City of Towers_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [39]
“What—?” Daine began to protest, but Jode cut him off.
“You need to get out of here, now. As long as you’re dressed like that you’re a brawl waiting to happen, and Pierce is almost as bad.” He counted out a few sovereigns. “Here, get new cloaks for both of you. Something nondescript. Brelish. Understood?”
Daine wasn’t used to taking orders from the halfling, but he knew Jode was right.
“I’ll see what I can find here,” Jode said. “Why don’t you go down to this Hareth’s Folly and see what you can find out there?”
“What about the temple?” Lei interjected. “I beat down a minotaur and now we’re going to forget about it?”
“I doubt it’s going anywhere,” Jode said. “We’ll work our way down the tower and get back to it once we’re back at the bottom. So, we meet back at the Manticore at, say, the seventh bell?”
Lei glanced at Daine. After a moment, he nodded. “Very well. But watch yourself.”
“Of course,” Jode said. “And Pierce? Make sure to trail back a little. When people are trying to have a nonchalant discussion … well, you attract too much attention.”
“As you wish,” Pierce said.
Jode produced a few more coins and tossed them to Lei. “Here. If you’re going to be nosing around the taverns, you’ll need to buy a drink or two.”
“Now that’s an idea I can get behind,” muttered Daine.
Each of the districts of Sharn was the size of a village or small town, and like any village or town, each had its own distinctive personality. Between the squalor of High Walls and Malleon’s Gate, the cold militant atmosphere of Daggerwatch, the pretentious luxury of Dalan’s Refuge, and the relentless good cheer of Den’iyas, Daine had seen more diversity than he had in years, but nothing prepared him for Hareth’s Folly. Set halfway down the great tower of Dura, the Folly was a bizarre assortment of spires and small towers. Every building was completely different. Architectural styles, building materials, color schemes … nothing matched. A traditional Brelish tower of stone and mortar stood next to a gnarled spire of Aerenal densewood, which appeared to have been carved from the trunk of a single massive tree. A squat keep of red brick dominated a square covered with glittering silver sand. The sky was just as chaotic. The upper levels of the towers were connected by a tangle of bridges, a labyrinth of wood, stone, and rope. Flying creatures were darting in and around the towers. A winged stallion was playing a game of tag with a massive black-feathered owl, and a pair of Gold Wing guards passed overhead on hippogriff mounts.
“What madness is this?” Daine murmured.
“You may have answered your own question,” Lei replied. “The architect was a man named Hareth ir’Talan, and ‘mad’ would be a polite way of describing him.” She paused by the densewood tower, studying the irregular, crooked walls. “According to the stories, he wanted to have buildings reflecting all of the different nations in Galifar, so a visitor from any country would have a place that felt like home.”
“Sounds reasonable enough, but … I know the elves of Aerenal use wood in most of their structures, but I never heard of them actually living in trees.”
“They don’t.” Lei looked up at the higher branches of the tower. “When Hareth had constructed buildings for all of the different cultures in the Kingdom of Galifar … well, there was still room in the district. So he began looking to other cultures—Riedra, Adar, even the ruins in the Demon Wastes and Xen’drik. Eventually even this well ran dry, so he turned to the outer planes for inspiration. I believe this is his vision of what homes would look like in Lamannia, the Twilight Forest.”
The outer planes were one of the greater mysteries of the world. The sages said there were thirteen planes—shadows of reality bound to different aspects of existence. Sages and wise women told fanciful stories about the nature of each plane—the endless battlefields of Shavarath, the brilliant crystalline landscape of Irian, the floating citadels of Syrania. As far as Daine was concerned, these descriptions were pure fantasy.