“Of course,” drawled Matias. “Why don’t you enlighten us, o genius one.”
“Well, from what I can figure out, they work on a reflective matrix principle. I read about it in one of Sour Root’s books. The mirrors are linked to a convex axis which—”
“Just tell us what they are for!” Jaggen snapped, his patience at its end.
Jhondey smirked and tilted the mirror nearest to him. “Take a look for yourself.”
Matias and Jaggen moved closer to stare into the mirror. Instead of seeing their reflections though, they found themselves staring at the Upper Hall. The massacre was over and bodies were strewn across the floor, many of them crushed to a bloody pulp. The small encampment had been utterly destroyed, and several Grinning Ladies stood motionless amongst the aftermath of the carnage. The javelin tortoises waddled around beneath them. As Jhondey moved the mirror to let them see the rest of the Upper Hall, Matias spotted the Lady that had been attacked by Oxgar. It lay sprawled on the floor, its head broken open and a strange blue liquid leaking out of it. Another Grinning Lady was knelt next to the automation, its head bowed. It made a strange whimpering noise and, with a shock, Matias realised the machine was weeping. The javelin tortoises waddled around beneath them and the flying heads darted to and thro like angry mosquitoes.
“I can see everything,” Jaggen said, baffled.
“You can hear everything too,” Jhondey replied. “You can see all over the Upper Hall and the vestibule too. Look here.” He turned another mirror just so, and it showed them the view of the vestibule. An eerie silence had settled and Jhondey pointed to a point between two pillars. “That’s where the secret entrance we came in is.”
“You can see everything using these things?” Jaggen said.
“Sure. Everything in the Upper Hall at any rate,” replied his son. “I guess they used it as a kind of security system. Much better than a town watch. You can see what everyone is up to without leaving your home. How entertaining would that be? You’d hear peoples’ secrets and see what they got up to behind closed doors.”
“We have something similar where I come from,” cut in Matias. “It’s called reality television.”
“Never mind all that,” said Jaggen, rubbing at his forehead. “Can these mirrors show us what’s going on outside of the colony? Can we see the forest?”
“Why do you want to do that?” Matias asked, still scanning the Upper Hall and vestibule. He searched for General Oxgar’s body, but couldn’t find it anywhere and that unsettled him. It was likely though that the Minotaur could have been vaporised by the flying heads if not killed by one of the automations. It was impossible that he could have survived all this.
“Krumer won’t have failed to see the door come down over the entrance,” Jaggen said. “He’ll try to figure out how to open it again.”
“How’s he going to do that?” asked Matias. “It’s solid iron.”
“You forget we have Sour Root’s combustible,” pointed out the older man. “He can use that to try and blow a hole through the door.”
“I hadn’t forgotten Sour Root’s combustible,” Matias griped, picturing the bizarre looking fishbowl with its bright red liquid sloshing inside which they had brought from Ironthorne. “I had my heart in my mouth the whole time we travelled here in case the bozos carrying it dropped the thing.”
“Well they didn’t, and Krumer will not doubt use it,” Jaggen replied.
“So what if he does and it blows a hole through the door, they’ve still got to contend with all those gnome toys out there. They don’t stand a chance,” Matias retorted.
“Perhaps we can speak to them through these mirrors?”
Jhondey shook his head. “Don’t think so. Oh, here I got a view of what you wanted to see.”
The three looked into the mirror the boy was holding and got a birds’ eye view from the entrance of the colony looking down at the forest path. There was no sign of life and they kept watching for about twenty minutes when two men from the expedition emerged from the undergrowth, carrying the combustible between them. As Jaggen had predicted, they set the explosive down at the foot of the iron door and unwound the fuse. Moving back a ways down the path, they used a piece a flint against a fire striker to light the fuse. As the fire took hold, they scurried back into the forest.
Matias held his breath as he watched the flame move down the path to ignite the combustible. It seemed to take an agonisingly long time when suddenly a huge fireball surged up into the mirror, followed by swirling plumes of black smoke.
In the distance, the three of them heard a faint boom. “Did it work?” Jaggen asked.
Jhondey looked into the mirror showing the vestibule and the door from the inside. It was still intact. Jaggen cursed softly under his breath.
In the mirror showing the forest, the two men slowly crept from the foliage and went down the path to survey the damage. From somewhere above, two flying heads suddenly swooped down and began firing at them. One of them was destroyed instantly by an energy bolt, while his comrade pelted as fast as he could back into the forest. The flying heads hovered in midair for a few moments and then swooped back to the colony, entering an opening above the door that the mirror could not see.
“That was Corben,” Jaggen said, staring down at the path.
“What?” Matias said.
“The man who was killed,” Jaggen clarified. “He was a good man. One of the few I have in Ironthorne that is trustworthy.”
“Well now he’s charcoal,” Matias sneered, “and we won’t see Krumer again.”
“A pity it was not you down there, druid!” Jaggen spat. “He was twice the man you are and twice as useful than you’ve been since we got here.”
“I never wanted to come on this suicide mission in the first place!” Matias yelled, his temper now getting the better of him. He jabbed Jaggen in the chest. “The way I figure it, it’s your lousy leadership that got us into this mess! It’s you that got Corben dead and you’ll get us dead too!”
“You dare speak to me like that?” Jaggen snarled, grabbing Matias’ cuirass and making him drop his staff.
“Get off me you crazy old moron!” Matias pushed at him hard, his fury unleashed now.
Jaggen pushed back and, one second later, the two men were struggling with each other. Jhondey stood watching, his eyes wide and frightened. He let out a yelp when Matias shoved Jaggen against a workbench and punched him hard in the stomach, winding the old man. The boy sprang into life and started tugging at Matias. “Don’t, stop this!” he squeaked. “We mustn’t fight each other!”
Matias’ gut reaction was to backhand the boy, striking him hard across the face. Jhondey was flung back, losing his balance. He looked up at Matias in hurt and confusion as a trickle of blood ran down his chin.
The attack on the boy stirred Shunz into life, and the construct lumbered forward, his huge hands stretched out toward Matias. He wasn’t as fast as Jaggen, however, who lunged forward with his sword drawn. Matias backed away as the older man sought to run him through.
“Pa, no!” Jhondey yelled. He scampered between the two before Jaggen could strike. “Shunz! Halt! Stop! Stop, I say!”
The big automation obeyed, coming to a juddering halt and lowering his arms. His lantern eyes stayed fixed on Matias, glowing with deep menace.
“Get out of the way, Jhondey,” Jaggen said, his voice whipcord tight. “This is between me and Matias.”
“No pa!” Jhondey retorted, wiping the blood from his face. “Matias is my friend. If we’re gonna get out of here alive, we got to all work together. Matias is sorry for losing his temper, ain’t ya, Matias?”
Matias stared at Jaggen with burning hatred. He wanted nothing more than to smash the old mongrel’s face in, and his idiot son or that walking tin can was going to stop him. Unquenchable fire engulfed his chest and he could feel another coughing fit bubbling to the surface. He couldn’t be taken off his game now. Grudgi
ngly, he realised he was in no fit shape to take any of them down. He spat on the floor and nodded his head slowly.
“I ain’t got no beef with you, Jaggen,” he lied. “The kid’s right for once. We need to work together to get out of here. If we make it out, I’ll leave Ironthorne altogether if you want.”
Jaggen looked at him for a long time, before sheathing his sword again. “Get out of the way, Jhondey,” he said in a low voice.
“But pa—”
“Move Jhondey!”
The boy flinched and went over to join Shunz. Jaggen moved up to Matias. “I was wrong about you,” he said. “You’re no good. If we do get out of here, there’ll be no place for you in Ironthorne anymore.”
Jhondey opened his mouth to protest, but Jaggen raised his hand to silence him. “Agreed?”
Matias nodded. “Agreed.”
Jaggen stepped back and the tension lessened a fraction. “We have an agreement,” he said with an air of satisfaction. “Another thing, you ever strike my boy again and I’ll kill you. Agreement or not.”
Matias smiled mirthlessly. “I’ll try and restrain my natural impulses,” he said, half-joking.
* * *
Now that an uneasy truce had been reached, Matias went out into the passageway and coughed up his guts. He knew he was in earshot of the other two but he couldn’t bear for them to see him in a state of weakness. The fit wasn’t as bad as the one on the gallery and, after hawking up a thick glob of phlegm, the pain in his chest and lungs eased away. The ringing in his ears from the battle had faded out as well and, straightening up, he headed back into the workshop acting like nothing was wrong.
Jhondey and Jaggen had found a couple of metal stools and were sitting down with their rucksacks open. Before leaving Ironthorne, Aunt Semmy had prepared rations for all the men involved in the raid, and Jhondey had pilfered a heel of bread and a couple of treacle tarts for his own clandestine journey. He ate with gusto now, while Jaggen picked at the strips of cold meat and slices of spiced bread that the ogress had packed for him. He didn’t look up as Matias rejoined him and Matias ignored Jhondey’s hopeful glance as he walked around the stationary Shunz and slipped off his own rucksack and slumped down in the corner. Opening it up, he took out the cloth that was wrapped round his own bread and meat, and the small leather flask that contained water. He devoured his rations, not bothering to portion them out the way Jaggen had instructed the men to make them last, and drank deeply from the flask.
The food and water made him feel much better, and packing away his vittles he glanced over at the other two. Jhondey had finished eating and was fiddling with the mirrors while Jaggen stared morosely into space.
Matias stretched and felt a stab of pain in his chest. He was aching all over from the coughing fits and the escape from the Upper Hall, and he wanted nothing better than to curl up and go to sleep. He knew that was a luxury he wasn’t going to be getting anytime soon and he didn’t like the idea of sleeping with Jaggen around. For a moment, he was tempted to take another seed of healing to get a little boost to his energy but finally decided against it. During his fight with the kobolds, his stat bars had flashed up and told him he had taken minimum damage, which was a miracle in itself, and he knew it would be wiser to use his remaining seeds only when it was completely necessary. He’d also packed four healing potions which he’d crafted himself, but the same principle applied.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the three of them. Matias was wondering what was going to happen next when Jaggen abruptly stood up and went toward the mirrors.
“Jhondey show me the vestibule,” he said.
Jhondey did as he was told, and Matias got to his feet and ambled over to see what Jaggen was up to. The metal door still sealed the entrance when Matias looked into the mirror and the gnomish automations still lingered in the vestibule.
“Now show me the Upper Hall, where I can see the entrance to the lower colony,” Jaggen ordered.
“What are you up to?” Matias said.
Jaggen ignored him as he looked at the image of the Upper Hall. The two doors leading to the lower colony were still open but Matias couldn’t see what lay beyond them.
“We go forward,” Jaggen said at length.
Matias frowned. “What?”
The older man gave him a weary look. “We can’t go back, so we go forward.”
“Forward? Through there?” Matias pointed at the open doors. “Are you crazy?”
“You can stay here if you want, but I’m going to try and get into the lower colony,” Jaggen replied, now all grim and businesslike after his earlier emotional outburst. “As I see it, there is no other alternative.”
“We could wait,” Matias countered. “Maybe the main door will open after a while and those machines will go back to their hidey holes to wait for the next bunch of dumb saps to drop in.”
“We got to go down to the lower colony,” Jhondey said, his eyes wide and eager. “No-one’s been in there for thousands of years. Think of all the amazing things we’ll find!”
“And most of them will probably try and kill us,” Matias said back.
“I came here to find the gnomes’ weapons and I intend to carry on with my search,” Jaggen said, stiffly. “Jhondey, is there a secret passage that we can use to get to those doors?”
Jhondey scrunched up his face as he thought about it. “There’s a passage way that leads out to the uppermost terrace close to the doors,” he answered. “It opens into an alley between the houses.”
“Good, we’ll use that,” Jaggen said.
“What do you mean? You’re not going back?” Matias said. “Those machines are still out there.”
“We’ll stay close to the houses and sneak down to the doors,” Jaggen said, strapping on his rucksack.
“That’s crazy!”
Jaggen shot him a contemptuous look. “As I said, you can stay here. Maybe the main door will open as you suggested, but I’m not waiting around any longer. Come on, Jhondey.”
“You got to come with us,” Jhondey said in his whiny voice. “It’s gonna be so much fun.”
“Jhondey! Come on!” Jaggen snapped as he yanked open the door of the workshop and marched out.
Jhondey reached out and tentatively tugged Matias’ arm. “Come on, friend, we need ya.”
“Your pa thinks differently,” Matias sneered.
“Pa acts like he don’t need anyone,” the boy said with a sly grin. “But he does need you. He’s just too scared to admit it. We both need you.”
“Jhondey!” the old man roared from the other side of the door. “To me, now!”
Jhondey let go of Matias’ hand and trotted out of the workshop. “Coming pa,” he called, snatching up his rucksack. Shunz clanked after the boy and Matias was suddenly alone.
He stood, listening to the silence for a few moments, and then swore viciously as he retrieved his rucksack and stalked after them.
* * *
The stagnant air was edged with the stench of burning as the four of them emerged from the secret door into a narrow alleyway. There was no sign of any flying heads or other automations, and they moved as silently as they could between the ramshackle houses. To Matias’ surprise, Shunz must have been fitted with some kind of stealth mode, because he somehow managed to move quieter than the rest of them and just as swiftly. Matias didn’t have much time to marvel on the construct’s abilities though. He was too busy protecting his own butt.
Reaching the end of the alley, they crouched down and Matias peered out at their surroundings. They were facing the back of another row of houses. The narrow road running behind them led to the end of the terrace, and the staircase going down to the floor of the Upper Hall. As they edged toward the steps and went down them, they were only a few feet away from the double doors leading to the lower colony. There was no sign of any flying heads or javelin tortoises, but there was a lone Grinning Lady standing near the remains of the kob
old camp with its back to the doors.
“This is our chance,” whispered Jaggen. “Go!”
Keeping one eye on the Lady, Matias led the way across the floor of the Upper Hall. As he moved as quietly as possible, a message flashed up:
Ability increased: Stealth
Experience points gained: 10
Experience points needed for next level: 140
That was something at least. The quieter he was, the less chance there was of him being heard. It seemed to take an eternity to reach the doors, but finally they got to the nearest one and edged round it to reach the portal within. The hallway beyond was pitch black, and they huddled together just inside it, out of sight of the automations, and tried to get their bearings.
Matias opened his rucksack and pulled out his goggles. When he had fitted them over his eyes, he could make out the long pillared hall stretching off in a straight line into the distance.
“Okay,” he said in a hushed voice. “It’s a straight road from here on out, so stick close.”
They began to move forward before Matias suddenly stopped. He turned and grinned cockily into Jaggen’s anxious face, now painted a vivid purple light thanks to the goggles. “The kid was right, you do need me after all,” he said with relish.
Jaggen made to say something, but Matias turned back front again without leaving him a chance to. Still smiling to himself, he carried on walking for a few paces before one of the flagstones sunk beneath his left foot. He froze when he heard a soft click and, with a heart stopping lurch, the floor gave way beneath the four of them.
Chapter XVII: Reaching Out
The waves crashed angrily against the jagged rocks of Garnet Island’s western edge as Amy headed along the dirt track that weaved over the cliff top on her morning run. Usually, she didn’t hear the roar of the sea for the blaring Techno music pumping out of her ear buds which she listened to everyday during her workout. But this morning, she was in no mood for music. Her mind, like the grey sea below, was too churned up for her to completely switch off and relax. Today was the day she and Shane were going to hack into BeyondMind.
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