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Nix led the crew down the long corridor in the opposite direction of the elevator. His long cloak fluttered behind him from a strange wind traveling down the hallway. He jogged down the passage, his clawed feet clicking on the stone with every step and echoing between the stone walls. Liam followed close behind hugging the wall and using his hands to help guide his way in the dimly lit passageway.
“Where is he leading us?” Saturn whispered over Liam’s shoulder.
“Through the servant’s quarters to a separate entryway,” Nix replied.
Saturn bore a look of surprise. Her voice had been low, hardly loud enough for Liam to hear. Despite this, Nix seemed to pick it up just fine with his non-existent external ears. He was a strange creature, full of ticks and habits that made him appear more like an abused animal than a person. Liam felt for him. Even with all of the problems on Earth, the plight of the Dinari stood out as an injustice.
The long corridor ended abruptly, capped by an angled window jutting up at an angle from the ground, spiraling toward the top of the tower. Nix stepped on a specific tile and the wall to their left turned transparent, as though it were never there. Before them was a set of stairs leading down and around the spire. Liam made a note to ask Nix how their technology was capable of such a feat. Though, with the things he’d seen in the past day, parlor tricks of the walls seemed of small concern.
Nix shifted his head under his hood and whispered with a quiver of his mouth, “Servants take the stairs.”
He disappeared down the dark steps, his cloak floating up behind him with an unfelt wind. Liam and Saturn exchanged a concerned look before following him through the passage. Ju-Long kept checking their tail as though certain they were being followed. Liam was starting to get that feeling too. Toras’ words kept coming back to haunt his mind, “Do not stray the path or I will know it.”
“Nix, wait,” Liam said.
The cloaked alien stopped several steps ahead of him and peered back at Liam, his face obstructed by the hood, only his point of a nose showing out from under. “What is it? We must hurry.”
“Toras said something to me on our way in. He said if I strayed the path, he would know.”
Nix removed his hood, his golden eyes wide even in the half-light. “Did he show you a path? Telepathically I mean.”
“He used a device to communicate. It showed me images of where to go.”
Nix cursed in a way that Liam’s translator couldn’t understand. It made him wonder how close the Dinari and Ansaran languages were and just how good the translators could be. Nix approached him, climbing a few steps before speaking.
“The link could well be active. Toras would be able to see everything you see if he liked.”
“Then he would have heard us talking?” Ju-Long asked.
“No, he would see only what Liam sees. It’s enough. We don’t have time. Toras will realize what we’re up to soon and sound the alarms. I cannot break the link here, we must move quickly.”
Nix took off down the stairs much faster than before. The occasional sliver of window lighting up the passage with a faint purple glow from outside the spire. It was barely enough to keep their footing as they descended. Liam understood now why Nix was so muscular in his legs. If the Dinari never used the elevator, every step would have been torture on the feet.
Liam looked out the next window as they passed and noted they were far closer to the ground than before. By Earth standards they were still remarkably high. Working on the mine was a great source of physical activity, but it was nothing compared to descending hundreds of stories of stairs. He couldn’t imagine going back up.
“You really climb all of these every day?” Liam asked Nix.
“Gods no,” he replied. “There are servants responsible for each floor, hundreds of Dinari living here. I haven’t left the spire in ages and rarely leave my floor.”
Nix seemed to deflate after saying that last part, as though going outside was a source of pride for a Dinari. They continued their controlled descent down the stairs for ten more minutes before they neared the bottom. Nix slowed down until he only took one stair per step. Finally he stopped, raising his hand to signal Liam and his crew to stop.
“The servant’s entrance is just below.”
“What are we waiting for?” Ju-Long huffed.
Nix turned his calm gaze to Ju-Long and replied, “Outside I’ve procured transportation, but when we reach them, I must cover his eyes. He cannot see where we are going or Toras will see.”
While they spoke, Liam placed his hands on his knees and sucked in air. He, Saturn, and Ju-Long were each breathing hard from the long descent, though Nix still seemed collected, if a little spastic. Nix reminded Liam of a gecko. Quick and a little odd by nature.
Ju-Long tugged at the material of his grey jumpsuit, his biceps bulging before ripping the sleeve clean off. He handed the piece of cloth to Liam and said, breathing heavily, “This should do.”
Nix nodded and continued down the stairs. As they rounded the corner they came out into a large, open area where supplies were stored in crates made from a white polymer. Liam imagined it was where all of the supplies were delivered to the spire. The four of them continued to the bottom of the stairs, where the orbs of light that lit the room changed from a soft white to purple. The abrupt change threw light into every crevice, the light showering each of their faces with brilliant intensity.
Nix’s face contorted as he yelled, “They’re going to lock down the spire, move!”
The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key Page 16
