The Thieves of Blood: Blade of the Flame - Book 1 (23 page)

“How delightfully tragic!”

Jarlain let go of Makala’s hands. Feeling weak as a newborn infant, Makala rose from the chair, staggered over to the bed, and flopped down onto the mattress. She immediately tried to rise again, but her body was too weak and refused to obey her.

Jarlain came over and patted her on the leg. “Don’t worry. The fatigue will pass soon and you’ll be able to move again.”

Jarlain crossed to her dressing table, turned the chair back around, and sat down. She picked up a pearl-handled brush and began to run it through her long, raven-colored hair, gazing at her reflection as she stroked. The woman’s normally pale face was slightly flushed and she wore a lazy, dreamy smile. Makala thought she looked like a woman who’d just experienced a most pleasurable session of lovemaking.

“Of course, Diran threw the dagger hilt-first, and you were struck on the head and rendered unconscious. When you came to, it was well past midnight and Diran was gone.”

Makala was just barely able to make her mouth and voice work well enough to answer. “Y-yes.”

“And that’s the last you saw of him.” Jarlain paused in her brushing to glance at Makala in the mirror. “For a while, at least.”

Makala wondered just how much knowledge Jarlain had
pulled from her mind. Did she know of her reunion with Diran? Port Verge? Did she know Diran had become a priest of the Silver Flame, and even now he and Ghaji might well be on their way to rescue her?

Jarlain resumed brushing her hair with long, slow strokes. “I must say, this Emon Gorsedd of yours sounds like a most intriguing character, and the way he controls his assassins by implanting an evil spirit inside them is most ingenious, but like Diran, you no longer have your ‘Other.’ Unlike him, you didn’t choose to give yours up. You lost yours.”

Jarlain continued brushing in silence for several moments. Makala was beginning to regain control of her body slowly but surely, and she managed to push herself up into a sitting position by the time Jarlain put the brush down on her dressing table and turned to face her.

“Do you know why Erdis values my services? I possess the ability to reach into someone’s mind and root out her most secret fears.” She smiled. “Of course, I have other talents as well.”

Makala thought of how Jarlain had touched her in Erdis Cai’s vast trophy chamber, and how she’d felt a paralyzing, overwhelming fear.

“The little memory drama you were so kind as to share with me taught me a great deal about you, Makala. I now know what your two greatest fears are, and believe me, they’re
juicy
ones. Would you like to hear?”

“Can I keep you from telling me?”

Jarlain laughed with dark delight. “Not at all! There are two main themes that are embedded in that particular memory. One is that of the dark spirits. Diran found the strength to give his up willingly. While you have been able to
continue without yours, you miss its presence—the power and confidence it granted you. You fear that, like an addict who can no longer refrain from taking her favorite drug, you will one day return to Emon Gorsedd and plead to have a new spirit implanted within you.”

Makala felt as if Jarlain had punched her in the stomach, but she fought to keep from letting the woman know how much she’d gotten to her.

“You said I had two fears.”

“That’s right. Your second greatest fear is of losing Diran for good. They’re connected, you know. Your fear of losing Diran helps give you the strength to resist during those times when you feel the need for the Other. Imagine how disappointed Diran would be if you willingly returned to your previous life, but of course, one of the mean reasons you don’t want to lose Diran is you hope his love will fill the empty space in your soul left behind when the dark spirit was exorcised. What if it doesn’t? What if
nothing
can ever fill that space? Nothing except being joined to an Other again? It really is all too amusing!”

Jarlain laughed with almost girlish delight.

“I’m glad you find me so entertaining.” Makala managed to keep her voice calm, but inside she was a turbulent mass of emotions. Fear, shame, anger … Jarlain had violated her in a way Makala had never imagined possible. Right then, Makala vowed that she would see Jarlain dead, even at the cost of her own life.

“I find you much more than that, dear.” Jarlain’s eyes glittered in the lamplight, beautiful, cold, and hard. “I find you
worthy
. That’s going to come as good news to Erdis, very good news indeed.”

“Thank you for agreeing to be my guest this evening.”

Erdis Cai moved somewhat stiffly as he escorted Makala down the dimly lit corridor, and she wondered if it was because he was attempting to walk like a mortal man. If so, he’d lost the knack. He seemed more like a wooden marionette, with none of his vampiric grace.

“I wasn’t aware that I had a choice.”

The two of them were alone. Erdis Cai had come to Jarlain’s quarters to fetch her, and now they wandered through Grimwall, seemingly without purpose or destination.

“Of course you had a choice.” Erdis Cai gave her a closed-mouth smile, as if he didn’t wish her to see his enlarged canine teeth. “But I don’t think you would’ve enjoyed the alternative to coming with me.”

“What would that have been?”

“Spending a few more hours as Jarlain’s plaything.”

Makala thought of the effortless way the woman had infiltrated her mind. “You’re right. This is better.”

Erdis Cai laughed and put an arm around her shoulders as if they were good friends. He still wore his black-metal armor, and it felt cold, hard, and heavy on her shoulders. More, it seemed to weigh on her soul, as if his touch were as much a spiritual burden as a physical one.

Makala had been trained in any number of unarmed combat moves that would allow her to render an opponent helpless, or should she wish to, kill him instantly, but she didn’t seriously contemplate attacking Erdis Cai. Not only was the man a vampire, he exuded an aura of dark menace that spoke of just how
powerful a vampire he was. Attacking him barehanded would not only be foolish, it might well prove suicidal.

“Speaking of Jarlain, she said she’d found me ‘worthy.’ What precisely does that mean?”

They came to a set of stairs, the first she’d seen since arriving at Grimwall. Erdis Cai removed his arm from her shoulders and gestured for her to precede him. The stairs led upward into darkness, but she knew that, one way or another, she would be going up them, so she chose to do so under her own power. There was no railing, so she kept her hand on the wall as she climbed. She couldn’t hear Erdis Cai following behind, which was all the more impressive—and frightening—because he was garbed in full armor. Thus, when he spoke again, the sound of his voice coming so close to Makala’s ear startled her.

“There will be plenty of time for us to talk about whether or not you’re worthy—as well as for what—but keep this in mind: Jarlain only makes recommendations. It is I who render the final judgment.”

Makala didn’t like the way he seemed to stress the word
final
.

They continued climbing in silence for some time after that until finally Makala saw light ahead of them, however dim. They came to an open doorway, and Makala stepped through—

—and into wonder.

As large as Erdis Cai’s trophy chamber had been, it was nothing compared to this. It was as if the entire cliff had been hollowed out inside, though how that could’ve been done without the entire place collapsing, she had no idea. There were vertical support beams visible, thick columns covered with runes engraved in a language she didn’t recognize, but
there were far too few to support the entire ceiling. Magic was involved somehow, but what sort and how it was applied, she didn’t know.

Within the vast opening lay a small city with domed buildings of various sizes carved out of rock. The streets were lined with smaller columns atop which rested braziers burning with the same greenfire as had those in Erdis Cai’s trophy chamber, and just like those, these produced no smoke, and Makala suspected, no heat. The streets were filled with men and woman garbed in black and gray—some dressed as raiders, others in robes or simple tunics. All of their heads had been shaven, and they ranged in age from late teens to early fifties.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Erdis Cai said. He stood beside her, hands clasped behind his back, looking out over the subterranean metropolis and its people like a proud patriarch. “The ceiling is three hundred feet from the floor, and the city itself is a square mile wide. Most of the structures follow the dome pattern that you can easily see is so prevalent. The builders didn’t possess much imagination, but they surely were geniuses at architectural engineering.”

“You didn’t make this?”

“Of course not, lass! I find things, take them and make them mine, but I do not create them. However, that doesn’t keep me from admiring the accomplishments of others and using them to suit my needs.”

“What others? Who made this place?”

“Goblins,” Erdis Cai said, “back when their kind ruled Khorvaire, before the invasion of humans from Sarlona. Though we’ve only been able to uncover a small portion of Grimwall’s secrets, it is my belief that this underground city was built as
a kind of refuge for their kind, a place where they could live in secrecy and safety, as well as a place where they could conceal their greatest treasure.”

Erdis Cai’s red-tinted eyes got a far-off look in them, and Makala sensed that he was picturing this fabulous treasure, whatever it might be.

“What treasure could be so valuable that a people would create an entire hidden city to safeguard it?” she asked.

“What indeed? Come now, we mustn’t be late.”

He started toward the city, with long, purposeful strides, and Makala hurried to keep up with him.

“My crew and I discovered Grimwall during one of our earliest voyages; although if truth be told, we blundered across it after losing our way in a dense fog. Still, a discovery is a discovery, eh? Grimwall was deserted then, its occupants having long ago departed. We decided to make this our home port, and it served us well for many years. No one but myself and the crew of the
Seastar
knew of Grimwall’s existence, let alone its location, and that still holds true to this day.”

As they walked among the black-garbed, shaved-head citizens of Grimwall, the people stopped what they were doing and turned toward Erdis Cai, prostrating themselves on the ground as if they were in the presence of a living god. Cai paid them no notice as he passed through their ranks, as if their obeisance was not only normal and expected but also boringly routine.

“You keep speaking of your crew, but so far the only member I’ve seen is Onkar. Unless some of the raiders—”

“None of those you see around you belonged to my original crew. These are all new recruits, culled from those whom Onkar brings me, though I confess that we’ve been doing this so long
that some of these people are actually the children of those we first captured. Don’t concern yourself about my former shipmates, lass. They’re still around, as you’ll soon see.”

As they continued walking through the city, Makala kept her eye out for possible escape routes, but she saw nothing that looked promising—no tunnels, no other stairwells, nothing but domed houses with semicircular doors and no windows, and everywhere she looked, bald men and women who revered the vampire walking at her side as their lord and master.

For the first time since she’d been captured, she began to hope that Diran
was
coming to rescue her, for it certainly looked like she wasn’t going to be able to get out of here on her own.

The domed buildings became fewer and farther between until they gave way to a large amphitheater carved into the ground. The greenfire braziers that ringed the top level of the amphitheater were larger and blazed more brightly than others in the city, no doubt to provide more light for whatever activities took place here. The circular stone seats were empty, save for one person sitting on the lowest level: Jarlain. Onkar stood on the smooth stone floor at the center of the amphitheater, holding the hollow curved horn of some large beast in his hand.

As Erdis Cai and Makala began to descend into the amphitheater, the undead explorer nodded to Onkar, and the vampire commander put the horn to his lips and blew a single long low note. He then walked over to Jarlain and waited for Erdis Cai and Makala to reach the bottom.

Makala heard noise behind them, and she glanced over her shoulder. The citizens of Grimwall were entering the amphitheater, summoned by the blast of Onkar’s horn. Obviously something important was going to take place here tonight, but
what? Whatever it was, Makala doubted it would be pleasant.

Erdis Cai reached Jarlain and sat next to her. He gestured for Makala to sit on his other side, and after a moment’s hesitation, she did so. Onkar remained standing, though he set the horn down next to Jarlain, then grinned at Makala, looking at her with something too close to hunger in his eyes.

“I trust you’re enjoying your stay so far? We’ve got a bit of entertainment for you this evening. Something special.”