City of Towers_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [132]
Daine turned to face his two comrades. “If Alina pays us, we could go anywhere. But where do you want to go? Lei, if you want to get away from here, I understand.”
Lei shook her head. “No. If this Merrix has issues with me, that’s his problem. I rather like the idea of living the good life under his nose. Show him I’m not going to crawl under a rock and die just because he’s cut me off.”
Daine nodded. “Pierce, how about you?”
“There is little that I need in this world, Captain. I have no interest in this gold, but I wish to remain with the two of you. For that reason, I hope that you will stay together.”
“Which brings me back to my past. Before I joined the guard, I—”
“All the lifts in Sharn, and he comes to mine.”
By now, Sergeant Lorrak’s gravelly voice was a familiar sound. Daine turned. The dwarf watchman was standing by the gate of the lift with a pair of halberdiers.
“I see your little fall didn’t knock any sense into you,” Lorrak said.
Daine walked over to the dwarf. The halberdiers lowered their weapons, but Lorrak stopped them with a gesture. “How long is this going to go on, Lorrak?”
“Why, Mourner? Do you have somewhere to go?”
“My name is Daine, Sergeant.” He dropped to one knee, to look the dwarf directly in the eye. “And you know what? I don’t have anywhere to go. My homeland was destroyed. Your king invited my people to come here. And here I am.”
Lorrak stared at him, saying nothing.
“We’re not at war anymore, Sergeant. I’m not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, I imagine I’ll be taking this lift on a regular basis. If you’d like, we can take turns throwing each other off. I believe it’s your turn. But I’m guessing those feather tokens add up on a watchman’s salary. I know they will for a refugee.”
Lorrak stayed silent, but there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
“I didn’t mean to throw you off the lift that first time we met,” Daine continued.. “You charged me. And you know what? You were right. That girl did rob me. I hope you were just trying to scare her. I don’t like the idea of guards murdering anyone, criminal or not. But I owe you an apology, Sergeant. So can we start this over again, one soldier to another?”
The dwarf stared at him for a long while. Finally he nodded. “All right, Mour—uh, Daine.” He didn’t smile. “We’ve both been over that edge once now. You mind your business, and I’ll leave you be. But I don’t want to see any trouble on my watch. Interfere with my work again, and I will have your head, Grazen be damned.”
“Fair enough.” Daine stood and walked back over to his friends. A moment later, the lift arrived at Den’iyas.
Alina was waiting for them in the room of mirrors. Today she was dressed in a gown of black and gold, with amethyst-tipped rods tucked through her golden hair. Daine idly wondered if these were pure decoration or if they might be magic wands. It would be just like Alina to wear a mystic arsenal as a form of decoration.
“I trust you come to me with results, Daine?” she said. There was a silver-scaled serpent wrapped around her left wrist, and she idly scratched its chin. She wore a platinum ring on each finger, each one set with a different gemstone or dragonshard. “Or is this yet another plea for gold?”
Daine reached into his belt pouch and produced a small cloth bag. He set it down on the table and slid it toward her. “I believe this is what you sent us to find.”
Alina held her wrist up to her hair, and the tiny viper slithered off her arm to coil around one of her long hair rods. She picked up the bag and carefully spread its contents out across the table. There were two large chunks of dark crystal lined with deep blue veins, a host of smaller shards; and two glass vials, corked and sealed with lead. The vials were filled with a shadowy fluid, and the lid of each vial was marked with a complex symbol—similar to a dragonmark, but matching