In the Claws of the Tiger

by James Wyatt

  A war that lasted a million years, Janik found himself thinking as the skycoach neared the floating towers of Skyway. And from its devastation a great new civilization was born. What will be born from the ashes of the Last War? he wondered. Such a pretty myth—that new birth might come from so much ruin.

  The myth of the couatls’ sacrifice was undeniably important in the history of Xen’drik—and even the recent history of Khorvaire. Serpent cults appeared among the native races of Xen’drik with surprising frequency through the ages, right down to the present day. Giant cults, ancient elf cults, even modern drow cults revered the winged serpents, just as there were other cults that worshiped the imprisoned demons. Many of the texts in the Serpentes Fragments—perhaps most of them—could be traced to cults such as these, giving the collection its name.

  Of greatest immediate interest to Janik, was a theory that identified the Church of the Silver Flame as a modern version of a Xen’drik serpent cult, transplanted to Khorvaire. He wondered what connections might exist between the Church that now ruled Thrane and the primeval cults that revered the couatls and used Mel-Aqat as a place of worship. Might the Keeper of the Flame be sending him—and Dania—to Mel-Aqat in hopes of finding some artifact that would establish the connection between the Church and the ancient ruins? Did the Church hope to establish its antiquity, give itself an added degree of respectability by proving its ancient ties? Or was it seeking to prevent Krael and the Order of the Emerald Claw from learning the same thing?

  Janik returned his notebook to his backpack and before long was walking the peaceful streets of Skyway toward the Azure Gateway. The floating city district boasted three prominent restaurants with panoramic views of the city, extensive menus of fine cuisine, and exorbitant prices. Mathas preferred the Azure Gateway for its food and its friendly half-elf headwaiter, a wizard with whom Mathas had struck up a casual friendship in years past. Janik preferred it because it was generally less crowded than the others.

  When Janik entered the restaurant, Mathas was talking with the headwaiter in the foyer, apparently catching up after his two-year absence from the city. Dania stood nearby, politely attentive without participating in the conversation. She smiled at Janik as he walked in, then Mathas and the headwaiter turned to welcome him.

  “Ah!” the headwaiter said. “Janik Martell, welcome! But where is the lovely Maija?”

  I guess Mathas didn’t tell him very much, Janik thought. Mathas and Dania looked at him uncomfortably, unsure how he would react.

  “She will not be joining us this evening, Ravvan,” Janik said quickly.

  “Very good, master,” the half-elf replied graciously. “Your party is complete, then? I will show you to a table.”

  Having spent the day poring over manuscripts in ancient elven tongues, Janik suddenly saw Mathas and the two half-elves walking before him in a strange new light. He thought about their ancestors, living in Xen’drik and slaving under the giants. Were Dania’s elf ancestors part of a serpent cult? Was there some predisposition in her blood that had led her to worship the Silver Flame? Dania and Mathas were as familiar to him as the short sword at his side, but for just a moment, they seemed as alien as the distant elves of Aerenal or the cyclopean ruins of Xen’drik.

  Those thoughts dissipated quickly once the trio was seated. Janik told his friends about the burglary at his apartment, drawing shocked and angry exclamations from both of them.

  “You think Krael was behind it?” Mathas asked.

  “Of course he was,” Janik said. “And I think it was probably Krael himself for a change, not some lackey doing his dirty work. He knew exactly which books to take.”

  “So he’s definitely planning his own expedition to Mel-Aqat,” Dania said.

  “No doubt. And interfering with our plans in every way he can.”

  “It’s not a great blow to our expedition, is it?” Mathas asked, peering a little too keenly at Janik.

  “No,” Janik replied quickly. “We had enough historical background to make the trip last time, and we still have everything we need. I had hoped to refresh my memory on some details, but it’s no great loss. Quite a loss to me personally,” he added ruefully. “Those books are very rare and cost a lot of money.”

  “You’ll get them back sooner or later,” Dania assured him. “If I have anything to say about it, Krael will not survive his trip to Xen’drik.”

  Janik smiled warmly at her enthusiasm. “So, how are our preparations coming? Do we have a letter of marque?”

  “We do,” Dania said with a smile, “and you were absolutely right about the nice gentlemen at the Antiquities Bureau.”

  “I hope they didn’t give you too much of a hard time.”

  “Oh, no. They were patronizing as anything,” she rolled her eyes, “giving me a load of, ‘Xen’drik is a dangerous place, are you sure you’re up to it?’ But your name and my dress”—she indicated the moderately low neckline of the midnight blue dress she was wearing—“got the documents approved in no time.”

  “I’m glad it wasn’t too arduous,” Janik said, trying hard not to look at Dania’s collarbone, suddenly overwhelmed by a memory of the feel of her skin. Mathas was half-covering a grin with one hand. “And the Wayfinders?”

  “Ah.” Dania’s smile faded. “Unfortunate news from the Wayfinder Foundation. They did, in fact, send an expedition to Mel-Aqat, hoping to supplement the flow of information that, they felt, was not coming fast enough out of Morgrave University.”

  “In other words, I’m not publishing fast enough to please them.”

  “No one could publish fast enough to please them,” Dania said. “I must say, I was a little surprised to learn how popular Mel-Aqat still is.”

  “It was a very major find—a large explosion in my little world of scholarship,” Janik said.

  “Anyway,” Dania said, “the expedition left Stormreach nine months ago. No word has come back. The team is feared lost.”

  “Sovereigns,” Mathas swore under his breath.

  “Well,” Janik said after a moment, “perhaps we’ll find them.” His voice was flat, holding little trace of optimism. “Or at least learn of their fate.”

  It was never pleasant to be reminded of the risks they faced every time they ventured into the wilds of Xen’drik. Janik and his friends had cheated death more times than they could count, always escaping the Keeper’s fangs through wits, skill, or sheer blind luck. Apparently the Wayfinders had not shared their luck. Looking at Mathas and Dania, Janik could tell they were both thinking similar thoughts.

  He lifted his wine glass and forced a grim smile onto his face. “Here’s to dodging the fangs of the Keeper one more time.”

  Mathas and Dania touched their glasses to his. “To survival,” Mathas said. Dania briefly closed her eyes but said nothing.

  “Speaking of survival, Mathas,” Janik said, “did you get a good start on our food stores for the trip?”

  “I got more than a good start,” the elf replied. “I think I’m done. And I found an artificer I want you to meet.”

  “Did you?” Janik was surprised.

  “Someone we can trust?” Dania asked, looking skeptical. “I believe so,” Mathas replied. “His name is Auftane Khunnam.”

  “A dwarf?” Janik asked.

  “Yes, though he was born and raised in Stormreach,” Mathas said. “He has traveled extensively—he impressed me with the breadth of his knowledge.”

  Janik marveled at the elf’s report. Anyone who could impress Mathas with his knowledge must be impressive, indeed.

  “How did you find him?” Dania asked.

  “I was talking to Pradam, that outfitter in Cliffside, as I bought some of our supplies. I told him we were heading to Xen’drik, and he told me that he’d heard of a dwarf who was looking to earn passage to Stormreach, and might be available for work there as well.”

  “I wouldn’t think an artificer would have any trouble making money in Sharn,” Janik said, his suspicions arou
sed.

  “When I talked to Auftane, it turned out that Pradam hadn’t gotten it quite right,” Mathas said. “Money isn’t the issue for him. He was just planning to return to Stormreach and wanted some company on the trip, and perhaps some work once he got to Xen’drik.”

  “You say he’s well traveled,” Dania said. “Who has he been adventuring with?”

  “Various people, and that’s perhaps the one thing that makes me a little uncertain about him. I don’t know if he just hasn’t found companions who share the extent of his wanderlust, or if there’s some reason he doesn’t journey with one group consistently.” Mathas stroked his chin for a moment. “My sense is that he enjoys the experience of traveling with different people as much as he enjoys visiting different places.”

  “So he might not stay with us long,” Janik said.

  “Is that bad?” Dania asked. “As long as he finishes the trip to Mel-Aqat, does it matter if we never see him again?”

  “I suppose not,” Mathas replied. “It’s just …”

  “A change from how we’ve always done things,” Janik finished for him. “And again, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Well, I’m willing to meet him, Mathas. Did you arrange a time?”

  “Luncheon tomorrow.”

  “All right. At luncheon tomorrow, we’ll meet this Auftane Khunnam. And we’ll see if he can be ready to leave the next morning.”

  Janik had one more task in mind before going to bed that night—a task best left until darkness. He and Dania walked Mathas to the Seventh Wind, a simple but elegant inn at the southern edge of Skyway, then rode in a skycoach together back to the city below. Dania got off the skycoach at a small shrine of the Silver Flame in the Hope’s Peak district on the city’s upper west side. Janik wished her a good night, then continued to the waterfront.

  Making his way to the southern end of the waterfront, Janik stepped into a floating boat town—hundreds of rafts, keelboats, and other vessels lashed together and moored to the shore to form one of Sharn’s seediest districts. He followed the sounds of raucous laughter and drunken singing across the decks of a half-dozen boats. Moments later, a tavern came into view, the faded painting of a dagger on a black background the only indication of the establishment’s name—Knife in the Dark. Nobody called it that—people in the Ship’s Towers district just called it “the tavern,” and few people outside of Ship’s Towers had any reason to call it anything. Janik pushed the door open and the noise inside suddenly roared in his ears.

  He squeezed through the press of boisterous patrons to get to the bar, if only because Thurva, the owner, was prone to get angry at people who came to her tavern to do business and didn’t buy drinks to keep her in business. He bought a tankard of ale, tasted it on the off chance the fare had improved in the last three years, and spat it out on the wooden floor.

  He leaned his back against the bar and looked around the crowded room. For a moment he was afraid the trip had been wasted, but then a big orc stood up from a table in the corner and stormed toward the door. Janik spotted Shubdoolkra at the orc’s table. Finding a sahuagin in a room full of humans was rarely difficult, but the orc had blocked Janik’s view. Relieved, Janik ducked and squeezed across the room and sat down across from Shubdoolkra.

  “Ah, Janjan,” the sahuagin croaked, mangling Janik’s name as he always did. “Good to see you once.” His accent was thick and his Common terrible. His eyes bulged as he spoke.

  Janik answered in fluent Sahuagin, though he had trouble with some of the clicks and pops of the language. “Seeing you again is like returning to the dark water,” he said formally. He found himself thinking idly that it was almost true, in exactly the opposite way that the sahuagin meant it—talking to Shubdoolkra was a bit like drowning.

  “With meat on one shoulder and gold on the other,” Shubdoolkra responded in kind, and Janik couldn’t help thinking that he was meat in the sahuagin’s eyes. “Are you sailing through Shargon’s Teeth?”

  “I am, and once more I offer tribute to Baron Kushe—” Shubdoolkra’s eyes bulged wider and he spat, cutting Janik off.

  “Do not speak that name!” the sahuagin yelled, causing many nearby patrons to wheel around and stare, expecting a fight. Janik doubted any of them could understand their conversation, but Shubdoolkra’s angry voice sounded horrific. If that weren’t bad enough, the sahuagin’s ear fins stuck out in anger, and the spines on his back pulsed up and down. “The one of whom you speak is dying the thousand deaths in the jaws of the Devourer! Curse his name and curse any who speak it!”

  Janik was taken aback. If Kushek’ka was dead, would that change the usual bargain? The old baron had ruled his village peacefully, negotiating with sailors from Sharn for safe passage through Shargon’s Teeth to Xen’drik. A new baron might take a different attitude toward human sailors, or drive a harder bargain. The violence with which Shubdoolkra had responded to his name suggested that he and his policies were not in favor under the new baron, whoever he was. All the same, Shubdoolkra was here, which suggested that he was still making deals.

  “Curse my ignorance and stupidity,” Janik said carefully, hating the formalities of the language but apparently calming the sahuagin. “Who is the baron of your people?”

  “Baron Yadkoppo governs us with wisdom and strength, as long as it pleases the Devourer that he may do so,” the sahuagin responded.

  “May his reign bring meat to the village,” Janik said with some relief. Shubdoolkra had said, “with wisdom and strength,” which meant another relatively peaceful reign, as opposed to “in strength and slaughter,” which would bode ill for his mission. “I offer tribute, then, to Baron Yadkoppo through his loyal servant Shubdoolkra, and ask the baron’s favor upon my journey.”

  “What tribute do you bring, Janjan?” The sahuagin’s bulging eyes glittered, and Janik watched his long, webbed fingers stretch greedily.

  Better go high, Janik thought. “For the baron’s pleasure, I offer five thousand coins of gold. For his people, I offer one hundred steel tridents and one thousand bolts tipped with steel. For his loyal servant Shubdoolkra, I offer an additional five hundred coins of gold. I hope that my tribute is acceptable to Baron Yadkoppo.” Janik held his breath and kept his eyes away from Shubdoolkra’s, watching the sahuagin’s scaled and webbed fingers scratching idly on the table.

  “Your tribute is acceptable to Baron Yadkoppo,” the sahuagin said, and Janik let his breath out slowly. “When will your ship leave Sharn, Janjan?”

  “We sail with Captain Nashan on Hope’s Endeavor, departing from Sharn on the morning of the third day from this one.”

  “Baron Yadkoppo promises that Hope’s Endeavor shall not come to harm on its passage through Shargon’s Teeth, in gratitude for the tribute you have promised. If promises be broken, the Devourer will judge.”

  “My thanks, Shubdoolkra.” Janik stood, nodded a bow to the sahuagin, and left the tavern as quickly as he could manage, glad to be out of the crowd. He walked the noisy streets of Cliffside until he could find a skycoach to take him home, and collapsed gratefully in bed.

  He awoke about four hours later, much less gratefully, to someone pounding on the door to his apartment. He shuffled to the door, trying to wrap a blanket around himself with one hand while rubbing his eyes with the other.

  “Janik, open up!” Mathas’s voice came through the door.

  “I’m coming,” Janik croaked as he fumbled with the locks.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Mathas said as soon as the door was open. “Captain Nashan sailed for Xen’drik three days ago.”

  DEPARTURE

  CHAPTER 6

  Krael,” Janik said, the name like a curse on his lips.

  “Almost certainly,” Mathas replied, walking into the sitting room. He took a seat on the chair that Janik had righted two nights before, arching an eyebrow at the one that was still overturned. Janik closed the door, bolted it, and turned to Mathas, lifting the chair off the floor and setting it upright so he could
sit down.

  “This is ridiculous,” Janik said. “He sends an assassin after me—twice!—breaks into my apartment and steals my books, and then steals the ship we’ve commissioned to take us to Xen’drik! What’s next?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say that next is getting to Mel-Aqat before we do, and getting his filthy hands on whatever it is we’re looking for.”

  “That cannot happen,” Janik said. “I’ll give my soul to the Keeper before I let Krael beat me at anything again.”

  “Careful what promises you make, Janik. But you’re right, we’ve got to stop him.”

  “Are we almost ready to go?”

  “I think we’re close. I brought our food stores to the docks to stow them aboard his ship and found out that Nashan left. Dania has our documents. I bought new boots, and I think she did as well. I think we could leave today.”

  “Then let’s see what our letter of credit from the Church of Silver Flame can buy in this town, shall we?”

  Mathas grinned. “I’ll contact House Lyrandar immediately.” He stood up and faced the door, then turned back. “We’re supposed to meet with that artificer, the dwarf.”

  Janik groaned. “There’s not enough time to figure out who he is and whether we can trust him.”

  “I agree.”

  “Can you get a message to him? Let him know we’re leaving earlier than expected and we can’t meet him?” “I will try.”

  “Do you think I’m being too cautious?”

  “No, of course not,” Mathas said quickly. He paused. “But then, we both knew Maija for years.”

  “So we did,” Janik muttered. “Maybe the three of us will be enough.” He opened the locks on the door for Mathas. “Sea of Fire, I’m not even sure I trust you any more.”

  Mathas smiled. “I’m glad to know the feeling is mutual.” He stepped out the door. “I’ll let you know what I hear from Lyrandar. Where can I find you?”

  “My office. Thank you, Mathas.”

  “Watch your back, Janik. Krael knows he hasn’t won yet.”