The Scavenger Lands

Pamarkhan

Imperial Year 768

Pamarkhan was big for where it was, but as a veteran of getting lost in the Imperial City twice in a day Taryn was not particularly impressed. The workshop where she'd been dropped was near the south wall, its surroundings unremarkable. She meandered. The city was not lit at night, but she could see perfectly well. Are you ready to behave?, she thought. I'm not talking to you, said the voice. It seemed sulky. She shook her head, concentrated on other things. She had some thinking to do. The dangers of melding her perception too close to the Dragon's.

Any schoolchild in the Realm had some knowledge of the demons of Malfeas, and of the Yozis, their godlike masters, but it was often frustratingly vague and came in tidbits interspersed with constant warnings of the danger of interacting with them. Not much advice for those who found themselves with no choice. Taryn shook her head. She needed a school. Or a library. Or...memories...What do you know of the Ebon Dragon?

Subtle, answered the voice, reluctantly. Dangerous. The Shadow of All Things, defined in opposition to light and virtue. His nature is cruelty, cowardice, and betrayal, and he of all the Yozis struggles hardest against his imprisonment.

Taryn nodded, that seemed to track. The dark-sight, that is his power?

That, yes, and the Excellency. Our powers will desert us when acting against the nature of the Dragon.

That didn't sound good. Is there a way around that?

Learn to be as another of the five. We have some of that power already, the cutting wind is of Adorjan, who laments.

If the power of one of the Yozis pushes us to become more like them perhaps freedom is to be found in exploring several. Taryn nodded. She was near the wall, now, a higher vantage to survey the city. The door into the tower was locked but a tiny flow of Essence and a quick mental shove and the lock clicked open, leaving her free to proceed. Inside, lamps illuminated the tower, a basement room full of barrels and crates, and a stair wrapping around the square structure on the way up. There were two sentries on the level of the rampart playing some kind of card game. Taryn slipped past unnoticed to the top, a square space with a roof and open sides.

Mara was waiting for her there. The demon was dressed more for the weather, this time, with a black silk over-robe lined with white fur. "Ah, good, my Chosen! You made it!"

There was no way they were expecting Taryn here when she didn't know she was going to be here...was there? She shelved that for later, bowed. "Lady."

"I'd love to stop to chat, but unfortunately, dear, I'm here on business." She punctuated that with a waggle of her eyebrows. Taryn studiously did not react. "We suspect the existence of a manse somewhere in this city, an old one, possibly as old as the First Age. We've also got wind of other forces in the city looking for it, and would like you to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

"Presumably yours are the right hands, here?"

"Or yours, we're not picky."

Taryn nodded. "Any defenses I should be aware of?"

Mara smiled, shook her head. "We can't be doing all your work for you, dear!"

Lovely, said the voice. Weapons, tools, arcane machinery of all sorts, in the hands of these?

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Taryn kept her face still as Mara continued. You don't seem to have a high opinion of the demons you serve.

The Chosen of old broke them, trapped them, but we knew even then not to trust them.

"Who knows what you might find down there? Tools of the First Age, powerful weapons...perhaps even shoes!"

Taryn looked down at her feet, then back up at Mara, who was definitely struggling not to laugh. Inwardly, she sighed, the voice sighing along with her. "I might be more successful in this task if you started me off with some money. Weapons. Allies."

"Well..." Mara made a show of tapping a finger on her mouth. "The Dragon has cults everywhere, if you know where to look...not all of them are very...sophisticated, but word has been sent to those who can hear and they know to watch for your sign. As for the rest..." She shrugged, arms spread wide. "I have every faith you will think of something!"

Mara melted away into the shadows at the edge of the platform and in an instant was gone. The voice in Taryn's head said I don't think I like her.

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Pamarkhan

Elsewhere in the City

Days Later

Kaya had learned much in her few days' travel south. She had asked, and listened, wearing a dozen different faces. As an ignorant farm yokel she had lent shape to her nebulous southern foe; the Realm, they called themselves, as if no other realm mattered. As a calm hedge-priest she had heard much of their dogma, the Immaculate Faith which feared the Chosen and bludgeoned the smaller spirits of the world into submission. And as a middling merchant she had worked out the shape of the tensions pulling the cities of the North-East, their fears, of the Haslanti and the Realm and of being caught between, their hopes, of independence and prosperity, and their dreams, of power and glory.

Pamarkhan was the third river port she had passed through, and it had a...smell to it. Not one Kaya could place. She thought that if she had to describe it the smell would be of...darkness. Darkness and snakes. And danger. She walked as a human, most of the time, animals were safe enough out in the wild but in the cities people noticed even cats and rats and crows acting against their nature. A human, though? Today she was a monk, bald, robed in brown, plain enough to have been from anywhere, fitting well enough into her skin she almost began to think of herself as he. He followed the scent of danger, flitting, elusive. He watched without appearing to watch. And then without warning he stumbled onto almost exactly what he was looking for.

These Southerners were mounted, horses pushing through crowds. Kaya did not recognize any faces, but the embroidered silks, the lacquered steel of the guards and the colorful crystalline jade armor of the lords...it brought him back in an instant to that night, the blood, the flames...he turned to follow.

In the crowds Kaya did not risk trying to move close enough to eavesdrop. About half a mile further.on they turned down an alley and then through a gate with guards stationed at the entrance, in the same lacquered lamellar as the ones with the riders. Kaya the monk ducked out of sight around another corner and a small tawny cat hopped up onto the rooftop, crouching low to avoid eyes from below in the afternoon sunlight, she scampered across the dry red tiles and hopped a gap across the alley to the Imperials' compound.

In the courtyard they were dismounting, servants coming to collect the horses. Kaya hopped through a screen into a sheltered balcony and then through a door, was briefly distracted avoiding a scribe's attempt to pick her up, and made her way inwards and down the stairs in the meandering way of a cat with no destination in mind.

The two jade-plated nobles, who she now knew called themselves the Princes of the Earth and claimed the blood of dragons, had discarded their servants and moved on into the house. They met another Imperial there, a tall man in a formal robe, and traded bows of equal depth, though the armored two bowed first. Kaya filed this away: assume the tall man had power on par with the others.

Pleasantries done, the three turned to business as they walked further into the house. Kaya's ears perked up as the talk turned to a prisoner who had not yet broken. She paused, sniffed. The snake-smell was strong, here, she'd assumed it was them, but...she turned, followed the smell down another hall to a different staircase and down, into the earth. Two flights down a bored-looking guard stared idly off into space, his boredom ended for a very short time as a bald monk stepped around the corner and jabbed his short staff into the gap at the guard's throat. He went down, wheezing, trying to summon up the breath to shout through his crushed windpipe, as Kaya stepped over him and retrieved his keys, trying two before opening the barred door beyond.

On the other side of the door sat a short brown-skinned woman in old-fashioned clothes, who stared at Kaya for a moment, then glanced down at the guard, then dropped her head into her hands and groaned out "You idiot."