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Lights flashed overhead but not so fast as to be disorienting. Cold air flowed across Notch’s face, but the tension in his muscles came from the speed and the unknown of what lurked ahead.
No matter how smooth the carriage ride, even when switching between Canalis passages, there was just no way to relax, even with both Emisa and Milus perched at the ready – presumably to watch for cave-ins or other problems, and deal with them via their bone.
But the palace could not be so distant now, surely? And the sooner they arrived the better he’d feel. “How does this thing stop?” Notch asked.
“At the far end of the line there are measures in place.”
“Via bone?”
“Yes.”
Not long after his question, the carriage began to ascend slightly, but did not lose any speed. The endless miracles of Ecsoli magic, and another reminder of just how different the place was to home. A new concern struck him. “How do we know the bones still work? Or that they haven’t been stolen by scavengers?”
“This line is one of several due to end directly beneath the palace; such bone will have been protected.”
“Unless someone inside has grown desperate enough to sneak down themselves,” Milus said.
Notch hid a clenched hand.
“If so, we can slow the carriage,” Emisa said with a sigh.
“Appreciate the confidence, My Lady,” Milus replied.
Ahead, shadows loomed as the lights disappeared and far too swiftly, a dark maw swallowed them. Milus cursed. “The crystals aren’t responding!”
A brighter glow burst from Emisa’s mask.
It reached the soft green and grey of the walls easily – and further ahead, a wall of steel that had been marked with faded paint.
Notch straightened but Emisa had already lifted both hands and now their flight along the water eased. She braced herself – almost as though she were pressing against the still-distant blockage... yet the carriage slowed further and her methods soon brought the vessel to a complete halt a few yards from the wall.
“Nicely done,” Milus said.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Notch unclenched his leg and arm muscles then climbed to the platform, kicking out a stiffness to his limbs. The water drained almost soundlessly into holes placed below.
He joined the others at the wall, which was more a grating, really; thick bars set close together, making a net with only narrow openings barely half a hand’s width. Notch looked up. The symbols painted upon the surface seemed to be a warning, the stroke of the application bold, and with what looked reasonably similar to an Anaskari exclamation mark at the end.
“It says the Canalis are forbidden upon the pain of death,” Milus offered.
“Do we need to worry about that?” Notch asked. “Does the palace enforce this rule in any particular way?”
“Not that I recall,” Milus said. “But it’s no surprise.”
“Then do we simply break through?” Notch asked.
Emisa was already pacing before it. “This feels unusual.”
“How so?” Milus asked.
“There are perhaps dozens of masks strong enough to break through something like this even when it is obviously more than steel – yet any extra measures should be no real barrier to Medina.” She grew still a moment. “Ah.”
Notch joined her before the gate. “What is it?”
“I suspect something beyond, but we have to break through to be sure – use the Fura Leones to assist me.”
“Very well.” Notch placed both palms against the chill steel.
“Now push.”
Medina glowed brighter. Notch strained against the barrier, which did not seem to be budging at all. He pushed with his legs now, engaging his whole body, glaring at the surface... rage grew quickly. He blinked at his fingers – they were claws already. But he did not stop pushing either, and a growl rose from his throat.
Still the gate resisted.
Notch lifted an arm with a roar and slammed his paw into the steel.
The gate buckled with a mighty crack.
A massive split was now visible and so he reached out to rip the opening wider, enough to pass through, then stood back, breathing hard. Only darkness beyond.
Milus whistled. “It’s still impressive to see.”
Notch glanced back at his hands. Human once more. The transformation in and out of lion form was growing easier... and somehow instinctive. A good or a bad sign? Hopefully good; he’d need their help for what was to come.
“Come,” Emisa said. “We cannot know whether anyone will be aware after the clamour we caused.”
“The Clouding won’t be enough?” Notch asked.
“I can conceal our movements from most masks but not from regular eyes, remember. ‘Lady Kalis of Hastam House and her attendants’ shouldn’t be down here either.”
Beyond, the glow from her mask revealed a similar stone tunnel. At the gate’s base, slid to one side as though breaking through had disturbed it, rested a skeleton. “Maybe you didn’t need to rob any graves after all,” Notch said to Milus.
Emisa had crouched before the skeleton. “No. He could not have used this for a decoy – it’s not all human.”
Notch turned.
She pointed to several ribs and arm bones. “These are from a Sea God – they have been woven into the skeleton.”
“Why?”
“As a Ward. So long as the skeleton touched the gate it functioned as an additional lock.” Now she pointed to where the heart would once have rested and Notch saw at last, a chain link had been bolted into the gate.
“They did this to their own people?”
“Someone did so in the past, yes.”
Milus set his sack of bones down and sighed. “A shame we cannot use the Sea God bones – they’re certainly powerful enough.”
“Even if they weren’t bound to that task, that was a person,” Emisa said.
He rose. “Indeed.”
“Bound?” Notch asked.
She nodded. “Some bone can have its purpose sealed – you cannot see, but whoever Carved these placed certain runes to block other uses.”
He nodded slowly. “Will we face something similar again?”
“Probably not. I suspect the main passages will be guarded, but we should be able to find entry to the palace dungeons, or maybe the cellars.”
“Good.”
But she did not set off. “Notch, let me ask you again. Do you truly wish to simply blunder your way to Tanere? You do not even know if he is in the palace at present.”
“Then I will ask you to check,” he said.
“Fine. But I want an answer.”
“I will grind him beneath my heel before the end of the day.”
She rested a hand on her hip. “I’m not after bravado.”
“And I am not offering that. You can cloak us – I will reach him and I will kill him. Then, Milus will unleash the decoy and once more, you conceal our passage to Alosus and then to the harbour.”
“A simple enough plan,” Milus observed.
“And if it is too simple? We all know that when Tanere sees you return, he will try and take the Fura Leones. He may know you are here even now.”
Notch nodded. “He will fail. He believes he has some sort of leverage over me but once he is dead that is no longer true.”
“Perhaps only if you free Alosus first. There is every chance Tanere can reach your friend no matter where he is. Will you risk that?”
“Are you offering to protect Alosus?”
“I have no choice, obviously.”
Notch smiled. “Then take us to Alosus first, My Lady.”