| |
CAN DUN HELP STOP A War? The problem is, he started it.
Dun didn’t want to be a hero and the war has cost him dearly: his friends, his innocence. Maybe his mind.
Now he’s a fully-fledged Shaman, Dun’s mind is a receiver for those who can transmit, but what will he do when starts getting messages from someone who’s dead.
Dun's new powers might allow his Underfolk, victory. But he must quiet the demons inside his head, and find his oldest friends Tali and Padg if they stand a chance of defeating the merciless Rowle of the Cat-People. And she is about to release demons of her own.
Read on for a taste or buy now! books2read.com/darkerarvidson
––––––––
Chapter One
PADG AND TALI HUDDLED in their den above the main market of the Stone-folk behind the hiding shield that they’d found before they parted company with Dun. It had taken great care and time to find such a good hiding place, but after Padg’s insistence they not rush in and do some reconnaissance first he felt obliged to find somewhere good. It was an odd, tall, and thin metal room in the wall between the grand entrance to the Stone-halls. It smelled like rust. All the action from the market floor could be heard from high up metal grills in one side of the room and the main river was accessed by a hatch via a flooded water pipe on the opposite side. Padg thought they were impossible to surprise.
“I’m wet and tired,” Padg said. “Is this the bit where we get to go home?”
“No, this is the bit where I murder you for whining, and your lifeless corpse floats back to Bridgetown. Now shut up, I’m counting,” Tali said.
They had fashioned a listening horn from some thin sheet metal Padg had found. By tweaking its direction it was possible to pick up a reasonable amount of sound from all around the central cavern and some of the passages. Tali listened to interactions at the main entrance as the Stone-guard filtered goods and folk in. It was all mostly in and not a lot of that. The guards outnumbered the civilians two to one. And it was the same everywhere. Curfews had been imposed after Work-cycle. Identification tattoos had become mandatory and were examined at a ridiculous number of checkpoints. Although people still tried to go about their business, no female folk were allowed out without special dispensation. It was eerily quiet, the main noises being new bells rung every cycle to command people to action or to bed and announcements of new edicts from criers. The only thing not curtailed by these new happenings was the regular services of the Tinkralas. Though their hideout backed on to a temple, so they were immersed in the goings on by proximity, if nothing else. Most of their spying had to be done outside of the services as the noisy Tinkrala worship drowned out everything else.
“I’m glad, you know,” Padg said.
“What?”
“Glad. To be here. Really.”
“Oh good.”
“Despite everything, you know?”
“Yeah.”
“You know, with, you.”
“Oh.”
“It’s... I’m... I like it.”
“Yeah,” Tali said. “Yeah, me too. What the hell is that?”
“Pardon?”
“That chanting? Far side of the market—listen.”
When Padg strained, using their bespoke listening horn, he could make out the half chant/half shout just at the edge of his hearing. It came from right over the far side of the massive market hall. Maybe down one of the passages off there even. A repetitive shout.
“What are they saying?” Tali asked.
“No—I think. It sounds like they are saying no. Over and over.”
“Sounds female? The voices...”
“Yeah, almost all.”
“I wonder if that’s where we’ll find Amber?”
Since their stakeout to plan a rescue for their Stone-folk friend who’d done so much to help them, they hadn’t heard hide nor hair of Amber. Padg, whose sense of smell was the keenest, and as a half decent hunter, hadn’t detected so much as a lingering whiff. In the time it took them to return from parting company with Dun, it was like Amber had been spirited away.
“We need a plan to get in there,” Tali said.
“Guess so,” Padg said. “How?”
“Disguise?”
“O...kay. As what?”
“Mmm...traders?”
“Would have to be River-folk.”
“Why?”
“Don’t be dense—plan ahead. Can’t be Bridge-folk; ‘cos—uh, we’re at war. Can’t be Machine-folk; ‘cos they’re all dead. Can’t carry off being Stone-folk; they’d smell a rat straight away. Would have to be River-folk.”
“Think you can carry that off?” Tali asked.
“Whoa there! That ‘we’ turned into a ‘you’ quick enough.”
“Single trader, easier to hide? Got to be you or me, leaves one of us as backup if anything goes wrong.”
“Okay, not instilling me with confidence.”
“Come on, Padg. We need to know more to have a chance of rescuing Amber.”
“That was your crazy plan, as I remember.”
“And you’d leave her to rot in a Stone-folk cell, would you? Or worse.”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll go.”
“My hero.”
The next span was punctuated by planning, sleeping, and practicing a decent River-folk accent. From the supplies she had left and the food they had, Tali thought she could compose a half-decent scent. They decided that a scout out of who was where would be advisable first.
“I reckon Dun would like us to add to the map,” Padg said.
“Not if it’s in your handwriting.”
“Harsh.”
“Hmm.”
Tali repurposed Padg’s traveling clothes, much to his dismay, carefully making some fabric cross-gartering for leggings and a makeshift cloak that the River-folk all wore. She finished the ensemble by making a jingling necklace of used flask tops and things she’d collected along the way.
“Bang goes my stealthy approach,” Padg said.
“You’re a River-folk. You don’t give a splosh about stealth. Cocky, remember? Thought you wouldn’t have a problem with that bit.”
“I used to like you.”
“I’m sure my fragile ego can cope. Now, give me your best River-folk.”
“Arrrrrrhhh.”
“Nice. Gods help us.”
A loud clanging of handbells broke the conversation. Then a pause and then the same again. A sudden clamor of noise followed, almost as if someone had thrown a switch and turned the market on.
“Pipe’s waiting, River-boy,” Tali said.
“Better get at it then,” Padg said.
“Hey”—she came toward him—“you really stink.”
They embraced then, Padg still holding on, and said, “That’s high praise from an Alchemist,”
“Go,” Tali said. “You want to get in, in the first rush. Less scrutiny,”
“Yeah, I should.”
“Good lu—”
“Won’t need it,” Padg said.
He climbed through the pipe hatch and was gone. Tali listened hunched at the grill facing the market, listening for signs of him passing through the checkpoint ... Buy Darker now and keep reading: books2read.com/darkerarvidson
––––––––
