City of Steel (Chaos Awakens Book 3)

by Heath Pfaff

  The Assassin had never seen anything like it before. That was a knife that would cut down a troll. How had the Unth made it? It looked so fragile.

  “Once drawn, run your thumb across the gem to activate the cutting blade. However, once activated the blade will cut almost anything it touches. If you need to store the blade in a leather sheath, or hide it beneath your clothing, be sure to draw your thumb across the control gem again to put the blade to sleep. The gem will pulse when you’ve activated it, and when you’ve deactivated it. Putting the blade back in the scabbard that we’re giving you will also deactivate the blade. With this, you may fight the trolls if you need to.” The Unth explained before handing the belt and knives to Xandrith.

  The assassin fastened the belt at his hips and slid the scabbards to his back so that they wouldn’t show from the front. He wouldn’t fit in amidst the trolls very well if he was wearing Unth weapons visible at his hips. Still, it felt good to have a complete set of knives again. It was a foolish notion, but Xandrith felt somehow immortal with a good pair of blades at his disposal.

  Another of the Unth came forward, this one carrying a large piece of strange black leather. Xandrith could recognize it as a piece of troll attire before he could even smell the particularly foul smell given off by the creatures. It wasn’t exactly like rot, or the stink of being unclean, but more the smell of something long in the damp and dark. It was the stench of life deep below the surface of the world. Xandrith took the cloak and unfolded it, wrapping it around his shoulders. He pulled the hood up and threaded the remaining stub of his single horn through one of the holes that had been designed just for that purpose. He’d seen trolls with horns broken off before, so he didn’t think that would make him stand out.

  The cloak was clearly made for someone larger than him, even though he was not a small human. Luckily he was tall enough that he could keep it from dragging on the ground, even if it did wrap around him almost twice.

  The next Unth came forward holding two items. In one hand he held a small bowl with a red substance staining the bottom of it, and over his opposite shoulder was strapped a sword of immense proportion. The blade, if Xandrith had stood it next to him, would have gone from the ground to his hip. It had a wide tip at one end, and a curved edge. The scabbard was designed so that the blade swung free from the side and not up and out, which would have been difficult to achieve even with a troll’s long arms. It looked like a mean weapon. It wasn’t crude by any stretch of the imagination, but it looked like it had been built for unspeakable acts. Of course, were not all swords built for unspeakable acts?

  Xan’s eyes returned to the bowl of red dye. “This isn’t what I asked for.” He stated, since the red dye obviously wasn’t the dark color he’d asked for.

  The Unth nodded. “This will disguise your flesh more effectively than something black. Smaller trolls have brighter skin than larger trolls. If we had darkened your skin like you wanted, you would have stood out amongst the horde.”

  Xandrith hadn’t noticed that fact himself, though when he thought back on the trolls he’d encountered that did seem to make sense. It wasn’t exactly something he’d spent much time thinking about. He’d asked for a dark dye because the color changes to his own skin had all been dark, but if the Unth were correct, this would indeed work much more effectively.

  The assassin took the dye and the sword. He put the sword over his shoulder on top of the cloak, and used its strap to tie back some of the excess. This left one of his arms exposed, so he took the red dye and used it to cover his exposed arm, and then rubbed it carefully into both of his hands. The thick red paste absorbed into his skin readily, and it wasn’t long before he’d covered all of his visible skin, and some of it that was less visible just to be safe.

  “You will need to wipe off the access after a few minutes, or else the dye will rub off on anything you touch.” One of the Unth commented, watching him with something close to curiosity.

  They stood waiting for the dye to dry, and then when the Unth said it was alright, Xandrith rubbed down his flesh with a treated cloth they’d also brought with them. It was somewhat alarming to see so much red coming off of him, yet his skin remained a deep, partially-dried-blood red. He handed the cloth back to the Unth and turned Haley.

  “How do I look?” He asked with a grin.

  “Awful.” She replied, grimacing at the new red Xan. “Don’t smile when you’re around the trolls. Your teeth don’t look exactly like theirs.”

  “Ah, that’ll be good to remember.” He replied.

  “If you’re ready, we’ll take you beyond the wall now.” One of the Unth said, impassive as ever.

  Xandrith looked over at Haley. She looked worried, and with good reason. Xandrith was worried as well, but more for her than for himself. Now that he was dressed in his disguise and ready to embark upon this information gathering task, he found himself falling into old habits. He’d never infiltrated trolls before, of course, but he’d worn many disguises over the years. Instinct and practice were taking over. He felt eerily calm about the whole endeavor.

  “I’m ready.” He told the Unth.

  “Follow me.” The man told him, and together they stepped out of the room. Xandrith didn’t look back over his shoulder to see Haley again. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see her again, but that expression of fear and anxiety she wore ate away at his confidence. His own concern for the girl would chip into the façade he needed to put in place if he was going to be successful.

  The Unth led the way at a fast march, covering ground quickly with a surprisingly wide stride considering his short stature. Xandrith didn’t have any difficulty keeping pace with his own long, lanky body, but Haley would have probably been at a near jog to keep up. Instead of heading back for the stairs that would have taken them to the top of the wall, the Unth took Xan back down to the ground level and then along the base of the wall until they reached a small opening that was cut into the ground running parallel with the wall.

  The small cave went down until they could no longer see the opening through which they’d entered, and then turned abruptly in the direction of the wall. Xandrith expected there to be a tunnel passing through the crystal structure, but instead they came to a stop when the passage intersected the underground portion of the barrier. There was a solid crystal wall blocking their passage. Xandrith was confused.

  “Stay close. If you fall behind, you die.” The Unth said, and with that he stepped into the crystal. It rippled like the surface of water as he passed into it and Xandrith stood, mouth agape, for nearly a full second before the words spoken by the Unth echoed back through is mind. He took a quick, deep breath, and then jumped into the crystal wall behind his guide.

  It felt like jumping into thin water. He could feel the press of the liquid crystal on his skin all over him, pushing against his clothes and dragging against the sword on his back. It was cold to the touch, like ice. The chill instantly made him panic. Instinct told him he should try and swim up and out, but the Unth was moving away from him, walking in a straight line. Xandrith could feel a pressure at his back, as though the crystal-liquid there was growing thicker, solidifying. He stifled his instinct and dashed forward after the Unth. The crystal became thinner as he drew closer. The Unth was creating a bubble in which one could pass through the wall, but it wasn’t a large area.

  They moved quickly and within a minute they emerged into another underground passage. Xandrith staggered as he stepped back into normal air. He took in a huge lungful, realizing he’d been holding his breath the entire time he’d been in the wall. Could he have taken a breath in there? He wasn’t sure, but his body had assumed that was a bad risk. He straightened himself up and gathered his resolve. That had been terrifying, but he’d survived.

  His Unth guide was waiting patiently for Xandrith to recover from his ordeal, and the assassin was thankful for that. He needed a moment. He decided to fill the moment with some conversation.

  “Why are the Un
th helping me do this?” Xandrith asked, not really expecting any kind of answer.

  “Our Ranger believed you were telling the truth about your goal. She also believed you were not an immediate threat to the Wellspring. Your goal is aligned with our own. If you achieve what you want to achieve, it will aid our defense here. If you fail, it will have cost us very little.” The Unth explained.

  That was a grim answer. They had basically allowed Xandrith to do what he intended because it would help their cause if he succeeded, and if he and all of his friends died in the process the Unth wouldn’t have lost anything of value. He’d become an expendable resource.

  “What will you do if we succeed?” Xandrith asked, already sure he knew the answer. He was curious to see what the Unth would say.

  “If you succeed, the troll army will likely break apart. We will destroy those few that remain a threat.” The Unth ignored the real intent of the question. Xandrith guessed that he’d done so intentionally.

  “What will you do with Haley and me if we succeed?” He pressed, this time leaving no room for interpretation in the question.

  The Unth met Xan’s eyes, but he didn’t respond. His silence was damning in and of itself. Xandrith could choose to believe that he didn’t know and therefore wasn’t talking, but it was much more likely that he knew exactly what the Unth intended to do. The assassin grinned, remembering not to open his mouth to expose his teeth as he did so. It was good to get into practice.

  “Fair enough.” Xan chuckled grimly. “Show me to the horde. I have work to do. I’m assuming you’ll be here to let me back in when I’m finished?”

  “Return to this entrance. We will know when you’ve arrived and we will send someone for you.” True to Unth style, the man didn’t bother to explain exactly how they would know when Xandrith had gotten back, or how long he would have to wait.

  The assassin didn’t bother to hide the frustration as it settled heavily upon him. Perhaps the anger would add to his troll disguise. They seemed to be perpetually in a bad mood. They must be acquainted with the Unth.

  The Unth gestured in the only direction that didn’t lead back towards the crystal wall. “The exit opens on the side of a low hill with a heavy bed of rocks around it. There is a boulder that sits right above the hole, and only a narrow opening allows access in and out of the cave. The trolls have set up their camp all around the hill. They have stacks of supplies near the rocks. If you are careful you should be able to exit the cave without drawing attention.”

  Xandrith nodded once. “Alright, then I’ll be going. Don’t wait for me.”

  “I had no intention of doing so.” His guide replied without a trace of sarcasm.

  Xandrith just shook his head and walked away, out into the darkness of the cave ahead of him. It might actually be a relief to be away from the Unth for a while. The trolls at least had some emotions, even if those emotions were all negative and terrifying. They even had a sense of humor. It might have been a bit dark by Xan’s taste, well, by any human’s taste, but at least they laughed. The Unth were so dour it was like someone had just killed all their puppies, and then fed them those puppies with a side of bitter greens, and then pissed in their pudding before throwing a handful of nails in their bedding. The point was that they were not particularly cheery.

  He only walked for a few minutes before the cave began to grow increasingly narrow, and increasingly short. Before long Xandrith was crawling forward on his hands and knees, his giant sword dragging on the low ceiling as he progressed. He wasn’t sure how far he crawled like that before the tunnel took an abrupt upward slant, but he soon found himself climbing up a narrow channel towards a small beam of light shining down from above. The light brought with it a bitter cold breeze and the smell of thousands of trolls mixed with what should have been fresh air, but wasn’t. If one troll was unpleasant, the horde was something else entirely. The smell burned his nose and eyes and Xandrith made himself take a few minutes to adapt to the stench. It wasn’t easy, and even once he had the impulse to rub his eyes and suppress a gag.

  “Damn trolls.” He whispered to himself as he climbed the last few feet towards the exit. The gap he had to squeeze through was indeed very narrow. There was no way he was going to get through it with his sword still strapped to his back. He peeked out the opening to be certain that no eyes were watching, and then he pushed his sword out onto the ground in front of him. He left it there for a moment, hoping that if anyone had seen it appear there would be an immediate response and he could retreat. Nothing happened.

  He took a deep breath, sucking in his stomach as much as he could, and then he pulled himself up through the hole. Even without the sword it was a tight fit. His knives caught on the rocks and he had to manually move them so that he could slide through, all the while the fear of discovery was clutching tightly at him, making every second stretch on for hours, and every sound he made echo like the call of a cities warning horn. Finally he pulled himself all the way free of the hole and picked up his sword. It took him a moment to resituate himself and to straighten his cloak, but once he was done and safely free of the cave, his confidence returned. He was in his element. He was disguised, and he just needed to blend in and listen.

  The area he was in was entirely surrounded by wooden boxes of supplies. They were stacked tall in surprisingly organized piles, and he actually had to do some maneuvering to get himself out from behind them all. The trolls had done a great job of hiding the Unth’s little escape hole. Xandrith took mental stock of the entire area, memorizing exactly where his boulder was and what boxes he would need to maneuver around to get back to his way out. He might need to leave in a rush, and the route was already difficult without him being unable to find it in a hurry. With his immediate situation well in hand, Xandrith moved out into the horde.

  The trolls were everywhere. None of them even looked in Xan’s direction as he stepped out from the crates and into the organized chaos of the war camp. The assassin had been among armies before. He knew the ins and outs of how their camps worked, and this one was familiar for all that it was alien. There was a tension of violence that radiated from all the men and women warriors, and there were members of both sexes represented in the combatants. Troll women were not unlike their men in that they varied greatly from one individual to the next. The characteristics that marked them as female were what one would expect, breasts, smaller horns, slighter builds than the men, but none of these things made them seem weak by any standard.

  Some of the warriors gambled with dice, some were maintaining equipment and running errands. Those ones could have been members of any army that Xandrith had ever seen. Others were fighting, and Xan had seen that amidst human armies as well, but never to the level that these monsters battled. Two large males were throwing each other around as other, smaller trolls watched and cheered them on. Black blood poured onto the ground as one troll ripped the other open, spilling blood and guts to the ground to the joyous uproar of those nearby. No one seemed distressed about the fighting, the blood, or the injuries. This was troll social behavior.

  A few feet away just beyond the combat circle, a massive female troll was rutting with a male who she’d pinned to the ground by the neck. The male looked terrified, but he was still performing admirably. Other males were nearby, obviously excited by what they were witnessing.

  All of this Xandrith spotted in his first few moments out into the horde. The enormity of the task he’d just undertaken struck him at that moment. He had to navigate this mess of violence and horror and find some very particular information without being killed. He thought of the male pinned to the ground by the female and added ‘and raped’ to the end of that thought.

  Xandrith pushed his way out into the mass of trolls, listening for any information that might be of use. The trolls spoke a common human tongue, but they had a heavy accent that made some of what they said difficult to understand. Parts of the language were entirely foreign, but Xan did his best to decipher what he
heard without looking like he was listening too closely to anything in particular. He could only guess that being caught eavesdropping would be taken badly.

  “The last troop called to the front was slaughtered to the last troll.” Xandrith overheard one troll talking over a spit of roasting meat to another group of trolls. “At least we haven’t had a shortage of meat yet.” The creature laughed and his fellows joined it. Xandrith’s stomach recoiled in horror. He’d have to remember not to eat while he was here, not that he thought that would be a problem.

  He walked further into the troll camp, avoiding large groups whenever possible, and sticking to the least densely occupied pockets of space. He tried to walk as though he had some purpose, and no one seemed to notice his progress. For a time Xandrith progressed without hearing a single useful piece of information, but then something interesting caught his ear.

  “…general’s meeting with Krotek and the human knights.” the troll chewed over the last two words as though he found them distasteful. “Later tonight. They say there are new orders coming down the chain.” A very large, dark green skinned troll was talking to a female creature almost as large as he was but with yellow tinged flesh.

  “Maybe they’ve come up with a way to stop us from grinding the mud-grunts into that shiny wall.” The female chuckled. “I’ll miss watching them die. They’re an amusingly pathetic bunch.”

  The male answered her laugh with one of his own. “Whatever the new plan might be, I hope it works. I’m tired of sitting back here waiting. I want to get inside those walls and rip those strange little humans apart with my hands. I want to feel their insides between my fingers, and rub their thin blood against my skin.”

  The female reached out the upper set of her four arms and stroked the male’s chest. “I’d like to see that.” She said, her voice deepening. Her second set of arms reached behind her back and began unlacing the heavy leather wrapping around her torso. Xandrith looked away before that scene could go any further towards damaging his already broken mind.