Chains of a Dark Goddess (31 page)

“That’s what keeps me up at night. Breskaro has bought into this cause for better or for worse, but he’s not one to wage a war for loss. He will have a gamble in mind, something that could turn the tables on us.”

“He won’t fight a cautious battle, I’m certain of that.”

“We will dare that pass carefully. I have employed twice as many scouts as normal to keep watch of it at all times. We test it, then we go through at speed.”

Chapter 45

Breskaro met Aleui, Harmulkot, and Whum in the first floor of the Queen’s Palace, which was a fortified keep beside the High Temple. The upper levels were lavishly furnished, but the innermost chamber on the first level opened to a staircase that spiraled down to the dungeon levels.

Esha slung her shield over her back. “I’m coming with you, master.”

“Of course.”

Smiling, Whum thumped Breskaro on the shoulder. “Braving tunnels underground. Just like the old days, my friend.”

“Except that I’m dead.”

“Well, you nearly died on many an adventure, so it was bound to happen.”

Breskaro almost smiled. “Sometimes, Whum, you and Esha here almost make me feel alive.
Sometimes
. Aleui, let’s begin.”

The four of them went down to the farthest wall in the lowest level of the dungeon. The section of wall ahead was smooth, gray stone and looked no different from the rest of the walls. Harmulkot chanted. The stones disappeared, revealing an iron door. Clicks and clangs sounded in the deep, rising toward them. Then, with a grinding of gears, the door swung open, revealing a tunnel going into the earth.

“When we were still on good terms,” said Harmulkot, “my brother built this for me. It will open for no one else.”

Esha was playfully muttering to herself as she toyed with her shield.

Suddenly the door slammed shut, kicking up dust and cobwebs. Harmulkot spun around. “Did you do that?”

Esha shrugged. 

“I thought it wouldn’t work for anyone else,” said Breskaro.

“Esha,” said Whum, “did you repeat the phrases Lady Harmulkot used?”

“Er, maybe. I know I shouldn’t, but ... I kind of sing along sometimes ... to master’s magic spells. I know I can’t do magic. I’m not even sure I get the words right. I was just like singing along. It’s like mimicking a birdcall, you know? I’m good at that.”

“Do you remember the words?” Harmulkot asked. Esha nodded. “Then try it again.”

Esha muttered the chant again. She mangled the words but got the rhythm right. The mechanical sounds returned and the door opened again. The ghost of Harmulkot scowled.

“Let me try,” said Breskaro. He repeated Harmulkot’s chant perfectly. Nothing happened.

“
Sorry
,” Esha said. “I didn’t mean to. I don’t know how I keep doing weird things. I’m not unusual. I
promise
.”

“Well, you
are
unusual one way or another,” said Whum. “Whether you like it or not.”

“Are your suspicions confirmed?” Breskaro whispered to Harmulkot.

“They are now.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“It would gain us nothing. If it is revealed in time, so be it. She will not harm us, that is for certain. And she can obviously be a tremendous help.”

Breskaro had expected a crude, narrow tunnel and not a wide passage with smooth walls. Breskaro paced across and looked up at the ceiling. “Same height and width all the way?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We can take mounts through here then. So far this looks perfect for setting up our ambush in the pass.”

“But how do we get them down here?” Esha asked.

“We need to rig a platform and pulley system at the top of the staircase to lower them to this level.”

Whum darted off to scout ahead, not that they expected any dangers. Harmulkot had already removed the spells of protection when she opened the doorway. For three hours they trudged downward through the passage. The floor was steep but not slippery; the way was straight. 

They came to a wide chamber with seven passages leading outward.

“The second path to the right is an escape route that leads to the north,” said Harmulkot, “out into the Olgoliol Forest. The second from the left will take us to our destination. The others are dead-ends that wind off for a league.”

Along the way they passed other passages that led to dead-ends, but they kept to the main way. After an hour of traveling, they finally came to a large chamber, big enough to hold a hundred men. At the end was a smooth stone wall.

“This is it,” said Harmulkot.

Breskaro chanted the
spell of silence
and the
spell of personal obscuration
and draped the effects over all of them, making them difficult to notice and impossible to hear. He scanned the area with the
spell of detecting presences
.

“No one nearby.” 

“I will take a look.” Harmulkot moved through the wall and returned. “It is not likely that they will see us down here, even without the spells.”

“Let’s do it,” Whum said.

Harmulkot spoke the words and the door opened with only the faintest clicks and clanks. The doorway was about three times as wide as that at the start of the chamber. Whum and Breskaro stepped outside. The night was dark. Avida had already set and a waning Zhura was hanging low on the horizon at the end of the pass.

Breskaro spent a few minutes looking around. He smiled. “It’s perfect.”

When he and Whum came back inside, Esha was looking at a spot on the far wall. Harmulkot was watching her. When Esha reached out to touch the spot, Harmulkot warned, “Do not touch that.”

“What is it?” Esha asked.

“That trigger activates a rock slide, sealing off the entry to the pass.”

“You think it will still work, my Lady?” asked Aleui.

“The doors did. But they have been used a few times over the centuries. The rockslide has never been used, of course, so I cannot be sure.”

“We will abandon the plan if the trap doesn’t work,” said Breskaro. “No rocks, no attack. Though we desperately need this to work. This is our only chance to outlast them. It will buy us time to make better preparations and train more men, and it will give us more troops from the dead Issalians that I’ll animate.”

“We should bring Esha with us,” said Harmulkot. “I have a feeling that if the rock slide will not work for me that it might work for her. The mechanisms like her better.”

“Why would it work for
me
? I don’t understand. Why do the mechanisms like me better?”

Harmulkot leaned down and for a moment seemed almost kind and motherly. “Because, my friend,
you
are
special
.”

“I know more than most girls my age. Or older. I’m rough. I’ve killed men, even. But I’m not
magical
.”

Harmulkot laughed. “You have tamed a mechanical beast, opened walls that will move only under a command spell and without speaking the words properly, and you impressed a Keeper. You are most certainly magical.”

Esha frowned for a minute and chewed her lip. “Well, if it helps my master win, then I’ll do what I can.”

“Just keep following your instincts. They will lead you true. I am certain of this.” Harmulkot locked her eyes on Esha’s. “
Always
follow your instincts.”

Chapter 46

The Matriarch awoke with a start, eyes wide, sweat beading her brow, muscles knotted, head throbbing. She reached for the cup of water beside her bed and took two large swallows. She dropped the silver goblet and it clanged dully against the carpeted floor as she grabbed at her bulging belly. The baby within her had kicked, hard. It hadn’t kicked much at all in the last twenty years, only a little during the First Crusade. 

The Matriarch curled up in a fetal position, nauseous and disoriented. 

“Seshalla, Seshalla,” she prayed, “let this not be the hour of my death.”

She rose and vomited into her chamber pot. The baby kept kicking. Her head still throbbed. She moved to her balcony, unlocked the door, and stepped out into the fresh night air. 

She heard shouts at the gates to the Imperial Palace. The baby’s unusual activity and the nightmares had left her feeling paranoid and vulnerable. The possibility of an attack flashed through her mind and she fled back indoors, despite that her suite sat at the top of the Imperial Palace with hundreds of guards between her and any assailants. 

Minutes later a knock came at the door. The Captain of the Scarlet Guard spoke, “Your majesty, the priestess Ilsimia has returned and requests an immediate audience.”

The Matriarch brought herself under control quickly. “Bring her here to my chambers. Summon Priestess Llia and my seneschal as well.”

“Yes, your excellency.”

~~~

A captain of the Scarlet Guard led in Sister Ilsimia, whose riding robes were covered with dirt and grime, though it was clear that she had briefly washed her face and hands before coming up.

The Matriarch pointed to a set of chairs in the antechamber. “Please sit, sister.”

Ilsimia bowed and said, “Thank you, your excellency.”

“I thought you would be hungry, so I had my seneschal bring you something.”

The little table beside the chairs bore fruit, bread, cheese, and watered wine.

“I should tell you first, your excellency.”

“Eat and drink. A few minutes will not change anything.”

Ilsimia frowned then nodded reluctantly. Priestess Llia put food in a bowl for Ilsimia. 

“I will return soon.” The Matriarch rose and went into her bedroom.

“Is the Matriarch unwell, sister?” Ilsimia asked Llia. 

“I think it is just stress from this business with Sir Varenni,” Llia said with worry in her voice. “I’m sure the Goddess will see her through it.”

The Matriarch returned as Ilsimia was finishing up.

“Where is Captain Threnna?” she asked. “I hope he is all right. And General Togisi? You were not to leave him.”

“I’m sorry, your excellency. I know you said we were to stay together. But General Togisi would not allow us both to come. He needs Kedimius. And I
had
to come to tell you the news myself. I rode as fast as I could, stopping only to exchange horses.”

“What is it then?”

Ilsimia took a large draught of wine and set the cup down. She could not meet the Matriarch’s eyes.

“We know who’s behind Breskaro’s return. We know who brought him back.”

“It was not Deltenya?”

“She was involved, without doubt. But it’s worse than that. You see...” Ilsimia hesitated.

“If it needs to be said, best to get on with it.”

“
Harmulkot
. Harmulkot has returned.”

The Matriarch clutched the arms of her chair. Chills swept up and down her spine. She began to tremble. The nausea returned. The baby kicked again. She doubled over in pain.

Llia and Ilsimia ran to her. “Your excellency, are you all right?”

“The baby kicks, sisters. Nausea. Dizziness. It began tonight, though I’ve had nightmares for days. It has not been this bad for ... forty-three years, when I first assumed the Divine Office.”

Sister Llia looked nauseous herself now.

“Can you possibly give birth? Could it be growing again?”

“It’s probably the stress of this crusade ... Breskaro, Togisi’s betrayal. And I
am
old, you know. I cannot go on forever.”

The Matriarch leaned back in her chair, breathing deeply, sweat pouring down her brow. “Harmulkot ... Are you certain?”

“I saw her myself. Kedimius and a herald were with me. Breskaro was by her side on the wall. I could feel her malevolence.”

“A demon perhaps?”

“It was definitely a being of power.” Ilsimia went on to describe the halo of darkfire surrounding Harmulkot and the power in her voice. “What do you think, your excellency? Is it her? I felt like it had to be.”

“I want to believe otherwise, but why not? It makes sense. Somehow Harmulkot has returned from her banishment, which our teachings say was at the hand of Seshalla. She has somehow returned in response to our threatening her city. We will tear down her temples and with the last of her worshipers gone, so too will be what little power and hope she has. She is desperate and so she has brought Breskaro back to life to oppose us. Deltenya loved him and was Harmulkot’s descendant. It all fits.”

“Orisala!” Ilsimia said suddenly. “Breskaro’s daughter, his first wife, before Metra, Adelenia—”

“Deltenya’s sister. Yes. Orisala is also Harmulkot’s descendant.”

“And Orisala is the ploy that she uses to motivate Breskaro,” said Ilsimia. “He says that Harmulkot will heal her from some sort of affliction if he serves her.”

“Yes, it all fits.”

Ilsimia shook her head with worry. “Orisala. She has this ...
power
over Kedimius. He loves me, I
know
it. But the love he still feels for her, it’s like an addiction.”

“As Deltenya drew Togisi, even into sin and destruction, and apparently as she drew Breskaro as well.”