The Fading Dream_ Thorn of Breland - Keith Baker [84]
Thorn drew Steel. “I can hurt you myself before I give you to the trolls. What’s the quickest way out aside from the circle?”
“That is the only way out,” he said. There was a flutter in his voice, and the spreading stain on his breeches suggested that the fear was real. “I mean, there’s the Pit shaft, but that’s for airships and there’s none here at the moment.”
“Can it be climbed?” she said. Surely even the Twelve wouldn’t build a base that only members of House Lyrandar and Orien could leave. Would they?
“I guess,” he said. “I don’t know. How did you get in—?”
She silenced him, pressing Steel to his throat. “No questions. Just tell me where to find this shaft and where to find the barracks.”
It took the sounds of a hungry troll eating one of the dead savants to completely loosen the man’s resolve, but he gave her the directions she wanted. She knocked him out with a blow from Steel’s pommel; she didn’t want the trolls to kill him, but she couldn’t have him raising the alarm the moment they were gone, especially if he’d lied to her about anything.
I don’t know if I approve, Steel said. But I have to admire the improvisation.
“I try,” Thorn murmured. She turned back to the trolls and raised her voice. “Children of the Shadow! Are you prepared for your vengeance?”
Their roar of hungry approval would haunt her for years to come.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Pit
Barrakas 25, 999 YK
I hope you’re prepared for a long climb,” Thorn said as she entered the gate chamber.
“I love climbing,” Drix responded. He appeared to be disassembling the dragonshard mosaic. “When I was younger, my father would take me to the cliffs of Seaside, and we’d climb for hours. I always wanted to design an extra pair of hands, something that could hold a book and turn the pages so I could read while I was—”
“Wonderful,” Thorn said. “Any moment now, a group of trolls are going to turn this place into Shavarath. I want to give them enough time to draw all the guards, and then we’ll be making our run. I don’t know who’s going to be left standing when this is all done, and we’re not going to wait to find out.”
“Trolls?”
“Yes, trolls,” Thorn said. “I found savants from Vadalis and Jorasco carving bits off of them. Arms, actually. Any idea why they might do that?”
Drix contemplated that as he stuffed dragonshards into his pouches. “Vadalis is always interested in studying the unnatural abilities of wild beasts,” he said thoughtfully. “I’d imagine they were trying to replicate the troll’s powers of regeneration.”
Thorn nodded. “So Vadalis and Deneith could make their own immortal soldiers? That’s just what we’d need. Perhaps we should show them your stone—”
A roar interrupted her. The trolls were in the hall. Thorn hoped they’d remember the directions she’d given them and that the guard hadn’t lied to her; as long as he’d told the truth, the beasts were on their way to the barracks. She’d left the wards of silence active; they might have been designed to muffle the sounds of torture, but they’d done an admirable job covering the noise of the battle. The trolls were in the hallway, however, and they could likely be heard throughout the rest of the workshop, which served her purposes just fine.
She waited until the snarls and roars had faded slightly and until she heard the first human voice raised in terror. “Now. Follow me!”
Previous missions had taken Thorn to subterranean cities with miles of tunnels stretching beneath the earth. Fortunately, the place they found themselves in wasn’t nearly so complex: a storeroom, a barracks for the guards and a dormitory for the savants, a simple dining facility—not much to see. The only question was if there would be guards stationed in the tunnel shaft leading to the surface. Thorn was certain there would be more bloodshed before the night was through, but she was just as happy to leave it to the trolls; at least they had a right to their revenge.
There was blood on the white tiles when they reached the intersection of two halls. “This way,” Thorn hissed. Drix paused, listening