed. “I was captured by a dark elf raiding party just outside Riverbend a few years ago. Not long afterwards, a priestess of the Spider Queen claimed me as her personal pet.”
“Gods have mercy,” the amazon breathed. “I am sorry.”
Silhouette touched her arm. “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My mistress was harsh, but I learned a great deal about myself down there. My strengths, my weaknesses….my true desires.”
I raised an eyebrow and shared a glance with Valuri. We had fled to Highwind in search of some kind of normalcy, but the people here were proving to be anything but. The Archmage was a cuckhold, the Headmistress had a rape fetish, and apparently the city’s most powerful crime boss had enjoyed being a drow slave. Perhaps there was something in the water here…
Then again, Valuri was basically a semen-sucking vampire, so none of us really had any room to judge.
“I also had the chance the opportunity to study magic without the same cultural taboos and restraints as people here on the surface,” Silhouette went on. “I was a fledgling channeler when I was captured, but thanks to the drow I learned I could be much more. They nurtured my natural abilities, and I eventually grew powerful enough to escape.”
“You’re incredibly fortunate,” Valuri said. “I’ve never heard of someone escaping the Underworld before.”
“I had help, of course. And many of those same allies still serve me now.” She paused at the center of the chamber, and a brief, wistful smile touched her lips. “Unfortunately, things in Riverbend weren’t the same when I returned. My family and friends barely recognized the woman I had become, so I quickly moved to the city. And it didn’t take me long to realize that Highwind had changed as well…and not for the better.”
“Is that your goal here?” I asked. “To make things better?”
“It wasn’t…at least not at first,” Silhouette conceded. “But when I saw how our fellow sorcerers are treated, I wanted to establish a haven for them. And then once I learned about the Inquisitrix…well, it became obvious that a simple haven wasn’t enough. The Highwind Council, the Silver Fist, the Mage’s Guild…none of them are prepared for the war that is to come. They may shun people like us, but ultimately we are the only ones capable of saving them.”
I glanced back over my shoulder to the “city” outside. “Do you consider these people your soldiers? Are you building an army?”
Silhouette shook her head. “Highwind has an army. What it lacks are leaders willing to see the situation for what it is. Archmage Beloran and his wife understand the gravity of the threat better than most, and Ranger-General Serrane is cunning and competent. But defeating the Inquisitrix will require more than a few brave souls willing to stand against the Council.”
Valuri eyed the other woman pointedly. “So what is it going to require?”
“Powerful allies, for one,” Silhouette said. “Allies like a former Senosi Huntress with intimate knowledge of the Inquisitrix and her servants. Allies like an amazon warrior whose sister sits at the enemy’s right hand.”
Kaseya’s mouth opened. “How do you…?”
“Information is my profession, honey,” Silhouette said. “I know all about Ayrael’s rebellion against her people, and I know that so far you have been unable to stop her.”
I glanced between the two women for a moment. “Okay, so that’s why you need Kaseya and Valuri. What about me?”
Silhouette smiled and patted my cheek. “You’re the pretty face, of course. We can always use another one of those around here.”
Valuri chortled. “I changed my mind—I like this place after all.”
“This is a haven for sorcerers,” Silhouette went on. “You have a strong connection to the Aether—one of the strongest of anyone here, I think. And your bond to Kaseya is…well, it is unlike anything I have encountered before.”
“Still, you just said that a few brave souls weren’t going to be enough,” I pressed. “So what’s the rest of your plan?”
“I’m afraid we’re at a point where the only way to save this city’s institutions is to destroy them. Hopefully, whatever arises from the ashes will be strong enough to save us.”
“That sounds like one hell of a gamble,” Valuri said
, her laughter fading and her eyes narrowing.
“Doing nothing is a far greater risk,” Silhouette said. “You understand better than anyone how ill-equipped we are to deal with an army of mage-slayers.”
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean—”
Silhouette held up a hand. “We have many, many more things to discuss, but for now you should all get some rest. Your travels have no doubt been draining, and Jorem’s wounds need time to heal.”
I paused for a moment, recognizing a polite dismissal when I heard one. I briefly considered pressing the issue but decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. It was late, we were tired, and at least for the moment we were probably safe.
“It’s not that bad,” I said, touching my side. “I just need a few days to relax.”
“Then that’s exactly what you will receive.” Silhouette touched my arm again before she beckoned towards the public baths. “My assistants will ensure you are well-fed and comfortable. I am needed elsewhere at the moment, but I promise I will return soon. Please, enjoy yourselves.”
She smiled at each of us in turn, then promptly turned and strode away while her servants—one male and one female—took her place. The man was tall, muscular, and so objectively handsome that just looking at him made me question my own masculinity. The woman, perhaps even more surprisingly, was a drow.
“This way, please,” she said in a thickly-accented voice. “The steam baths will wash away your troubles.”
“I bet they will,” I murmured, eyeing her up and down. She was naked, just like many of the others currently enjoying the baths, and I couldn’t help but marvel at her slender elven frame, glistening gray skin, and bright blue eyes. She had a spider-shaped gemstone in her navel, and when she turned to escort us I noticed the similarly designed spider tattoo on the small of her back. I assumed they were religious symbols. Had this woman been a prisoner along with Silhouette? I didn’t know enough about dark elf culture to speculate.