Ashok noticed Vedoran’s hands shaking. He’d steadied his walk, but it was an effort, Ashok thought. As the group gathered together, Ashok walked past Vedoran, but smelled no strong drink on his breath. His hair was slightly askew from its tail, and his skin was paler than normal, but in all other respects he seemed in control of himself.
Skagi called him to the front of the group, and Ashok had no more time to wonder about Vedoran’s condition.
“Time to lead us through the Veil,” Skagi said and nodded to the arch.
Ashok looked at the bare canyon wall. He glanced at Skagi and the rest, but they were waiting on him. Even Vedoran accepted his new role as leader without comment or conflict. Ashok found that a jest indeed, since he had no idea where he was going.
“But I go,” he murmured to himself, and stepped forward until his nose was almost touching the stone. He smelled earth and something faintly electric, like contained lightning, and underneath them both dampness. He closed his eyes and took the last step forward.
His body passed through the wall, and Ashok felt a breath of wind blow his hair back, like the air currents between doors. The electricity hummed along his skin and then was gone. The air turned to damp, and there was a smell of moss everywhere.
Ashok opened his eyes, looked around, and was engulfed by a sudden vertigo that made him stumble back a step.
Hands on his shoulders steadied him, and Ashok looked back to see Ilvani behind him. She had to reach above her head to touch his shoulders.
“What is this?” Ashok asked her. “I don’t understand.”
“You passed through the Veil,” Ilvani said. “Everything here is real, even if your eyes say no. The eyes always say no, but they lie.”
Ashok tried to get his breath, but his senses were still awry. The city before him was obviously Ikemmu, except that everything was wrong.
Before him there were the four towers whose summits nearly brushed the top of the cavern—the trade districts and Makthar with its thundering waterfall, and Athanon with its fence. But the towers on the far side of the Veil were smaller than those on the other, with fewer of the archways for teleportation.
The people Ashok saw coming and going from the trade districts were almost all human, dwarven, or one of the other races. He saw one shadar-kai for every two dozen other races. The trade district was much larger and more built up on that side of the city as well. The buildings were newer, constructed in the last ten years, Ashok thought. Much of the debris that cluttered the roadways on the other side of the Veil was missing.
“Two faces for one city,” Ashok said.
Tatigan stepped through the Veil with the others. Ashok hadn’t realized that he and Ilvani had been the only ones to cross for several breaths.
Skagi said, “Surprised?”
“I had no idea,” Ashok said. He nearly laughed aloud at his feeble plans when he’d first arrived in Ikemmu, of his enclave ever having a chance to attack the city. “How many people live here?” he asked.
“Roughly eight thousand souls,” Tatigan said before anyone else could answer. “But that’s not counting the traders and planewalkers that come through here every day. Most of them only ever see this side of the city.”
“Where is this side of the city?” Ashok said. “Are we below where we were before?”
Tatigan chuckled. “Prepare to be dizzy, lad,” he said. We’re in exactly the same spot we were before. We haven’t gone anywhere at all.”
“I don’t understand,” Ashok said.
“We’re in the Underdark,” Tatigan said. “Specifically, this place is known as the Ramparts of Night. We crossed from the shadow world to the thing that cast the shadow. Right now we’re below the world of Faerûn, my home.”
Cree laughed. “Tatigan has made a study of Ikemmu’s geography,” he said. “He’ll go on for days if you let him.”
“Someone has to chronicle the marvels you take for granted,” Tatigan said. “Your city exists in two worlds simultaneously, and you don’t think that’s something to respect?”
Skagi shrugged. “Means we can be attacked on two fronts. That’s why only certain people get to cross to the Shadowfell side,” he explained to Ashok. “Only permanent residents get to go there.”
“They trade comfort for security,” Tatigan said. “The other races have worked hard to restore the Underdark side of the city, but the Shadowfell side is the point of refuge in the event of an invasion.”
“And this?” Ashok said, nodding to the bustling market. “This is the true trade district?”
“Where all the coin is made,” Tatigan said. “You can smell it in the air.”
“We’re wasting time,” Vedoran said, speaking up. He’d been so quiet Ashok was startled to hear his voice. “Tatigan, if you please.”
“I do please,” Tatigan said, sniffing. He fell into step beside Ashok. “I’m writing a memoir about the city. There is a path that we’ll take up to the surface and then you’ll tell me, you who have never seen the colored world like this”—he poked his green lenses—“if this city is not a wonder. I wager you won’t be able to say it.”
“I wouldn’t make the wager,” Ashok said as they started off into the mirror city. He glanced at Ilvani. “The wonders in this city are limitless.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
THE TRIP THROUGH THE CITY WAS AGONY FOR VEDORAN. HE crawled the walls of his mind, seeking peace, but there was nothing except the memory of the last day and how it had gone so horribly wrong.
I will not see you again until the thing has been set in motion, the Beshaban cleric had warned him. Had he known what that meant?
Vedoran had gone to see Natan at Makthar. The cleric had been willing and, Vedoran thought, eager to speak to him about the successful mission and his sister.
They stood in the main chapel, and Natan dismissed the guard so they could speak in private.
“I’m glad you’ve given me this opportunity to thank you for your role in my sister’s rescue,” Natan said. “Your leadership brought your party back safely. Uwan and I both recognize your potential to serve this city. We won’t forget what you have done.”
Vedoran clasped his hands behind his back and said formally, “Thank you for your words, and my thanks in turn to Lord Uwan. But I’m well aware that the gratitude of Ikemmu extends only so far. You need not pretend otherwise.”
Natan’s face clouded. “No pretense, I assure you,” he said. I’m aware that you place your faith in yourself, Vedoran, and not in the gods, but you may not always feel this way. Surely, you can keep yourself open to the destiny Tempus may have planned for you. You can’t deny that He is at work here in our lives.”
“I recognize that He is at work in some lives,” Vedoran said. He walked up a set of steps leading to the altar and Tempus’s sword carved into the wall. The candles on the altar were warm on his face.
“You mean Ashok?” Natan said as he joined him and sat on the steps. His informality made Vedoran uncomfortable, though he could not say why. Perhaps it was because he’d expected Natan to condemn him with the righteous love of Tempus. But the cleric looked, if anything, extraordinarily weary, aged beyond his years. He was too weak to lecture anyone overmuch on faith, Vedoran thought. Uwan is the strength of the pair.
“You and Uwan have chosen Ashok as Tempus’s emissary,” Vedoran said. “A stranger, with no connection to this city and no love for its people. How can you trust such a person to carry your god’s message?”
“Because Tempus spoke to me,” Natan said. “My vision was proved true. Ashok is no longer a stranger.”
“But you remember the way he was when he first arrived in Ikemmu, don’t you? Dangerous, half-crazed? We were among shadar-kai like that in the caves where we rescued your sister,” Vedoran said. He reached up and caught a tongue of hot wax dripping down one of the long candlesticks. He wiped it across the altar. “They made your sister rut in the dirt with them like an animal.”
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p; Vedoran heard Natan’s sharp intake of breath. He turned to look at the cleric and shamefully enjoyed seeing his serenity shattered. Tears filled Natan’s eyes, and he put a hand against the stone floor to steady himself.
“I didn’t see her there in that cage,” Vedoran went on. He stepped back from the altar, offered a mocking bow to the sword on the wall, and came to sit beside Natan, who was trying to compose himself. “Ashok did, and I’ve never seen a hardened warrior look the way he did when he came out of that place. If your sister were to take her own life because of it, I would not condemn her.”
“Why?” Natan said breathlessly. He put a hand over his face, as if he were in physical pain.
“I don’t know why,” Vedoran said. “Maybe they required a stronger hand to lead them. Maybe shadar-kai can’t live in dark holes without some madness seeping in with the shadows. If you really want to explore the motives, why don’t you ask Ashok?”
“What do you mean?” Natan said. Confusion and wary fear swam in his eyes. “Why ask him?”
“You sense it, don’t you?” Vedoran said. He felt a mixture of pity and disgust for the small cleric cowering before him. Why had he ever feared the servants of Tempus? Even in the chapel they had no power over Vedoran. “That small doubt buried in your mind.”
“No, not anymore,” Natan said. He shook his head vehemently. “Uwan believes in him, and so do I.”
“But it was terribly convenient how Ashok led us straight to where Ilvani was being held,” Vedoran said. Natan tried to turn away from him, but Vedoran moved closer; his presence shrank the cleric further. “As much as I would love to take credit for my leadership,” his voice dripped spite, “it was Ashok who got us in and out of that place alive, and he accomplished it because he’d been in that enclave before. I’ll wager he was born there.”
“It makes no sense,” Natan said. He looked up at the altar and to the sword. “If they were his people, why did he not betray you to them? Why did he help Ilvani?”
“For the same reason he’s still here among us,” Vedoran said. “He’s fallen under Ikemmu’s spell. He thinks this is a better life.”
“It is,” Natan said. He touched his chest and his voice came stronger. “It is better. Ashok must have seen the path of destruction his people were set upon. He chose a different path. For that he should be commended.”
“In any other city, perhaps he would be,” Vedoran said. He savored the next breath as he prepared to deliver the final blow. “But Ikemmu—Uwan—cannot forgive traitors.”
“Ashok is not a traitor,” Natan said. “You said it yourself. He brought you all out of that place alive.”
“He did, but previous to that act, he planned to betray the city to his own enclave. I have proof of this,” he said before Natan could refute it. “I intend to present my accusation to Uwan.”
He waited for Natan’s reaction, but the cleric said nothing. He stared blankly at the sword on the wall as if waiting for it to offer an answer. Finally, he said, “Why are you doing this? I thought Ashok was your friend.”
“That doesn’t negate the law of this city,” Vedoran said. “The law created by your beloved leader will condemn Ashok to death.”
Natan shook his head. “He is Tempus’s emissary. The god will forgive. He has a purpose in mind for Ashok.”
Vedoran felt the rage boiling up inside him, but at the same time he felt a strange detachment, as if he were merely a spectator at the scene instead of a participant. He leaned forward and felt the skin of Natan’s throat beneath his fingers.
The cleric’s eyes widened, but Vedoran tightened his grip so Natan couldn’t speak. He didn’t want to hear any more of the hypocrite’s words.
“Uwan does not forgive,” he said in a quiet, spitting voice against Natan’s ear. “Chanoch was executed at my word. Ashok will not be elevated for his actions while Chanoch died for them. I will see this city destroyed before that happens.”
Natan’s body had begun to twitch. His legs slapped against the stairs like a fish trying to get off the land. Vedoran, watching the scene from a distance, thought that Natan probably wasn’t able to hear himself raving, not with blood and fear roaring in his ears.
It was over soon after that, and Vedoran slowly drifted back to himself. When he could recognize his surroundings again, he saw that Natan’s body lay on the stairs. His neck was mangled, his hand outstretched toward the altar. The sword of Tempus cast a band of shadow across his face.
For a long breath the horror didn’t sink into Vedoran’s mind. He felt only the breathless satisfaction that comes from muscles held too long without release. He’d been holding back for years, and finally all the rage, pain, and injustice had come roaring out of him. With the violence in him spent, he felt light-headed, free.
And with the freedom to think rationally came the recognition of all that he had just lost.
As the group strode up the long tunnel toward the surface world of Faerûn, Vedoran found himself in the most unlikely position imaginable. He was walking up a tunnel, with nothing ahead of him but darkness, and he had only faith left to him that they would reach their destination at the end of it. On the other side of the Veil, he’d been forced to place his faith in a cleric of Beshaba, goddess of all the misfortunes in the world.
“Go,” Traedis had told him, after Vedoran had hidden Natan’s body and contacted the cleric to tell him what had happened. “Leave the city and carry out the plan. I will make certain Natan’s body is discovered at the appropriate time. Your crimes will become Ashok’s. You’ve sworn the oath to Beshaba. I will protect you.”
He’d sworn the oath, and whether it was a trick of the cleric’s magic or his own mind trapping him, Vedoran felt the presence of the gods around him, directing him to a fate that was no longer of his own choosing.
“Rest here,” Ashok called out from the front of the group.
Vedoran could see that they were near their destination. He didn’t know why Ashok had stopped until he saw Ilvani swaying on her feet and breathing heavily. A stab of hatred for Uwan went through him. Ilvani was in no condition to undertake this journey. She would return to Ikemmu weaker than she’d ever been to find her brother murdered.
I will make amends for your loss, he promised her silently. He couldn’t undo his instant of madness, but he could give her justice for the violations she’d suffered.
You’ll have one of the animals before you, helpless, and you can punish him however you choose, Vedoran thought. No one will begrudge you taking back that control. It was a more fitting death for Ashok than fading away into shadow.
Tatigan was speaking to Ashok, probably about the city, Vedoran thought. Ashok’s attention was focused more on Ilvani and her comfort. She ignored them all.
“Ashok,” Vedoran said. He moved to the front of the group to join Ashok and Tatigan. “I suggest we scout ahead, you and I, to make sure the passage up to the surface is clear. It’s a customary action we take to prevent us walking into an ambush.”
“Once we’re at the surface, I’ll join a caravan a mile west and take it back to civilization,” Tatigan said. “In a month or more, I’ll come back, once I’ve filled all the orders I’ve taken in Ikemmu.” He patted a pocket in his vest.
Ashok nodded at Vedoran. “The rest of you stay here,” he said. “Cree, keep watch behind us.”
They started up the tunnel together. Vedoran was struck, suddenly, by the familiarity of the two of them together. Warriors of almost equal skill, they had complemented each other well. Vedoran felt that Ashok understood him better than any shadar-kai he’d ever known. If it had not been for the cold set of Ashok’s face, and his silence, such a scout would have been routine for the two of them, perhaps for years as they fought together.
It was Tempus that had come between them, Vedoran thought with renewed bitterness. Tempus and Uwan.
They reached a bend where a rock slide had caved in a portion of the passage. There was enough room for the group to pass the o
bstruction and little more to contend with than rocky terrain, but Vedoran hesitated and Ashok stopped too.
“Was this here the last time you came through?” Ashok asked.
“No,” Vedoran said. As he spoke he saw movement in a crevice near the top of the slide. Ashok saw it too and motioned Vedoran back.
They didn’t speak until they’d retreated several steps back down the tunnel, out of sight of the fallen rocks.
“Did you see it?” Ashok said.
Vedoran nodded. “Spider,” he said. “Hound-sized or larger. It was hard to tell how far the crevice went back.”
“Probably made itself a good ambush spot after the rockslide,” Ashok said.
“We should deal with it now,” Vedoran said.
“Why not bring the others up?” Ashok said. “Between the four of us, we should be able to dispatch it with little effort.”
“So can you and I,” Vedoran pointed out. “And with minimal stress put upon Ilvani. If she feels pressured to use her magic in defense of the group, it could weaken her further.”
“You’re right,” Ashok said. He took out his chain. “We’ll deal with it now.”
“Wait here,” Vedoran said. A plan had begun to form in his mind. “I’ll draw it out, and you can finish it from afar.”
“Be careful,” Ashok said. “If it jumps, you won’t have much time to react.”
“Don’t worry. It won’t touch me,” Vedoran said.
They moved cautiously back up the tunnel, watching the crevice for movement. After several breaths they saw hairy brown legs feather gracefully across the stone. Pebbles knocked loose by the movement tumbled down the slide with the faintest of sounds. The legs drew back out of sight.
“Go,” Ashok said.
Vedoran darted up the tunnel, keeping his body as far away from the crevice as possible. He was almost past the slide when the spider popped out. As Ashok had predicted, it was a deathjump spider, a creature with an incredible ability to leap on its prey from a distance.
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