Devourer's Might, page 25
“After we send our fallen off to the other world,” Jaden said to Nathan, who had been standing next to him the whole time, “we should come back for those.”
He nodded toward the insect shells, which glowed with a pulsing light in the remnants of the flame and the heat of the cinders.
“I won’t say that I was thinking the same thing exactly,” Nathan replied, “but I had most definitely taken note of their hardness. During the battle last night, I was not able to crack a single shell with my fists, and I saw none who were able to even pierce them with swords.”
“It seems strange that they would have those soft spots on either side,” Jaden agreed. “Not that I’m complaining. We’d probably all be dead if it weren’t for that weakness in their armor.”
From behind them, they could hear the nomads begin their death chant for their fallen comrades. Jaden and Nathan turned and walked over to where the flames were already licking at the bodies that were laid out, one beside the other.
They had been treated with some sort of sweet oil, which not only filled the air with a strangely pleasant smell, but also accelerated the burning of the dead. The heat coming off the blue and purple flames that the oil produced was intense, and in less than half an hour, everything was reduced to a powdery ash. The nomads gathered the ashes into a series of brightly embroidered pouches.
“They will bake those ashes into bread that they eat for breakfast every day. Their dead become one with them,” Captain Lucas said from behind Jaden and Nathan. “I thought you might also want to know before you have toast with jam in the morning just who it is that you will be eating.”
Jaden turned to Captain Lucas and saw a wry smile on this face.
“Your joke seems rather disrespectful of the dead,” Nathan replied.
“You only say that because you have lived a sheltered life, far from death, and think it is a precious thing that demands silence and solemnity,” Captain Lucas replied. “I have lived on the seas for twenty-five years. For sailors and nomad warriors, death is as normal as lunch. Don’t be so precious.”
Jaden stepped between the two men. Their bickering was a recurring problem. As far as Jaden could tell, they argued with each other so much precisely because they were so similar. They were both externalizing the fight with the parts of themselves they didn’t like.
Knowing that didn’t make it any less annoying, though. Nor did that make it any less of a time-wasting indulgence.
“We want to recover the insect shells for shields and armor,” Jaden told Captain Lucas, hoping to shift the conversation.
Lucas broke his stare away from Nathan and looked to Jaden. “What’s that you say?”
“They seem impenetrable to swords and even fire. We could really use them. You have an armorer amongst the caravan, don’t you? Perhaps he can grind and shape them.”
“The nomads won’t like you taking the bones of their dead enemies. They’re supposed to be escorting our fallen comrades to the next world,” Lucas replied. “But I see your logic. I will speak with them to make sure that they won’t stop you. However, I am certain that they will have no interest in using the material.”
“Of course,” Jaden replied. “I respect their traditions, but if I can avoid a Malabari sword in my gut, that would be my preference.”
“Yes, yes,” Lucas agreed and waved over one of his aides. “Have the armorers come and remove the insect shells.”
The man nodded and rushed off. Then Captain Lucas left without another word to go and speak with the remaining nomad warriors, to ensure that they understood and there would be no conflict over the insect armor. As he walked away, Jaden turned to Nathan.
“You need to end the pointless conflicts with Captain Lucas,” he told him. “It’s not helpful.”
Nathan bristled. “He is an arrogant and pompous windbag, and I find him unbearable. I can’t help it.”
“He’s also our way into God’s Bowl. You need to set your personal feelings about him aside. Our mission is more important.”
Nathan took a deep breath and held it in, then nodded. “You’re right,” he finally said. “I apologize for my behavior.”
Jaden smiled. “It’s okay. I find him annoying too.”
An hour later they were once again making their way toward God’s Bowl, through the mountains that rose up and provided the backdrop to the city of Marleborn. At the front of the caravan, the nomadic guards led the way, riding high up on their magrots. Captain Lucas’s private coach was situated in the middle of the caravan with supply and transport caravans both in front and behind. Jaden and the other Seekers brought up the rear.
Nathan felt like it was a deliberate slight that they were put in the back. Jaden, on the other hand, wasn’t bothered. If the nomads needed this petty affirmation of their superiority in order to accept the blasphemy of taking the shells of the insects, he was fine with that. He was also happy enough to be able to relax and not have to worry about what lay ahead. The nomads knew the route well anyway, having traveled it many times with Captain Lucas.
At Jaden’s request, the armorer’s coach was situated near the back, right in front of the Seekers. It was a sort of mobile blacksmith foundry with a high chimney that could be folded in inclement weather and with side doors that folded, to open the extra-long coach wide. This allowed air to pass through so that the two armorers and two journeymen apprentices could go about their work with the light of the sun and without cooking in the heat of an enclosed box.
In addition to the foundry, they had grinding wheels that were powered by the journeymen standing on platforms that rocked back and forth, like small seesaws. As Jaden watched, the master armorer held a large piece of shell from the breastplate of one of the insect men.
A stream of sparks came off the wheel in a fountain of light. The armorer was sweating heavily as he put all his weight against the shell to try and grind it into a useful shape.
Jaden’s father had been a blacksmith, and watching this man’s work reminded him of his parents. He remembered sitting in his father’s shop and watching him hammer at horseshoes one day and shields for the City Guard the next.
The armorer stopped and leaned back on his stool. He snatched a ladle from a nearby bucket of water and dumped its contents over his head, his eyes closed. When he reopened his eyes, he fixed them on Jaden and shook his head.
“Lad, is hardest stuff ’ave ever ground,” he told Jaden in his thick Red Coast accent.
“Can you do it?” Jaden asked. “Can you make it into shields and armor?”
“Aye, and fine armor it’ll be but us might not survive the doing.” He laughed, and the other armorers joined in.
For most of the day they rode through the wide passes and valleys, slowly rising up the mountain sides, until finally the valleys were far beneath them. Jaden peered over the edge from atop Rachel and could see the occasional villages clustered on valley floors. The sun was high in the sky, and when they were forced to ride beneath it, it was intensely hot. Luckily, this side of the mountains was heavily forested, there was lots of shade, and the dry mountain air was cool.
Finally, as the sun was setting behind them and the mountain cast long shadows on the valleys and other mountains, the nomads ordered a halt to their journey. They immediately began to dismount and set up camp, puzzling Jaden. He was under the impression that they were going to arrive that same day in God’s Bowl, not spend another night in the wilderness. The thought of sleeping so close to the place from which monsters were being unleashed on the world also didn’t make Jaden comfortable.
He rode ahead to Captain Lucas’ coach, where he was in the process of climbing down to the ground.
“Why are we setting up camp?” Jaden asked.
“Because soon we will lose all light, and it will be unsafe for the caravan in the darkness, especially with the new moon,” Captain Lucas replied.
“But I thought we were going to arrive at night so that we would have the cover of darkness for myself and the other Seekers.”
Lucas nodded. “Indeed, you are and you will.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My associates will accompany you. They know a way in, beneath the fort and through the ancient sewer system. Don’t worry, it is no longer in use.” Lucas laughed.
“I lived in the sewers of Lessertown. It doesn’t worry me,” Jaden replied. “I’ll tell the others to prepare to leave.”
“Then it will be like a return home. We’ll meet outside of the complex tomorrow after lunch—or sooner, if you’re actually able to carry this off.”
Jaden snorted and rode back to the rear of the caravan. It annoyed him that Lucas had implied that they were too delicate to endure a sewer. It was his arrogance and presumption of superiority that grated Jaden. It was as though Lucas, riding around in a gilded carriage, needed to prove that he was the toughest man amongst them because he had sailed the seas. No doubt he also had a fancy cabin on his ship, while his men slept on insect-infested straw below deck.
Jaden pushed the angry thoughts out of his head as he arrived at the coach of the armorers, who were still at work and covered in the filth of sweat, road dust, and the grinding dust of the insect shells. Jaden noted that where the grinding dust had struck them most, on their chest and forearms, they were red and swollen. He wondered if the insects’ poison was embedded within the shells that protected them.
Before Jaden could speak, the master armorer tossed the completed shields and breastplates off the coach and onto the ground.
“Fit or no, we’ll see no more of ’em,” he grumbled, obviously exhausted and sore. “Breathing that dust a full day… made us sick to the death.”
The armorers then yanked the hinged doors of the armory shut with a clang, making it clear that they wanted no more of Jaden.
“You have obviously made a strong impression upon him,” Nathan said from behind Jaden with laughter in his voice.
“So it seems,” Jaden replied, then promptly nodded toward the heap on the ground. “Can you give me a hand with these?”
Jaden and Nathan dismounted from their magrots and went to gather the armor and shields. They had been expertly shaped through the difficult process of grinding and had then been polished and oiled. With their yellow-orange color, they looked almost like clay.
The armorers had somehow managed to cut holes in the breastplates, after which they had strung them with leather bands, to allow the plates to be fixed on the body of the wearers. The armor was of various sizes, based on the measurements that they had taken of Jaden, Nathan, Malory, and Larisa.
The armor and shields were remarkably light, given their size and hardness. They hardly weighed anything at all, which would make them a boon in battle, where speed could be paramount. And, of course, their hardness also made them an extremely useful item, and Jaden was glad that the idea had occurred to him. They returned to the others to prepare for departure.
A short while later, the Seekers had managed to strap on their armor and had, with the help of Lucas’s staff, packed up everything that they needed for their journey. Jaden couldn’t believe how well the shells fit on their bodies and moved with them. The rear plate locked into the front plate with a kind of hinge that allowed it to move freely, without opening a gap between front and rear. It did the same on his legs and arms, providing them with an incredible amount of nearly impervious protection.
“If I’d known about using shells for armor, I’d have eaten more crab as a child,” Malory joked as she tried out her own armor and found that it didn’t even interfere with her flying.
“You would have had to eat very large crabs,” Nathan said.
He was also pleased with his armor. It had been a challenge for Nathan, given his enormous size and the change in the shape of his head as he came to resemble his Legendary Beast, a Kangaroo.
“Enough of admiring how beautiful we are,” Jaden said, interrupting their fun. “Captain Lucas’s associates are waiting to take us to the entry.”
They mounted their magrots and made their way to the front of the caravan where the two burly and sullen bodyguards, who rarely left Captain Lucas’s side, were waiting.
The female of the two had lost a hand during the battle with the insect men on the Marleborn Plains. The stump was wrapped in a clean gauze, and a blade was bound to the stump as well, making her look even more dangerous. Her hand loss had certainly made her more sullen, and she glared at their armor and the shields strung on their backs with open disgust.
Without a word, the two associates led them away from the camp and up the hills, along a treacherous path barely large enough for the Seekers’ magrots or the associates’ horses. They continued in silence for a long while, Jaden and Larisa occasionally sharing a glance and wondering where they could be taking them, but saying nothing.
After almost an hour, with the sun well and truly below the horizon and the first stars appearing in the night sky, they emerged from the forest onto the loose rocks above the treeline. They continued this way for another hour, climbing higher and higher until they reached a shoulder beneath the summit of the mountain, which spread out into a wide plateau. From there they began the descent down the other side, returning again to the forests of the mountain before finally emerging in the full darkness of night, upon a shelf that looked upon a valley.
God’s Bowl.
None said anything, though the sight before them was truly astounding. It was huge, first of all. And it was indeed shaped like a bowl, carved out of both the valley and the sides of the mountains. The story went that, embedded in the ground, in the middle of the deepest part of the bowl, was a fragment of the vast boulder that had come from the stars above and slammed into the earth here.
Whether that was true or not, there was now in the very middle an enormous tower that rose to a height above the edge of the bowl. At the pinnacle of the tower was a white orb that seemed to be made of some kind of polished stone, perhaps marble. It glowed as though hot and gave off as much light as a full moon on a clear night, allowing them to see all the details.
In the bowl itself all trees or structures of any kind had been removed. There were instead thousands upon thousands of black mirrors, arranged in a spiral pattern, descending toward the tower in the center.
“Kalamin’s damned bones,” Malory cursed, “what is that thing?”
The male associate now turned to them and spoke for the first time. He had a surprisingly soft and smooth voice for a man of his size and demeanor, and he spoke as though well-educated.
“The energy of the Column travels through the tower, down to the earth, passes along to those mirrors and is reflected back to the top of the tower. It focuses and amplifies the energy, allowing portals to open to other worlds and, Devourer believes, to destroy the Column by sending too much energy through the circular flow.”
“And we have to smash each and every one of those mirrors?” Malory asked. “We’re going to need a lot more than just us, if we’re going to do that.”
“That’s not what we have to do,” Jaden said, before the associate could respond. “They have dragons’ eggs in the top of that tower. I need to get to them.”
He turned to the associate. “Is that possible from here?”
“The Malabaris tore it down to build this infernal machine. But before they did so, this was the site of a massive Elven monastery and holy place,” the associate said. “It covered every inch of the bowl but now all that remains are the hollow walls at the lip, around the entire bowl. And the underground tunnel system.”
“The sewers…” Larisa said.
“Yes,” he responded, and pointed to another plateau a short distance below them. “That is the water supply. It travels by the ancient aqueduct into the tunnels, dividing between the sewage system on the right and to the left it still provides drinking water to the Malabaris who mostly live in barracks beneath the mirrors. The officers and Imperial Seekers live in the buildings around the rim of the great bowl.”
“Will you be coming with us?” Jaden asked
The female associate snorted. “No. We must accompany Captain Lucas. It is expected. We were told you ‘warriors’ didn’t need our help and could be left to carry out your tasks. Was that a lie?”
“We are able to perform our job just fine,” Nathan shot back. “However, you are familiar with the terrain and even the tunnels themselves, it seems. It would be rather helpful to make good use of that knowledge when it matters, don’t you think?”
The female associate smirked as she reached into her saddlebag, pulling out a scroll, which she tossed to Nathan.
“There is your knowledge. Now you make sure you make use of all your skills when it matters.”
She turned and rode away up the hill. The male bowed toward them.
“Good luck. May the goddess of the sea guide your hand. Though I doubt she has power here.”
Without waiting for a reply, he too spurred his horse back up the hillside, disappearing into the night.
Jaden turned to Nathan, who had unrolled the scroll. “Can you read it?”
Nathan shook his head. “I think that the lines on the map are tunnels, but they seem to cross over each other several times and go in a circle. I can’t understand it.”
Jaden held out his hand and took the map from him. He looked it over and immediately understood it. Lessertown, it was said, was originally built by Elves as a trading port, before they disappeared from the world. The original site lay in ruins for centuries before human settlements took hold there, using the remains of what the Elves had left behind, including their intricate sewer systems. In the lines on this map, Jaden could see the same kinds of patterns that he knew so well from his life in Lessertown.
“It seems to make no sense, but it’s because the map is flat—but the tunnels will move up and down, too, to better transport the water,” he explained. “I won’t claim to understand how Elf water systems work, but I do understand their layout. I think that I can follow this map to get us to a position underneath the tower.”
Larisa smiled and placed a hand on his arm. “See! And there you were, wondering why Dracoseth chose you to be the Dragon Seeker.”
