Son of Khyber_ Thorn of Breland - Keith Baker [65]
“Another of Merrix’s creations that he chose not to share with Breland,” Daine said. “This is an extremely potent weapon. It could shut down every enclave that the twelve has in Sharn—provided it has access to sufficient power. And that’s where the angel comes in. Do you know why Sharn’s towers are so tall? Why no other city has ever matched its height?”
She had an idea. “The towers couldn’t stand on their own, but the flying buttresses support and stabilize them.”
“Yes, but there’s a reason the buttresses aren’t used elsewhere. Sharn stands on a manifest zone—a place where the borders between planes are weak. It draws energy from the crystal sea of Syrania, home to hosts of angels. I cannot claim to an understanding of the ways of angels, but I know this. When an angel rises up and seeks to claim the mantle of a god, it is cast down to earth and bound so it can never rise again. And Sharn is where the spirits above dispose of their refuse.”
“So there’s a fallen angel in Sharn?”
“More than one,” Daine said. “They are beings of tremendous power and raw malevolence. Some have built cults in the darkness below the city. Others simply fester in their rage. But all of them are dangerous, driven by hatred and wounded pride. Personally, I wonder if the presence of these foul spirits is one of the factors that spreads moral decay throughout this city. Whether or not this is true, they are vile spirits best destroyed. Eliminating the fallen can only help your nation.”
Thorn’s hand was still resting on Steel. Such spirits do exist, he told her. Three hundred years ago, there was a battle beneath Sharn, when a paladin of the Silver Flame led a band of warriors to hunt down one of these radiant idols in the tunnels beneath Sharn. The bold crusaders were all killed, and it took nearly a hundred soldiers, priests, and wizards to contain the spirit. It could not be killed. I believe it is bound in the dungeon of Dreadhold to this day.
“What makes you think you can defeat this thing?” Thorn asked.
“It’s what I was born to do,” Daine said. “To bind what cannot be slain. You have skill I need, and I think you have untapped depths within you. Xu’sasar is fearless and deadly. And we will have the help of another—a specialist in such matters. Lucky for us that he developed an aberrant mark and joined our house.”
Thorn felt another chill as fire rippled through Daine’s mark. “And there he is,” Daine said, looking at the door. He raised his voice. “Welcome!”
A man walked into the room—handsome, dressed in clothes of black silk trimmed in silver, his dark hair well-groomed. His gray eyes locked onto Thorn’s. He smiled, and she felt a chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with the embedded shards.
“Sister Thorn,” Daine said. “Meet Drego Sarhain.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Undercity
Lharvion 21, 999 YK
Drego Sarhain. They’d met before, when Thorn was undercover at the Great Crag of Droaam. Drego was a sorcerer and spy in the service of the nation of Thrane. They’d worked together for a time, uncovering the identity of the demon who wanted to release a horde of werewolves and skinchangers against the people of the Five Nations. And that’s when Drego had betrayed her, claiming that despite the massive casualties, such a catastrophe would reunite the Five Nations—albeit, reuniting them under the banner of the Silver Flame. The medusa Queen of Stone, Sheshka, had turned Drego into a statue—and Sheshka’s curse was no easy thing to lift. Thorn wondered how Drego had escaped.
This changes everything, Steel whispered. What’s an agent of Thrane doing with the Tarkanans?
He was right. To this moment, there had only been two players on the board: Tarkanan and the Twelve. But what was Thrane’s interest? Thrane and Breland were still bitter rivals at the end of the Last War, and while Boranel and the young Keeper, Jaela, had sought to normalize relations, many of the powerful cardinals had other ideas. Was Thrane trying to use Tarkanan against Breland? The Son of Khyber knew