Inhumans, p.17
Inhumans, page 17
“Titheu’s flesh,” Vera finally said, after holding the words back for a time. “Its horde. Something happens to them after they’re killed—they dry up into rock-hard pieces. My workers were able to fashion the remains into a scabbard. It took months. I told them that it was a show of strength for me to wear it.”
“Why would you do this?” Atell asked her. “If it’s so dangerous to have it near you. Or even use it!”
Vera shook her head. “I say this again: none of you know how to protect a city. This weapon has saved my people many times when we were faced with a creature that we couldn’t bring down. It’s what keeps the horde scared and at bay, even though they know where this city is. The people need me, and I need this sword.”
“Maybe some of the time,” I said, “But if monsters regularly came in here, your people wouldn’t be living the carefree lives they live. And you don’t open your gates and go into the labyrinth. I’m guessing you had your soldiers go into this third city to bring you back some trophies so you could have your special sword-holder. How many of them died doing that?”
“Sacrifice,” Vera said, sitting up and plucking her glove off the ground, “is a necessary part of survival. Ask yourself where we would be now if I didn’t have this blade, or the lives that were lost to secure it. The answer is: dead. Dead to the Prowler.”
She slipped the glove back on and stood, working her fingers again. “Exposure to the source made it worse. The pain will pass.”
“If it’s not getting better, it’s going to kill you,” Atell said.
“Sacrifice,” Vera repeated. “I know my limitations, and I don’t waste my time worrying about things that cannot be changed.”
“Whatever,” I said. “Let yourself die or let your arm fall off. But before you do, tell us how to get into that city. Elyra.”
“You’ll die,” Vera said simply.
I responded, “Then we’re not so different.”
Vera held my eyes, her arms crossed. She withheld her words for a few moments, as if deciding if it would be easier to shove me off the edge and into the underground river.
“I would assume you don’t garner many volunteers to venture into Elyra,” Orrin said to her. “Whether you believe in our success or not, we’d be able to provide you a report on what is happening inside the city when we return.”
Orrin. Not very long ago, I’d thought he was ready to stab me in my sleep, and maybe Hider as well. But the true colors forced out by this pressure weren’t ugly—he cared for Hider. Probably not so much for me, but I’d settle for his bloodlust having dissipated.
“You all seem rather stuck on not believing me when I say you’ll die,” Vera said, casting her gaze at us until she landed on Atell. “And you? What’s your reasoning? Your bargain?”
“I don’t want to go in there,” Atell said. “But I will. It’s important. Just because a death trap for Hider and Camille solves your problems...it doesn’t mean all is well.”
“Blind.” Vera pointed a finger from her good hand right at Atell’s face. “Blinded by a false familiarity. The other two have better reasoning—something they want that’s real. You’re chasing after a person who is effectively dead. The girl you used to know.”
“I want to save Hider, too,” Atell told her. “Whether Cam is gone or not.”
Vera lowered her hand. “Well. I’m not intent on having you live out your lives in Umbroke. If you decide to leave through Elyra, then so be it.”
“You could just have us killed,” Atell pointed out, anger in her voice. Vera’s accusations had struck a nerve. “Isn’t it a lot simpler for you?”
“Great suggestion, Atell,” I said.
But I was curious to how Vera would respond.
The commander started to walk, moving between us and heading back towards Lower Umbroke. “Should you decide to share your opinion of me, I’ll forget it in short order. Think what you like. I lie when it is necessary, but I find the truth yields better results, and I spoke the truth before.”
“When?” I asked, moving along with her.
She walked quickly, not slowed by whatever pain still pulsed in her blackened arm. “In the roost, when you first spoke with me. I told you that I admire your quest. I also said that I don’t believe you will succeed. Both of those statements were true, and nothing that’s happened so far has changed my mind. I believe you are, at your core, good people. Idealistic, certainly. But good.”
Vera raised her gloved arm as she walked, twisting it and testing its range. “Good people don’t get far, because that innate goodness comes from trust. Trusting that things will be well; trusting that a result will repeat itself; trusting people. You give your trust to everyone implicitly, yet it takes only one betrayal to get you killed. That road is littered with many bodies. Some make it farther than others, but very few people reach the end.”
That explains why you didn’t make any monster-killing weapons for your guards. Can’t trust them having something that might reveal your true nature or kill you.
“So...you’re saying that we shouldn’t trust you?” I questioned.
“You already trust me,” she said without looking back. “And the fact that I don’t want to kill you doesn’t make you right. My guards trusted me when they accompanied us down here, and they’re both dead. I didn’t want them to die, either.”
Vera stopped and turned, looking at the three of us. “You’ve gotten lucky with me. What I am saying is: don’t count on it again. I am not a good person, and if it served myself or my people, I would have killed you without hesitation.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Quickly now,” she said, turning and walking again. “I want you out of my city.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
It was daylight when we emerged from Lower Umbroke, a sight that needled into my eyes and made me shield my face with my forearm, even down here in the valley under the wall. I’d gotten quite used to the dim subterranean light.
Vera stopped us in the center of the valley between the two halves of Umbroke, the labyrinth wall sitting above us like a great stone snake.
“You can keep the weapons,” Vera said, speaking to the swords that Orrin and Atell held, pilfered from the dead soldiers. “Jost, you’re not a swordfighter.”
“Well, I—”
“Here.” She held a weapon out to me, handle first. “It was Daniel’s. I picked it up before it could get kicked into the pit.”
It was a dagger that had belonged to one of the guards. I took it, feeling its weight. It was heavier than mine, but the blade would fit in my other sheath, the one that had remained empty since I broke a dagger trying to attack Titheu. Its handle was black and sleek, with a smooth steel ball at its end. I would have to modify it so that the hilt would secure properly into my sheath, but it would be good to have two daggers again.
“Thank you,” I said.
Vera nodded. “The promise of a report notwithstanding, I doubt I’ll see any of you again. If you must die, try to make sure that dangerous inhuman dies with you. In some time, I may send a search party to recover your bodies and confirm.”
“Comforting,” Orrin quipped, making me grin.
“If you do return,” Vera said, “make sure it’s through this gate behind me. The barrier is too thick for the guards to hear you, but the door has a messaging system of in-built bells. Monsters can’t use them, so the guards will know it’s not an attack. Though you shouldn’t be holding any weapons when the door opens to let you back in, if you want to live.”
I was hoping to spend a little more time here, I thought, as Vera led us across the valley and to the massive, barricaded tunnel. Aside from the multiple attempts on our lives, this city has been quite nice. And the food was incredible.
The steel barrier rose over our heads, continuing up and up until it brushed against the underside of the wall. It shielded a massive tunnel similar to what we’d just walked out of. But it led somewhere very, very different.
Vera went over to the pair of guards and spoke to them. In short order, she and the guards turned to the barrier, working on it in some way.
Two guards seemed a pretty light contingent for an area so dangerous, but the barrier was what did most of the work. It was so big that a pile of monsters banging on it from the other side would make no noise at all. I wondered how they had made it, and how long it had taken.
“The guards aren’t for the monsters,” I said to Atell and Orrin. “They’re to stop people from trying to go through the barrier from this side.”
“Who would try?” Orrin asked.
“Me,” Atell said. “If I lived here.”
“Me too,” I said.
“Of course.” Orrin watched the guards move to the side, and Vera beckoned us over. “The fact that they’re still stationed speaks to there being others like you, not interested in their own safety.”
“You’ll need to open the door,” she said. “I’ve had the guards unlatch it, but it’s heavy and requires significant force to move. Once it’s open, there’s a drop-off into the tunnel, and I’m not interested in falling in and having to be hauled out by my guards. Watch your step.”
She rapped her knuckles on the barrier behind her, making a dull metallic thud. Around her fist, I saw the thin outline of an almost-hidden door, wide enough to fit all three of us through abreast.
“Why is the door so big?” Atell asked Vera as she stepped back from it.
“A different time,” Vera said, looking at the door. “When we still believed we might be able to reclaim the city, the door was made large enough so that wagons of supplies and weapons could fit through. Engines of destruction. A mistake that I perpetuated—I should have had the reinforced door be built smaller, and carved in the drop-off sooner, but I was more optimistic then.”
And now you’re content to stay inside and protect your city and your city alone, despite the fact that you’re sitting on a few hundred pounds of metal that kills monsters. I examined the faraway look in her eyes. What exactly made you give up?
Vera drew her attention back to us. “Go on. I’ve had the comings and goings blocked off for now. I don’t want anyone seeing this, and I don’t want to hold up city traffic for much longer. The miners need to start working.”
I stepped forward first, laying my hands on the metal close to its edge. It was cold; almost freezing, sapping the warmth from my palms. Atell and Orrin came to my left and did the same, and we pushed.
At first, the door didn’t budge a single inch. We ground our heels into the dirt and forced our weight forward, Vera watching impassively, her arms crossed.
“I’d prefer not to call over the guard,” she said, tapping a foot on the ground.
I gritted my teeth and pushed harder. It felt like I was trying to move one of the labyrinth walls, but eventually the door did start to grind forward, carving a path in the dirt that it hadn’t carved in years. All of us grunted and shoved and inched it forward until the gap was wide enough for us to slip through.
I pulled away from the door, stretching my shoulders. “Who’s gonna close it behind us?”
“I have people,” Vera said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Go, then. I need to reopen my city.”
Atell went forward first, finding the edge of the drop-off with her feet. There must have been enough light for her to see down, because she stepped off with little hesitation, disappearing over the edge. I heard her land hard in the dirt.
“I’m okay,” she called up. “It’s a pretty far drop, be careful.”
Orrin went next, lowering himself off the edge before dropping down.
“Your light will be useful down there,” Vera said to me as I approached the edge. “But use it carefully. Most likely it will be better to hide.”
I gave her a nod. “We’ll be seeing you again.”
“That would be something,” Vera said. “Save your friend if you can, but it’s better to live and continue your journey. Then you can die at the hands of Titheu instead.”
I laughed, shook my head, and jumped down into the darkness.
My feet struck the hard dirt, and I bent my knees to absorb the shock of the fall. The door and barrier were now eight feet above our heads.
I looked back up in surprise as I heard the clanking of mechanical gears, and saw the door closing itself, creeping back inch by inch until it was once more part of the barrier and we were locked away.
“It had a mechanism in it the whole time?” I said. “Why the hell did she have us break our backs shoving it open?”
“A test, maybe,” Orrin said. “If we’re strong enough to open the door, we’re strong enough to survive down here.”
“She has no faith in us surviving,” Atell said. “She’s just toying with us.”
I shrugged. Vera was difficult to figure out; I didn’t understand how empathy and cruelty could coexist in her, with such thin lines between them. But we were alive, fed, stocked and rested, and I could be grateful for that. The only problem was that we were heading into a terrible situation, and every passing second put Hider farther away.
I pulled my gem free, casting us in yellow light. It had been some time since I’d called on its magic; it felt wholesome and comfortable in my hand. I let the light surge outward until we could see our surroundings, which were not all that different from the other tunnel we’d come from.
The difference would come at the end.
“We need some kind of a plan,” I said to them, tucking them gem into its shoulder harness and dimming it a bit so Orrin and Atell could stand closer. “I don’t want to just run headlong into this like Cam did.”
“We don’t even know that she’s there,” Atell pointed out. “We just saw her head that way. She might have stayed in Lower Umbroke. Or even turned around to come back to the surface.”
“I’m sure Vera is prepared for that,” Orrin said. “Jost...Hider was able to sense Cam’s nature. Are you able to tell us if either of them are near?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t know what that ability is, but it’s not something I was ever able to do. Which is too bad, because it would make finding other inhumans a lot easier. It’ll be good to have Hider for that, if Cam hasn’t already...well, killed him.”
Orrin shook his head slightly. “She won’t kill Hider. Something else is on her mind. If anything, I believe she is attempting to steal his magic and secure it for the One.”
“Steal his magic?” Atell questioned. “Is that possible?”
“Not as I understand it,” Orrin said. “But there are many things I don’t understand.”
“None of this is a plan,” I broke in, waving my hand. Instinctively, I reached for my map pocket, so I could examine the paper and realign my thoughts, but my fingers pushed into empty space.
I swallowed the lump of sickness that put into my throat and said, “We’re going to walk into a cavern full of monsters and try to find someone who doesn’t want to be found. How are we going to do it?”
“It’s clear enough,” Orrin said. “We just have to make it through.”
Chapter Forty
“We can’t kill a city’s worth of monsters.” Orrin tapped his fingers on his borrowed sword, the blade still tacky with Prowler blood. “Neither can this Camille. Vera and her guard are most certainly watching Lower Umbroke and the tunnel topside. I don’t believe Cam will double back, because she knows that Vera is waiting for her, and she knows that being an inhuman gives her a far better chance of making it through the monsters.”
I followed his logic. In fact, I liked it quite a bit.
“But she doesn’t know that Hider doesn’t have that same privilege,” Atell said. “She may expect any monsters to ignore him, too. And when they don’t, maybe she’ll just leave him behind.”
“That would be nice,” I said, “but I don’t think she’d go through the trouble of snatching him just to dump him as soon as she was challenged. Whatever she’s doing, she’s doing for Titheu. She won’t just give up.”
“My point is,” Orrin said, “we know where she’s going. Out through this third city, and then south to Cartha.”
“Then why don’t we just go to Cartha?” Atell suggested. “Wait for her there.”
“It’s not going to be...easy to find. Without my map.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “That...damn woman...”
Orrin held up his hand. “It’s not right, regardless. We don’t know that she’ll make it through the third city—if we knew where that city let out, the point where the monsters are entering it, then we could wait in ambush there. But we don’t.”
“You’re right,” Atell said. “And if Vera did, she would have sealed that spot. Probably.”
“And we want to reach them before Cartha,” Orrin continued, his features darkening. “At Cartha, there will be Titheu to deal with along with everything else.”
I thought about Titheu leaving its castle and moving south, closing in on the remains of my home city. The image made rage crackle through my veins, forcing my hands closed into fists. We’d have something of an easier time finding Cartha since I knew the area, but we’d only beat Cam and Hider to Cartha if we got exceedingly lucky. I didn’t want to count on that.
“We don’t have a lot of time to play with,” I said. “We’re in here and we’re committed to this course. We’re standing at this entrance to the city; Cam went through the other entrance. Hopefully there’s only one other exit—the one that was breached by the monsters. If we can find Cam and Hider before we reach the exit, great. But we’ll probably be busier just trying to make it that direction without dying.”
“That’s not great encouragement,” Atell said, raising an eyebrow at me.
“It’s not encouragement,” I said. “We move quickly, and we stay quiet and hidden. If we have to fight, we’ll probably die.”
“Right, then,” Orrin said, straightening up. “Keep the light as dim as you can without making us blind, and let’s go get a lay of the land.”
