Prince of Lies - James Lowder [31]
"What do you know," Perdix exclaimed as he looked at Gwydion's pale face, "he's still got a tongue. He learned something after all. I thought for sure he'd try calling out to another god again." He wrinkled his face in distaste. "Those beetles they use to eat the tongues out of troublemakers… brrr."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with."
Af placed his human hands to either side of Gwydion's head and leaned back. Slowly the denizen worked the soul out of the wall, though the Faithless to either side tried their best to hold the sell-sword back. It was Perdix's task to deal with these jealous shades. The little denizen tore at their arms and hands with gleaming white teeth.
When Gwydion was free of the other souls and the green mold, Af hefted him over one hunched shoulder and started back down the wall. "You're a lucky boy," the denizen grunted. "I woulda bet anything Cyric was going to leave you in there forever."
"W – Why free me?" Gwydion gasped.
Perdix hovered close to the soul's ear. "Cyric wants all the denizens – that's us – and the False who aren't being tortured for something specific – that's you – to search the city," he said. "You're going to help us look for a fellow named Kelemvor Lyonsbane, some old enemy of Cyric's who's hiding out here."
Numbly Gwydion turned his head to look out over the City ofStrife. The wall of writhing bodies encircled the hellish place, reaching high into the air. Denizens crawled or flew to the high ramparts. The bestial creatures carried screaming souls to be stacked atop the wall like so much cordwood. As far as Gwydion could see, he was the only one being taken down.
Inside the Wall of the Faithless, ramshackle buildings clustered in decaying boroughs. All these structures had been built on the same pattern: ten stories with square windows and a flat red roof. They only differed now in how ruined they were. In some places, huge fires engulfed whole blocks. In others, denizens tore the buildings down brick by brick, creating huge piles of rubble. Other denizens bombarded the boroughs from the air with javelins of lightning; these darksome beasts soared over the necropolis on massive wings of flame that cut through the choking shroud of fog like shooting stars.
And in the center of this destruction stoodBoneCastle. From this distance, the pointed white tower seemed to be nothing more than a distant church spire, a haven of law and peace that might be found in any city in the Heartlands. Yet Gwydion knew that, within its protective curtain of diamond and moat of black ooze,BoneCastleharbored the most dangerous agent of chaos. Thoughts of Cyric and the madness he'd glimpsed in the god's eyes haunted Gwydion the rest of the uncomfortable way down the wall.
"Awright," Af said. "End of the line." The denizen shrugged and unceremoniously dumped the shade onto his face.
Gwydion pushed himself up from the base of the wall, spitting a mouthful of dust. Here, the Faithless were quiet, having long since been crushed into immobility by the thousands of others atop them – and thereby conquered by the mold holding them in place. The sell-sword shuddered as he found himself leaning against the fungus-eaten features of a shade. Only the man's staring eyes remained free from the green mold covering him.
"Well," Perdix asked lightly, "now that we've got our ward, where do you want to start? The marshes on the far side of the castle?"
Af wrinkled his wolfish snout. "Nah. How about the Night Serpent's lair? She gets fed about now, and it'll be easier if we try to talk to her after she's eaten."
"She frightens me," Perdix said bluntly.
"But we have to see her sooner or later, right?"
"I suppose," Perdix sighed. "We'll do the marshes after that"
The two started away from the wall, Af slithering, Perdix hopping on thin legs. After a few steps, both denizens turned around. "Well?" Perdix