The Fractured Sky teo-2

by Thomas M. Reid

  Kaanyr put the stones back into their pouch and followed the creature into the tent. A number of hanging tapestries partitioned the interior of the pavilion, so Kaanyr could not see the entirety of the place all at once, but everywhere the mercane walked, Kaanyr spotted trunks, barrels, boxes, and crates. Oil lamps illuminated each area individually, and in some of the alcoves, buyers and sellers haggled over wares. A few of the dealers were mercane as well, each dressed in finery to rival Kaanyr's host, but each one's tastes in colors and cut varied significantly.

  The mercane led Kaanyr to an unoccupied spot near the center of the tent and glided toward a plush chair with numerous cushions that had been pulled up to a low table. As he sat, the mercane offered Kaanyr a similar seat on the opposite side of the table.

  "Wine?" the mercane asked, gesturing to a crystal service set on the table. "Perhaps a sweetmeat?"

  Still sated from the meal back at the palace, Kaanyr declined. He knew that the mercane considered it customary to engage in pleasantries for a few moments before getting down to business, but he had no time.

  "I thank you for your hospitality, and your willingness to do business," Kaanyr said, "but time is of the essence. I need weapons. Can you accommodate me?"

  The mercane sniffed, obviously put off by the cambion's brusque manner, but he nodded. "Indeed," he answered. "What sort of weapons?"

  "I need an enchanted blade," Kaanyr said. "Something with a bit of bite to it. A good sword."

  The mercane sat back and steepled his long fingers together in front of his mouth. "I see," he said. "And your funds? You wish to spend all of what you showed me?"

  Kaanyr hesitated. He had other pouches hidden on his person, but those diamonds were a significant part of his fortune. And he wanted more than just a sword. "Perhaps," he said, refusing to commit. "Depending."

  "On…?" the mercane asked. "I have the finest quality enchanted swords of every style imaginable in the entire city. I'm sure you can find something you like."

  "I'm sure I can, too," Kaanyr said, "but I'm also looking for something a bit more arcane to round out my purchase. I dabble a bit in the dweomers myself, so I have some specific ideas in mind."

  "Oh? And what would those be?"

  "Well, I prefer wands," Kaanyr said. "Though potions will do in a pinch."

  "And what kind of wands would you like?" the mercane asked.

  "Something with some power," Kaanyr answered. "Flashy, potent. That's what I like. Oh, and I need a reliable means of flying. It's become an issue of late."

  "I think I can accommodate you," the mercane said, smiling.

  Kaanyr found the grin a bit predatory, and he fought the urge to shudder.

  Later, after concluding his business-and after cursing himself for spending so much-Kaanyr worked his way back to the Palace of Myriad Amazements. He was still thinking how best to sneak back inside when he spotted Micus.

  The angel walked on the far side of the street with another angel alongside, one that Kaanyr recognized as his jailor. Garin, he thought. I think that was his name. The sight of those two made him draw up short and want to vanish into the crowd.

  They strode with purpose between a pair of utterly strange creatures. The creatures reminded the cambion of centaurs, though they were certainly not of flesh and blood. In some places, he could see alabaster skin, but in between, gears, pistons, and tubes of brass and steel shone through. The creatures wore golden armor, and they walked with the same sense of urgency that Micus and the other angel displayed.

  Kaanyr followed them from a distance, but he already knew where they were headed. When they reached the steps of the Palace of Myriad Amazements, the cambion knew it was time to clear out. He turned to flee, to leave Dweomerheart by whatever means he could find, and then his mind betrayed him.

  If you don't do something to warn Tauran and the others, you're putting the entire mission at risk.

  That was all it took to force Kaanyr to try to help.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Aliisza sat bolt upright and reached for her blade. That innate sense of danger pounded, warning the alu to get out. She had her sword drawn and was on her feet before she even remembered where she was.

  A quick check around the room told her that Kaanyr was gone and that Tauran and Kael still slept. The absence of her lover troubled Aliisza, but not nearly so much as the impending sense of a threat. She fingered Pharaun's ring and activated its arcane powers, seeking some evidence that her internal warning was justified.

  The entire room erupted in a blaze of magical resonance, as if the whole chamber, including the air she was breathing, was highly magical. It made her worse than blind; it dazzled her with its intensity.

  Fool, she told herself. You're at the very home of magic. What did you expect?

  Dismissing the power of the ring, she concentrated on her other, more natural senses. There was nothing amiss as far as she could tell, other than the cambion's absence.

  Then she noticed the food was gone.

  She padded softly to the couch where Tauran slept, his breathing slow and deep. Getting one hand near his mouth, Aliisza reached down with the other and nudged him with a finger against his shoulder.

  "Mmm? What?" the angel mumbled.

  Aliisza clamped her hand over his mouth and put her other finger to her lip. "Shhh," she whispered. "Something's wrong."

  Tauran's eyes widened for a moment, then he recognized her and grew still. Finally, he nodded, and Aliisza took her hand away. "What is it?" he asked.

  "I don't know," the alu replied "I just get a sense sometimes, and it's telling me that we need to leave."

  Tauran sat up and looked around. "Where's Vhok?" he asked in a soft but urgent tone.

  Aliisza shrugged. "Nothing to deal with right now," she said. "First, we need to get out of this room."

  "Don't wake Kael," Tauran said as the alu stepped toward the knight. "Let me do it."

  She glanced back at the angel, then shrugged and nodded.

  Tauran moved to one side and leaned over the sleeping half-drow. He whispered something in Kael's ear then shifted back, out of the way. In a single smooth motion, Kael bolted upright. The knight had his sword up in both hands and was staring hard at the door. Aliisza gaped at her son. She had no idea where he had been holding it beforehand.

  Kael got his bearings and caught her staring. "I inherited more than just your good looks," he said softly with a grim smile on his face.

  I'll say, she thought. Remind me never to wake you up.

  She moved to the door and placed her ear against it. She heard footfalls growing louder from the opposite side of the portal, and her sense of threat grew more intense as she stood there. Whatever was spooking her, it was coming through that door, and soon.

  She wove a simple spell upon the door, sealing it.

  "What do you sense?" Tauran asked, freeing his own mace from the loop on his belt. "What's coming?"

  Aliisza shook her head. "I don't know, but I don't really want to wait around to find out."

  "Can you whisk us away through one of your magical doors?" Kael asked.

  Aliisza shook her head. "I can sense that something would prevent it from working," she replied. "We can't escape, but maybe we can hide."

  "Hide? How?" Kael asked, his tone filled with doubt.

  Aliisza thought for a moment. "Like this," she said, and she grabbed one end of the couch where she had rested. "Help me," she urged the knight, and when he'd grabbed the other end, they pulled it a little less than a pace away from the edge of the room. "Get against the wall," she ordered, even as she moved there herself. The other two joined her, and she pulled a small block of granite free of a pocket inside her bodice. Chanting, she gestured with the tiny block where she wished to spring her spell.

  A wall formed there.

  Aliisza had conjured the wall so that it ran parallel to the one against which the three of them pressed themselves, giving it the coloring and texture to match. She left
a hole in it near the middle and at the floor, large enough that they could crawl through it but hidden from the other side by the couch.

  Aliisza put her fingers to her lips to motion for the other two to remain quiet, then she squatted down next to the hole and cocked her head to one side, listening. Tauran and Kael joined her.

  For several agonizing moments, the alu heard nothing. Then, though she wasn't sure, she thought she detected the creak of the door opening. She held her breath.

  "They're not here!" The voice was muffled, but the voice uttering those words was unmistakable.

  Micus.

  "You told me you had detained them!" the angel said.

  "We did," came an unfamiliar voice. "They must have slipped out magically. I expected that they would still be asleep, after what we dosed them with. I don't understand."

  Aliisza heard footsteps enter the room and begin to pace.

  "Do you see them in here?" Micus asked. "Are they hiding from us magically?"

  There was a pause, then a third voice spoke up. "No. They are not employing magic to hide within this chamber." The sound of that third voice was odd, mechanical.

  "But you can still sense them?" Micus pressed.

  "Yes," the mechanical voice replied. "They are somewhere in that direction."

  "You know how they did it, Micus," came yet another voice, one that was vaguely familiar to Aliisza, though she could not quite place it. "The alu and her magic doorways. That's how she managed to escape with Vhok right out from under my nose."

  Of course! Aliisza realized. That's the angel that had been guarding Kaanyr!

  "That's impossible," the second voice insisted. "We have the room warded against that."

  "Then they probably used another method to get past your sentries," Micus said. "They must have slipped out of here just before we arrived."

  "They must still be inside the building," the second voice said. "I can have my sentries begin searching."

  "Yes," Micus said. "Please do so. What a shame. So close…"

  The sound of footsteps retreating was followed by the slamming of the door.

  Aliisza listened for a moment longer, fearful that it had all been a trick and that Micus knew where they were hiding. Tauran and Kael remained still as well, as if sharing her thoughts.

  "I think they're gone," the knight whispered. "Push the couch away."

  The three of them very carefully and quietly shifted the couch forward, until there was enough room for them to exit. The alu sighed in relief when she saw that the room was empty.

  "We can't stay here," Tauran said, rising to his feet. "They'll be back soon enough."

  "How do you know?" Aliisza asked, walking around the couch into the center of the room.

  "Because I think they're using zelekhuts," he said, and his expression was grim.

  "Using what?" Aliisza asked. Fear was addling her brain. Focus!

  "I was afraid of that," Kael said, nodding to Tauran. He turned to Aliisza. "Zelekhuts are inevitables-constructs built to enforce laws. They are very good at hunting down anyone who has broken an agreement or has tried to escape justice. We sometimes use them to track and capture criminals."

  "That strange voice you heard," Tauran said, "and what it said about not seeing us hiding by some magical means. That is the mark of a zelekhut."

  "Your idea to make a wall was brilliant, Aliisza," Kael added. "It wasn't magical. No illusion, no invisibility or other means of masking us. Just a second wall. It made the room look normal to the zelekhut."

  Aliisza shrugged. "It was a snap decision," she said. "I had no idea." She had to fight not to grin at the compliment.

  "Regardless, Micus and his zelekhut will be back," Tauran said. "It can track one of us. Probably me. Micus knows me better than either of you two, and he can help the construct get a better sense of what it's hunting."

  "Ah," Aliisza said. "It can sense which direction you are, but not how near or far."

  "Yes," Tauran said, "but once it starts moving through the building, sensing me from different angles, it won't take long to pinpoint where I am. We must leave."

  "How?" Kael asked. "Whoever was trying to curry favor with Micus said he was going to have his sentries looking for us."

  "Time for a disguise," Tauran answered, and he shimmered before their eyes, changing form. His wings disappeared, and his clothing transformed from his brilliant white tunic and leggings to a simple brown robe with a deep hood. "Tyr may have denied me many of my powers, but I can still do this." Even his voice sounded different.

  Aliisza followed suit, changing herself into a plump, matronly woman in robes similar to Tauran's.

  Kael looked back and forth between the two, frowning. "That's all fine for the two of you, but I lack the power to hide myself in that fashion."

  "Not to worry," Aliisza said. She reached down and tore a bit of cloth from the corner of her robes, then wove a spell over it. The shred of fabric became another full robe. "There you go," she said, handing it to Kael.

  The knight slipped it on over his armor and pulled the hood up. "Much better," he said, "but my sword is a bit too noticeable."

  "We'll have to risk it," Tauran said. "Use it like a walking stick, and stay right behind the two of us. All we need is enough time to get out the front entrance, then it won't matter."

  The trio moved to the door. Tauran took the lead, cracking it a tiny bit to peer through to the hallway beyond. Aliisza gripped her sword, ready to free it from her robes should they be attacked. Tauran pulled the door a little wider and peeked his head out.

  "Come," he said, motioning for the other two to follow him. "Before someone comes and sees which room this is."

  The three companions hurried out into the empty hall and Kael pulled the door shut behind him. They moved down the passage in the direction they had come when they arrived.

  Aliisza kept fighting the urge to look down, to conceal her face. Despite her disguise, she feared that she would be recognized. She could not explain the irrational fear that coursed through her. You feel out of control, she told herself. You knew the food was tainted and you fell for it anyway. Now you don't trust yourself.

  Kael walked slightly behind the other two, trying to press in behind them as much as possible. The soft, rhythmic ringing of his sword as it struck the stone floor was jarring, and Aliisza expected a crowd of hound archons to come zipping around some corner at any moment, running in search of the offending sound.

  "Can you muffle that a bit?" she whispered fiercely as they neared the steps. "Pretend you're using it as a walking stick."

  Kael said nothing, but the sound diminished.

  The trio made their way to the front entrance of the building and Aliisza thought they might actually manage to sneak out undetected. As they drew close to the doors, though, a lantern archon flitted down and swarmed around them.

  Aliisza held her breath and pretended to ignore the creature.

  "I don't recognize you," the glowing orb said, hovering in front of the three. "When did you arrive? Do you have clearance to depart?"

  Tauran said nothing, just kept walking, so Aliisza followed his lead. They got close to the door and she reached out to push it open. Beyond it, freedom called to her.

  "Please stop," the archon said. "I need to know who you are."

  "Keep going!" Tauran said, and he pressed his hands against the matching door.

  As the two of them touched the portal together, an alarm went off, loud enough to make Aliisza cringe.

  "Don't stop!" Tauran said, shoving his way through the door. Aliisza and Kael kept pace with him.

  Beyond the doors, the porch was relatively empty, and the steps leading down into the plaza beyond beckoned. Folk there had stopped to peer toward the building, trying to see what was causing the ruckus.

  "There they are!" Micus shouted from above.

  Aliisza turned to look and spotted the angel perched upon the roof directly over the doors, pointing at them.

/>   By the Abyss! she silently swore, yanking her sword free. Will he never leave us alone?

  "Zelekhut!" Tauran shouted, pointing.

  The alu redirected her gaze where her companion pointed and spotted a strange being rushing toward them.

  It looked to Aliisza for all the world like a centaur, but it had been made, not born. Its skin was incomplete, and she could see mechanical things peeking from beneath, where she would have expected muscles and blood to exist. It wore a suit of gold plate barding.

  The construct rushed toward them from one side of the building, its hooves striking sparks on the stone as it charged. Aliisza heard the same clattering sound of steel on stone from the opposite direction. She turned that way and spied a second construct galloping to confront them. It spun a pair of spiked chains overhead that extended from its forearms, just above its hands.

  Another deva settled to the ground at the base of the broad steps. Aliisza remembered him as the one who had held Kaanyr prisoner back in the House of the Triad. He stood there with his mace ready, blocking their way.

  They were surrounded.

  The scene confused Kaanyr.

  Micus and Garin, the angel who had been his jailor, exited the Palace of Myriad Amazements along with the two strange mechanical centaurs. Why are they coming back out? he wondered. Where are Aliisza and the others?

  Although he had managed to coerce himself into aiding his companions merely by thinking of the ramifications of abandoning them, he had hesitated at the steps of the palace. He had no means of sneaking back into the building without being noticed. Knowing he could do little that way, he hid himself among some vendor carts on the near side of the plaza. Waiting and watching was a better use of his skills than madly throwing himself in harm's way.

  The cambion was still hiding and contemplating alternatives when Micus and his cohorts reemerged. Although he had anticipated that they might come out with prisoners in tow, he had not expected them to reappear empty-handed.