Chapter 18 Copper Lanes.

“This way,” Valery said as she entered the dark archway of stone. The shadow of the tunnel dispelled in the light of her torch’s flame. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

Shawn came in behind Valery, staying close in the torchlight while Molly and Dylan hovered just behind, bobbing in and out of the darkness. The walls were made of damp red bricks, slimy with moss. The smell was a mixture of blood and mold on rotten flesh. White marks on the walls revealed by the flame of Valery’s torch were the only guide in the depths below the mansion. The deeper they went, the more turns they took, passing many side tunnels that led off into a maze of passages and forgotten turns.

“Creeped out yet?” Valery asked.

Shawn turned back to be sure Molly and Dylan were still with them. Molly flipped him the bird. “How many people have gotten lost down here?”

“Hundreds,” Valery said back.

“And how many have been found?” Shawn asked.

“Not many. Keep close.”

After a twist in the tunnel, everyone came to an iron door before them, rotten with rust. There was a bar shoved into the doorframe as a lock to keep it shut. Dylan went ahead and pulled up the lock, heaving the bar out of its socket with a loud screech, sliding it back to the middle of the door. Dylan stared at Valery without saying a word.

“Aren't you going to open it?” Molly asked. “We’re ladies.”

“Open it yourself,” Dylan said, crossing his arms. “I’m not the doorman.”

Valery rolled her eyes and shoved Dylan out of the way. “Just the lock-man, I guess.” She grabbed the rusty handle and pulled back, jerking with all her weight to get it open. As the rusty seal broke, a wave of cold mist poured inside, making Shawn shiver.

“There. Happy Mol’?” Valery asked.

“I’m never happy,” she said as she went by Dylan. “Just satisfied.” Molly went out into the rain, spinning with her arms out as she looked up into the clouds. She stuck out her tongue, tasting the water, then turned back to Valery and smiled. “I can taste the death in the clouds.”

“The guy at the gates said not to let it touch your skin,” Shawn said, feeling sick to see her tasting it. “He said the rain is toxic.”

“You only live once,” Molly said, explaining herself as calmly as she seemed able to.

“It’s a good thing we’ve got Shawn here to keep us all safe,” Valery said. “You know, like a Protector should.” She went out into the rain and joined Molly, looking up into the clouds to let the rain spatter across her face and chest. Valery’s red and black hair was dripping. She turned back to Shawn and smiled, reaching out to take his hand.

Shawn slowly went to her, pausing for a moment on the edge of the rain. “Are you sure this is smart?” he asked.

Valery shrugged with her arm extended. “You can’t always hide from the rain.”

Shawn stepped out, keeping his face pointed down as the rain struck his neck. It tingled as it touched his skin, and stank of wet charcoal. Shawn looked up at Valery, then reached out and let her take him by the wrist. Valery slowly drew Shawn out into the storm until the deluge was fully on him.

“See?” She said, her teeth glistening in the flickering torchlight. “It’s not so bad out here. You might even learn to like it.” She reached out and wiped her hand across Shawn’s cheek. He recoiled from her touch at first, but then slowly relented and let her hold his face.

“What are you doing?” Shawn asked.

“I want to see your eyes,” she said.

Shawn could see the blue light sparkling across her lonely features. She lit up like the sun, her smile glimmering with love and awe. She was even more beautiful in the rain. Beautiful enough to draw a world in her eyes.

“You’re everything I hoped for,” she said.

Shawn grabbed her hand and tugged it away from his cheek, breaking the spell. “I’m not here for you. I’m here for the cure.”

“I know that,” Valery said in a pained voice that was almost a whisper.

Molly and Dylan were watching Valery’s every movement, eyes disgusted by what they saw.

“What are you doing, Vee?” Molly asked.

Valery turned back to her friends, cheeks glowing, and stepped away from Shawn. “Nothing. I wanted to be sure he really had the mark… The flame of Mikhail. Now I know.”

Molly and Dylan shared a glance, their eyes glinting with distrust.

“Of course you were,” Dylan said as he turned and grabbed the rusty door that bore a tunnel into the side of the stone wall before them, pulling it shut with a deep slam. “That should keep the rabble out.”

“As long as they don’t check the lock,” Molly said.

“Here’s hoping they don’t.” Dylan came back and joined the group. “Ready to get the gear?” he asked Valery.

“I don’t know, are you?” she said back.

“Going to The Forge without you just wouldn’t be the same.” Dylan smiled.

“You’re so kind, especially now that Tonila wants to break my legs,” Valery shot a sharp glare at Dylan. “Just close your mouth and follow.”

“Is it safe for us to go there?” Shawn asked.

“Now that we’ve got you with us, I’d say so,” Valery replied, turning down the alley between the tall towers. “None of them have power like you.”

“So, what, I’m the muscle?” Shawn asked.

“If you prefer to say it that way.”

“The muscle without any muscles,” Molly said.

“Careful Molly, wouldn’t want to wound our brave Protector’s feelings. Then how would we find the Crystal?” Dylan asked.

Shawn ignored them and looked up the stone buildings, counting eighteen dark windows high on either side. The alley was like the crook between a giant's legs, deep and dripping with waterfalls of poison rain. The majesty of the city had been turned into a haunted ruin. Valery descended the stone stairs, falling out of sight as she turned with the path, but she returned in the form of a long shadow high up on the walls of the tower.

“Let’s go,” Dylan said as he turned his eyes to Shawn. “Best not to keep her waiting.”

Shawn Molly and Dylan together hurried to catch up. As they came down the steps Shawn saw a melted brazier holding a mass of flame to light the wet stones, metal sizzling as the rain touched it. They came around the corner and found Valery standing at the edge of a river of people pouring up and down the streets of the city.

In the gutters was a long line of people sitting cross legged in muck, arms outstretched to everyone who passed, bodies like skeletons in rags. They were surrounded by discarded and rotten food, but none of them seemed to care or notice. They were starving, but they couldn’t eat the food.

“Are all these people…sick?” Shawn asked. Packs of rats squirmed through garbage and over wet legs.

“Yes,” Valery said. “When the Gray Death is finished eating their minds, many of them come here. They call this part of the city The Path of the Forgotten.”

Up the street, a few men wearing blood stained trench coats and beaked leather masks were stalking amongst the living corpses. The people in the gutters reached up at the men in masks, grasping at their arms and legs, sobbing and wordlessly begging as the masked men loaded corpses onto a wagon.

“What are they doing?” Shawn asked.

Valery turned back to Shawn, the look in her eyes enough to sober his blood. “Collecting the dead to be burned.”

Shawn looked up the roads in both directions and saw hundreds of sick people rising with the road and twisting into the city through the canyons of high dark buildings. Thousands of crows had gathered on the high roofs and fences to watch the slow death of the city, waiting for their chance to pick through its remains.

“Welcome to Copper Lanes,” Dylan said, slapping his hand down on Shawn’s shoulder as he came up beside him. “So these are the people you meant to save? Looks like you’ve come too late.”

The sick seemed like empty vessels of which the drivers had fled long ago. Each wanderer that walked the street drew up a wave of arms in their wake, fingers of the sick like moths reaching for flame, begging with wordless mouths and cold, dark eyes. There were men, women, children, old people–all dirty and shivering in the rain. There seemed to be more infected than not.

Shawn was almost ready to agree with Dylan. A cure seemed pointless in the face of something like this. “It’s just like Market Town…”

“Not exactly,” Valery said, her voice dimming low. “It’s a good thing they have you to worry about them, Shawn. Seems like no one else does. Come on. The sooner we get our gear, the sooner we can find your cure.”

The people to Shawn’s left and right reached up at him as he and Valery went out onto the road. Their faces shone with the blue light of the fire in Shawn’s eyes, and Shawn made no attempt to hide it.

“See that tavern on the corner? The one with the red candles on the balcony?” Valery asked. “That’s The Forge.”

The building was made of brick, shaped like a long arch over the canal that passed directly beneath its foundation. A man on a riverboat pushed himself up to the docks below the streets with a long pole to let his passengers disembark into golden lantern light. He then floated his boat back out into the rain and hovered across a sheet of fire reflecting over the canal’s green water.

Valery stopped and stared. “Once upon a time there were two evil rulers of Copper Lanes, back when the city was still alive and beautiful–and a girl named Veronica who used to cause them no end of trouble…”

Molly and Dylan came and stood beside Valery, staring long and hard at The Forge.

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“What happened to them?” Shawn asked as he approached.

“They all died,” she said, looking back to Shawn with eyes like the lonely moon. “Come on. Like you said, there’s no time to waste.” Valery melted into the crowd, and Shawn closed on her like a magnet.

In the streets outside The Forge, a group of men were holding up swords in the light and trying to bend the metal to test its strength. Gold was exchanged soon after and sheathes handed out. Around the corner from them was a man as round as a blueberry holding a glass bottle shaped like a tear high above the thin crowd.

“I’ve got cures! Cures to the Gray Death, everybody. Drink one of these bottles and you’ll be guaranteed safe from that nasty disease for an entire twenty four hours. Only ten coppers for a limited time! But now while you can, stock is moving fast!”

“Look, Shawn. Maybe you won’t have to fulfill your end of the bargain after all,” Molly said, giggling.

“It’s probably bottled canal water with a few pellets of rat shit added for flavor,” Dylan suggested.

Few were even stopping to look at the salesman, and even fewer were buying his cure. Most of the crates were full of bottles.

“No one trusts a cure after what happened in Market Town,” Dylan said, looking over at Valery. “Seems they’ve grown afraid.”

She turned to Shawn, then looked at Dylan. “They won’t be afraid when Shawn is the one to bring it to them.”

Dylan nodded, raising his brow. “It may be true.”

A few corpses up the alley were being worked on by a pair of men with cloth over their mouths and nose. They turned up rings and gold necklaces then dumped the bodies into the canal. Shawn could see pale flesh bobbing on the surface of the dark water as they drifted downstream.

How many had been lost? Shawn wondered. How many are even left? Every city was the same. Death and destruction the likes of which his imagination could barely fathom. How could anyone return from this?

As they came to the entrance of The Forge, the crowd outside collectively seemed to notice Valery coming towards them. Heads turned and conversations quieted into whispers.

“It’s the Girl of the Dead,” a dirty old woman with tangled hair said to a young boy at her feet. “Maybe she’ll cast a spell on you and steal your soul!” A cackling laugh followed the comment.

“She’s an abomination,” another said. “A freak!”

Valery ignored them, keeping her eyes straight ahead as she strode through a crowd that parted as she approached.

“Watch your tongue, that little cunt is dangerous,” a bearded man said as he turned his friend away.

“I heard she summons the dead. It isn’t right,” was another's reply. “People aren’t meant to live again.”

“Maybe everyone’s already dead,” Molly said as she passed.

Valery seemed to not hear their voices, but a whisper escaped her lips. “One day they’ll thank me...”

Near the entrance to The Forge, between two glowing fogged windows shadowed by silhouettes of two people, hung a sign painted and carved to show an anvil with a red-hot sword lying on its surface being struck by a square hammer, creating a fountain of sparks and flame. Below was a staircase that led down into The Forge, where a bouncing firelight was crawling up the stairs.

Shawn could hear laughing and shouting inside, smell smoke and delicious food, but it wasn’t welcoming. The atmosphere in the lower part of the city was very tense and full of doom. The end of all things seemed to reflect in the wet blue moonlight glimmering across skin stretched over arms as thin as bone. With each hand that rose and fell, each motionless corpse heaved up onto the wagons, Shawn felt the curtain of the world draw a little farther closed–perhaps never to open again.

“Follow me, and stay close,” Valery whispered back.

She descended the stairs and Shawn followed, with Dylan and Molly behind.

The room at the bottom was wide, dark and scattered with people, dimly lit by sparse torches and lanterns. Most of the patrons wore hoods, hiding their faces in shadow. Some coughed as they smoked red herbs from wooden pipes, others burped as they drank yellow ale from tall mugs; even more were muttering out deals and exchanging bags of coin.

At the center of the room was a massive anvil and hammer that looked like a forge for a giant. On the anvil was a skull cupped in a horned helmet that could only have come from a man who stood ten feet tall. Behind the anvil was a double stone staircase that led down to the archways off the canal where wooden boats came and went like crocodiles patrolling a swamp.

Valery approached the man at the front who was pouring drinks. He was surrounded by a ring of candles that lit the smoke above him, turning the ceiling into a swamp of foggy water amidst darkness. “Hey, uhmm… I’m here to see Tonila,” she said.

The bar man twisted his neck at Valery, squinting the eye that wasn’t covered by an eyepatch as he leaned forwards. “Is that Valery?” he asked in disbelief. “My eye must be playing a trick on me, ‘cause the last time I saw that little shit I could have sworn she got thrown out on her arse and told to never show her face in Copper Lanes again.”

“Good to see you, too, Zander.”

Molly went up beside Valery and slammed her hands against the bar. “Go get Tonila before I take the other eye!”

Zander backed away from the bar with his hands raised in surrender, a sweat working up on his brow. “You didn’t tell me you brought your friends, Vee. Alright, dammit. Tonila’s upstairs. Go find her yourself. But she’s not going to be happy after that disturbance you caused the week before. Don’t expect a warm welcome.”

Valery turned back to Shawn and jerked her neck. “Come on. Darko’s office is this way.” She went past the bar and turned up a staircase that led to an open door at the top.

Inside the next room was a desk across a short room occupied by a skinny man with a long face, and a scar across his cheek that touched his left eye, tinting it black and red with blood. Through the foggy windows behind him was the dark outline of Denengear, glowing from below like the city had been cast aflame. At his side stood a tall woman with broad shoulders and green hair. She had a nose like an eagle’s beak, and eyes as sharp and dangerous. She glared at Valery in the doorway and put up a hand to make her wait.

“Let them finish,” Valery said back to Shawn. “That’s Tonila and Darko. They run most of the jobs out of Copper Lanes. They’re kind of in charge around here.”

“What kind of jobs do people do for them?” Shawn asked.

“Burglaries. Deliveries. Abductions. You don’t want to cross them. They have connections all across the city. They’ll find you no matter where you hide if you owe them coin or a favor.”

“And this is who you chose to get supplies from?” Shawn asked.

“Almost everything in the city goes through them, I don’t have much of a choice.” Valery went into Darko’s office and around the corner to where a few seats had been arranged beside a table covered in gold mechanical devices and inkpots. Shawn followed, Molly and Dylan close behind.

“That is not the price we agreed upon, Chen,” Darko said, putting his hands together.

“My partner didn’t come back from the job,” the man on the opposite side of Darko’s desk whispered, sounding furious. “You didn’t mention the owner of the shop was packing a crossbow!”

“Shouldn’t have to–that’s your job,” Tonila said as she went back to Darko’s side.

“I want double,” Chen said, leaning back in his chair.

Tonila smiled and turned to Darko.

“Double,” Darko repeated, tapping the tips of his fingers together. “So you want double the payment for a job you failed to complete?”

“My partner is dead. I’m never going to find a replacement for her. You have a debt to repay, old man.”

“A debt to repay…” Darko laughed. “You really don’t seem to understand how this works, do you, Chen?”

“I understand that you sent me a job you knew would be dangerous and my partner got killed because of it. You break something, you pay for it. Filthy gutter rat.”

Darko smiled and gave a glance to Tonila. “How about this, Chen. I’ll give you one more chance to finish that job. If you can do it, I’ll give you double.”

“You’ll give me double, now,” Chen said, pointing at Darko. “Where I’m from, you pay for mistakes.”

“Where I’m from, we don’t pay until the job is finished,” Darko said, his voice low and sharp.

Chen’s face twisted with displeasure and disbelief. “What are you talking about, old man? Have you been drinking water from the canal?” Chen tapped his temples with both hands. “That job was meant for two Runners. TWO!” He held up two fingers before leaning back in his chair. “My partner is dead. Do I need to teach you a lesson you won’t forget?” Chen put his hand on his sword's hilt and popped up the blade enough to let Darko see the steel. Darko laughed.

Tonila drew her sword, screaming as she drove the point heavily into Chen’s chest and completely through the back of his wooden chair. Chen reached up and grabbed the blade in both hands, face coiling in pain. He looked at Tonila, the pain in his eyes replaced by confusion, then back to Darko.

“I suppose I have to pay for you, now, too,” Darko said.

Chen’s eyes fell shut and he leaned over the sword. Tonila yanked back and drew the blade out of the chair, and Chen’s body, allowing his corpse to lean sideways and thump against the floor.

“Tonila, will you please show Mr. Chen to the door?” Darko asked. “I believe our negotiations have ended.”

“With pleasure.” Tonila grabbed Chen by the arm and slowly dragged his corpse to the stairs beyond the open doorway, leaving a slimy trail of blood across the wood. She jerked his arm with both hands and threw him down the stairs, causing his corpse to tumble down to the bottom and slam into a table occupied by a few of the mercenaries in the tavern, spilling their drinks and food.

Tonila slammed the door shut and went back to the bloody chair. She pulled it away from the desk and rammed it against the floor, turning to look at Valery. “The boss is ready to see you, now.”

Valery looked at Shawn with widened eyes, then drew a deep breath. Shawn could feel his own heart beating in his chest.

“Hey Darko,” Valery said as she took the first steps towards his desk. “Glad to see you’re still taking care of business…in your own way...” She wiped a finger across the blood on the chair's armrest, then turned to him.

“Want work?” Tonila asked. “We just had an opening.”

“No thanks, I’ll pass on this one,” Valery said, squinting.

Darko stared for a moment without responding. “What do you want, Valery?”

“What do I want?” she repeated as she wiped the blood on her finger against the top of the chair. “Well, a giant puppy would be nice. A castle made of solid gold. Maybe a horse that can fly.” Valery picked up the hourglass on Darko’s desk and watched the sand inside pour from top to bottom.

“Perhaps I should rephrase–what are you doing in my office?”

“I was out and about, so I decided to come and check on you. See how things were going for my two favorite crime lords.”

“She’s here for this.” Tonila heaved up a leather fold and set it across Darko’s desk.

Darko inspected the leather fold. “What exactly am I looking at?”

“Supplies,” Tonila said. “She wants to go into the Forest of Forgotten Dreams. Thinks she’s going to find something no one has ever seen before.”

“I don’t think, I know,” Valery said, crossing her arms.

“Oh I know you don’t think,” Tonila said back. “Elsewise you wouldn’t have shown your face here.”

“And now that I have shown my face, what are you going to do?” Valery said back, putting her hands on Darko’s desk and leaning towards Tonila. “Gonna handle me like you did Chen?”

Tonila crossed her arms as Darko leaned back in his chair.

“I’m going to the Forest of Forgotten Dreams to find a Crystal,” Valery said. “And when I get back, things are going to be different.”

“Different how?” Darko asked.

“Better,” Valery said, leaning up off Darko’s desk. “You’ll see.”

“Still think you’re going to change the world with magic stones?” Tonila asked with a laugh. “Stronger men than you have tried.”

“I now have something they didn’t. I have the heir to Mikhail’s power.”

Darko’s eyebrows pressed together. “Mikhail’s heir?”

“That’s right. And with his help, I can finally get my magic stone.”

“I’ve never known a rock to solve a problem a sword couldn’t handle,” Tonila said.

“And that’s why you work for him,” Valery said, “and not the other way around.”

Darko raised his eyes. Tonila shook her head.

“Let me tell you somethin’, Rat.” Tonila said, leaning over the desk. She pushed her face close to Valery’s. “I’ve been running these streets for a long time. I’ve seen Flyers like you come through Copper Lanes for a lot of years, each one dreaming that they’d be the next legend of the city–the next king or queen of the underworld. Dozens of those same Runners and Flyers died on the end of my blade.”

Valery turned away from Tonila and walked a few steps away before facing back. “It’ll be different this time,” she said, sounding less sure of herself.

Tonila grabbed the leather fold from the table and slowly carried it across the room to Vee. “It won’t be different this time. You know why? Because the one thing you have in common with all those dead Runners and Flyers is that you can’t accept what you are: a Rat–who’s got nothing, and will never be anything more than nothing. And just like a rat, you and your little friends will continue feasting on this wheel of cheese until you’ve found its rotten core. And then you’ll die.” Tonila shoved the heavy leather fold into Valery’s arms with one hand, making her stumble and nearly fall trying to keep it in her arms. “Do us all a favor and don’t come back from that forest. Copper Lanes would be better off for it.” Tonila turned and went back to Darko, taking her place at his side.

“Was there anything else?” Darko asked, raising his brow.

Valery got a firm hold on the leather fold and stood up straight. “No. Nothing else.” Her voice was a whisper of rage.

“Good,” Darko said. “Then leave.”