A caravan of great bronze-colored wagons filled most of the floor of the warehouse. Wide and flat, the wagons held stacked molds filled with still-cooling glass items. Vhok realized the efreet would not unpack the molds until the wagons reached their destination, in order to minimize breakage. Large beasts of burden, vaguely similar to blazing rothe, were hitched to the wagons. It appeared as though the caravan would be departing soon.
"There," Zasian said, pointing.
Vhok peered in the direction the priest indicated and spotted a wispy vapor moving against the updrafts in the room. It was headed toward a congregation of efreet who had gathered near a pair of huge bronze doors at the front of the chamber. They seemed to be in the midst of a jovial discussion. They loomed over the handful of manacled azer working at their feet, but one stood a head above the rest.
The cloud of wispy white swirled close and transformed. Vhok recognized Amak the moment he materialized. The efreeti bowed low to his imposing counterpart and began animatedly talking and pointing toward the door where Vhok and Zasian stood.
The larger efreeti, whom Vhok suspected was Hafiz the overseer, looked up and spotted the two interlopers. Anger contorted his expression. The cambion saw him reach for the massive falchion tucked into his sash as the others around him did the same. The overseer pointed and gave harsh commands, and the rest of the efreet spread out, moving toward the duo. A few remained behind, cracking whips at the azer to keep the slaves working.
On impulse, Vhok raised his arm and gave a friendly wave. Then he turned to Zasian. "Let's go meet him," he said. "Win him over. That's why we're here, right?"
The priest gave Vhok a bemused smile, mildly surprised at the suggestion. "All right," he said at last. "It just might work."
Vhok slipped Burnblood into its sheath and considered how best to reach the floor of the warehouse. A narrow set of steep steps cut into the natural stone wall descended toward the ground level. The staircase and the wall next to it cooked the air with their heat and fire.
"Meet you at the bottom," the cambion said, and leaped over the end of the rocky platform. He channeled his innate magic, floating down to the floor at a casual pace. When he settled his feet on the ground, he strolled toward the efreet, who were stalking toward him menacingly.
Hafiz led the pack. Bare-chested, he looked fierce and angry. He had adorned himself with brass jewelry, necklaces and earrings, and a set of bracers on his thick, muscular wrists. The horns jutting from his furrowed, demonic forehead were slightly lighter in color than his deep red skin, as were the tusks protruding from his mouth. He did not look in a mood to parley, but Vhok maintained his air of calm and casual friendliness.
"Greetings, O exalted Hafiz!" he called out, waving again. "My companion and I"-and the cambion jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward Zasian, who had taken the stairs-"come before you today as weary travelers seeking your aid. I pray we can offer you some mutual benefit in exchange, hmm?"
Hafiz, taken aback slightly by Vhok's disarming smile and words, drew up a few paces from the cambion. He turned his falchion point down and leaned against the pommel as he studied the half-fiend. The other efreet fanned out to form a semicircle around Vhok. Zasian joined his companion and offered a bow before the overseer.
"Who sent you here?" Hafiz demanded, his voice even deeper and more rumbling than Amak's had been.
"No one," Vhok said. "Well, that's not entirely true. A foolish azer clan lord showed us where this magnificent mine was, and asked us to rid it of your presence, but we thought better of such nonsense and came instead to pay homage and negotiate some assistance."
At the mention of the azer, Hafiz bristled. A deep growl issued from him and his eyes glittered. The other efreet reacted similarly. "You are pawns of the azer?" the overseer said. "They think they can send two puny outlanders to slay us? That is rich!" The efreeti laughed, a thunderous, echoing sound. He leaned back, guffawing heartily.
Vhok maintained his smile, but he seethed at such disrespect. Puny, indeed, he thought.
When Hafiz regained his composure, Vhok continued. "Our thoughts exactly," he said. "Obviously, we offer you notice of their presence in the mountains overlooking this mine. If you wish to capture them, that is your concern. We, however, must reach the City of Brass as quickly as possible, and thought perhaps we might offer ourselves as guards for your next caravan heading to that august city."
Hafiz eyed the cambion with a smirk. "You wish to go to the City of Brass?" he said. "How excellent. I have just promised my brother a new shipment of exotic slaves for his amusement." To the other efreet gathered around, he said, "Seize them."
Aliisza wanted to scream. Just die already! she thought. Choke, or cut your own head off, or drown in your soup kettle. Whatever you do, get out of my head!
But the old woman didn't react. She took another hack at the log, trying in vain to split it. Another feeble attempt, and the log skittered away again. Aliisza tried to turn her back on the scene. She could still feel it going on. The elderly man, standing in his soldier's uniform, bow slung across his back. She felt him watching the woman, the tears welling in his eyes.
She hated them both.
She felt his pain.
The alu forced the image to fade. Instead of the garden at night, though, she found herself inside the tailor's shop. The girl with the apron appeared in the back doorway. Master Velsin stared at her in anger and sent her to the private room, where she would spend the day half-naked in front of lascivious men who ogled her and pawed at her body and worse.
No! Not this again, Aliisza groaned. Enough!
The alu jerked her sword free and tried to slice the girl's head from her neck. The blade passed right through the image. The girl never reacted. She slowly, inexorably made her way into the dim room and began to disrobe. Aliisza tried to hack at the girl, the dresses, the lecherous Yrudis Gregan. The scene never changed, never wavered.
Aliisza flung her sword away and forced the image to fade.
She saw no garden, only the temple of Ilmater. A young woman, face beaming, prayed to her new god, thumbs pink and fresh. Aliisza summoned a magical ball of flame. She tried to blast the girl, the temple, scorch it and burn it to the ground.
No one reacted. The temple remained intact.
The alu yanked a dagger from her boot. She stared at the blade, feeling her heart pound. She would put it into her own eyes. They couldn't make her see the visions if she had no sight. Anything to make it stop. She held the pointed end up, stared at the very tip.
With a rush of resolve, she rammed the dagger into her own skull.
White light blazed, and pain. So much pain. She screamed, yanked the dagger away. She clutched at her ruined eye, trying to hold the hot dampness in place. The pain made her dizzy. She sank down to her knees, sick to her stomach.
The other one, she told herself. Finish it.
Still clutching the dagger, she felt for the tip, placed it upon the closed lid of her remaining orb. The pain made her hand tremble. She didn't think she could do it.
Before she could think about it, she shoved the dagger home.
The world spun and went dark in a haze of pain.
Aliisza came to awareness. The sun warmed her face, but the air was cool. The alu heard the sound of two children playing. The streets of Sundabar bustled with life on the far side of the garden wall. Her eyes were closed, but she could see the brightness of daylight through the lids.
She brought a single hand up to her face. Afraid, she touched one eyelid. It was intact. She turned away from the sun and let her eyes flutter open.
She could see. The memory of the terrible pain remained with her.
Damn you, Tauran, she cried, thankful and angry all at once. I can't live this anymore. Please! Help me!
She hated herself for being so weak. It wasn't just the visions. She might have been able to watch them all day long if they were merely visions. It was the sorrow. She felt what her ghost tormentors felt. She knew t
heir suffering. The anguish seeped into her, made her hurt. She couldn't block out the hurt.
The girl with the apron appeared, spoke to the children. Aliisza didn't even hear the words. The sadness radiating from their father, standing in the corner of the little garden, was drowning the alu. Numbly, she followed the young woman. She felt the girl's worry, felt her concern for her siblings.
And for her unborn baby.
There isn't enough food, the girl thought, and Aliisza could hear her. The rent is overdue. Sadil needs new shoes, and Kaiga, a cloak. How can I take care of this baby? Master Velsin will be angry that I'm late, but it was so hard to arise and dress. I need to eat, but the children need it more.
Stop it, Aliisza pleaded. Stop telling me this.
Oh, an apple, the girl thought, slowing by the barrel of fruit. Just one. I could take it-he wouldn't see.
Yes, Aliisza silently shouted. Take it! Eat it! Take care of your baby!
No, the girl thought. I shouldn't. It's not right.
Fool, Aliisza scolded. Serve yourself first. The merchant will not know the difference.
How could I raise my child to be truthful and honest if I cannot even follow that advice myself? the girl thought. No, she decided firmly.
That last thought hit Aliisza hard. How can I look my own child in the face, if I ever get to see him? she wondered. What would I tell him of myself? What could he care?
I'll beg Master Velsin for a few extra coppers, the girl mentally continued, ignoring Aliisza's revelation. Just a couple, to help with the food. I'll even…
The last thought from the girl came to Aliisza as an image, and it made her cringe. She was willing to debase and humiliate herself, let the cretin touch her, for the sake of her younger siblings and her unborn baby.
To the hells with that, Aliisza thought. Enough.
The alu raced ahead to the tailor. She entered the back room and found the man sitting at his work table, laying out fabric. The stink of his lecherousness roiled off him. She found him disgusting. She wanted to kill him.
You worm, she thought. You're too low to seek out the willing pleasure of a harlot? You have to prey on this girl? What did she do to you?
To Aliisza's utter amazement, the man was looking at her. He seemed surprised to see her standing there.
"Who are you?" he asked. "What are you?"
Aliisza couldn't speak. It wasn't real. It wasn't happening. Was it?
"Coward," she said. "I ought to slide this blade through your gut right now, let you dangle upon it and bleed out. It would take several days, you know. And I've got time."
The man blanched. "I don't know you," he stammered, standing and backing away. "Tell me what you want. Coins? They're in the strongbox. T-take them. Please. But don't hurt me."
Delighted, Aliisza crossed the floor and stood directly opposite the man, facing him across his work table. "Never mind who I am," she said. "All you need to remember is that I exist, and I know where you live."
The man swallowed hard.
Aliisza picked up a needle from the work table. "The girl that works for you," she said casually, examining the tiny shaft of metal. "The one who's late.'"
Master Velsin nodded vigorously. "Yes. Lizel," he said.
"Well, if you ever touch her again, or let any of your customers touch her, I'm going to come back here and tie you to this table and find all sorts of interesting places to put your needles. Are we clear?"
The man's eyes widened. "Y-yes!" he said. "C-clear!"
"You're going to pay her better, too," the alu said. "How much do you give her to work here?"
"Um," the man began, scrunching up his face in fear. "Three coppers a day."
Aliisza fumed. "She could make more than that selling her body on the Silk Way!" she growled. "You are a wretch. I should make you pay her what you earn! No," she said, inspired. "I should drag you to the district and let you service the dandies. I hear some of them secretly worship Loviatar. They pay well for the privilege of using you in their worship rituals, but we'd let Lizel have the coin. Wouldn't that be fun? Yes, I like that," she finished, smiling.
The man whimpered. "I'll give her five silvers a day," he yammered, wringing his hands. "And no more of the other. I promise!"
"Good boy," Aliisza purred, walking around the work table to stroke his chest with her hand. Master Velsin quaked at the alu's touch. "And you're going to excuse her for being late, because she's with child, and she has to take care of her little brother and sister. And you're never going to dock her pay because of it, right?"
"Right," the man whispered. His eyes were nearly rolling back in his head from fright.
"Because, after all, I know where to find you, don't I?"
"Yes," he gasped. "I swear, it will be as you say. Now please, leave me be."
Aliisza chuckled and headed toward the door. She paused and turned back. She gave the trembling man one last baleful stare and said, "Yrudis Gregan had better be out of this shop before Lizel gets here." And with that, the alu walked out into the daylight.
It took her several moments to notice that the ghost of Lizel's father was no longer around.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Vhok sighed as he yanked Burnblood free. "You disappoint me," he said to Hafiz. "I thought you'd be much wiser and more reasonable than those silly azer."
On the cambion's left, Zasian went through the complex motions of a spell, and Vhok felt a surge of preternatural power course through his body. The priest then dived to the floor and rolled, disappearing beneath one of the wagons. Two efreet dashed after him.
The half-fiend tensed his muscles and felt strength surge into his limbs. He twirled and shifted his blade experimentally, and waited as the horde of efreet surrounding him closed the circle.
"You were the unwise one," Hafiz growled, stepping back and watching his minions work. "Did you really think we'd welcome strangers here? Spies from our enemies sent to learn our defenses before attacking us?"
The closest efreeti lunged at Vhok. The genie towered twice as tall as the cambion and the creature's slice arced down toward Vhok's head. The half-fiend parried the blow, throwing all of his newfound strength into the counterstrike. The clang of it rang through the great chamber. He felt satisfaction as his opponent's blade whipped back from his driving force.
Startled, the efreeti nearly lost his grip on his weapon, and spun to recover it. The reaction put him in a vulnerable position.
Vhok saw the opening and jumped inside his foe's reach. He raked his long sword across the efreeti's abdomen. The genie roared in pain, but Vhok didn't stay near to see the severity of the injury. He let his momentum carry him forward. He leaped high on the follow-through and landed atop the nearest wagon. He bounded across the large molds with their glass castings to the opposite side. There, the half-fiend paused and spun in place.
Two of the onrushing efreet closed the distance, and Vhok saw that their oversized blades were long enough to reach him despite the width of the wagon. Three others began to skirt the conveyance, determined to surround and capture him. Two of them vanished suddenly, disappearing from his sight.
"We told you we held no loyalty to the azer," Vhok said as he parried the first of several falchion strikes from his two opponents. "You didn't even wait long enough to see our goods to bargain with," he added, giving Hafiz a disparaging shake of his head as he knocked a second falchion away and jumped down on the far side of the wagon. He had no intention of letting invisible efreet sneak up on him and catch him unaware.
The hulking efreeti overseer sneered. "Whatever you think you have to offer, I can merely take from you anyway, once I have captured you," he called. "Unless you fight too long and hard and my warriors are forced to slay you instead," he added.
Vhok ignored the words of the great efreeti and ducked beneath the wagon. He scrambled forward, toward Hafiz. When he reached the end of the transport, he darted between the beasts hitched to it. The creatures paid him no mind, but the licking,
crackling flames radiating from their bodies scorched his skin and made him flinch.
Just as the cambion was about to run past the pairs of fiery rothe, a wall of searing flame burst across his path. The towering barrier rose from the floor directly in front of the creatures, causing them to rear up in alarm. Vhok skidded to a halt just before he plunged into the crackling curtain. He cringed from the heat, feeling his skin blistering in spite of the magical ring upon his finger.
Vhok spun around to dash back the way he had come. Two efreet waited for him there, one on each side of the wagon, between the back pair of rothe and the front of the vehicle. They thought him trapped, and they grinned malevolently as they leveled their falchions at him.
Rolling his eyes at their simple ploy, Vhok mentally thrust himself upward. He rose into the air, levitating beyond the reach of the licking, consuming flames and the gleaming curved blades the efreet wielded. He smiled as his foes' grins turned to expressions of consternation. They leaped at him, slashing at his feet as he ascended, but Vhok managed to block their strikes with his own blade.
The cambion turned in place as he rose, looking for Zasian. The priest had disappeared when the fight began, right after he had cast the strength magic upon Vhok. The half-fiend spied the pair of efreet who had gone off in pursuit of the Banite, moving slowly among the wagons as though searching.
He slipped away, Vhok thought. But did he leave altogether?
The cambion knew they had no reason to stay. Hafiz had no interest in negotiating, and Vhok doubted anything he said or did was going to change the overseer's mind. Zasian must have come to that conclusion, too, and if the priest was smart, he'd already cleared out.
That's what I'd do, Vhok thought. So I will. He can take care of himself.
Vhok prepared to invoke the spell that would transform him into a gaseous cloud once more, but as he began the incantation, a sizzling beam of fire struck him in the back. The cambion cried out from searing pain and his spell was ruined. He nearly lost his balance and toppled over, but he righted himself and whirled around to see what had caused his injuries.
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