I frowned toward a skinbear corpse.
She shared her sleepy agreement.
So I scratched my ‘bracelet’ gently, and Princess fell back asleep.
I snorted, then said, “Hey,” to Wren.
When she looked at me, I tossed her a waterskin from my domain, to help Usim swallow the gold bead.
“How is he?” I asked.
“He’s okay,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “He’ll be okay.”
“Good.” I turned to Tansy. “Check there aren’t any more of those things around, then watch the hallway.”
She nodded as I went from corpse to corpse collecting beads via my Treasure ability. After I combined them, I ended up with five pearls and a handful of foams.
Then I looked toward the nasty-smelling corner of the courtyard. The skinbears’ den or lair. Princess must’ve mentioned that for a reason. Well, probably. Well, there was fifty percent chance that she’d actually sensed something inside the den, and a fifty percent chance that she’d been babbling in her sleep. So I breathed through my nose and moved closer. In the very corner, a wide crack opened in the wall, wider than a double doorway. Inside, I found a cave. A dark cave, because only a few bits of the skystone-flecked wall emerged from the packed dirt. A corner here, a flat patch there.
The ground felt spongy under my boots, and after a moment I realized that I was standing on packed, desiccated bearshit. I didn’t think that animals shat in their own homes, but clearly skinbears didn’t shit anywhere else. At least it was dry.
I didn’t see anything else, other than a few depressions in the floor--skinbear beds, I figured--and a pile of bones against a wall. I scanned the bones with Treasure but didn’t get any loot notification. I did, however, feel a faint tug in the back of my mind.
Huh.
I walked toward the rear of the cave and tried Treasure again and ...
Loot cupboard?
Cupboard? What cupboard?
Leaning on my webtouch senses instead of my vision, I picked my way through the darkness until I found a wide alcove to one side. Or not an alcove, more of a secondary, smaller cave. It had been formed, apparently, by a space that had once been a closet or ... or a number of closets, because three dark rectangles lined the wall. Almost like changing rooms?
Except when I peeked into the first one, the ‘closet’ led off into the lightless distance. Three narrow tunnels headed deeper into the Old City, like hidden passageways. Oh, and a breeze was coming from at least one of them. Which intrigued me. My very first dungeon, and I’d found a hidden entrance!
Still, this wasn’t the time to explore, so I just searched the surrounding area until I spotted what looked like a broken cupboard. I disturbed a few beetles, then I looted away.
TREASURE! 1 jeweled hand-mirror (cracked), 3 platinum hatpins, and a copper coin.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Huh. I hadn’t known that anyone used coins in this weird fantasy world. I thought it had all been beads. I popped the items into my domain and returned to the courtyard. Everything looked the same. Tansy watched the hallway while Wren cooed and murmured over the slowly-rousing Usim, who blinked at her in confusion.
I slipped into place beside Tansy. “No trouble?”
“Only that Sixer behind me,” she muttered. “If we didn’t owe that kid, I’d go for her throat.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But we do owe that kid.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said.
She shot me a look. “She’s a killer, Alex.”
“I know. I know that, but look at her. She loves her boy. That’s hard not to like.”
“I’ll manage.”
“Hah. Well, Erdinand’s safe. Your debt’s paid, Tansy. To him and to me. If you want to head back, feel free. You don’t--”
“Oh, shut up,” she said. “You don’t get to decide when my debt is paid. I decide when my debt is paid. And someone has to watch your back around that Sixer.”
“I have a lovely back.”
“Turning into a long-tail gem-monster like that,” she said, frowning toward Wren. “She threw one of the bears. Like, into the air. She becomes impossible strong. But my theory is, she can’t stay like that for long.”
“My theory is, she could handle you even without turning into a monster.”
“Your theory is dumb,” Tansy said. “We should kill her while we have the chance.”
“We’re not killing her in front of her kid. Even if we didn’t owe him.”
We lapsed into silence, watching the silent dim white street. The flecks of skystone glowed steadily. And I hadn’t noticed until then, but the ceilings were matted with what looked like vines. Except they didn’t dangle down, they just hugged the ceiling and emitted another faint glow that joined with the brightness of the walls. Tansy didn’t know anything about them, and Intuit just said, “matted vines.” Nothing else happened, so I took the opportunity to check myself.
Alex Levin
Anomaly
Level 8, Wax Tier
Archmage Status
Arachrys Blooded (Webtouched, Twominds, Resistance)
Boons:
Domain (3/5)
Intuit (1/5)
Support (2/5)
Treasure (1/5)
Gems:
Smoke
Aptitudes:
Spear
Fighting Hatchets (speciality: dual-wielding)
Attributes
Strength: 10
Agility: 12
Fortitude: 15
Dexterity: 15
Alertness: 12
Speed: 10
Spirit: 12
Design: 14
Derived
Health: 55/55
Mana: 24
Craft: 14
Movement: 10
Avail 1
One point available. I should probably spend that. I mentally asked “Support” for advice, but didn’t get an answer. Not a surprise. So I considered my stats, and realized that my strength was lagging. I really didn’t like that I’d taken a clean shot at Tiral-ur, my best shot, and had barely scratched him. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I could kill him even if he was unconscious or tied down. I’d hack away until I dropped from exhaustion, and he’d just ... heal.
So yeah, I needed more power behind my strikes.
Strength felt so vanilla, though. So boring. And Oksar would probably recommend Spirit, to improve my smokiness. On the other hand, I could increase Treasure and maybe pull more beads from any creatures I killed in the Old City. Collect more golden beads. Except I didn’t plan on staying down here for long. The minute Usim could travel, we’d return to the cellar, and then the surface.
Well, first we’d check if Kathina and Tiral-ur and the twins--and the entire goddamn army--was waiting for us. I didn’t know how long that rubble would keep them away, and I didn’t know what other Six Coves forces were on the island.
“Who’s the viceroy?” I asked Tansy.
“The chief of the Six Coves murderers. I heard he was a ranking member of the Krelv military back in the day, too. See, Krelv took over Six Coves decades ago, but the two didn’t chain up. So Six Coves is like a mini-Krelv, drifting around, getting bigger, and one day they’ll re-connect.”
“Okay, and the viceroy--where is he now?”
“At Port headquarters, probably,” she said. “Ask the invader.”
I looked at Wren for an answer, but she was busy fretting over Usim.
“Yeah, he’s at the Port,” Tansy continued. “Commanding their forces and preparing for the chaining. Or maybe he’s going back and forth across the bridge, helping ten thousand new invaders move in, to take over Waldhill. Overwhelm us with numbers.”
“Ah. So the bridge is near the Port?”
“Of course it is. Yeah. Obviously. There are only four towns or cities worth the name on Waldhill, right? The Port’s the biggest, and it’s on the water, so the biggest spire is already there. Which is why the landbridge formed nearby.”
“Because bridges form near spires?”
“Sure. Well, usually. Depends how many spires there are. Like, if there was another city the size of the Port on the other side of the island? Then maybe a bridge would split the difference and form between them.”
“Huh.”
“Or maybe not. The spires are what pull two islands together. You already know that, Alex, I told you like five times.”
“Yeah, the spires kind of act as ... as a center of mass for the floating islands.” I scratched my neck and considered the quiet, underground street. “So if the Sixers drag all the spires to the Port, Waldhill will keep trying to move closer and closer to Six Coves even after they’re touching. Which makes the bridge permanent.”
“Pretty much. Then at some point, Six Coves will chain to Krelv.”
“Okay, so how is Miss Kathina suddenly in charge of Commander Wren?”
“No clue.”
“She’s the viceroy’s niece,” Wren said, from deeper inside the courtyard.
I turned to find her walking toward us, supporting a limping, bruised Usim. Bruised, but not defeated; he smiled when he saw me.
“How you feeling?” I asked him.
“O-okay,” he said. “I’m okay. A little rattled.”
“Getting body-slammed by a skinbear will do that.”
“You should’ve thought of that before you kidnapped him,” Wren told me.
“Good point,” I said, and didn’t mention that he’d offered to come along. “Now why exactly did I kidnap him, again?”
“To save an innocent man’s life,” Usim told his mother. “You’re not angry at Alex, Mother.”
“Pretty sure I am,” she said.
“What are you going to do now?” I asked her. “Kathina wants you dead. She wants your son dead, too.”
Tansy laughed unkindly. “Ha! Now you’re an outlaw like us.”
“I’m not like you.”
“That’s true. I was born here, and I only ever kill soldiers.”
“What are we doing to do?” Usim asked his mother.
Wren’s shoulders sagged. “First, I’m going to ask these assholes to keep you safe for a while. To keep you away from ... from our troops.”
“They’ll do that,” he told her. “What comes second?”
“You’re pretty confident we’ll look after you, huh?” Tansy asked Usim.
“Yes,” he told her.
She laughed again, but kindly that time. “How old are you? You’re scarier than a skinbear.”
“What comes second?” he asked his mother again.
“I surrender to Kathina,” she said.
Usim blinked at her. “You what?”
“Once we return to the surface, and these ... people ... take you to safety, I’ll turn myself in. Kathina will bring me to the Port, to the viceroy. I’ll throw myself on his mercy. He’s a parent, too. Maybe he’ll just ... “ She smiled at Usim, trying to reassure him. “He’ll probably just demote me.”
“He’ll execute or imprison you.”
“He’ll demote me, and maybe imprison me, but he won’t execute me.”
“So stay with me!”
“If I stay with you, they’ll hunt us down, Usim, and kill us both. The only way to save your life is to turn myself in.”
Tansy trumpeted quietly. “They won’t kill you if we kill them first.”
“The first step is to get you safe,” Wren told Usim, ignoring Tansy. “Are you sure you don’t need me to carry you?”
“I’ll carry him,” Tansy told her.
“You won’t touch him,” Wren snapped.
“She’s the only one without a gem,” I told her. “If we run across more bears, you and I will fight them while Tansy stays back and protect Usim.”
“I’m supposed to trust you?” Wren asked Tansy.
“I owe your son a life debt,” Tansy told her. “All I owe you is a beating.”