Kingdoms at war, p.37
Kingdoms at War, page 37
A woman’s scream came from the tunnel, from the direction Altrucia had gone. Malek’s head swiveled toward it, and he ran off.
Jadora sagged, exhaling the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Her head thunked against the pump housing.
The grating shook again.
“What’s going on?” she murmured, though she feared she already knew.
“I think the war has started,” Jak said. “The city is under attack.”
25
Jak stood up and crept out from behind the pump machinery. At least fifteen minutes had passed since the last quake rocked the tunnels. It had been even longer since Malek ran off to check on Altrucia’s scream. Jak also hadn’t heard anymore explosions or cries of pain. Hopefully, that meant the defensive shields were now in place and further attacks wouldn’t reach the great floating structure.
But if the city wasn’t in danger now, where had Malek gone? Jak had assumed he would, once he realized Altrucia wasn’t Mother, come back the same way. He might have been called back to the castle to defend it. Or he might be in the tunnels searching for Jak and his mother.
“Hope not,” he muttered.
“Let’s try to get to the harbor.” His mother stood, shaking out her legs. “The attack and the diversion it’s creating may be our best chance to escape.”
“I’m worried we’ll run straight into Malek if we go the way he went. Should we go back to the intersection and pick a different direction?”
“And end up lost down here for hours?” She surprised him by relighting their torches by touching them to a glowing piece of metal on the back of the pumping machinery.
“I have an excellent sense of direction. I don’t get lost.”
“If not lost, then unable to get out. We haven’t passed any other ladders or ways up. If that mage was telling the truth, there’s at least one ship waiting in the harbor. It’s that way, right?” She pointed down the tunnel in the direction Malek had gone.
Jak considered the route they’d taken since the library. “More or less.”
“That may be our only option anyway. Remember that broken dome on the wall of our tunnel at the four-way intersection? There were domes in the two tunnels that we didn’t take that weren’t broken. I think they may create barriers that you can’t pass unless you know how to unlock them. Or break them.”
Jak had forgotten about it but nodded at the reminder.
“All right.” He took one of the torches and peeked both ways before stepping out of the alcove. “But if we run into Malek, you get to take the brunt of his wrath while I cower behind you.”
“Your bravery warms my heart.”
“I think he likes you more than me.” Jak jogged off down the tunnel.
“I don’t know about that. He’s keeping other mages from annihilating you for being cheeky and magically gifted.”
“It’s just been one other mage—that zidarr.”
“And maybe Uthari. He went off to report to him, remember.”
“Maybe they had more interesting things to discuss than me.” The tunnel curved, making Jak doubt that it would truly take them to the harbor.
A boom came from somewhere above them, but the ground didn’t shake. There was some proof that the defenses were in place. Good. After Jak and Mother escaped, the invasion fleet could destroy the place. Not before.
Another intersection lay ahead, and he raised a hand as he slowed down. A body was crumpled in it, face-down with arms and legs sprawled out. The clothing was familiar. Altrucia.
Jak crept forward to see if it was possible she’d only been knocked out. It occurred to him that she might have been left as bait to draw them out. He gripped one pistol tightly, the other jammed in his waistband until his mother wanted it. If she ever did. She’d seemed shaken after killing that mage. Understandable, but Jak would have done the same thing to protect her.
He missed seeing a shard of glass on the grating and kicked it with his boot. It clacked against the wall before tumbling between the bars and shattering against the pipes running next to the glowing tendril. The body didn’t stir, but Jak froze, worried Malek was lying in wait around the corner.
“Another broken dome,” Mother whispered, pointing past his shoulder to the wall.
Queen Vorsha’s mage must have originally come this way, destroying those devices—and knocking out the barriers—as he went. Jak eased toward the intersection and peered around the corners. Nobody was waiting to pounce. To the right, another broken dome on the wall suggested the mage had come from that direction. It was the way most likely to lead to the harbor. A good thing, because more domes were mounted to the tunnel walls ahead and to the left. They hadn’t been broken. He thought he sensed a buzz of magic from both directions, either from the working domes or from barriers blocking the way.
“Check her, please,” Mother said from behind him.
Jak didn’t think Altrucia was alive, but he knelt down to roll her over. He braced himself in anticipation of her neck having been slit by one of Malek’s blades, but she’d screamed before Malek had gotten to her. Her face was charred beyond recognition, her skin burned off and the muscle beneath blackened to a crisp. He jerked his hand away, letting the head fall back. His stomach churned. That was worse than a slit throat.
“Did you see?” he rasped without looking back.
“Yes,” Mother said grimly. “She either ran into another mage or…” She looked toward the tunnel straight ahead, the dome glowing softly.
Jak stuck a hand in his pocket, looking for something he didn’t need. He found a pencil that had been sharpened down so far that it didn’t have much use left and tossed it down the tunnel.
A little burst of light flashed as it struck an invisible barrier, then tumbled through the grate to land on the tendril. As blackened as Altrucia’s face, it wafted smoke upward.
“We’re not going that way,” he said.
“She must have been running full out and didn’t realize she had to turn.” Mother pointed to the right.
“Yeah.” Even though Jak believed the barrier was down in that direction, he poked the air with his pistol before committing to walking through. Nothing happened.
“Wait.” Mother held up a hand and crouched by the body. She grimaced as she patted Altrucia’s pockets.
“I doubt she has any extra vials you can commandeer.”
She gave him the flat look the comment deserved, then drew something out. The glowing fob the mage had given Altrucia.
“Maybe it can guide us to the ship he mentioned—and the captain who doesn’t like Uthari. Such a person might be convinced to give us a ride out of here.”
“Didn’t the mage say its captain was loyal to his master?”
“Yes. But it could be an option. We can’t grow wings and fly out of this place on our own.”
“Right.”
As they continued onward, Jak worried about coming to a dead-end or a barrier they couldn’t get through.
“We’ve gone far enough that we should be close to the city wall by now,” he said after they’d passed through a couple more intersections, the broken domes leading the way—and unbroken domes ensuring they didn’t deviate.
“I hope you’re right and that we can get out.”
Light ahead made him slow down again. Some daylight trickling through? Was it still daylight? They’d spent a long time at the library and in the tunnels.
It was another alcove, the machinery inside similar to the setup in the first, steady hiss-thumps emanating from it.
A boom thundered somewhere above—closer than the last one had been—and Mother eyed the ceiling warily. By unspoken agreement, they hurried past the alcove. Sooner or later, they had to come to a way out of here.
“There.” Jak pointed toward a dead-end with metal rungs fastened to the wall. They led up into a vertical shaft.
He rushed forward, glancing up to make sure the way was clear as he grabbed one of the rungs. But he halted, then swore.
Ten feet up, a promising hatch appeared to lead out of the tunnels, but halfway up the shaft, one of the domes was mounted to the wall. This one wasn’t broken. It glowed an ominous orange, and he sensed a tiny buzz of power stretching across the shaft.
“Either the mage didn’t truly want her to escape,” Mother said, peering up, “or he didn’t come in this way and didn’t realize there was one at the exit.”
“Or…” Jak handed her his torch and climbed a few rungs so he could look more closely at the dome. The glow from within made it hard to tell, but he picked out cracks in the glass. Sealed cracks. It looked like the dome had been broken and the pieces fused back together. “Malek fixed it on his way out.”
“Ensuring we were trapped down here?”
“Probably. Maybe he got called off to do something and wanted to make sure we couldn’t wander off before he came back to find us.”
“Come back down here, get behind cover as much as you can, and try shooting it.” Mother waved to his pistol as she backed up. “He wouldn’t have expected us to have magical weapons.”
“Good idea. That might work.” Jak dropped back to the ground.
The blast from a magelock ought to be as powerful as whatever energy the mage had personally channeled into the domes, right?
There wasn’t anything to hide behind, but he backed under the ceiling of the tunnel as much as possible for protection, then leaned out to make the shot.
“Careful.” Mother set his torch down on the grating and kept hers, though there was enough light from the glowing dome that they didn’t need them. “If it doesn’t break, the charge will ricochet back toward us.”
“I know.”
“That might happen even if it does break.”
“I know that too.”
“Good. You’re my only child. I’d prefer you live.”
“I assumed that, but it’s nice to have verification. Can I make the shot now?”
“Yes.” Mother gripped the back of Jak’s belt, as if she planned to yank him to safety if there was trouble.
Maybe she’d seen mage artifacts blow up before. He hoped this one was weaker than usual since it had been broken and repaired.
Jak aimed, thought a quick prayer to Shylezar, and fired.
His shot hit the dome squarely and ricocheted off. It bounced to the opposite side of the shaft, then to another side, and another. Mother tugged Jak back even as he scrambled out of the way. The charge bounced off another side of the shaft and zipped into their tunnel.
They dropped to the grating as it whizzed past, scant inches above their heads, and disappeared around the last bend. Only when the sound of it bouncing off walls faded did Jak dare lift his head.
“Note to self: firing magelocks indoors isn’t a good idea.”
“Especially in tunnels.” Mother let go of him and sat up with a sigh.
She’d dropped her torch, and it had gone out. Jak’s still burned where she’d set it on the grating.
Jak rose and checked on the dome, hoping the shot had knocked it out of commission. The sides of the tunnel were chipped and blackened where his charge had struck, but the orange dome continued to glow cheerfully. The buzz of the barrier remained.
“That bastard must have reinforced it,” he grumbled.
“That’s possible.”
“We can’t get out of here if we can’t break it.” Jak thought back to the various intersections they’d passed through, trying to remember if any other tunnels hadn’t been guarded by domes and barriers, but the only route open was back to the library.
“Wait.” Mother held up a finger. “I have an idea.”
She trotted back down the tunnel. Puzzled, Jak wondered if she truly wanted him to wait or come with her. He had their only weapons—unless she had more vials of acid to fling at people.
He took a few steps after her, but she turned into the last alcove they’d passed. A faint ker-clunk came from the machinery, and the hiss-thumps faded, as did the dim light in the tunnel. The glowing tendril under the grating went dark. Only their single torch burned on the grating by the shaft.
Barely visible in the gloom, Mother stepped out from the alcove. “I pulled the lever in the back. I’m hoping that turned off the flow of magic to the domes as well as this section of the city. And that an alarm doesn’t ding to summon dozens of maintenance mages responsible for keeping the city’s plumbing working.”
“I doubt anyone is worried about running water while the city is under siege.” Jak patted his way back to the shaft.
“If their fancy water closets stop working, they may worry. Biological functions can’t be set aside just because it’s a time of war.”
“Funny, Mother.” Jak leaned into the shaft, and his heart lightened. The dome was dark, and the barrier was gone. He spun and hugged her. “It worked. I can’t believe Malek didn’t think of that.”
“I doubt zidarr spend a lot of time in the bowels of the city contemplating how the infrastructure works. I wouldn’t have thought of it if my chest hadn’t come to grief on the lever at the other machine.”
“Let’s see where we come up.” If Jak’s sense of direction wasn’t lying to him, they ought to be next to the harbor. He hoped there really was a barge waiting that they could cadge a ride on.
Though he believed the barrier down, he proceeded cautiously and poked at the air overhead with the tip of his pistol. It didn’t encounter anything, and he didn’t get zapped. He stuck his tongue out at the dome as he passed it.
When Jak pushed up on the handle on the hatch, it didn’t budge, and he worried that his triumph had been premature. But it twisted, letting him spin it a couple of times, so he could ease the hatch open.
It was dark outside, and fog further muted the view, but thanks to light from lampposts, he could see damp pavement and grass beyond. Hope roared through him. For the first time, their escape seemed plausible.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Jak muttered, carefully raising the hatch a couple more inches, so he could see around the area.
The booms were much louder now, and the shouted orders of soldiers came from somewhere above them. Jak worried he’d come up right under the city wall, with the hatch in plain view of men and women up there defending their homes.
He spotted the docks and the grassy lawn to either side of them. What he didn’t spot were any ships.
He swore under his breath. “Where did they all go?”
When they’d arrived, there had been dozens of, if not more than a hundred, vessels of all types. Some had been military mageships and had doubtless been ordered into the skies to defend the city, but what about all the transports, barges, and personal yachts and schooners?
“Jak?” Mother hung on the ladder below his feet.
“There aren’t any ships.”
“None?”
A mageship sailed past the end of the docks, a dark shape against clouds that were hugging the city, making it feel like a dense fog had them in its grip. Jak had no idea if it was natural or had been magically created by Uthari’s enemies, but it made it so he could barely see the people manning the weapons on the deck of the mageship. He hoped it also made it hard for the soldiers on the wall above to notice that this hatch was up a few inches.
“All the nonmilitary vessels must have been told to beat it at the first sign of trouble.” Jak could see why, since the harbor was outside of the walls—and possibly outside of the city’s protective shield—and more vulnerable. “And all of the military vessels must be out fighting. There’s nothing for us to stow away on.”
Mother slumped, her arm hooked over a rung. “I needn’t have memorized the pass phrase the mage gave to Altrucia.”
More shouts came from overhead, from a watchtower on the wall. With everything going on, the soldiers inside would be paying close attention to everything around them. That meant sneaking to the city gate was out. Not that it was likely to be open in the middle of a siege anyway.
Jak and his mother were stuck.
“We’re going to have to come up with another plan,” he said.
“I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do but wait and hope.”
“Yeah.” Jak tried not to think about the fact that Malek knew exactly where they were and would, sooner or later, return to get them.
Sorath was pacing the deck of the Dauntless as they flew close enough to see one end of the floating city of Utharika, a fifty-foot-high wall hiding all but its tallest buildings from sight. Watchtowers and weapons dotted that wall, the city gates were closed, and the extensive dock system that poked out from a peninsula was devoid of ships.
All of Uthari’s mageships were in the air, flying in front of, above, and to the sides of the city. A few of the allied craft were harrying them, hurling magical and mundane projectiles at the city, then flying off, trying to lure the defenders out into the clouds.
The explosives blew before getting close to the structures, thanks to shields protecting the city. Sorath’s experience told him they were created by powerful artifacts and would be much more difficult to wear down than those conjured by individual mages.
He leaned through the hatchway of the navigation cabin and ordered the young helmsman to halt the Dauntless while they assessed the scenario. The cloud cover remained dense, with drizzle further reducing visibility. It had been a boon for the attackers who’d managed to get close without being seen, but it didn’t look like that advantage had helped much. The city had clearly been ready for the invasion force. At least the clouds made it difficult for the artillerymen on the walls to target the allied fleet.
That didn’t keep them from trying. Booms thundered from all corners of the city. The clouds muted the noise somewhat, making the danger seem farther away than it was, but Sorath had no delusions. Even here, they could be in danger as the weapons on the walls launched projectiles more than a mile.
Ferroki came up to his side, her rifle in hand. “Any thoughts on how we’re going to slip in without being noticed?”
“I’m working on it.”
