In Treachery Forged (The Law of Swords) (18 page)

Maelgyn’s eyes widened for a moment, and then he remembered the ring he’d been given. Fumbling through his pouch, he finally found the emblem he had been given and handed it to the guard.

The Dwarf inspected the ring carefully before grudgingly nodding. “Good enough.” He tossed it back to Maelgyn, who just barely caught it. “Go on in. El’Athras is in the Red Room, today, doctor. I’m sure you can escort them there.”

“Gladly,” Dr. Wodtke answered, bowing slightly. Turning to Maelgyn and Euleilla, she gestured, “Come on. We’re lucky – he’s in the nearby office. If he’d been in the Green Room, we’d have quite the trek on our hands.”

The threesome made their way into the Merchant Prince’s household. As they passed through the corridors, Maelgyn was astounded to see paintings he recognized as being from the hands of the best Human, Dwarven, and Nekoji artists the world had to offer. He even saw one ancient-looking painting done by a famous member of the extinct race known as Satyrs. The Royal Castle of Svieda also had such treasures, but not in nearly as great a number, and most were hidden away in vaults hidden even to his eyes. The Royal Art Gallery in Svieda only opened its doors to the public once a year to show the entire collection, and when it was closed not even a Sword could pass their doors without the permission of the Royal Archivist. Maelgyn had only been to the gallery once, and that time hadn’t left him nearly as impressed as he was now. He only regretted that Euleilla couldn’t see the artwork she was walking past.

They stopped in front of a door protected by two guards armed with naginata. Maelgyn recognized the naginata as two of those Euleilla had made in the battle with the Largo separatists, although the men carrying them were unfamiliar. It was a curious thing for someone to arm their soldiers with, since weapons made by magic – especially when made in the spur of the moment as Euleilla had done – were inherently inferior to a blacksmith-forged product, but nevertheless Maelgyn knew they were quite deadly.

“We’re here to see El’Athras,” Wodtke explained without being asked.

“Please state your names, so that I may properly announce you,” one of them replied.

“Dr. Wodtke. Maelgyn. Euleilla,” she answered, pausing between each name to make some gesture Maelgyn failed to recognize.

The guard nodded at the gesture, seemingly ignoring the names, and entered the room. It was quickly apparent that Wodtke had performed some sort of recognition signal, though why she would need one escaped Maelgyn at the moment. The guard returned a moment later and formally lowered his weapon, his companion following suit. “Please, enter.”

The trio walked through the door to see El’Athras sitting at a desk, sorting through a large stack of papers almost as tall as the Dwarf, himself. He looked up and smiled.

“Good. You’re here. I was expecting you to arrive no earlier than tomorrow, but now’s as good a time as any,” the Merchant Prince said, dropping his papers and standing up. He scribbled a short note, handed it to the guard who had escorted them in, and then dismissed him. “Come on,” he said to the trio, “We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

With that, he took a painting off one of the walls in the office, revealing a secret doorway he promptly walked through. Maelgyn blinked.

“Um... rather abrupt, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Wodtke agreed, shrugging. “He’s always been that way.”

Maelgyn glanced at her as she led them through the secret doorway, herself. “You seem to know him pretty well.”

“I should,” she replied, and left it at that, making Maelgyn wonder what she meant. Why did all the women he met give him such incomplete answers?

“Do you have any idea why he wants to meet with us?”

“Possibly,” she answered. “But I’ll let him explain, since I’m not certain. He did, however, know of your arrival yesterday. He was the one who told me to bring you here.”

Maelgyn raised an eyebrow. “How did he know I was here?”

She laughed. “He saw you through a window, entering town while carrying your lady in a panic. You were quite the sight, apparently! He warned me I might be called to service when he first saw you, though he didn’t explain exactly who I’d be helping until after I got home last night.”

Maelgyn nodded as they continued down the stairs. He kept his eye on Euleilla, making sure she wasn’t stumbling, given that her magic – and thus her “vision” – wasn’t as strong as normal. It bothered him a bit that she’d been completely silent since he left their bed that morning, but he wasn’t going to ask her to break that silence, either. Sensing the way she was using her magic, and watching the great care she was taking in simply finding each step, he suspected she was using all of her concentration just keeping herself from falling over. He was beginning to regret having agreed to come that day, and wished he’d given her time to recover her strength a bit more... or at least that she’d stayed at the inn while he went on to the meeting.

They continued down the unusually long staircase for almost ten minutes before the floor finally leveled out. It was only level for a short time, however, before it opened into a natural cave, untouched by Dwarven architects. Maelgyn had to wonder why it existed in the heart of the oldest and largest settlement of Cave Dwarves in the known world.

At first Maelgyn found himself catching a falling Euleilla many times at the start. She was more used to darkness, however, so as the light dimmed to where he could no longer see he started stumbling just as much. The cave was cold and smelled of decay, and there was no way to tell how long it stretched. Maelgyn ran into the stone walls frequently, and banged his head more than once. Whenever he touched a wall, his hand sunk almost an inch into the mud, and small drops of water were constantly dripping on him.

It seemed foolish to travel without a spare light through a naturally-formed cave as they were, but somehow they managed it. Maelgyn, while he understood how the Dwarves (who could see in the dark) managed it, had no idea what allowed Dr. Wodtke to avoid getting lost. As he kept going he continued to sense her right behind them, however, taking surer steps than either he or Euleilla and avoiding any stumbles.

It was not a pleasant trip. By the time they emerged from the natural cave into a newly constructed artificial cave, all four of them were caked in mud. Maelgyn wasn’t quite sure what was going on when El’Athras led them that muddy hole into a cleaning room, but one look at their host told him this was not the time to ask.

Spare robes of all sizes lined one wall, and open stalls with showers lined another. The torchlight in the room nearly blinded him as he entered, but once his eyes adjusted the first thing he could focus on was the rather disgusting image of El’Athras stripping off his clothes... making him wish he was still blinded by the torch.

“Clean up,” the old Dwarf grumbled, staggering off into the showers. Another Dwarf, coming out of nowhere, scrambled to pick up the discarded clothing and ran off with it.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Dr. Wodtke started removing her own mud-covered clothing, as well. Maelgyn blushed and looked away, but that was only a temporary reprieve. As he looked the other way, he saw Euleilla pause only for a moment before shrugging and starting to disrobe, too.

“Ack!” he squawked involuntarily, closing his eyes as he blushed. Maelgyn sighed and figured he might as well get undressed and shower as well. He quickly finished the job before sprinting, in all his glory, to the nearest unoccupied shower. As he ran, he noticed another young Dwarf dash out of the shadows, grab his soiled clothing, and run off somewhere.

This facility, thankfully, had both hot and cold running water even in the showers. Quickly adjusting the controls so that he was comfortable, he stepped under the shower and started rinsing all of the cave mud off.

“Maelgyn?” the hesitant voice of Euleilla called from his right.

“Yeah?”

“Um... can you come over here and help me for a moment? I... don’t know what I’m doing.”

Maelgyn blinked.
She doesn’t know what she’s doing? What does she mean by that?
he asked himself as he rounded the corner, only to see her standing in front of a shower stall, completely naked. She was covering herself up, at least partly, with her arms, but she was still exposing areas of her flesh to him he’d never taken a good look at before.

“Is there supposed to be a bathtub somewhere around here? I can’t find one,” she said, confused.

“No,” Maelgyn replied, trying hard to concentrate on something other than her figure. “There’s no tub, it’s just a shower.”

“A shower?” she repeated, cocking her head questioningly. “I’ve never used one, before. How does it work?”

“Well,” Maelgyn said. “There are two counterweighted chains you can pull. One controls the flow of cold water, the other controls the flow of hot water. You adjust each one until the water is the right temperature and rate of flow for you, and then you stand under the spray of water and scrub until you’re clean.”

“I see,” she said, removing her arm from over her breasts and groping wildly for the knobs he had spoken of. “Which knob is which?”

For a moment, Maelgyn almost fled and called Dr. Wodtke to help her out, but instead he resolved to stick it out and guide Euleilla.
This is the woman who is my wife,
he thought to himself.
I should not be embarrassed to help her, or to see her naked. I should be able to deal with her
.

Tearing his eyes off of her body, he grabbed one of her hands and led her further into the shower stall. He placed that hand on one chain and said, “This controls the hot water.” He moved the hand over a bit to the other chain. “This is the cold water. Do you think you can handle it?”

“Yes,” Euleilla answered, a touch of humor in her voice.

It was then Maelgyn realized he had been set up. The smile that was usually on her face had twitched just enough for him to realize she was trying not to laugh. She’d known she was exposing herself to him, she’d planned it, and now she was laughing about it.

Well,
he supposed as he retreated to his own shower.
She thinks she still needs to convince me to keep her as my wife. And... I can’t say I don’t enjoy the view. I just wish she wouldn’t test my patience! This is neither the time nor place.

Maelgyn shook his head as he scrubbed at his hair. He needed to talk with her about everything, and soon. Someplace private, without Dr. Wodtke just a few paces away, and without a Merchant Prince of Mar’Tok waiting on him for a formal meeting.

Fortunately, the whole situation they were in provided ample opportunity to think of other things. Maelgyn wondered again why he’d been lead through a muddy cave from the office of a Merchant Prince of Mar’Tok to what appeared to be little more than a shower room. And just what did El’Athras want with him, anyway?

He finished his shower and donned the
yukata
El’Athras had provided – a gold-rimmed dark blue silk robe Maelgyn thought looked like an odd cross between a thin bathrobe and a formal state dress
kimono
. The Dwarf in question was just sitting there, waiting for everyone without saying a word. Euleilla joined him shortly, a smug grin gracing her features. Finally, Dr. Wodtke showed up, much more at ease with her surroundings than Maelgyn felt was appropriate in someone who hadn’t been through this experience before.

“Well, Sword Prince Maelgyn,” El’Athras said, standing up slowly and adjusting his own robe with practiced grace. “I think it’s time we met my other guests.”

Chapter 12

Maelgyn stared around him. The room was huge, larger than the castle courtyard of the Svieda Royal palace. It seemed a hybrid of the “manufactured” caves in most Dwarven cities and the natural caves he’d just come from. The grey stone floor was polished like fine marble. The ceiling, too, was covered with a curved piece of smooth white stonework. But the walls were the mud and rock of a natural cave, with water dripping down to drainage trenches in the floor.

There was only one fire to illuminate the whole space, and that was a natural “eternal” flame in the middle of the floor. It would have been enough to light a small room, perhaps, yet its light faded out before reaching the walls. The place felt ancient, and the air seemed stale. Maelgyn had a few suspicious about where they might be, but he had a hard time believing it.

Several other people already were present, but Maelgyn couldn’t make out anything about them because they stood in the dimmer shadows around the fire. With what little he could tell by sensing magical potential, two of them were probably Nekoji. He wasn’t proficient enough to identify the races of any of the others, but none of them were mages.

“Oh, good,” El’Athras said, breaking the silence. “Everyone’s here. Let’s get started.”

The others approached, and for the first time Maelgyn could see their faces as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Two were the Nekoji as he had sensed earlier. Several Dwarves wore uniforms of the Oregal Republic, while others bore the armor or the banners of various border kingdoms. Four humans were garbed in the livery of each of the Kingdoms of Poros, while a lone Centaur – looking distinctly uncomfortable in his surroundings – proudly displayed the banner of the Bandi Republic. The Bandi Republic was an otherwise largely human nation led by a “not
entirely
sane” Elven woman named Lady Phalra.