“What?” Claude asked.
“If you fall in, the gnawers’ll have you before you can even start to worry about drownin’,” the foreman said.
“The what?” Alyss called out.
“Gnawers,” the foreman answered, “at least that’s what we call ‘em. It’s what they do, mostly... gnaw at things. That’s why we have to make the dredge boats out of metal. Even then, we hafta replace the plating every few months... speakin’ of which, we’re still waitin’ on those parts from Thrinaar, Valganna.”
“Yes, there have been some delays, I’m afraid,” Valganna Morst sighed, “We’re working on securing a new contract...”
“Go back to the part where things gnaw on the boat!” Alyss shouted, freezing in her tracks.
“It is nothing to be concerned about, Lady Arkadi,” Morst assured her, “The creatures of the lake have never caused any appreciable damage to one of our vessels.”
“Well...” the foreman said slowly, lifting his gloved hands.
“Yes, there have been some accidents, in the past,” Morst hurriedly admitted, “but the risk is more than acceptable!”
“Acceptable?” Alyss cried, “Define acceptable!”
“We will be perfectly fine, I assure you,” Morst said, “The creatures are actually quite small... comparatively.”
“Compared to what?” Alyss asked.
“You should see the eels!” the foreman laughed, “It’s what the gnawers eat, mainly... at least we think that’s what they eat. Usually they can’t get through the eel’s scales, but sometimes the eels will come up with these huge bite marks in ‘em, and the gnawers’ll go in through the hole, and it only takes about a minute for ‘em to eat an eel from the inside out... and these eels aren’t small, though I’d hate to meet whatever’s makin’ the holes in ‘em to begin with!”
Alyss stood motionless beside the trail, her goggles staring blankly at the vampire foreman as he gleefully explained the feeding habits of the lake’s resident monsters.
“You don’t have to go with us,” Marla said, putting her hand on Alyss’s shoulder.
Alyss brought her hand to the throat of her jacket, touching the little bulge beneath the leather where Kaelin’s tooth lay.
“No,” Alyss said, “I’m coming with you.”
Marla put her arm around her friend as they all continued their descent down the winding mountain trail.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, young lady,” the foreman apologized, “You’ll all be safe and snug once you get to the boat. It’s not that much farther to the drop anyway.”
“The drop?” Marla asked.
“I don’t even want to know,” Alyss sighed.
“The drop,” the foreman said, lifting his hand toward the steel cage suspended over the edge of the cliff ahead.
Alyss groaned.
“The miners have all gone down into the pit for the night already,” the foreman explained as they approached the steel cage, “They don’t mind getting’ a little crispy, if it means a better haul at the end of the night. They’ll push it all the way to dawn before they quit sometimes.”
A pair of vampires in heavy protective gear emerged from a sheltered alcove carved into the rocks beside the cage. They lifted their hands in greeting as the foreman approached.
“These will be your guides for the excursion,” the foreman said, indicating the two vampires, “Our best dredge crew, at your service for the night... Master James and Master Simms.”
“I welcome your presence,” the masked vampire known as James said, folding his hands across his chest as he bowed slightly. The one known as Simms folded his hands and bowed as well.
Marla and the others returned the greeting.
“Take good care of the Valganna and his guests,” the foreman instructed.
“Yes, sir,” Master James answered.
Morst nodded his farewell to the foreman as he turned back toward the path to the Shard. Turning then to the two boatmen, he said, “We are ready to descend.”
Master James hurried to open the barred door of the large cage that hung, suspended over the edge of the cliff by two thick cables of braided wire. The cables stretched out from their anchors in the rock above and down into the misty abyss below.
“What are the spikes for?” Alyss asked, pointing toward the jagged blades of rusty metal that protruded at odd angles from the iron-plated roof of the strange gondola.
“Chimeras,” Master James answered.
“Of course,” Alyss said.
“Just this way,” Valganna Morst said pleasantly as he ushered them inside the gondola cage with his bodyguards standing watch behind him.
Marla followed the others as they filed in, pausing for a moment as Nerrys hunched carefully through the narrow opening of the cage door.
“You’re a big one,” James remarked as he watched Nerrys squeeze through.
“Yes,” Nerrys answered, her voice thrumming with draconic annoyance.
“Nothin’ wrong with bein’ big, Ma’am,” James hastened to add, “I prefer women with a bit o’ heft to ‘em.”
Valganna Morst turned and regarded the boatman with a goggled stare.
Master James suddenly started as he noticed the elder’s glare. “Oh,” he said, “please take hold of one of the safety bars and try not to let go until we stop movin’.”
Marla took her place with her back against the outer bars of the cage with Alyss to one side and Claude on the other. Together they grasped the bars that stretched from floor to ceiling in the center of the gondola. The weathered and stained wooden floor swayed beneath them as the vampires balanced their weight on either side of the center. The gondola carriage looked as if it could hold almost fifty vampires, shoulder to shoulder.
The clang of the cage door closing drew Marla’s eye to where Master Simms was now latching a bolt closed. He turned and met her gaze, his face invisible behind his mask. Marla glanced away quickly, wondering if the light of her golden eyes was visible to the man through her own goggles.
“And now you all find out why nobody fed you breakfast yet!” Master James shouted as he reached up and pulled down on an iron ring attached to a chain in the ceiling. A grating clunk sounded as the latch holding the gondola in place disengaged, and the floor suddenly dropped beneath them. The wind howled around the bars of the cage as the carriage slid down the guide cables into the misty basin below.
Alyss screamed, and Claude let out a little hiss of alarm. Marla’s stomach churned as the guide cables above them shrieked with the sound of steel on steel.
“Needs oil!” James shouted to be heard over the ear-piercing noise.
Misty air whistled through the bars, chilling Marla’s body through her leather suit. Claude did his best to shield her from the worst of it, but the wild sway of the descending gondola made anything more than just holding on to the safety bar problematic.
Alyss yelped in alarm as the carriage suddenly jolted with a loud bang.
“Frayed cable!” James shouted, “Make a note!”
Simms grunted.
Then everyone started as something heavy slammed into the front of the cage.
“Look out!” Claude shouted over Alyss’s screams as a bloated pinkish thing with sticky wings clawed and gnashed at the bars of the cage with it’s snaggle-toothed beak.
“It’s just a baby!” James shouted back as he kicked at the monster’s face with his boot.
The little chimera hissed and spat a gob of green spittle across James’s chest, splattering Valganna Morst and Nerrys behind him.
“Go on, little fella!” James shouted as he continued to kick the thing in the face, “Go home to your momma!”
The baby chimera released its grip on the bars of the cage and disappeared beneath the body of the carriage, whipped away by the winds with a leathery whump.
“All better!” James shouted as he turned to give them a thumbs up. Then he turned to face the bars again as they burst through the bottom of the clo
ud layer, and the view of the basin below opened up before them.
Marla gasped in wonder as she saw a vast, red-tinted inland sea stretching far away toward a horizon of hazy, luminescent clouds. The nearest shore of the lake rushed up from below with frightening speed, its rocky expanse blazing with shining pockets of the sun-bright moon sand.
“How do you stop this thing?” Alyss howled.
“Simms!” James shouted, “Use the stopper!”
Marla looked back toward the silent vampire at the door. But the man showed no sign of movement.
“You brought the stopper, didn’t you?” James cried, his voice tinged with panic, “Please tell me you brought the stopper!”
Alyss screamed again.
“Enough of that!” Valganna Morst shouted.
“Sorry, Valganna,” James laughed, “Just havin’ a bit o’ fun!”
The cable car shuddered violently as they began to rapidly decelerate.
“The carriage slows itself automatically,” Morst explained, “There is no need for alarm.”
The shuddering became a loud series of clanks and pops as the cables thrummed like giant harp strings. The whole carriage swayed and vibrated as the brakes absorbed the momentum of their descent, until, with one final bang, the gondola came to a stop. Marla caught Alyss in one arm as the girl lost her grip on the safety bar.
“Are you all right?” Marla asked.
“No,” Alyss groaned, “I am definitely not all right.”
Marla helped Alyss to her feet again as the carriage swayed gently above a broad wooden platform beside a series of low dome-like buildings.
“Thanks,” Alyss sighed as she regained her balance.
“Are you all right?” Claude whispered as he put his hand on Marla’s shoulder.
“Yes,” she said, squeezing his hand as she took it in her own gloved palm.
“Right this way, Masters and Mastresses,” James called out, as he ushered them toward the back of the gondola. Simms unlatched the door of the carriage and stepped out onto the landing platform. The silent vampire stepped away, allowing Valganna Morst’s bodyguards, Malco and Vruust, to step down and their master to follow.
Nerrys waited for Marla and the others to exit before she once again squeezed her broad shoulders through the narrow doorway. The suspended gondola swayed noticeably as the big Haedrian vampire dropped onto the platform below.
Master James looked up from where he was helping Valganna Morst clean the chimera spittle from his leathers. He snatched up a fresh rag from a nearby bucket and hurried over to where Nerrys stood, straightening her cloak.
“You’ve gotta bit of ick on you there,” James said, lifting his rag to wipe at the green splatter on Nerrys’s white breastplate.
Nerrys snatched the cloth from the boatman’s hand and made a sort of rumbling thrum in her throat as she stared him down.
“I see you’ve got it then,” James said apologetically as he stepped away.
Nerrys observed his retreat as she silently wiped her armor clean before casting the rag aside. Her white gauntlet came to rest on the pommel of her sword as she continued to watch the boatman.
James gave her a little wave as he shuffled across the platform toward the open doorway of one of the grim-looking domes.
“Is that paint?” Alyss asked, indicating the large yellowish splotches that covered most of the exposed gray stone of the domes and the wooden platform beneath their feet.
“Chimera scat,” James answered merrily.
“Oh gods!” Alyss gasped as the smell finally worked its way through her facemask.
Marla’s nose burned with the rotten fishy odor of the stuff. It was worse than anything she had ever smelled in the pet shop or the sewers of Wythr.
“You get used to it,” James said as he waved for them to follow him inside, “Who’s hungry?”
Marla paused on the edge of the platform, looking out across the rocky shore toward the brooding gray waves that rolled beneath the red-tinted clouds above. The lake stretched as far as she could see, with no sign of any island.
“Marla?” Claude called out.
“I’m coming,” Marla answered as she followed the others inside. Simms followed them in, shutting the iron door behind them with a sullen clang.
The air inside the stone dome proved slightly less pungent. The thin drifts of sunlit moon sand, collected in the cracks of the floor, soured Marla’s stomach slightly, but the room in which they gathered to take their first meal had been swept clean of the stuff. She unfastened the snaps of her mask and enjoyed the chance to breathe freely again as Claude passed her a cup.
Alyss snorted blood through her nose when she took her first sip. She gagged as Valganna Morst fetched her a napkin. “What is that?” she moaned.
“Cave troll,” Master James answered, his lips red from his own cup, “It’s about all we ever get to drink when we’re on shift.”
“No... I’m done,” Alyss choked, passing the cup back to Claude as she dabbed at her nose with the dingy napkin.
Marla brought her own cup to her lips and sniffed at it. It smelled faintly of mildew and mushrooms. She held her breath and took a sip. She understood her friend’s urge to expel the stuff as the burning liquid poured down her throat, but she maintained her composure and forced herself to drink. She felt the strength of the beast spread through her core and into her limbs as she drank, and she understood why these hard-working miners might choose to subsist on the foul liquid.
“Simms?” James called to his friend as he poured another cup.
The silent vampire at the far end of the room looked up from a bundle of gear that he was inspecting and shook his masked head.
“How ‘bout you, then?” James asked, offering the cup to Nerrys.
“No, I...” Nerrys mumbled, waving him off.
“You’ll need your strength,” James said, grinning broadly as he pushed his goggles up to reveal his curious brown eyes.
Nerrys took the cup and stared down at it, apparently considering her options.
“Would you like a bit of privacy, Lady Haedria?” Morst asked.
“We’re all friends here,” James said with a frown.
“The lady is not to be bothered,” Morst said, his voice growing tense.
“I’m not botherin’ the lady, am I, miss?” James scoffed as he turned back toward Nerrys. He froze with a look of amazement on his face as Nerrys lifted her helmet from her head to reveal her scaled, reptilian features.
Nerrys’s transparent eyelids blinked as she looked down at the stunned vampire with her golden eyes. She brought the cup to her thin lips and drank it down in a single gulp. She passed the empty cup back to James again and rumbled, “Another.”
James took the cup from Nerrys’s hand, his eyes never leaving the woman’s black-scaled face. A bemused smile slowly spread across his lips, and then he nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Nerrys cocked her head to one side as she watched the man hurry to fetch another cupful of blood for her. When he returned, he carried a pitcher of the stuff in his other hand.
James watched in grinning silence as Nerrys drained two more cups. The half-dragon woman said nothing as she drank, handing the empty cup back to him and shaking her head at his offer to refill it again.
“Well then,” Valganna Morst said, breaking the silence, “We had better be on our way if we’re to have any hope of spotting the island before sunrise.”
“Island?” James scoffed, his eyes still on Nerrys as she lowered her helm back into place over her face.
“Yes... weren’t you informed of our mission?” Morst asked.
“Just that we’re to help you in whatever way you ask,” James said, setting the cup and pitcher aside on a nearby table.
“We are here to search the lake for a possible island,” Morst said, “We’ll need your boat to take us out for a sweep of the lake, for as long as it takes to complete our investigation.”
“I can complete it right now,” Jam
es laughed, “There’s no island!”
Marla felt a little sick to her stomach.
“We are to conduct a complete search of the lake to determine the truth of the matter,” Morst said, his irritation more and more evident in his voice.
“There’s no island!” James chuckled, “Tell ‘em, Simms. Have you ever seen any island on this lake?”
The masked vampire lifted his hands before him.
“See?” James said, “We’ve been sailing this lake for twenty years now, and there’s none of us ever seen any kinda island, big or small out there!”
“Nevertheless!” Morst snapped, “We have come this far, and we shall search for it!”
“Yes, Valganna,” James replied, his voice slightly subdued, “We’d better get to it then.”
“Very good,” Morst sighed.
“Anyway, it’ll be nice to have a bit of company while we’re out and about,” James said, giving Nerrys a wink just before settling his goggles back into place over his eyes. He covered his fanged grin with the flap of his facemask and then led them back out into the hallway toward the exit.
The wind had died down a little by the time they emerged, and the moon shone down through a break in the clouds above. Its silvery light sparkled on the dark surface of the water as the glowing shores of the vast lake cast a salmon-colored glow across the underside of the clouds. Marla chewed her lip between her fangs as she looked out across the featureless expanse of glistening waters, still seeing no sign of any island. What if she was wrong? What if she had just led them all on some fruitless chase across half the continent?
“Come on, Marla,” Alyss said, taking her hand, “Let’s go have a look.”
Marla followed her friends down to the shoreline. A single large, coffin-shaped vessel lay beached in a gravelly rut at the water’s edge, tethered to tall pylons driven into the gravel above the tideline. Black iron plates covered its hull and provided an armored carapace above the main deck, with thin viewing slits in its side, high above the waterline. A single broad ramp lay open at the stern of the boat, leading up into the shadowy interior of the vessel.
Several more pylons and ruts in the gravel nearby hinted at a larger fleet. Looking along the shoreline to the left and right, Marla could make out three more of the iron-bound vessels, moving along the coast as they presumably dredged for more of the glowing lake sand.
Trials of the Twiceborn (The Songreaver's Tale Book 6) Page 8
