by Dante King
I nodded. That confirmed my suspicions about what sort of man we were dealing with. “Okay,” I said, “that knowledge is going to help take this fucker down just that little bit easier. Not that I was in any sort of moral quandary about that.”
Tamsin smiled that sharp-toothed smile of hers and raised her coffee cup, a little hesitantly, to her lips, looking at the wormmancer.
Kakra smiled warmly in return and motioned her to drink. “Now that we have resolved the issue of what a pitiless adversary the Shaykh can be, I believe there is something a little more pertinent that we should talk about?”
“I’d say you’re right, Kakra,” I said. “I’d like it very much if you could tell us how we can get to the Fateseeker’s Cavern.”
“As you said, wise one,” Hana said in her fluting accent, “the mere fact that the Shadow Nations are looking, and that they have approached the Shaykh, would indicate that there is something there. That the cavern exists.”
“I would say that that is true,” Kakra affirmed. “I would say that the Fateseeker’s Cavern most certainly exists.”
I took a sip of coffee then, seeing as the conversation proper was on the move now. The coffee was delightful; pungent and instantly energizing. I felt the slight weariness that had been weighing on my shoulders lift.
“Then, there is only really one question that we need to ask and have answered,” Tamsin said.
Kakra nodded and got to her feet.
“How do you reach the entrance to the Fateseeker’s Cavern, where I believe this item, or whatever it is that the Shadow Nations are searching for, is hidden?” she said.
Tamsin inclined her beautiful head in respectful agreement.
“I shall tell you when I return with food, and after I have checked on Zala,” the wormmancer told us.
As the sound of her bare feet pattered away into silence, the rest of us all leaned back on our giant cushions and relaxed.
Rest. I had been told a long time ago by one of the lads in my coterie, though whether it had been Rupert, Gabby, or Bjorn I could not recall, that a soldier learned to take what refreshment he could when he could, because he never knew when his next bite of food or refreshing nap might be.
I doubted whether the advice had come from Gabby. The tongueless tracker wasn’t what anyone might be tempted to call talkative—although that never seemed to stop him with the ladies when we went on forays into Drakereach town at night. Bjorn, the tank-like berserker in my private bodyguard, was the sort of dude whose guidance you took with a very liberal pinch of salt, if you couldn’t get your hands on a bucket of the stuff, so I was not sure whether he had told me. Rupert, the scatterbrained apothecary-cum-inventor in our little team, seemed to me like he had probably only ever heard of taking it easy in some manual or book.
I smiled absently to myself as I wondered just how the boys of my coterie were making use of this down time. I hoped they were making use of it to eat, drink, and debauche their way around the camp at Galipolas Mountain.
The shuffle of footsteps stirred me from my daydream as Kakra reappeared in our midst bearing a tray.
“How’s Zala?” I asked at once, sitting up a little straighter so that I could take the laden wooden board from the wormmancer.
“She is resting well,” Kakra told me. “The hurt that the Shaykh is capable of inflicting on the catmancers enslaved to him is quite grievous. However, I think the poultice will not only buy us all time from the Shaykh’s scrutiny, but also supply Zala with the time that her body needs to heal itself using its enhanced mancer capabilities.”
“That’s good news,” I said, and found that I meant it.
“What do we have here, Wormmancer?” Renji asked.
“I am afraid it is poor fare compared to what the Shaykh has probably been supplying you with,” Kakra replied. “Seasoned rice, yoghurt, spiced bread, and dates I’ve brought you. Simple, but nourishing.”
“The spread might not be quite so fancy,” the hobgoblin said, reaching out to take a pinch of rice in her red fingers, “but the company is infinitely better.”
The rest of us agreed and helped ourselves to food.
“So,” Kakra said, swallowing the last of the date she had just popped into her mouth, “now let me tell you about where it is that you are going.”
The combined attention of me, Tamsin, Hana, and Renji focused on the older woman like a laser. Dragonmancers could eat like famished gannets at times, but this information could be the difference between success and failure, between life and death. We paused.
“We won’t be making use of any of the rest of the rebels, will we?” I asked. “You don’t have any guides for this kind of work that might be able to expedite the process?”
Kakra gave me another one of those warm smiles of hers, but this one was tinged with just a soupçon of sadness.
“I am afraid to say that the four of you are looking at the rest of the rebels,” the wormmancer said.
I was surprised to hear this. From what Zala had told me, it had sounded to me like this rebel force that had been defying the Shaykh for however long had been a shady guerilla army almost.
“It’s just you?” I clarified. “You are the only one that is left?”
Kakra gave a little shrug. “I am the Last Wormmancer, the last of the rebels that made their base of operations out here under the sands,” she explained. “I have a few dozen helpful people stationed in the city of Akrit and in surrounding areas, but they are spies mostly—not soldiers.”
“Your eyes and ears,” Hana said in a low voice.
“That is right, Vetruscan,” Kakra said.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.
Kakra shrugged her slender shoulders once more. Her mismatched blue and red eyes glittered in the gloom of the oil lamps set on the low table.
“It is not as if I did not see it coming, hm? It is one of the perks of being blessed with the extended eye, as your seer friend Claire is. The extended eye takes the cutting edge of surprise off grief.”
“But you remained here, even when there was only you left?” Tamsin said.
“Yes. I was waiting for you,” replied Kakra, turning her eyes on me. “I have been waiting for the Dragon Breeder to come. That is why I have been waiting so patiently here with only my worm, Sejuc, for company.”
“But I’m here to ask a favor of you,” I said.
“Ah, but we can help each other, that is why our paths have crossed this way,” Kakra said. “I will help you in your quest and, in doing so, you will help me free Akrit from Shaykh Antizah’s tyrannical rule—something you wished to do even before you realized who or what I was, I think.”
She was right. I had decided to take the Shaykh down well before this conversation.
Kakra continued. “You know, all four of you know, that the Shaykh must be stopped. Not only because the rest of my fighting rebels have been systematically crushed by the Shaykh, but because of this secret and unwholesome alliance with the Shadow Nations that he has recently developed.”
Hana wiped yogurt from her fingertips with a cloth and said, “She’s right, Mike. Even if I had not come to trust and respect this mancer in the little time that we have been in her presence, what she says cannot be denied. Our job, for both Vetrusca and the Mystocean Empire, is to protect the people of those realms from the threat of the Shadow Nations.”
Renji made a noise of agreement in her throat and placed her hands on the table. They were as steady as if they had been carved out of marble.
“I am in agreement with our friend the bearmancer,” the djinn said. “The menace of the Shadow Nations alone is serious enough. With the armies and wealth of Akrit behind them, their threat grows sevenfold.”
I looked at Tamsin. The hobgoblin said nothing, but gave me a short nod that told me she was in.
“All right, Kakra,” I said, “you can count us in. We’ll gladly help you purge Akrit of the blight that is that fucking shaykh. Now, tell us what to expect on t
his journey to the Fateseeker’s Cavern and how to get there.”
Kakra beamed with such delight that I could have sworn I felt the pearly smile briefly heat the room.
“I will do better than that,” she said. “I will guide you to the entrance myself. It is in a temple that once sat upon the sands of the desert before being sucked down under the ground.”
“If you know where this sunken temple lies, wise one,” Hana said, “why is it that you have not ventured to find this unknown item yourself?”
“I have never been able to find my way through the tangled and broken passages to Fateseeker’s Cavern itself,” the wormmancer said simply. “This is why I have never gone for this secret thing. If I had become lost or perished, then your coming here would have been in vain, and the joining of the Shaykh and the Shadow Nations would have been far more certain than it is currently.”
“That makes sense,” I said, “but what makes you think that we’re going to be able to sniff out the route if you couldn’t?”
“I knew you had someone who could guide you path, and who has done so before. I spoke to him and told him to make the perilous journey here.”
Kakra pointed at the will-o’-the-wisp, who at that moment had been wandering like a bored toddler around the edges of the chamber. As all of our attention turned on him, the wisp stopped dead and revolved on the spot. Though he had no eyes or face to speak of, being just a cloud of blueish gas, it was obvious that he was regarding us with suspicion.
Renji smiled and beckoned the wisp over.
“Yep, he’s got one hell of a nose for this sort of work—metaphorically speaking,” I said, winking at Will as he came to stand near Renji. The djinn looked at the little ball of gas affectionately.
The wisp flashed slowly a couple of times in a way that made me think he’d have been rolling his eyes if he had them.
“What can we expect if Will manages to guide us through in one piece?” Hana asked Kakra.
“After you have made your way through the passages, the acquisition of the item in question should be relatively simple,” Kakra told us. “From the very crude map of this temple that I managed to unearth in Akrit, all the passages led to the heart of the temple. It is there where a ‘relic of delectable power and unique properties lies guarded.’” This last part was finished in the tone of voice of someone quoting something she had learned to memory a long time ago.
“Guarded?” Hana asked, voicing the question the forefront of all our minds. “Guarded by what?”
Kakra rolled a date between her fingers casually and grinned encouragingly. “Do not concern yourself with that, Bearmancer. Whatever guarded the treasure would have died in the sinking of the temple, or over the passage of time. It was long ago.”
“You’re sure about that?” I asked. “Based on your seer-abilities?”
Kakra shrugged. “I have not seen it, but I am making an educated guess.”
“Right,” I said, banking the thought that we might have to fight off something in the temple. “So it’ll be simple mission then?”
“You sound somewhat dubious, Mike,” the old wormmancer said.
I made a rueful face. “It’s just that if a mission like this went as smoothly as you’re leading me to expect it to, then that will be a first for me.”
The others laughed, but there was a subtle underlying tenseness to it.
“There is only one thing that might impede your progress,” Kakra said.
“There it is,” I said. “That’s more like it.”
“It is likely that you will have to solve a puzzle to get to within reach of your prize,” Kakra said. “A puzzle or a riddle of some kind at the entrance to the Cavern itself.”
I looked over at Renji. The djinn was incredibly logical, with a brain that was made for picking apart problems and calculations, it was a characteristic of her race. At the mere mention of a puzzle, her features had lit up. The ring in her septum quivered with excitement.
“We can handle a puzzle,” I said, picking up one last generous pinch of rice, stuffing it into my mouth, and then tearing off a large chunk of the deliciously spiced and fragrant bread. I swallowed the rice and then said, “I think that everything that needed discussing has been discussed. Time’s a wasting. I think we should hit the sandy road while we’ve got food in our bellies and caffeine in our veins.”
“Spoken like a true mancer and soldier,” Kakra said, flowing nimbly to her feet. “Even as we sit discussing things here, the sun and moon are trading places in the skies above this sandy vault. Come, I’ll guide you to the entrance of the sunken temple and then return here to tend to Zala. If and when you return, she will need to be ready to ride once more.”
“Ride?” I asked, stretching my arms over my head and motioning for Will to fall in next to me.
“Let’s just get you in and out of the temple before we start worrying about what happens next, Dragonmancer, hm?” Kakra said, patting me affectionately on the arm.
Chapter 14
Kakra led us through a series of quiet passages, the corners of which were filling up with sand. I didn’t blame her for skimping on the housework, if it had just been me and my dragons living down here alone for however long it might have been, I doubted I would have bothered getting the Dyson out either. After some time, we came to the buckled and broken door to the temple that had once sat proudly upon the sands of the desert above before being sucked down under the ground.
I eyed the wonky stone lintel with more than a touch of trepidation. Even as I, and my four companions, looked upon it, a fine trickle of sand suddenly hissed down from a crack in one of the massive stone slabs.
“You’re sure that this is safe?” I asked the desert seer next to me.
Kakra looked pensively up at me, leaning against her bone staff.
“The Seer, Claire, would have explained to you, I think, what a confoundingly imprecise and capricious business it can be looking into the future, I imagine?” Kakra said gently.
“She might’ve mentioned it, yeah,” I said.
“It is very much akin to holding the end of a piece of thread that dives into a grand tapestry,” the Last Wormmancer said thoughtfully. “We see the thread, we see the big picture that it helps to make up, but to find out every twist and turn and knot that one particular thread goes through on its journey to the completed picture…”
“Pain in the ass, huh?” I said.
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Kakra smiled.
I squared my shoulders and looked down at Will.
“All right then, man,” I said, “this is where you earn whatever the hell it is that you do this for. We still really need to find that out, don’t we?”
Once again, Will glowed briefly. I translated that to be a sigh this time.
I reached down and patted him as easily as you can pat something that is about as substantial as a cloud.
“I mean it, bud,” I said, “you’re the leader now. You go, we follow.”
A little surge of proud, icy blue bright light illuminated the wisp at my words. Staunchly, the little specter bobbed off into the gloom, leading the way into the buckled darkness of the passage beyond.
It was just as Kakra had told us, that journey into the Subterranean Realms: a gods-damned mess. We had only gone about two-hundred yards before we were obliged to take an unnaturally tight and acute right-angle corner, which took us out of sight of the entrance. We were then obligated to hop down a jagged break in the floor to carry on down the same corridor we had been walking along, albeit two yards lower.
Thankfully, Will produced enough light for us to all travel without straining our eyes or having to worry too much about our footing.
“Do you trust her?” Tamsin said to me in a low voice.
“Kakra?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Yes, I trust her,” I said without even having to think about it. “You?”
“Yes, I do too,” Tamsin said. “But, you know, it always pa
ys to ask these things, doesn’t it?” Following Will at the front of the little procession of mancers as I was, Tamsin did not see the smile that flitted across my face.
For once, for the first time that I could recall since entering this squirrely world, the journey went as smoothly as we had been told that it would. It was quite a bizarre and novel sensation.
Most of the time, when we set out on these little expeditions of ours, it took less time than it might take me to whistle the Star-Spangled Banner before we set upon by something bloodthirsty and chewing fire in no uncertain manner. On this occasion, though, we made it through the labyrinth tangle of broken, cracked, and topsy-turvy passages as easy as pie.
There could be absolutely no doubt that we owed our speedy success to Will and the unerring and unwavering tracking skills that the little wisp possessed. I told him as much too, on numerous occasions, and the knee-high specter responded with glows of bright contentment.
When we finally emerged from the dimness of the corridors and stepped out into a greater, less claustrophobic space, I doubt we had been walking for more than an hour.
Although Will was still casting a helpful glow around us, the chamber that we now found ourselves standing in was lit by a series of dangling globes that hung from the high ceiling by chains. At first, I thought these lights were glowing crystals, but they were not uniform enough for that. Due to the way that the ceiling had warped when the temple sank, none of the lights hung on the level despite the chains all being the same length.
“They look to me like enchanted fungal lamps,” Renji said, gazing up at the collection of hanging lights. “They’re organic vegetation essentially. Plants that glow to attract insect prey. They require very little energy to stay alive and give off their light. I assume that there are some cracks in the ceiling above that allow desert creatures to make their way from outside. They probably see the light and…” She snapped her fingers. “Very clever to use them to light a room.”
