Son of Khyber_ Thorn of Breland - Keith Baker [42]
Interesting. The drow is this Daine’s bodyguard? Those scars on her skin are consistent with the tribal customs of southern Xen’drik. She’s a long way from home.
He fell silent for a moment as he studied the mystical energies around Xu’sasar.
The locket she wears around her neck strengthens her flesh, giving it the resilience of leather, he said at last. But it is her weapon that concerns me. It’s a protean blade, capable of shifting form and function. It’s stronger and sharper than steel, capable of producing venom to coat the blade. I suspect there’s far more to it than that; I’ve never sensed such power in a single object, and it’s difficult for me to unravel the threads.
Thorn tapped the dagger and turned her attention to her surroundings. The style of architecture had changed. In their wild sprint, they had passed through sewers, catacombs, and buildings in the style of ancient Wroat, half-buried by the disaster that had destroyed the first human city to stand in this place. But this hall had no rubble on the ground nor cracks along the walls. It was austere and solid, carved into the bedrock deep beneath Sharn. She recognized the style from the Great Crag of Droaam. It was the work of the Dhakaani goblins, a citadel carved into the depths long before the first human set foot on Khorvaire.
“Are we close to home?”
Xu’sasar said nothing, but she clicked her tongue. Then Thorn saw the barricade. This too was goblin craft, a bunker of thick stone with merlin slits for archers. Thorn could hear people shifting behind the wall and caught a glimpse of a dark face watching her over the stock of a crossbow.
Careful, Steel told her. There’s a great deal of power in this place. There are wards to either side.
“Follow my footsteps,” Xu’sasar said at the same moment.
Thorn could feel the energy around her, and she spotted the marks carved faintly into the stone. Not a standard Kundarak glyph, but similar enough to those used by the House of Warding. Someone in the fortress ahead had been born into House Kundarak.
Xu’sasar led Thorn up to the barricade and around it. Half-a-dozen soldiers stood watch behind the wall, as motley an assortment as Thorn had seen in any mercenary crew. A massive half-orc in a battered breastplate towered over a gnome, a little man leaning on a crossbow taller than he was. A sour-looking dwarf wore a bandolier holding crystal-tipped rods and wands—the tools of an artificer. An archer wore the ragged uniform of an Aundairian commando, while the archer’s companion was clad in the armor of Breland’s elite infantry. All they shared was a sense of grim determination. Thorn had served in the Royal Guard before she’d been recruited into the King’s Citadel. She could recognize the recruit who would break in the first charge and the veteran who would hold the line with the last drop of his blood. These Tarkanans were a strange assortment, but they wouldn’t go down easily.
The hallway behind the barricade was open, but Thorn could see a portcullis ready to fall. The Tarkanans had chosen their sanctuary well. Narrow corridors. Wards and traps of unknown potency hidden across the hall. And a squad behind cover holding the gate. All in all, a strong position even without magic, and without a doubt the guards bore marks that made them dangerous opponents to an attacking force. It was exactly why she’d wanted to charm her way into the fortress. If she’d taken Steel’s earlier advice and had forced the location from Dreck, it would have been a challenging place to break on its own.
Fascinating, Steel whispered. It’s been well established that Sharn was built over Dhakaani ruins, but I’ve never heard of such a fortress.
Perhaps with good reason, Thorn thought. She couldn’t talk to Steel without Xu’sasar hearing, but she could always speak to both of them at once. “Some of the rubble in the last hallway—that was recent demolition, wasn’t it? You had to dig to find this place.”
Xu’sasar blew out her breath but said nothing more. But Thorn felt Steel’s approval.
Yes. Most of the damage