All Spell Breaks Loose (19 page)

“Not so fast. I want your word that neither you, nor anyone else here, will kill me.” He tried to swallow past Tam’s arm against his throat. “If I tell, I walk.”

“What if my word is no better than Sarad Nukpana’s?” Tam’s voice was devoid of any feeling whatsoever.

“Your word’s good.”

“Give him your word, Tam,” Kesyn said. “We don’t have time to play.”

Tam shot his teacher a withering look. “What?”

The old goblin’s dark eyes flickered. “Oh, go on and give it to him.”

Tam met Kesyn’s look, then pressed his lips together. He slowly turned back to Balic. “Done. You have my word; I won’t kill you.”

“No one else here will kill me, either.”

“Nor anyone else,” Kesyn bit the words off. “Now spill it, worm.”

“Your son must have a lot of elf in him,” Balic said. “That navinem made him go on a rampage. I saw him just after midnight near the city’s west wall. He blew up the main bank of latrines the army’s using while they build Nukpana’s contraption outside the city.”

The Gate. That monster Gate. Oh Talon, you devil. If I live through this, you’ve got a big kiss coming.

“The weekly supply wagons had just arrived,” Balic was saying. “The explosion sprayed shit on everything. Heard later that two of Nukpana’s pet generals were in the latrine when it went up.”

Piaras pumped his fist in the air. “Woooo—”

I elbowed him in the ribs.

Mychael was grinning. “Don’t worry; I’ve warded us for sight
and
sound.”

Balic added, “Then the kid dropped his trousers and mooned the lot of them.”

Beautiful.

“Of course, they opened up on him: small cannon, crossbow, javelins—anything they had at hand.” Balic stopped and looked expectantly at Tam.

“Did he get away?” Tam growled.

“I saw what happened.” He smirked. “Let me go and I’ll tell you.”

Tam drew a dagger and stepped in even closer. I couldn’t see where he was holding that dagger, but from Balic’s gasp and complete loss of color, I had a good idea.

“I gave my word not to kill you,” Tam said calmly. “It’ll be only one small cut, perhaps two. It won’t be fatal, though you’ll wish it had been.”

“He got away,” Balic squeaked.

Tam stepped back and the dagger vanished back into his sleeve.

“You got anything else to tell us?” Kesyn asked.

“That’s all. Now keep your word—”

“I got your word right here,” Kesyn said. “Dost ni’kiprat dij’sh.”

Balic’s eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp in Tam’s grasp. Tam let him go and the former secret service agent slid down the wall into a crumpled heap in the street.

“That was more than one word, wasn’t it?” the old goblin asked Tam.

Tam was smiling. “Yes, sir, it was. They were well chosen, though.”

The rest of us hadn’t moved.

Kesyn looked around. “What? I didn’t kill him. He’s just asleep. Of course, he won’t wake up until I tell him to; and if I get killed… or forget to come back…” The old man shrugged. “My memory’s just not what it used to be.”

Kesyn’s plan would either get us into the Khrynsani temple, or be
an incredibly messy way to get ourselves killed.

Pretty much every ritual the Khrynsani conducted began and ended with some poor sot taking a dagger through the heart. That made for a lot of dead bodies. For the past thousand years, the Saghred hadn’t been around to clean up after them, so the Khrynsani had to do their own housekeeping.

Like Magh’Sceadu, sea dragons didn’t leave leftovers.

Just south of Regor’s harbor was a sheer cliff. I didn’t know how high it was because I couldn’t see the top from where we stood at the base of the thing. The six of us were on a stretch of rocky beach that was just big enough for us to stand on without getting wet. The height of the cliff didn’t matter because our destination was an opening about twenty feet over our heads. There were enough hand- and footholds that we could reach it. At high tide, the sea water could reach it, too. But our concern wasn’t that we’d get caught in a flooded tunnel at high tide. We were worried about getting
caught by what lived in the cave and lake at the end of those tunnels.

A sea dragon. Definitely one, possibly more; serving the dual purpose of Khrynsani sentinel and undertaker. According to Kesyn, occasionally the Khrynsani would bypass their corpse-consuming sentinel and throw their dead out of the tunnel and into the sea. The tide would come in and take the bodies out. I’d noticed that a lot of the rock and gravel we were standing on was white and shaped suspiciously like bits of ground-up bone. I was making every effort not to notice it again.

I didn’t know about Piaras, but I felt like I was just along for the ride. If all spell broke loose, at least he had something to contribute. I felt about as worthless as tits on a bull, and I didn’t even have any navinem to fool me into thinking otherwise.

I needed to be worthwhile. I needed to know I was going to do something to help.

Tam, Imala, and Kesyn were climbing up to the cave entrance. Piaras would go next, followed by me and Mychael. I hadn’t moved in front of Mychael yet to get ready to climb. He was looking up at Kesyn, marking his progress, waiting until the old goblin was at least halfway up before having Piaras start his climb.

I laid my hand on Mychael’s shoulder, and stood on tiptoe, my lips next to his ear. “Mychael, I want to carry the Scythe of Nen into the temple. I need to be the one to use it.”

He half turned. “We decided that I—”

“No, you decided that you’d stab the Saghred; I never agreed. For all we know, I might
have
to be the one to stab it. We can’t afford to take any chances.” I didn’t think Piaras could hear me, but I still lowered my voice, my words coming fast. “I’m the one the rock latched onto. I’m the one who’s had that thing sharing my head, giving me nightmares while I try to sleep, and taking me over to kill people during the day.”

“Raine, for the last time, if you hadn’t killed those firemages, none of us would be standing here right now. You saved us and hundreds of others. Killing on a battlefield isn’t murder; and make no mistake, that street was a battlefield that day.”

“Soldiers don’t enjoy the killing. I did.”

“Raine, that wasn’t—”

I cut him off. “We can argue later. What it boils down to is that the Saghred chose me as its bond slave. Let’s call it what it is. I’m not a servant; I’m a slave. It’s used me, and because of me, people I love have been in mortal danger.” My next words came through clenched teeth. “I’ve
earned
the right to destroy that rock.”

“Raine, you don’t have any magic, no shields, no—”

“I could have Justinius Valerian’s shields against that rock and it wouldn’t do me any good, and you know it. I’ll be there with you in a Khrynsani cloak when you’re glamoured as Sarad Nukpana.” I took a breath and blew it out. “Mychael, please. I
need
to do this. I need to cut my own chains and free myself.”

Mychael’s eyes were on mine, searching, appraising. Without looking away from me, he reached into a pouch he carried on his belt and took out the Scythe of Nen. He expertly flipped the curved, silver dagger in his hand so that the pommel extended toward me.

I realized that I’d been holding my breath. I reached out and closed my hand around the grip. “Thank you,” I said simply.

He closed his big hand over mine. “Remember, we do this together,” he whispered. “If you need to be the one to use the Scythe…” He paused and squeezed my hand. “I need to be the one to be with you. That’s a deal I won’t let you talk me out of.”

I gave him a little smile, and stood on tiptoe again, kissing him gently. “I wasn’t going to try.”

We got into the tunnel without incident, and without finding
ourselves face-to-face with a sea dragon welcoming committee.

We moved fast and kept quiet. Kesyn was in the lead and Tam brought up the rear. Once we got closer to the dungeons, Tam and Imala would move to the front. Piaras had conjured a lightglobe, but kept it as dim as he could. Sea dragons hunted mainly by sight, but just because hearing wasn’t top on their list didn’t mean we wanted to trip over something and announce our arrival.

Kesyn stopped, and because of the narrow tunnel, the rest of us had to do the same. Air was moving somewhere up ahead. Piaras directed the lightglobe’s glow toward the ceiling. About ten paces ahead was a hole that apparently led to another chamber or tunnel. The source of the air coming down through that hole wasn’t fresh: stagnant water and the unmistakable sickly sweetness of decaying flesh. We had to be near the lake Kesyn had told us about. Air wasn’t the only thing that was moving. Now that we’d stopped walking, I clearly heard water. Not the endless dripping we’d heard since we came into the tunnel, but waves slamming into rock. Only one thing could push water around with that much violence.

Something that felt like an explosion shook the floor, walls, and ceiling, pelting us with falling rock and dust. Something pounded the wall to our right, and a stench like nothing I’d ever smelled before came through the opening above us.

The stench roared, an enraged roar.

The dragon.

It sounded big. Not just big. Huge.

A voice rang out in challenge, so loud it sounded like it was in the tunnel with us. I shot a look back at Piaras. His eyes were wide and his mouth was shut. Then who was—

The voice called out again. The words were Goblin, the tone imperious, like it expected that dragon to obey.

Oh, freaking hell.

Prince Chigaru Mal’Salin.

I stood there for a few dumbfounded seconds trying to figure out
what Chigaru was doing in a cave with a sea dragon. Did he annoy the Khrynsani so much that they chucked him down here?

“You know these caves,” Imala snapped at Kesyn. “How do we get out there?”

“
Out
there?” I thought the old goblin’s eyes were going to bug out of his head.

“Prince Chigaru’s safety is my responsibility,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ve fought for years to keep him alive, and I’m
not
losing him to an overgrown lizard. I’m saving him.”

From himself.

Imala’s words came in a cool rush. “Kesyn, if Chigaru dies, we have no one to replace Nukpana. The old-blood families will slaughter each other to get to the throne. It’ll be a civil war bloodbath.”

Tam jerked his head at the ceiling. “Mychael, boost me up there.”

I was incredulous. “You’re going to stick your head through a hole into a dragon’s lair?”

Mychael made a stirrup with his armored hands and boosted Tam the extra foot he needed to see into the lair. Tam took a look and immediately popped back down.

“Sea dragons,” he said. “Adults.”

“Plural?” Piaras asked.

“You got it,” Tam confirmed. “Two, possibly more. We need to move. From what I saw, Chigaru only has a sword; he isn’t going to last long.”

“Follow me,” Kesyn growled. “One way to die isn’t enough for you. No, you have to have
more
.”

The roars became louder and even more pissed, if that
was possible. Apparently Prince Chigaru didn’t limit his high-bred obnoxiousness to people; he was an equal opportunity offender. I completely understood why the dragons would want to bite his head off.

The tunnels distorted the roar’s echo and I had no clue which direction it was coming from. Kesyn seemed to know exactly where he was going, even though he was going there under extreme—and continuous verbal—protest.

“I don’t want a king who’s too stupid not to pick fights with sea dragons,” he snapped.

“If he gets eaten, we’ll have a worse problem,” Imala shot back.

The roaring stopped. Chigaru’s yelling stopped, and so did Kesyn and Imala’s bickering.

“Shit!” Imala hissed softly.

The beast obligingly roared again. Now it was Kesyn’s turn to swear. His string of good old Goblin profanity was a lot more colorful and descriptive.

“Sounds like The Pools, the deepest part of the tunnels,” he said.

We ran toward the roars. If the sea dragons didn’t kill Chigaru first, the noise would bring every Khrynsani that the dragons’ roar and Chigaru’s yelling hadn’t already alerted. Mychael stopped and I plowed into him from behind. Only his size kept us both from ending up in a heap on the floor.

I saw what had stopped him. We were at an intersection. Five tunnels radiated out from where we were. Piaras increased the globe’s glow. Two of the tunnels went down; the other three sloped upward. That meant nothing. The tunnels were natural, not man-made. Just because they went downhill now didn’t mean down was their ultimate direction.

“Which one?” Imala asked urgently.

Kesyn pointed. “It’s either that one or that one.” He was pointing in opposite directions. “The others go up. Eventually.”

Tam went over to the entrance to one of the tunnels Kesyn said led down to The Pools. He took a deep breath, and repeated the same in the opposite tunnel.

He drew an evil-looking wavy blade. “This way.”

I got a blade in my own hands. “You’re sure?”

“Positive. Old carrion and fresh blood. A goblin nose knows.”

The brightened lightglobe danced in front of Tam. He squinted and hissed in pain, his fangs bared. His pupils were enormous. “Dim that thing!”

Piaras looked at Tam like he’d lost his mind. I wasn’t sure I disagreed with him.

“All due respect, sir, but I’d like to see the dragons before they take my legs off,” Piaras told him.

“The boy’s right, Tam,” Kesyn said. “Chances are that second one you saw was its mate, and chances are even better that those two big ones have little ones—a lot of little ones. We’re down here a couple months on the wrong side of mating season. The little ones grow and eat a lot in the first few weeks.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

“I can follow the blood,” Tam said. “But if I’m going to lead, I need it almost dark, not that thing blinding me.” Apparently the light bothered Tam more than the idea of hungry baby sea dragons.

Piaras complied.

The walls were glowing with a pale green luminescence.