City of Towers_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [105]
The heap was teaming with rats and insects, but the vermin had competition. Goblins. At least a dozen were crawling through the garbage, sifting through the refuse and looking for anything of value. Daine noticed a few more goblins standing near the entrances of the chamber, armed with makeshift clubs and spears. He imagined that these were scouts, watching for “gray eaters” or other dangers.
Rhazala approached one of the scouts. Speaking in the guttural tongue of the goblins, she said, “Are they still safe?”
The man nodded.
“Pay him,” Rhazala said to Daine.
“What?”
“Pay him. They mine the garbage to survive. He has something you must see. Pay him.”
“Look,” Daine said. “I appreciate that you may actually be trying to help us. But I don’t have any money. Everything I had was stolen by a goblin who looked remarkably like you. So if you want me to pay him with my own coins … I’m afraid you’ve got them.”
Rhazala watched Daine carefully, then her hand darted into her robes, and when it emerged she was holding a double crown. She tossed it to the sentinel without saying a word, and he led them deeper into the chamber.
As they moved to the center of the chamber the water grew deeper, coming up to the hips of the little goblins. Slowly, they made their way around the massive garbage heap.
And that’s when they saw the bodies.
There were four corpses lined up along the midden heap. Their bodies were bloated from exposure to water, and they were in varying states of decomposition. The first was a dwarf, whom Daine didn’t recognize. The second was Jode.
Lei cried out and sloshed forward through the water. Daine found himself at a loss. For a moment he couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He’d lost soldiers before—even friends—but this was Jode. He couldn’t imagine a world without him.
Lei knelt by the corpse and gasped. Daine made his legs move and staggered forward. Jode’s skull had been caved in. Very little was left of the back of his head.
“Who …?” Lei said, her voice muted. She turned to look at Daine. “‘Why?”
Daine was still in a daze. “I told him,” he said, more to himself than to Lei. “I told him not to go.”
“Last night they wanted him alive!” Lei cried. “Who would do this?”
Daine turned away. He couldn’t look at the corpse any more. “When was he found?” he said.
“Around the sixth bell,” said Rhazala, glancing over at the scout for confirmation. He nodded. “They found all four of them together. It’s rare for flesh to escape the notice of the doraashka, so they were not in the water for long. I thought you should know. I liked the little one.”
All four together? Did Jode go to meet these people? Daine walked over to the bodies. Lei was wiping the filth off of Jode’s skin and clothes. Daine still couldn’t bear the site of his best friend’s face, so he turned to examine the remaining two corpses.
Once again, he found himself at a loss for words.
He knew both of these people. One was Korlan, the half-orc he’d met in the company of Bal Tarkanan, and the other was Rasial Tann.
It was hard to focus with Jode’s body lying there, but Daine had to push on. He knelt to examine the bodies. He was no expert, but Rasial’s corpse seemed to be in worse condition than the others. Perhaps he’d died before the others. All the bodies had the same sort of massive head injuries as Jode—the backs of their skulls shattered, probably with a mace or a club. The skull cavity was almost completely empty. Rasial had a series of light, raking cuts along his chest—claw marks, most likely, and not deep enough to be lethal. The head wounds were the only ones that seemed significant. Daine searched the bodies, but neither was carrying anything. He turned back to the goblin scout.
“Did this one have any pos sessions?”
The goblin shook his head.
“Are you certain? I can get you gold, if you have what I’m looking for.”
The mention of gold lit a fire in the goblin’s eyes, but he shook his head again. “He had nothing.”
Daine cursed. He walked over to Lei. “Let’s get out of here, Lei. We need to take