The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [63]
Lei simply stared at the newcomer. The point of her staff was lowered, and she studied the stranger with a watchful eye.
“They will live.”
Pierce only recognized the voice, because it had been on his mind so much of late. It was softer, more … human. If he hadn’t been contemplating their earlier conversations in his mind, he would never have thought this woman was warforged.
“What do you want with us?” Lei said.
“I suppose gratitude would be too much to ask. I simply wanted to keep your companion from fighting in his current condition.”
“So you attacked the guards,” Lei said.
“As you were about to,” the stranger stated calmly. “Do not worry about retaliation. The guards of this town are little better than bandits, and they’ll find easier prey.”
Studying the people around them, Pierce thought it was more likely that the guards would be robbed. The faces of the onlookers were cold and hard, and a scruffy boy with wild black hair spit on the halfling and laughed.
“Nonetheless,” the stranger continued, “I imagine we should go our separate ways.” She inclined her head to Pierce. “A shame to see you like this, brother, but I suppose it is the price of your service. A strong wall indeed—and yet the first to be sacrificed, it would seem.”
“Brother?” Lei said. But the woman had already gone, swallowed up by the crowd. Lei glanced at Pierce. “Can you explain that to me?”
“No,” Pierce replied, but the words remained in his mind, echoing the conversation on the docks the night before. Was she right? Was he just a tool, a shield? Was she following them? Why did he find himself wanting to see her in battle again—to test her limits against his own?
“Then let’s get out of here,” Lei said, with an uncomfortable glance at the growing mob. “I want to get you properly repaired before the next disaster strikes.”
Pierce nodded, and they made their way through the crowd. Pierce could hear the people close ranks around the fallen guardsmen.
He didn’t look back.
The reptilian guard led them through a labyrinth of twisting passages. Though the caverns appeared to be natural, Daine noticed a few places where the stone had been smoothed down or where a tunnel appeared to have been widened. Torches were embedded directly into holes in the stone; Daine could feel the heat of the flames, but as the tunnels stretched deeper and deeper, he could only imagine that they were sustained by magic. The only sounds were the scrape of the beast’s talons against the stone, and the labored hiss of its breathing.
“What is it with this town and dragons?” Daine muttered to Lakashtai. “I thought Sakhesh was obsessed with his little eggshell collection, but at least he didn’t live in a cave.”
“Have you ever seen a dragon?”
“Has anyone?”
“I have not seen one with my own eyes, but I carry the memories of those who have. It is easy to understand why people like Sakhesh would consider them to be divine. A dragon—it carries a sense of majesty that I have seen in no other mortal creature.”
“Except me?”
Lei would have rolled her eyes at the comment, but Lakashtai didn’t even acknowledge it. “Long before human civilization arose in Sarlona, Xen’drik was the realm of giants. In the dawn of their civilization, these giants learned the art of magic from the dragons of Argonnessen, and with this knowledge they created wonders you cannot begin to imagine.”
“If these dragons are so great, why haven’t they taught us these magical secrets?”
Lakashtai shook her head. As always, the movement was minimal, yet somehow Daine felt her deep disappointment, as clearly as if she’d heaved an enormous sigh. “Where are the giants today? Power without wisdom can be a terrible thing. The giants unleashed terrible forces to bring an end to their war against the spirits of Dal Quor. They disrupted the very alignment of the outer planes—the fundamental order of reality itself. It brought an end to the war, certainly, but it devastated the land, and we may still be suffering the consequences of their rash action.”
“But they beat these nightmare creatures.”
“Perhaps, but that