Princess of Blood

by Tom Lloyd

  Lynx ignored both comments, shuffling forward on command and suddenly incredibly aware of both the size of his feet and his unsteady balance. Under Barra’s directions he made slow but steady progress, down, around, up and through the tangle of stone. It took just a few minutes before Lynx had lost track of their progress. He was so focused on keeping his balance and obeying instructions that he couldn’t manage anything else.

  After ten minutes he had developed a profound respect for Barra’s brain on top of her athleticism – she led him without hesitation or mistake through the stone path. After longer than he had imagined he could bear in utter darkness, he was on the bottom and sank to his knees as his strength seemed to give out.

  ‘Lynx?’ he heard Toil say from the blackness. ‘You okay?’

  ‘Aye,’ he said in a hoarse voice. ‘Your girl’s done good here.’

  A hand touched his arm then, almost shyly, slipped into his and held it tight. Toil pulled him forward and took his other hand so they were facing each other. Lynx suddenly realised they were just inches apart in the dark and feeling as intimate as lovers. He took a long, slow breath and held it, not wanting to break the spell.

  ‘We’re almost there now,’ Toil said after a longer pause than necessary, her voice as low as a bedfellow’s whisper. ‘Just come with me and you’ll be through it.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Toil slipped one hand free and pulled him close to her side as she turned, their hips brushing against each other’s for a dozen steps until something seemed to give in the air around them. With a jolt Lynx realised they were clear and, while it was dark, they were surrounded by the familiar blue-veined rock glowing faintly in the light of a Duegar lamp.

  He blinked and turned around, somehow forgetting to release Toil’s hand straight away until he saw the faces of those watching.

  ‘What’s this now?’ he wondered, slightly awed.

  What he saw seemed to make no sense, just a jagged mass of lines and shadow that seemed to stretch indeterminately into the distance.

  ‘It’s a maze,’ Kas said, shrugging. Her bow was in her hand, he saw, and all their mage-guns were drawn. ‘What did you expect?’

  Slowly the proportions began to take some shape around them. It was the same sort of chaotic tangle of stone slabs, blocks and projections as he’d just climbed through, but on a larger scale. How far it went Lynx couldn’t tell, but they weren’t in a forty-yard-square box now. Either they were on the bottom level of the labyrinth, or they were beneath it. Either way, they were open and exposed to whatever forces the Knights-Charnel had brought down there.

  ‘Last test of the labyrinth,’ Deern said with a nasty rattle of laughter. He patted his mage-gun. ‘Kill all the other fuckers in here with you.’

  Toil looked around at the forest of stone that surrounded them. Making out much detail was hard, but she had a decent enough idea of what she was looking at. This was the lower floor of the labyrinth and she was pretty sure she could see a stone wall off to her right. It was as dark as any city-ruin, however, that lack of moon or stars highlighting how deceptive it was to navigate only by a hand-held lamp. The silence was somehow all the more profound and without her even needing to give the order the others instinctively knew to only speak in whispers and keep the Monarch’s lamp covered.

  The ceiling was forty yards above their heads, the interior a madcap and lifeless landscape of mage-worked stone punctuated by blank, black columns just like the one they’d clambered down through. Even with their Duegar lamps causing the stone nearby to glow faintly, great slabs of shadow hung close all around them. Underfoot was a gritty layer of dust covering level stone that whispered with every step.

  ‘Orders?’ Aben said softly in her ear.

  Toil looked back at the rest of the group. They were mostly huddled in the lee of a high thicket of weirdly twisting stone – shapes that hinted at tentacles as much as branches, but directly copied nothing that Toil had ever seen. There was space for people to work their way inside and find some sort of shelter. As Sitain was currently proving, it was also possible to climb on top and get a better view of what was around them.

  ‘Final test,’ she said, mostly to herself, ‘and we’re near the outer wall I’d guess.’

  ‘So we’re heading inward, to whatever’s at the heart?’

  ‘Through an open space – a degree of cover, but not so much as you’d want. This does look like a battle arena, doesn’t it? So, like Deern said, anyone taking the prize has to make damned sure no one else is there to claim it.’

  ‘But we don’t know how many they are or who got here first.’

  ‘And we’re not all fighters,’ Toil added grimly. She turned and approached the others, beckoning over Teshen and Kas who’d strayed to the edge of the lantern-light. ‘Listen up. Unless Lastani’s got anything to add, we’re heading towards the centre of this … whatever this is. We go in two teams and we expect a fight. Lynx, Kas, Sitain, Barra, Paranil, Haphori, Suth and Elei, you’re with me – the rest, you’re with Teshen. Take Sitain’s lamp and let’s try to keep a good twenty-yard gap, okay? Guns out and fingers off the triggers; bright light and noise will kill us if there’s anyone near to notice.’

  Everyone moved awkwardly into their assigned groups, Toil pulling Sitain and Teshen together in the middle to determine their course.

  ‘I think that’s the outer wall,’ Toil said, pointing. ‘Sitain?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ the night mage confirmed. She turned and pointed the other way. ‘So … the middle is roughly that direction.’

  ‘Terrain?’

  ‘Mostly clear, but if we’re keeping twenty yards apart we’ll be getting separated by these stone bushes.’

  ‘High ground?’

  She shook her head. ‘Nothing bigger than this.’ She nodded towards the tangle they’d been keeping close to. ‘Ten feet at most and not too hard to climb.’

  ‘Can you see black spots on our path?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘We want to skirt those. Last thing we need is someone lurking inside one, waiting for any noise to fire a burner at.’

  ‘You’re in the lead, Toil,’ Teshen said, ‘so if anything happens, we’ll try to flank them.’

  Toil nodded and waved her group forward without another word, keen to return to silence as soon as possible. They moved slowly, but far too noisily for her liking, especially Atieno dragging his lame foot. It was a disconcerting sensation for Toil – so many people beside her in the dark, and not purely reliant on her instincts. Sitain might be inexperienced, but, galling to Toil’s pride or not, the young woman could see much further. It would be madness not to take her lead.

  ‘Wait, what’s that?’ Lynx hissed, his words making the whole group stop dead. No one spoke for a long few moments until Lynx added, ‘Is that a light?’

  She followed where he was looking and realised he was right. It wasn’t much, but there was some sort of glow in the distance. Underground and with all the obstacles here, it was hard to tell how far exactly, but by her guess this entire lowest chamber couldn’t be much more than four hundred yards across.

  ‘Come on then.’

  ‘What about the black area?’ Sitain said before anyone could move.

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘Almost dead ahead. About a room-length.’

  Shit, hells and damn, that’s not a decision I needed.

  ‘Good place for an ambush,’ Suth muttered. ‘Three dragoons each with a burner stand at the outer edge and take one pace back. They fire on anyone they hear come close then back away.’

  ‘Maybe we get lucky, maybe the light’s something else.’

  ‘Yeah, right,’ Lynx said.

  Toil paused to think for a while. No, it’d waste too much time setting that up. Maybe Bade’s got two Duegar lamps, but if there’s a prize at the heart of this place why waste the time ferrying soldiers to outposts?

  ‘We can’t announce ourselves, we’ve got to risk it.’

&
nbsp; ‘Damn big risk.’

  Toil found herself grinding her teeth in irritation. ‘Anyone want to volunteer to sneak in and check?’ she whispered sarcastically.

  There was a pointed silence from behind her.

  ‘Didn’t think so.’

  She continued on and the others followed her, embracing the risk of the lightless area wholeheartedly if it also gave them cover against whatever had a light shining on it. She gave a soft click of the tongue as she reached it, looking right towards the light of Sitain’s lamp. An answering click told her that Aben had understood her message, whereupon they rounded the block of perfectly black ground and made for cover.

  What in the name of …?

  Further ahead, perhaps fifty yards away, the stone was more visible – a lambent glow coming from somewhere within the random formations. It wasn’t bright at all, midnight on an overcast night, but compared to the pitch black of underground it was something, some tiny order imposed on the tangle of darkness around them.

  Toil hesitated. The dark rocks themselves appeared to be seamed with white, less than even the dull blue shine under a Duegar lamp, but she could make out the shape of nearer stone formations despite the light’s source being hidden from view. Another type of stone she’d not seen before, or something else entirely?

  ‘We keep going,’ she whispered. ‘Move closer and look for sentries. Might be we can catch them off guard.’

  ‘And if we’re spotted?’

  ‘Then like our mascot said, kill anything that moves.’

  Chapter 30

  It was a long time before anyone could speak. Half the dragoons had fallen to their knees, some mouthing prayers, others merely gaping. Bade took another hesitant step forward and found himself grinding to a halt again, as though the dull glow ahead of him was a fire’s heat he could barely stand to approach.

  He tried to speak but it came out just as a croak. For a moment, Bade felt something touch his heart, something that stripped away all the cynicism and pragmatism of his life. What it exposed he couldn’t say, but the aura around this stone clearing seemed to shine on some inner part of him he’d long forgotten.

  ‘Pretty,’ grunted someone beside him. ‘What is it, then?’

  Bade turned and stared at the man. ‘What is it?’ he echoed, astonished.

  Sebaim shrugged. ‘Some sort o’ jewel, right?’ The ageing scout looked far from impressed, while in the background several Knights-Charnel began to chant a prayer – stumbling over the words as they too felt what Bade was experiencing.

  ‘It’s …’ Bade was lost for words and found himself flapping his hand in the direction of the light. ‘How can you not tell?’

  They had entered a ring of stone formations – a crazed mass of interlocking arches, obelisks and stylised trees a good thirty yards in diameter – and found the source of the weak light. At the very centre of a gently sloping hollow stood twenty or more short pedestals like the broken stubs of pillars. On each of those were five or six irregular shards of glowing crystal.

  The largest was the size of his fist, most closer to a finger-joint, and all of them shone with a soft light that bore the faintest of tints. The nearest columns had a pinkish glint to their light, those behind were more yellow, while he could see two that bore crystals shining with a shifting, shadowy blue edge.

  ‘Never seen glowing stones like that before,’ Sebaim said, taking a few steps forward to squint at the nearest. ‘Worth something, then?’

  ‘Worth something?’ Chotel gasped behind them. ‘They’re priceless!’

  ‘That’s the good one, right?’

  ‘Sebaim, they’re bloody God Fragments!’

  ‘Oh. Definitely worth something.’

  Bade advanced until he was almost close enough to reach out and pick one up. There were three pieces on the nearest pillar, irregular in shape but arranged in a way that could fit them together neatly.

  ‘Pieces of the gods themselves,’ Bade breathed, struck by renewed wonder. ‘The biggest hoard I’ve ever seen, ever heard of! Do the Knights-Charnel even possess this many in their charnel vaults? Kastelian?’

  ‘You think I’ve seen inside the vaults?’ Kastelian croaked. ‘Only the highest of Exalted would be permitted, and even then … Spirits below, this is a find for the ages!’

  Bade reached out to touch one of the pieces. His fingers hovered over it, struggling to move those last few inches as a dull pressure began to build in his ears. Nothing painful, it felt almost like a low buzzing – the deep, distant sound of a giant hive of bees somewhere under his feet. He frowned at the shard as the noise shifted and changed to a faint rush of wind almost like voices, then the pressure on his hand lessened and he found himself able to pick the God Fragment up.

  It was warm in his hand, his skin tingling like the fringe effect of a spark-bolt. The sound increased again, trembling up through the bones of his arm and making his hand shake. With a jerk Bade released it and dropped the fragment back on to the pedestal, blinking around at his companions as though just waking from a dream.

  ‘So, God Fragments, eh? Interesting.’

  Sebaim joined him at the pedestal and nudged one of the other shards with his finger. For a moment it pressed up against the other and they seemed to stick together, but then he prodded it again and the pieces fell apart.

  ‘Aye, interesting,’ Bade laughed. ‘Never been one for the gods, eh, Sebaim?’

  ‘Nope. Didn’t think you was either.’

  ‘I … I’m not. but, well …’ He gestured at the pedestals. ‘It’s an incalculably valuable collection of actual holy relics – the shattered bodies of the gods themselves. Look, you see the different colours? This one’s pinker than the others? This is a fragment of Catrac, god of passion and endeavour. Millions pray to him every day and you can just pick up a piece of his actual body right now.’

  ‘Is that so? Well, it’s an odd world. We got all of ’em here?’

  Up ahead, within the array of pedestals, Kastelian laughed – sounding light-headed to the point of hysteria. ‘All of them? I think so. Yellow for Veraimin, White for Insar, red for Catrac, green for Ulfer.’

  ‘So the funny-lookin’ ones are Banesh?’

  Kastelian’s laugh tailed off and he scowled at the pedestal Sebaim was pointing at. ‘Banesh too,’ he admitted at last before turning to Insar’s fragments and pulling the pack off his back. ‘Ditch any food you have left, wrap the pieces carefully.’

  ‘Anyone else hear that funny noise?’ asked one of Bade’s crew, Sonna.

  ‘We got company?’

  ‘No, that sort o’ buzzing.’ The sharpshooter shook her head and scowled, looking uncomfortable.

  ‘It’s the fragments,’ Kastelian explained. ‘I’ve heard of it from those stationed in sanctuaries and vaults. The magic inside each and the tiny trace of divine presence that lingers still.’

  ‘Just so long as I’m not going mad.’

  ‘Come on,’ Bade said, beckoning her forward. ‘Let’s find our way out o’ here.’

  The woman joined him, slipping her gun back on to her shoulder as Kastelian directed most of his troops to guard the perimeter. Bade led Sonna past the pedestals and through the rear break in the circle of tangled stone perimeter. They were close to the central column now, just yards short of the huge stone pillar that served as the main support for the labyrinth above.

  To his intense relief, the light of his Duegar lamp picked out a change in the smooth blank walls of the central column. Not far from the stone circle there was an opening about ten yards across, a cut-away section that led to a circular room with Duegar glyphs inscribed on the walls.

  A peaked dome roof of dark metal stood above it, supported by a dozen fat struts that ran into the ground at the edge of the room. The floor had a series of circles marked out in glowing blue light, but it was the centre of the room which drew his attention. On a spur of stone there stood a sphere made of shining silvery metal, just like those on the doors and again inscr
ibed with the glyph for ‘gift’.

  ‘Looks like this is our way out,’ Sonna commented.

  Before Bade could reply the crash of a gunshot rolled out across the huge lower chamber, sounding not too far away. The pair pulled their guns and edged back to the entrance of the room. This close they couldn’t see much past the stone circle, but had a decent view of the ground on either side of it.

  ‘Stay here, hold this room for us.’

  ‘Got it.’

  Come on, Toil, Bade thought as he headed back to the stone circle. One more try at me, eh?

  ‘Who the fuck fired?’

  ‘Shit, there’s something out there!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘What’s that?’

  Fingers were pointed off into the darkness. Someone whimpered with fear, someone raised their gun and aimed before Teshen slammed a fist into their shoulder.

  ‘Who fired?’ he snarled, louder this time.

  There was a moment of silence.

  ‘Me,’ admitted Brols. ‘But I saw something, movement. It weren’t human!’

  ‘What then?’

  The tattooed man grimaced. ‘Dark, big like a mountain dog – but it weren’t no hound.’

  A cold sensation ran down Teshen’s neck. Oh hells, down here? ‘Thick grey body? Legs like spears?’

  ‘It moved so damn fast I never got a good look, darted away like a spider.’

  ‘Shit.’ He craned his neck to look over their heads, trying to get a view all around. ‘Which way?’ Teshen asked, loading a sparker into his gun.

  ‘Over there, went off that way,’ Brols said, jabbing forward with the muzzle of his gun.

  ‘Behind us? This just gets better and better.’

  ‘Maspid?’ Estal asked quietly.

  ‘Sounds like it. Let’s pick up the pace; Safir, you and Deern watch right, Estal, Layir and Brols behind. Shoal and Aben, you’re left. Lastani, up front with me and Atieno. If it comes at us, throw up something to make it hesitate, Lastani. And pick your damn shots, these things hunt in packs so don’t all you lot kill the first one five times over, okay?’