RELATIONSHIP

A bolt of sizzling white light rent the wide hallway in front of Crystalyn the moment she materialized on the other side of the topaz gateway. The bolt struck two men as they fought with sword and scimitar, hurling them some distance through the air and dropping them to the granite flooring where they lay unmoving.

Garbed in the black kell leather of the Red Rock clan, several bodies lay scattered in the great hall of the Dark Citadel; two others had the Shimmering Sands attire with the open front robes covering the brown kell underneath. Crystalyn hoped Long Sand wasn’t one of the two. As she moved from the gateway’s threshold, Broth loped beside her. Hastel and Atoi sprinted for one of the colossal roof support pillars many long yards from the gateway.

Her worry for Long Sand diminished when the nomad leader slipped from behind a wide pillar to the right of the topaz gate and dashed to her. Gripping her arm, he pulled her to the hard stone floor behind a body and then lifted another on top it, grunting with the effort. Dropping prone next to her, he quickly quieted his rapid breaths. Battling the living and stacking the dead had to be exerting.

Broth dropped to his long stomach next to her. “We are at a great disadvantage, Do’brieni. The enemy has the entire Citadel at its disposal while we are limited to four coming through safely at the same time.”

A bolt of crimson lightning brought the gagging smell of burning flesh wafting past. Concussive booms heralded the screams of the dying.

Fear permeated her link with Broth. No, not fright, but worry, anxiety that they gated into a deathtrap. Though hers or the warden’s, she couldn’t tell.

Crystalyn shifted close to Long Sand, her lips brushing his ear. “Where are they? Why didn’t they burn us down as soon as we came through?” she whispered. His scent filled her nostrils, blessedly replacing other far less pleasant odors. Even with danger so near, his masculinity made her head reel.

“As expected, there was a fierce battle with the soldiers guarding the gate on the Citadel side as the forward clan arrived, yet it was over sooner than anticipated. The clan won almost effortlessly.” Shifting, he gestured toward a dark intersection left of the great hall. “Our only losses have derived from a small band of Dark Users making a stand there; the clan’s archers are nearly in place to remove this threat.”

A bolt of radiant blue flashed high in the great hall. Spreading out and downward, the lightning flashed, like an upside-down tree flickering within a mirage. The smell of burning flesh grew unbearable. Crystalyn’s stomach lurched.

“Something is askew in this foul place, Do’brieni. The smell of rotting flesh is strong.”

Broth was right. The scent came nearer to that of decay. Crystalyn took a closer look at the body she lay behind. A sickly white, the gate corpse’s pallor was devoid of pigment, more so than the skin tone of the cadaver of the clan member stacked underneath the former gate guard. Granted, the clan had darker skin tones having lived a life in the sun, but the sentry’s pallor was gray, as one dead for hours not minutes. The smell emanated from the top body.

Crystalyn crawled back from the corpse pile. “Long Sand! How long has that one been dead?” she blurted, pointing.

The nomad leader looked where she pointed and then glanced at the intersection.

Crystalyn followed his gaze. Several dark-robed Users lay about. Nomad warriors moved cautiously toward the opening. The short skirmish for the gateway was over.

Rising to his feet, Long Sand came over. “A half bell, perhaps less. Why have you asked?” He offered her his hand.

The sand reader easily pulled her to her feet. Crystalyn bent and patted the dust from her knees, nodding toward the makeshift barrier. “Please do something for me. Pull the deceased guard off to one side.”

His face blank, as if he thought she’d lost her mind, Long Sand complied, wrinkling his nose.

“I take it you smell it?” Crystalyn asked.

“The scent of death is very potent,” Lore Rayna said, coming over from the gateway. The big woman escorted Sabella, gripping her by one arm. Railee held the other.

“Your wisdom shames me,” Long Sand said, bowing slightly. The sand reader’s quiet voice was reverent. “Something as blatant as this I should not have missed. There is something happening inside this dark place we have no knowledge about. Please, accept this long knife as added protection,” he said, offering a sheathed weapon in his outstretched hand.

Crystalyn took the weapon without protest and strapped it to her side. “You had a distraction, such as securing the area, remember? Don’t let it concern you. How many do we have on this side now?” Crystalyn asked, shunting the matter of smelly corpses to the back of her mind.

Railee answered. “With our arrival, we have thirty-two. Four additional have come through by now.”

“Already?” Crystalyn asked.

Railee glanced at the woman whose arm she held. “This one commanded the sentries on the Gray Dust side to stand aside, which they did without question. Our captains file our soldiers through with timed pauses.”

Crystalyn regarded the tavern mistress.

Sabella stared back, her chin tilted slightly upward.

“Thank you,” Crystalyn said simply.

A flicker of annoyance crossed Sabella’s gray eyes. “There was little point to them dying. The Gray Dust militia would have arrived long ago if they were coming.”

Crystalyn’s ire with the woman rose, but she quashed it. “Agreed. Needless deaths expend resources,” she said, keeping the tone of her voice even. “We make for the courtyard behind the Dark Gate, and from there, underground. Are there any hazards I should know about?”

“No.”

Keeping her eyes on Sabella, Crystalyn spoke to the others. “When we have five hundred strong with half of them Users and archers, we go on. I will lead us. Should we encounter unexpected resistance, kill her.”

Sabella blinked. “The Dark Gate will have soldiers, above and below,” she said quickly.

Crystalyn kept her face smooth. “Yes, that is a standard for the Citadel, the same as it was when I was here last. Is there anything else?”

“With the hooded one’s rule, the guard and confinement barracks are upheld,” Sabella said, the tone of her voice getting small at the end.

Now it was Crystalyn’s turn to blink. Such information imparted a lot about the Alchemist. The current great lord was far less secure than the previous one. “You’ve given me a little, bordello mistress. I’ll do better. Help me destroy the one we came after, and you’ll be freed to return to your… tavern.”

Sabella’s brow scrunched, as if in pain. “I shall not aid you with harming him, I cannot.”

With blurring speed, Railee’s dagger pressed against the tavern woman’s throat.

By the Great Father, that one can move fast when she wants, Crystalyn thought.

Broth growled his unhappiness with the situation.

“Why do you help when he has betrayed you? He has, has he not?” Railee asked, her voice a deadly hiss. “Darkwind betrays all who come within contact of him,” she added, muttering.

“Darkwind, Darwin Darkwind? I have no care for him,” Sabella said.

Crystalyn expected her frown matched the tavern woman’s furrowed brow. “Then who do you protect?”

Sabella’s frown deepened, marring her lovely face. “Is it not obvious? We stand in his domain. You should all leave, before it is too late.”

Railee lowered her arm to her side though she kept the blade from the sheath.

Crystalyn at last understood. “Your hooded one is safe as long as he allows us to handle the filth we came for.”

Sabella’s blonde hair flung back and forth as her gray-eyed glare shifted to include all, the white lock at the front of her head of hair hanging prominently. She fell silent.

Lore Rayna fixed her glowing eyes on Crystalyn. “One-arm Darwin chose the Stair of Despair. He may already be lost.”

Crystalyn shook her head. “He would’ve had a way to make it past whatever lurks there planned beforehand. A coward like him would never make the attempt if he wasn’t certain of success.”

“You overestimate Darkwind,” Sabella said. “No one can survive the Stair. Those who are so foolish to try have vanished from society. Even so, I will help you search for him. Command your people to release me, if you wish my help.”

Crystalyn hesitated, letting her delay at giving the order sink in. “There is one question I want answered,” she finally said. “What is your relationship with the Alchemist? Speak truthfully, or I’ll have you locked up, and we go on our way.”

Sabella hung her head, the white lock shining bright against the backdrop of the Dark Citadel. “He is my father,” she said nearly too soft to hear.

From behind, Atoi’s dark laughter rang out.

Crystalyn almost wished she hadn’t asked the woman. Crystalyn knew well what it was to be a daughter, what she would do to protect her dad.