The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [72]
“Where do I begin?” she said. “I almost died in Xen’drik, Pierce. I should have died in Xen’drik. Instead, I repaired that shattered orb for Lakashtai. How did I do that?”
“Do you not repair me when I have suffered damage?”
“It’s not the same,” she said. “The power in that orb, the skill and energy that must have gone into making it … I wouldn’t know where to begin. I don’t know of a Cannith artificer alive who could make such a thing. And that’s just it. Why me? Why would Lakashtai go to all that trouble, all that trickery with Daine, to lure me to Xen’drik? Sovereign and Flame, she was in Sharn! Some of the finest minds of the house are in that city. Why me? And why go through that charade with Daine instead of striking at my mind?”
“At this point we know nothing about Lakashtai, my lady. Everything she told us may have been untrue. This makes it difficult to analyze her motives.”
“That final battle,” Lei said. “The other one—Tashana—why were they even fighting?”
They were beings of two different orders. Shira’s thought was a calm statement of fact. The one you knew as Tashana possessed a bond to a spirit of Dal Quor, the plane of dreams. This bond was a weak and vestigial thing; the spirit barely touched her soul. Pierce felt the faint touch of Shira sifting through his memories. This is in keeping with the beings you think of as kalashtar. The other served as a mortal vessel for a quori spirit, which was likely in full control of her actions. I suspect this spirit was truly Lakashtai—and the flesh you dealt with was a simple shell.
While this was intriguing, Pierce was more concerned with Lei. As upset as she was, he could sense something held back. “What happened to you, my lady? What happened while you slept?”
Lei stopped moving. She turned, looking into Pierce’s eyes, and he could see the fear within.
“What is it?” Daine said, as he and Xu’sasar caught up with them. “What’s wrong?”
Lei closed her eyes, massaging her temples with one hand. “I don’t know how to say this. When I fell, I had a vision. And—”
The staff screamed.
Lei convulsed, clutching at the staff and gritting her teeth to fight through the pain. “He knows,” she said. “He knows we’re here.”
A chill filled the air, and the wind rose around them. The growing gale howled in the distance, and the wind whipped branch and leaf. The darkwood staff moaned with the gale, singing an eerie counterpart to the rising storm.
“Stay close,” Lei said. “He knows we’re near, but we still might escape the eyes of his minions. And the gate … we’re almost there. I can feel it.”
“So do we run?” Daine said.
“No.” Lei’s voice was almost lost beneath the howling wind. Her eyes were distant as she listened to the song of the staff. “Wait. Wait to see if they pass us by.”
“Then fight back to back,” Daine said. “Pierce, cover Lei on the other side. And Xu, you heard her. If we’re attacked, we defend ourselves. But you strike the first blow and I swear I’ll kill you myself. Is that understood?”
The drow blew out her breath, but the sound was lost beneath the gale.
Pierce watched the woods. The storm shook the trees and drowned out all sound, but Pierce’s eyes were sharp. His flail was destroyed. He had one arrow for his bow, and then he’d have to rely on Daine’s dagger. Nonetheless, he felt warmth spread through him, the pleasing calm that always came before battle. Any doubts and uncertainty in his mind faded as every thought turned to the coming conflict.
There.
A flicker of motion, a shadow slipping behind a tree, darting out, moving forward to the next line of cover, passing across dense undergrowth as if it were open grass. And there—another, and another. There were at least six of them, no larger than halflings or goblins, features hidden by storm and shadow. No glint of metal on moonlight, but Pierce could see the silhouettes of swords and bows.
Thorns, Shira observed. Soldiers of the wood. Tough and sharp, resistant to mortal steel. But they can be fought.
Pierce touched