The Fifth Empire of Man (Best Laid Plans Book 2)

by Rob J. Hayes

  As the door slowed to a gentle rest, every last one of the company peered inside with their emotions plain, ranging from mild distrust to outright terror. The room inside was darker than night and eerily still. For a long while they all stared, straining their eyes and ears, no one wanting to be the first to venture inside.

  “Anybody else hear that scratching?” Alfer said.

  “Rats,” Smithe assured them in a voice that sounded far from sure.

  “Riiiight,” Alfer said.

  “What else could it be?” Smithe said.

  “Lad,” said the older man, “you do not want me to answer that question.”

  “Ah, fuck this cowardly shit.” Smithe snatched his torch back from Jotin and walked into the temple. The quartermaster took five paces forwards and waved his torch about a bit before turning to the rest of them, still crowded around the entrance. “Well, come the fuck on then. This place ain’t exactly gonna loot itself.”

  Chapter 39 - Starry Dawn

  The darkness dictated their decision to stop far more than any certainty that they’d lost Bronson and the spirits that infested him. They’d crossed skybridges, changed directions through buildings, and even leapt a few gaps of significant distance. If they hadn’t lost Bronson by now, they weren’t going to, so they might as well turn and fight.

  They were inside a building, and it looked like it might once have been a bakery or some such. There was a large stone oven in one corner of the room, long unused, and a number of dusty stone tabletops. Elaina leaned against one of the tables and sucked in deep breaths of cool air. She was far from tired, and her blood was up. Excitement from the chase coursed through her veins. A laugh bubbled up from deep inside and burst out of her mouth.

  “What are you laughing at?” Keelin said between deep breaths of his own.

  “Same thing you are, I reckon,” Elaina replied with a wink.

  Keelin nodded, chuckling. “Just like old times, eh?”

  “Never could decide if it was you or me who kept finding the trouble, but we were always both running from it.”

  “It was you,” Keelin said with a grin.

  Elaina snorted. “Well, that’s a lot of shit if ever I heard it.” She stood and stretched her back, bending over backwards into a handstand and then letting her momentum carry her upright. Keelin was leaning against a wall, watching her with a familiar glint in his eyes.

  Elaina sauntered over to him. “I seem to remember it was you who came up with the plan to pinch ol’ Farley’s last bottle of brandy reserve.”

  Keelin grinned again. “My idea, sure. You stole it though.”

  Elaina moved closer still, close enough that she could smell Keelin’s sweat. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, and it should probably have turned her off, but it was having quite the opposite effect. There was nothing like a good heart-pounding chase or fight to get the blood up, and there was no aphrodisiac quite like danger.

  “Seem to remember we both drank it,” Elaina said, taking another step closer until her breasts pushed against Keelin’s chest. She stared at him. His breath was coming quick and ragged.

  Elaina lunged forwards, nipping at Keelin, catching his lip between her teeth and tugging gently. It appeared to be all the invitation he needed.

  Keelin surged forwards, picking Elaina up and turning them both around, shoving her against the wall. A gasp escaped her lips and then Keelin’s own were against them. There, staring down into his cold steel eyes, Elaina saw the ghost of the man he used to be, the man he really was but seemed to have forgotten.

  The danger of the spirit-infested hunter forgotten, Elaina and Keelin raced to rid each other of their clothing, and in close to no time at all they were both as naked as they could be arsed to be.

  He didn’t last long, but Elaina was used to that. Keelin always finished first to begin with, but they’d never left it at just the one time before, and this was no exception.

  “So why are we here, Keelin?” Elaina said, picking up her trousers and attempting to shake the dust out of them. She had a warm, flushed feeling deep inside, as she always did after an orgasm. It didn’t mean she was about to ignore the big, important question that had been nagging her since they’d arrived. “Don’t give me that shit about treasure. I know ya well enough to know ya don’t give a fuck about gold more than keeping ya ship afloat and ya wardrobe full of fancy jackets.”

  Keelin sighed. He was sitting on one of the tabletops, mostly naked. Elaina felt her blood stir again when she looked at him, but she ignored it. They could fuck more later; now she wanted answers.

  “I’m here for the Observatory,” Keelin said. His eyes were pinned to her breasts.

  Elaina placed her hands in front of her tits until Keelin met her stare. “That’s suitably vague, Stillwater. Fancy filling me in on the rest?”

  “Haven’t I filled you enough for today?” Keelin grinned wickedly, again looking like the pirate Elaina remembered from years before.

  “You reckon that’s enough?” She winked at him. “Your standards must be slipping. I still want an answer.”

  “I’m looking for someone. Have been for a long time. I’ve heard the Observatory here has ways of finding them. No matter how far away they might be.”

  “The Arbiter?” Elaina said as she started buttoning up her blouse. “The one that killed ya sister?”

  Keelin leapt off the tabletop and snatched his trousers from the dusty floor, shoving his legs into them. Anger marred his usually pretty features.

  “How do you know about that, Elaina?”

  “You told me a long time ago. You were pretty drunk at the time and bawling like a babe. I remember it clear as day though. You told me how ya sister had been sick since birth, had fits and was weak, barely able to stand. You also said she was smart, knew things a girl her age shouldn’t.

  “Your da thought it was more than just sickness though. He thought she was possessed, or a witch or something. He sent a request to the Inquisition, asking for one of their witch hunters to come and have a look at her.”

  Keelin pulled his jacket on over his shirt and kicked at a stone on the floor. “Bastard set fire to her. Burned her alive just for being a sick little girl.”

  “And you’ve spent all ya years since trying to find that bastard. Pin?”

  “Prin. Arbiter Prin.”

  “And ya reckon ya can use this Observatory to find him? So we can go put him in the ground?”

  Keelin was quiet for a long while. “Yeah.”

  “Let’s get moving then, eh?” Elaina grinned.

  “Why did you never tell me that you can see spirits, Elaina?” Keelin didn’t look like he was in any rush to leave the comfort of the little bakery.

  Elaina cackled. “Same reason you never told me you’re noble born, I reckon.” She winked at him. “I figured it out though.”

  Keelin snorted and shook his head. “No, you didn’t. Someone on my ship told you.”

  “I’ve known ya for… I don’t know. Since we were old enough to know each other, I guess. Ya really think I didn’t figure it out?”

  “Nobody else did.”

  “Nobody else sat and listened to ya voice for hours. Nobody else spent so long with ya they heard ya accent slip. Nobody else cared enough to figure it out, Keelin.”

  “Nobody else got me so fucking drunk I spilled my closest-kept secrets?”

  “Aye, that too. Point is, your family were nobles from the Five Kingdoms who murdered their own daughter. My family can see spirits, and my da’s an evil bastard who had me raped to teach me a lesson.”

  “What?”

  Elaina’s smile vanished. “Shit. Forgot ya didn’t know that one.”

  “I’ll kill him,” Keelin hissed. He crossed the room and put his arms around Elaina, and she didn’t stop him. It felt nice to be protected and supported. It felt nice not to be alone for once.

  “No, you won’t,” she breathed into his shoulder. “The isles need Tanner Black. So do I.”


  “No, you don’t, El. You never have.”

  Elaina let out a weary laugh.

  “What about the… whoever did it?” Keelin said.

  Elaina tensed, pushing out of his embrace. In truth she hated being reminded of it. Hated remembering the feeling of helplessness. The pain and the shame that went along with it. “Don’t you worry. I’ll deal with that fucker myself, just as soon as my arse touches my throne.”

  Keelin looked like he was about to say more, but he just sighed and nodded.

  “So how about it, Stillwater? We gonna find this Arbiter of yours or not?”

  Chapter 40 - The Phoenix

  Aimi took a faltering step inside the temple and peered left and right, holding her torch out in front of her and praying there was nothing hiding in the deep shadows the light left behind.

  “Bitch, hurry the fuck up or I swear I will fuck you with your own torch,” Smithe growled, still standing a few feet ahead of her. The rest of the expedition were still outside, waiting for Aimi to move out of the way.

  “Nice threat, Smithe,” she said. She didn’t move, nor stop waving her torch around. “The only problem is, I’m more scared of this temple than I am of you.”

  “Ya might wanna rethink that, bitch. I can be real scary.”

  “Are you a dark temple dedicated to a long-forgotten god in a ruined city that’s been lost for thousands of years?” Aimi said. “No? Then I think I’ll stay more scared of this place.”

  A hand landed on Aimi’s shoulder and she damned near jumped out of her skin.

  “Ignore him, lass,” Alfer said calmly. “He don’t wanna admit it, but he’s scared as you are, as we all are. Still, job to get done, and all that.”

  Aimi nodded and took another step into the temple, still holding her torch in front of her like a shield. Smithe snorted out a laugh and turned away to look deeper into the building.

  The first room was small, with a number of stone benches built into the floor. Three dark alcoves lined the wall to Aimi’s left, and a glance right told her the same was true on the other side. The roof was high, and there were signs that it had once been marked with some sort of symbol, but most of the paint had long since been lost to time.

  As the others started to file into the room behind her, Aimi approached one of the alcoves on the left, holding her torch out so that she could see what it contained. A stone box ran the entire length, its lid firmly in place, and there were symbols Aimi didn’t understand etched upon the stone.

  “Coffins,” Pavel said, confirming Aimi’s suspicion. “Six of them.”

  “Who do ya think is in them?”

  “The six faces of the temple’s god,” Kebble said from outside. He was still refusing to set foot through the door. “I would not open them if I were you.”

  “Might be treasure in them,” Smithe said. “Folk bury treasure with the dead sometimes.”

  “They are not buried,” Kebble said, “and there is nothing inside but death. The temple kept many religious items made from gold, and metals even more precious. You will find them further in, either upon the altar or in the chests located in the cellar.”

  “Last chance, mate,” Smithe said, looking back from the darkness, his face lit only by the flickering torch he held. “Share of the risk, share of the loot.”

  Kebble smiled. “Good luck,” the marksman said before his face disappeared.

  Smithe growled and stalked through the next doorway, disappearing from view along with the light from his torch. Aimi looked around at everybody else. She could see little of them but their faces in the flickering torchlight, and they all looked worried. Shrugging away the odd sensation that once again crawled between her shoulders, Aimi stepped over the stone bench and followed Smithe.

  Arches spread the entire length of the long room, loop after loop of stone extending into the darkness. Each arch was about six feet in length, and they ran both front to back and from side to side, cutting the room into many small squares. On the floor in the middle of each square was a circle of discoloured stone.

  “I believe they were for praying,” Pavel said from behind as he waved his torch at the arches. “See the small holes on the underside of each one? Curtains were likely hung there so the faithful could pray in relative privacy.”

  Aimi looked upwards. The arches didn’t extend vertically, but the roof was too high up to be seen in the scant light. She found herself wondering what the dome looked like from the inside, whether it had once been painted like some of the temples in Larkos.

  “If this is the room they prayed in,” Smithe said, “makes sense the altar would be at the end, right? Come on. Let’s get this bitch looted.”

  Smithe stalked forwards and, with a shrug at Pavel, Aimi followed. Everyone else surged forwards, eager to get the job done and be away, their footsteps echoing loudly.

  Aimi almost bumped into Smithe when he stopped, so closely had she been following the quartermaster. Behind her she heard the expedition slow and start to spread out. They’d left the square grids of arches, and in front of them now was what had to be the altar to the forgotten god.

  A statue rose up so high it almost disappeared into the darkness above, a group of six figures standing back to back in a circle facing outwards, each one different but for their faces. One carried a shield, while another held a sword. One was dressed in robes, while another wore an apron and carried both a hammer and a shovel. The final two were hidden behind the others. At the feet of the statue lay a large bench, and upon it sat a much smaller depiction of the six figures, made of gold rather than stone. Each of the figures had small, different-coloured gemstones for eyes.

  “Grab it, Jotin,” Smithe ordered, already walking off around the statue.

  “Stealing from a god,” Jotin said hesitantly. “I ain’t so sure about this.”

  “Just do it,” Smithe hissed. “Kebble said this bloody god is as good as dead already. No power left.”

  “That ain’t what he said,” Aimi complained.

  “Good as.” Smithe completed his circuit around the statue. “Ain’t nothing else here. Just the one fucking lump of gold.”

  “Your man outside said the rest might be kept in a cellar?” Alfer said. “We should look for some steps.”

  “Does anyone else still hear that scratching?” said Jolan.

  “I told you it was rats, ya damned coward,” Smithe snapped.

  Jolan was looking up into the darkness. “Then why is it coming from above us?”

  Chapter 41 - Starry Dawn

  “Is this magical diviner of yours still gonna work?” Elaina said.

  They were standing on a long skybridge that ran to the Observatory from the building closest to it. On the ground below were metal, glass, and stone remains of the largest monoscope Elaina had ever seen.

  “I hope so,” Keelin said, his voice barely more than a whisper in the dark.

  “They must have wanted to look at some things really far away,” Elaina said. The Observatory was almost twice as tall as the buildings around it, and the monoscope had once been a giant. But, like everywhere else in the city, time had brought down the mighty achievement.

  “The stars,” Keelin said. “It was used to look at the stars.”

  “Aye, but… Why?”

  “Some people say you can tell the future by the stars. Probably shit. Maybe these folk believed it.”

  The door at the end of the skybridge was made of stone, and it stood proudly defiant despite the passing of time. Keelin put his back against it and pushed with all his strength. Nothing happened. Elaina joined him, putting her own weight to the slab, and together they shifted it. It moved slowly at first, but soon the door cleared its frame and swung open on surprisingly smooth hinges.

  The air inside the Observatory was still and dry, and it felt odd against Elaina’s skin. The hairs on her arms stood up, and she felt a strange energy all around her. It took her a moment to realise the Observatory wasn’t dark. A dim glow reminiscent of mo
onlight shone down from the windows, even though the moon was well and truly obscured by cloud.

  “That’s eerie,” she whispered.

  “The windows absorb sunlight during the day and release it at night to keep the place lit. The creature who told me about this place described it in great detail.”

  Elaina grunted. “That’d be a real useful trick to know.”

  “We’re not here to steal the secrets to making fancy windows, El. What we’re looking for should be two floors up, in a laboratory filled with gears and cogs.”

  Keelin started searching for the stairs up to the next level. Elaina was far more interested in what this floor contained. A vast array of glass equipment was laid out, set up on wooden tables that somehow hadn’t rotted to dust. Bookshelves stood along one wall, and each one was full of dusty tomes. A small shelf of scrolls sat alongside a cupboard containing glass vials, all of which were filled with a variety of coloured liquids. Elaina didn’t know much about magic, but she guessed only sorcery could keep the place pristine through the passing of thousands of years. A thick layer of dust coated everything, but other than that, it looked like a working alchemist’s laboratory.

  “Here,” Keelin called, one foot already on the first step.

  “I’ll catch you up,” Elaina said. “I want to have a look around first.”

  “What for?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just… maybe we’ll find something valuable.”

  “I’m not looking to get rich here, Elaina.”

  “Not all fortunes are made of gold.”

  Keelin looked like he was about to argue, but he shook his head and turned back to the stairs.

  “Here,” Elaina said, pulling her sword out of its scabbard and tossing it to Keelin. “You might need a weapon, just in case.”