Flameseeker (Book 3) (15 page)

Kaijin left the room, not waiting on the others.
He rounded a corner, about to head downstairs, and spotted Nester leaning
against the wall next to the stairs, playing with one of his daggers.

Kaijin blinked, surprised to find Nester waiting
for them. “What the—? Nester?”

The brownie looked up and beamed his mischievous,
gap-toothed smile. “I knew you’d come around, Kaijin! I can always count on
you!”

Kaijin balled his fists, feeling duped.
Damn
it, I should’ve known!
“You had no intentions of doing this alone from the
beginning, did you?”

“Aye! Why should I, when I got you blokes to come
with me?”

XV

Later that evening, Kaijin and his group followed
Nester through the city, passing most of the crowds and nightly activities.

Nester’s route took the group into the less savory
parts of town, where people were sparse and the number of confusing narrow side
streets and alleys grew.

Miele screeched, and Kaijin glanced to the sky in
time to see her soar over a rooftop and disappear. He smiled to himself at her
enjoyment of the night.

Nester finally stopped in front of an archway of
half-crumbled brick, off to the side in an alley. Stone stairs, broken and
slimy with algae, descended into darkness. Miele flew to the opening and clung to
the apex
.
Percival and Sable sat beside Nester and curiously
sniffed toward the stairs, then backed away.

Kaijin peered into the darkness. A draft of cold,
fetid air whisked out from the opening and his stomach turned.

“We can get to the tunnels from here,” Nester
said, speaking barely above a whisper. “Oh! An’ don’t be shinin’ no lights
around, understand?”

“Then how are we going to see where we’re going?”
Zarya asked.

Aidan scratched his head, looking at everyone curiously.
“But Aidan can see fine in the dark.”

Omari snorted. “That is all well and good for you,
Aidan, but the rest of us
normal
folk require light to see in dark
places.”

“Omari, enough.” Zarya chided, giving him a hardened
look.

“
No lights
, understand? We don’t want to be
spotted.” Before anyone else could argue, Nester headed in, descending the
stairs. The rest of the group trudged along behind him: Omari, Kaijin, Jarial,
Zarya, and finally Aidan, who brought up the rear.

The only thing Kaijin saw was the soft, faint,
electric glow of the tip of Omari’s staff, which hung across his back by a
braided thong, and the only sounds he heard were the echoes of their shuffling
feet and Miele’s light flapping just above his head.

“Do you see any hazards ahead?”
Kaijin
asked his familiar.

Miele responded with confusion. The tunnels were
narrow and straight, but she sensed nothing strange about them.

Sable quacked in pain.

“Damn it!” Jarial snapped. “Who stepped on Sable’s
tail?”

“Not me!” Nester quickly replied.

Jarial grumbled unintelligibly. “Enough of this
walking in the dark.”

Kaijin heard rustling behind him and turned his
head. Jarial held a greenish glowing object in his palm.

Nester spun around. “’Ey! I said no lights!”

Ignoring the brownie, Jarial mumbled a few words,
and the object brightened, revealing itself to be a small piece of
phosphorescent lichen. The lichen quickly burned away, but the light compacted
into a small floating ball that shed ample illumination around the group.

“Now they’ll
know
we’re comin’ for sure!”
Nester grumbled.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass!” Jarial retorted. “If
anyone crosses me, they will taste my power. Now, all of you, watch your step!”

They reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped
into a bigger room, which opened up into five more passages.

“Well, Nester? Which way do we go now?” Kaijin
asked.

Nester scratched the back of his head. “Uh, I
don’t know. I guess we should just check them all?”

Omari scoffed. “Who knows how deep these tunnels
go? It may take us hours, or even days!”

While they argued, Percival scoured the open
cavern and pounced on something. He shook his head violently a few times, then
returned to the group, carrying a small mouse’s corpse in his mouth. He sat up
on his hind legs and showed Omari.

Zarya laughed. “Looks like Percival’s brought you
a gift.”

Omari looked down, then curled his lip in disgust.
“Ugh! How many times have I told you about showing me your catches? And do not
even
dare
eat that thing in
front
of me!” He turned away, and
Percival promptly scampered to a corner of the cavern.

Kaijin raised his eyebrows at Omari. “Are you sure
Percival is a weasel and not a cat?”

“He is most certainly
not
a cat, as much as
he seems to enjoy acting like one,” Omari replied in a huff.

Jarial chuckled. “You will just have to teach him
to not show you every catch he makes, like I have done with Sable.”

“Easier said than done, Master Glace,” Omari said,
and Percival returned to his side, licking his lips and around his mouth, which
was stained with blood.

Aidan sniffed, then blinked, perking up. He
brushed past the group and headed toward the fourth passage.

“Aidan! Wait!” Zarya called, but Aidan didn’t
stop.

They followed the half-Dragon down the narrow tunnel,
scrambling and stumbling to keep up as Aidan strode through the darkness just
ahead of their ring of light. Soon, though, Aidan’s silhouette began to walk
with a slight crouch as the ceiling slanted lower and closer to his head. Then,
suddenly, he stopped, blocking the tunnel and forcing everyone behind him to
halt, as well.

“What’s wrong, Aidan?” Kaijin asked, but Aidan
didn’t reply.

Nester’s ears twitched. “What’s that?”

Kaijin scrunched his face. “Huh?”

“Sounds like ... dogs,” Nester said.

“Why would there be dogs in these tunnels?” Zarya
asked.

Then, through Miele, Kaijin heard it,
too—high-pitched yipping in the distance, like a pack of dogs. But there was
something odd about the sounds that convinced Kaijin they were not dogs.

Sable hissed, and Jarial narrowed his eyes. “Those
are not dogs. They’re—”

“—Kinlings,” Omari finished, unslinging his
glowing staff. He looked around warily. “Detestable little monsters.”

Aidan resumed walking, moving cautiously, and the
others fell in behind him. They continued for several minutes, the kinlings’ voices
growing closer.

Miele suddenly screeched in Kaijin’s mind. Kaijin
winced, feeling a sense of wariness come over him. He stopped. “Uh ... guys?”

Percival squeaked and Sable yowled, and Jarial and
Omari halted. The noises from their familiars seemed to have a similar effect
on them. “Ah ... ! There ... There is something ahead,” Omari said.

Nester and Zarya stopped, looking to the
familiars. Aidan kept slowly walking.

“What’s goin’ on, mates?” Nester asked. “What are
they ’owlin’ an’ squeakin’ about?”

Jarial held his head. “Someone stop Aidan!
Quickly!”

The pang in Kaijin’s mind was unbearable. But
Miele revealed a clearer sensation in his mind. Aidan was in trouble. Kaijin
called, “Aidan! Wait!”

As Aidan stopped, there came a clicking sound from
up ahead.

Broken wood and scrap metal rained on Aidan from
the ceiling. He yelled as it buried him completely. Only part of his large,
silver foot stuck out from the bottom.

Everyone gasped, and the familiars cried out.

“Aidan!” Zarya ran to the pile and attempted to
move some of the debris, but most of it was heavy and barely budged. She felt
his foot. “There’s a pulse. It’s faint, but he’s still alive. We have to get
him out of there!”

“Soddin’ ’ells!” Nester rushed to assist her.

Kaijin and Omari were about to rush in to help
when Jarial ordered, “Stand back.” After they got out of the way, he stretched
his hand and muttered some arcane phrases. Kaijin knew the spell, a simple
cantrip, but a highly useful one in this situation. Jarial’s hand glowed bright
violet, and as he concentrated, one of the metal debris began to glow in a
similar manner. He moved his hand around, and the object moved as well, lifting
from the debris pile. He set the piece of junk aside and worked on another
heavier one.

Omari looked at Kaijin. “Come on, Kaijin. Let us
help him.”

Nodding, Kaijin focused on a random metal piece in
the pile. Stretching out his hand, he concentrated, and uttered the cantrip’s
phrases. His hand began glowing, and he felt the weight of the metal object in
his palm. It was heavy, but not overly so. He lifted his hand slowly and
wriggled the object out of the pile, bit by bit. When the object was freed, he
moved it away, setting it on the side of the tunnel, against the wall.

For several minutes, Jarial, Kaijin, and Omari
moved bits and pieces of heavy debris until the pile began to loosen. Then,
Zarya and Nester moved back in to remove what junk they could from it.

Afterward, the group, with their combined efforts,
tried freeing Aidan again. After several forceful yanks, they pulled the
half-Dragon free.

Aidan groaned and appeared barely conscious. Zarya
knelt and began a healing prayer.

While she prayed, Kaijin looked deeper into the tunnels.
He didn’t see much beyond the dim circle of their light. He called to Miele.
“Scout
ahead. Make sure we are not being watched.”

With a screech, Miele complied and flew deeper
into the cavern. Kaijin concentrated and soon entered her mind. The darkness
lifted, and he saw the tunnels in a muted green hue.

I wonder if this is what Aidan sees in the
dark, too
. The dog-like yipping resounded throughout the tunnels, sometimes
sounding close by, other times not. Seeing no immediate danger ahead and
realizing they were getting too far from the others, Kaijin directed Miele back
toward the group. He severed the empathic link and withdrew from her mind.

Sable meowed and pawed at something that was stuck
beneath some scrap metal.

Nester went over to her, pushed aside some of the
junk, and examined something unseen that he held between his fingers. “This
looks like the tripwire that was attached to that deadfall trap. We must be
gettin’ close to where we’re goin’.”

“Well, I am sure the thieves now know we are coming,”
Omari said. “We just tripped their alarm system.”

Aidan soon regained consciousness, renewed and invigorated
by Zarya’s ministrations. The group gathered themselves and pressed on. Nester
took the lead, scanning the path for more hazards. He felt the ground in
certain spots, sometimes even pressing his ear to it, and brushed his hands
over the walls as though he were tracing pictures that only he could see. The
kinlings barked in the distance, the sound echoing in the tunnels. The group
passed small, shallow alcoves along the tunnel walls. As they approached one alcove,
Nester halted the group.

“Find something?” Kaijin asked.

“Aye. Stay right where you are.” Nester stepped
carefully around something that only he seemed to see on the ground. He inched
toward the opening and stuck his arm into the blackness. Seemingly deep in
thought, he groped around in the darkness. A clicking sound came from within
the alcove, and he pulled free a bolt and small crossbow.

“What the—! Where did
that
come from?”
Omari asked.

“A rather primitive trap, if you ask me,” Nester
said. “But nasty, nonetheless. This bolt’s got somethin’ on it.”

“Poison?” Jarial raised his eyebrows.

“Probably. Anyway, no sense in lettin’ it go to
waste, aye?” Nester loaded the crossbow.

Kaijin blinked. “Ah, N-Nester, are you sure you
know how to use that thing?”

“Aye. Of course. I’ve good aim!” He aimed the crossbow
around the cavern.

Sable hissed and arched her back, drawing closer
to Jarial. Percival squeaked in response to Sable’s startle, and hunched.

Kaijin looked ahead, feeling that they were being
watched. He could feel Miele’s nervousness.
“What do you see?”

From her perspective, four small silhouettes approached
in their direction.

Kaijin promptly broke the link.

The kinlings’ sounds grew louder, and in the
darkness ahead of Jarial’s, four pairs of eyes appeared. Jarial intensified the
ball of light, revealing the creatures in full.

The kinlings were short brown-scaled creatures
that resembled small Dragons, except that they walked on two legs instead of
four. Standing about Nester’s height, they wore tattered burlap clothing that
was stained with dirt and grime. Their short, slender tails lashed back and
forth. As Kaijin was aware from his bestiary books, kinlings generally never
operated independently. He’d anticipated several more about to jump out at them
when he and his group least expected it.

The scrawny creatures backed away from the light,
shielding their eyes. They snarled and spoke in a strange language that sounded
like a mixture of yips, barks, and growls.

Aidan pushed past Kaijin and the others and
confronted the creatures in a similar-sounding language, except that his voice
sounded more articulate and stern, authoritative.

The creatures shrank back, looking frightened.

“Master, do you know what they’re saying?” Kaijin
whispered to Jarial.

Jarial shook his head. “Hells if I know. But it’s
definitely some form of Draconic.”

“Then let us hope, for our sake, Aidan is saying
something nice,” Omari said.

Kaijin heard Zarya mumbling prayers behind them.
Instantly, he felt clarity in his mind.

“If things don’t go over too well with Aidan’s
‘parlayin’’, I’ve got a good shot at one of those sods, at least,” Nester
whispered, taking aim with his crossbow.

Aidan turned and faced Kaijin and the others.
“It’s all right everyone. They have agreed to take us to their leader. All we
need to do is follow—”

Another kinling appeared from one of the alcoves
ahead and stood several paces behind Aidan, crossbow at the ready.

Sable yowled and hissed.

“Aidan! Behind you!” Jarial balled one of his
fists, which began to glow a light purple.

The kinling fired at the half-Dragon. Aidan, with
his Dragon-quick reflexes, easily twisted away from the bolt, which whizzed
through the air and finally, with a solid thump, bore into Kaijin’s chest.