Sharani series Box Set

by Kevin L. Nielsen

  “Do not ever speak to me that way again,” Samsin almost yelled, then slammed both fists against the door. The energy exploded outward and tore a hole right through the door. An acrid-smelling smoke filled the air, wafting up from the gently glowing wound left in the wall.

  Gavin stepped back as the energy around Samsin’s hands died. The smoldering wood illuminated the immediate area with a faint reddish light, but Gavin didn’t move forward to open the door.

  Samsin stuck one arm through the glowing hold and pulled open the door from the other side. “Get out there and see what’s waiting for us,” he ordered.

  For half an instant Gavin almost cowed. Then his resolve firmed and he took a step forward.

  “Together or not at all, Orinai,” Gavin said.

  “I should kill you for your insolence.”

  Gavin shrugged, though the effect was lost in the darkness. “Go ahead. Then you’ll really be left on your own without anyone knowing where you are or how to get your friend to the help he needs. At least come to the door with me.”

  Gavin walked out into the unlit hall, not waiting for the protests he knew were coming on Samsin’s lips. His steps were a careful kiss against the sand, as he fully expected there to be guards waiting just around the bend. But would they really be watching in complete darkness? Samsin shuffled out behind him, his steps like the pounding of a drum.

  “So where are these ‘others’ you claim captured us?” Samsin asked in a whisper that had no resemblance at all to the actual meaning of the word.

  Gavin shushed him as best he could while trying to remain as quiet as possible, though the gesture was mostly futile now. If anyone hadn’t heard Samsin’s question it was either because they were stone deaf or dead. Maybe bringing him along wasn’t a good idea.

  “Follow me,” Gavin whispered and tugged on the Orinai’s arm to indicate which direction he was headed. Samsin pulled his arm free almost immediately, but Gavin heard him shuffle along behind him as he walked. Gavin gritted his teeth, but did his best to ignore the man and his throbbing skull, instead focusing on trying to hear any indication of Kaiden and his captors. Since neither Sarial nor her body had been found in the cell, Gavin expected to find her somewhere in here as well.

  The passage met a wall only a few steps further down. Alternate passages veered off to the right and to the left. A faint pinprick of orange light danced down the left passage. Gavin sifted through his memories, but couldn’t recall this area from either his wanderings before encountering Taren and the hidden clans or after escaping with Lhaurel. The distant light tugged at him, like an insect to flame.

  Gavin stepped toward it. A massive hand clasped down hard on his shoulder, jerking him to a stop. Gavin reacted instinctively, reaching out and drawing in energy from the rocks and himself, amplifying it within himself and pushing it out into his hands. White sparks shot up and down his hands in a cascading shower and Gavin spun out of the grip, dropping into a defensive posture. The light from his hands illuminated Samsin’s surprised face.

  “Sorry,” Gavin muttered, releasing his hold on the energy and allowing the sparks to vanish from his hands.

  “Where are you going?” Samsin asked, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred. “We can’t leave Nikanor alone back there. What if these others circle back while we’re gone?”

  A good point.

  Sands. So much for together or not at all.

  “Fine, you go back and stay with him. I’m going to go see what’s down there.”

  Samsin grunted. Gavin couldn’t tell if was in agreement or not, but took it as such.

  “Be careful,” Samsin said grudgingly, then Gavin heard him shuffle away.

  Gavin shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, though he immediately regretted that action as his fingers brushed the tender knob on his scalp. Samsin was a pompous, arrogant sailfin of a man, but at least he cared about what happened to his friend. Then again, one redeeming quality was not enough to counter every negative aspect. Kaiden, for example, was now far beyond redemption.

  Gavin cast one last look back down the hall after Samsin, then moved down the left passageway. The light grew brighter as he approached, resolving into a small oil lamp hanging from a bracket in the wall. Gavin approached cautiously, though he couldn’t see anyone inside the small pool of light. He waited at the very edge of the lantern’s reach, on the very verge of light and shadow, for a long, long moment. Then he crept into the light.

  No one jumped out at him and nothing bad happened. If anything, it appeared that no one had been through the area in ages, which defied logic. Obviously someone had been there to place the lamp and put them in the cell. With how large Samsin and Nikanor were, there were at least a half dozen strong men with Kaiden somewhere. The oil in the lamp was full. It had been recently placed.

  Gavin stopped there, in the light, blinking until his eyes adjusted. He knew he should not let his eyes grow accustomed to the light—he’d be blind when he stepped back into the darkness—but he wasn’t sure if he was going to move or on turn around.

  In the end, he took the lamp, doused the flame, and moved onward.

  * * *

  An hour later found Gavin crouched at the end of a passage, peering around the edge out over the massive lake he’d stumbled across when he’d first discovered this network of caves and passages through the Oasis walls. When they’d left the Oasis behind, Gavin had thought the passages destroyed by whatever it was that had caused the walls to crumble along one edge and let the genesauri in. That was one of the reasons they had returned to the Roterralar Warren to regroup and tend to the wounded and broken. But none of this looked like it had even been touched. Something wasn’t settling right. An itch crawled along the base of his skull.

  Lights glowed brightly across the massive lake. Gavin tried to pierce both the distance and the light, but the lanterns were placed behind the people moving about on the other side of the cavern. The half dozen figures made dark silhouettes against the brilliant backdrop. Luckily, just as last time, the cavernous room was much better at carrying sound than it was in helping Gavin see the people at work on the other side.

  “Why is all this important?” a man’s voice asked. Gavin didn’t recognize the voice, though he knew he would never forget it moving forward. There was an odd rasping sound to the voice, as if of rough fabric over flesh or stone.

  “Just get it done, Daelyn,” a woman’s voice said. Her exasperation and impatience were plain. It was obvious that Gavin was overhearing just one small part of a long argument.

  “But what do a bunch of scrolls give us? We’ve got what we need to get out of here. What’s wrong with just leaving now while we can?”

  “You’re not a very bright one, are you?” This voice made Gavin’s hands clench into fists. Kaiden. “These scrolls are what warned us to prepare. How else do you think I figured out what I did?”

  There was a long moment of silence. There could have been a low murmur of voices, or a muted whisper, but the sound didn’t carry over the lake to where Gavin was hiding. After a time, the silence was shattered by a horrible, grating noise Gavin hoped wasn’t laughter, for it bore no real humor in it.

  “A prophet?” Kaiden’s voice wheezed, a bitter, angry edge cutting through the low wheeze and tremble Gavin had grown used to. “Your superstitious ways will be the end of you, one day. I claim no visions of the future, no great access to powers from the heavens above or the seven hells beneath. No, what I have you will always lack. Knowledge. Now get back to work and don’t you dare damage a single one of those scrolls.”

  A soft, low sound wafted across the waters to Gavin’s listening point, but Gavin couldn’t make out what it was. Perhaps it was Daelyn muttering some reply, but in any case, the hum of voices faded and only the occasional faint click reverberated off the wall and reached Gavin’s ears.

  Gavin pulled his head back around the cavern’s entrance and leaned back on his haunches, unsure of what to d
o. He could go back and grab the two Orinai and make a run for it. With Samsin’s help, Gavin was sure they could manage to carry Nikanor. But Kaiden and his lackeys would soon discover their escape and be down on them in only a matter of a few minutes. No, if Gavin was to get out of here alive, he really only had two options, either act the dutiful prisoner or make it so there was no one to follow them.

  The question was how.

  There were at least six of them, which was far too many for him to attempt to take on at once. But if he could get them separated . . .

  A plan began to form.

  * * *

  The shadows hugged Gavin like a cloak, hiding him from prying eyes that passed near his hiding place. Gavin waited, careful not to move or make a sound. Kaiden passed by first, walking side-by-side with a blonde-haired woman Gavin thought he should recognize. They didn’t even glance to the side and Gavin gave an internal sigh of relief, though he remained motionless.

  Three others came in a group after the couple. They were tall, muscular men Gavin didn’t recognize. They carried several large sacks and two of them carried lanterns.

  Gavin fought against the instinct to draw back from the light. It was more often the motion that gave people away than actually being seen. More than a few times he’d had to hide in the desert sands while raiding parties from the clans passed or else from the wandering huntings of a starving sandtiger. Outcasts who didn’t learn to properly hide were not outcasts that lived very long.

  The three men passed by without seeing him.

  The last man came a few steps behind, barely at the edge of the light. He grumbled and muttered under his breath as he dragged an even larger sack behind him along the ground. Gavin studied him carefully from his hiding place, not believing his luck. The man was not tall, but he was well muscled and wore a stiff leather vest over a loose shirt and tight pants. His hair was shaved on the sides, leaving only a long tail which was tied back in a topknot, marking him as having once belonged to the Londik or Mornal clan, though both these clans now followed Evrouin. The thick black beard on his chin and cheeks hid the man’s youth, but his attitude and soft-looking hands spoke the truth. A sword hung from the belt at his waist.

  The sack the man carried caught on a rock and ripped ever so slightly. The man swore and called ahead. “Wait a moment. This sands-cursed sack got caught on a rock.”

  Further up the passage, Kaiden stopped and turned, the light making his prematurely aged face look momentarily younger again. “Don’t you dare damage those scrolls, Daelyn. Get the sack untangled and meet us above.”

  “Selmack, get over here and help me with this,” Daelyn grumbled.

  Gavin held his breath as one of the men in the middle group turned his head to glance back at Daelyn. A bead of sweat pooled on the end of Gavin’s nose and threatened to fall.

  “Why should I help you? You’re the one who wanted to drag the sack instead of carrying it like the rest of us.”

  Selmack turned back around to the accompaniment of his companions’ chuckles. Kaiden seemed to look directly at where Gavin was hiding, but then his eyes slid back over to Daelyn and his expression hardened at the man’s continued mutterings under his breath.

  “Get it done. We won’t wait for you.” Kaiden turned back to the woman and strode off down the hall.

  The other three men called a few japes back at Daelyn and moved to follow, though one of them did leave his lamp on the ground so Daelyn wouldn’t be left in complete darkness. The bead of sweat dripped off Gavin’s nose and another one formed. He’d hoped he could follow them and get one of them alone—in fact, this was the second time he’d managed to get to place of concealment ahead of them, but this was the best situation he’d encountered so far. It was now or never. Nikanor didn’t have time for him to wait around for another opportunity.

  Gavin waited for the rest of the group to move on and then counted to ten slowly in his mind. Daelyn cursed and turned his back on Gavin’s hiding place, bending down to try and unsnag the sack. Taking a deep breath, Gavin stepped in to the light, hoping no one from the other group would turn and see him there. In one quick motion, Gavin stepped up behind the man, wrapped one arm around the man’s neck, grabbed his own wrist with his other hand, and pulled backward with all his strength.

  Daelyn immediately reached for Gavin’s arm, scrabbling against his grip and trying to get to his feet. Gavin pulled back hard against his neck, which only served to help Daelyn to his feet. Thankfully, Gavin was taller than him and was able to keep pulling until the man’s feet lifted off the ground. He kicked and flailed, trying desperately to free himself or shout out some sort of warning, but Gavin kept his arms tightly locked. He ground his teeth together against the pain of Daelyn’s nails digging into the flesh of his forearms.

  After a few brief moments of struggle that felt like an eternity, the man stilled. Gavin counted to three and then let go. The man’s limp form dropped to the ground with a soft, muted thump.

  Gavin stepped backward until his back hit the wall. His hands trembled, but he took a deep breath and brushed the sweat out of his eyes. Daelyn was still alive, just unconscious. Gavin took several more deep breaths and then set about stealing Daelyn’s clothes, trying to ignore the fact that his hands still shook and he was constantly licking his dry lips with an even drier tongue.

  Gavin pulled on Daelyn’s clothes as quickly as he could, then used his own clothes to tie up and gag the man. He left Daelyn where he was, unconscious on the ground. Once again he hoped no one from the other group would decide to look back and see what was taking Daelyn so long, though hopefully they’d see Gavin standing there and assume he was Daelyn.

  He held up the man’s sword last of all, trying to decide if he was going to take it with him or not. The metal would give Kaiden something to use against him. But if Gavin didn’t bring it with him, it might trigger suspicions. Then again, he had no intention of getting close enough to anyone for them to find out who he really was, at least not before it was too late.

  In the end, he belted it on. There were still four other people he had to get through before he got to Kaiden. There was ample time to work out that particular obstacle.

  Gavin straightened, feeling odd in the unfamiliar clothes, though the sudden thrill of anticipation washed away a good measure of the discomfort. It was time for Gavin to truly begin his hunt.

  He hurried down the passage after Kaiden and the others after picking up the lantern, which turned out to be a simple candle type, instead of the longer-lasting oil variety. Gavin wished he didn’t have to have it with him since the light would leave him blind when he looked out into the darkness, but he had to maintain some of the pretense at least. He left the bag of scrolls behind. While he was curious about their contents—especially considering how much emphasis Kaiden put on them—his current priorities lay elsewhere. He first had to eliminate the threat Kaiden and his followers posed, and then he had to figure out a way to get back to the stoneway pillar where Farah would be looking for him. If he was able to also figure out what happened to Nabil and rescue the creature along the way, all the better.

  Before too long, Gavin saw light ahead in the passage. He breathed out a small sigh of relief. He’d half worried that the others would have turned down a side passage along the way and he would lose them. Thankfully, that was not the case.

  Gavin slowed his pace slightly and sucked in a steadying breath. The next part of his plan would be tricky. He had to somehow get one or two of the men to break away from the others.

  To that end, he stopped and set down the lantern. “Oi, Selmack,” Gavin called in his best imitation of Daelyn’s voice. “Come here and help me, will you?” Imitating voices had been something he’d learned while an outcast performer, though he’d never thought it would have any real use. The echoes would distort it enough that, hopefully, the others wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

  Ahead of him, Gavin saw the moving light stop and a faint voice called some
thing back down the hall at him. Gavin couldn’t tell what said, but decided to yell back anyway.

  “Come on, you stupid fool.”

  With that, Gavin stepped back into the shadows and waited, looking away from the light so his eyes would adjust back to the darkness. Silently, he fished around for a stone, which he found with relative ease. He gripped it in his hand and waited. After only a few moments of waiting that seemed like an eternity, Gavin heard the sounds of booted feet headed toward him. Gavin glanced toward the light with a darting, fleeting motion of his eyes, careful not to let it linger too long. He hoped only one person would come but, if his plan worked, he could deal with two. He fingered the rock in one hand and checked the sword with his other.

  Gavin waited.

  For a moment, all he heard was the hard, grating noise of boots against sand and rock. Then two figures materialized out of the darkness. One was the tall, lanky figure of Selmack. The other was the blonde woman.

  Gavin went to throw the rock, then hesitated and licked his lips. His plan required that these ones die. Gavin had been content to leave Daelyn unconscious behind him, one man wasn’t much of an issue when he had Daelyn’s intellect, but he couldn’t start leaving more people to follow him. It sickened him to think of himself as an assassin, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. Necessity drove him now.

  Gavin threw the rock. It missed the lantern by almost a hand’s distance.

  Gavin’s heart froze within his chest as the rock bounced against the back wall and Selmack and the woman immediately sought him out in the darkness. For an instant, really the space between two heartbeats, Gavin’s mind went completely blank. He’d never once thought he’d miss the lamp, so he hadn’t even bothered to find another stone.