Keith Baker - The Shattered Land

“Lei never was a soldier. She’d need our help.”

A memory emerged-Lei fighting a minotaur with her bare hands, while Pierce and Daine stood and watched, but Pierce already knew what tactics were required to win this battle. “If she ordered you?”

“She can’t give me orders. She’s …”

“Your friend?”

Daine shook his head, striking the table again. “Flame , Pierce! Why can’t you just let this go?”

Pierce stepped forward and put his hand on Daine’s shoulder. Daine froze-Pierce had never made such a gesture before. Pierce looked down at him. “Because I will not let you go, any more than you would leave Lei. This is our choice-not yours. I will not stand by and watch you die.”

Moments passed, as Daine and Pierce stood in silence. Finally Daine nodded. “I guess I’d better go down and talk to Lei.”

“I will accompany you.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“I told you-I will not stand by and watch you die.”

Daine looked up at his friend, and a smile slowly spread across his face.

The Dagger River flows through a deep canyon. As it runs south toward the coastline and the Thunder Sea, it meets up with two tributaries running east and west; the humans who first settled the region called this the Hilt. The city of Sharn was built on the top of the canyon wall hundreds of feet above the vast river, but the river trade was far too valuable for the city to pass up, so Cliffside was born: a community carved into the wall of the canyon itself. A web of stairways and bridges crisscrossed the stone face, and the wall was studded with the facades of buildings that stretched deep into the rock beyond.

A steady stream of skycoaches passed between the docks of the Dagger and the city far above, occasionally pausing at one of the Cliffside inns or brothels. These flying boats were an indulgence for those with silver to spare; for Daine, paying for a skycoach was as sensible as throwing a few sovereigns off the edge of a tower. Daine preferred to use the lifts-levitating platforms that slowly made their way from the tops of the towers to the bottom and back again. Travelers might have to wait a little while before one would arrive, but the lifts were free, safe, and reliable.

Usually.

“Oh, this is a good omen,” Daine said. “Eight months in Sharn, and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a lift needing to be repaired. What could go wrong with a lift, anyway?”

Lei said nothing. A light rain was sweeping through the canyon, and Lei had her oilskin cloak wrapped tightly around her body. Her silence was a beacon warning of her foul mood; Lei rarely passed up a chance to talk about anything magical. She had accepted Daine’s apology, but she’d barely spoken to him since then. Pierce was walking ahead of them, carving a safe path through the throngs of people clustered on the Cliffside bridges. Merchants called out to them as they passed, and beggars cajoled and pleaded, flaunting the wounds that they had supposedly suffered during the Last War. Daine knew that Jode would have known the difference between the true cripples and the fakes, but he saw only misery. The thought of Jode’s face brought a wave of loneliness.

“Lei,” he said. “You’re angry. I get it, but what’s the point of coming if we’re not even going to talk?”

He reached and put his hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. Without saying a word, she thrust the tip of her staff directly at his face. Instinct took over; he threw himself to the side, and the staff narrowly missed his neck. Even as he opened his mouth, he heard a loud cry followed by choking gasps. A tall, emaciated changeling was kneeling on the bridge behind him, gagging and clutching his throat; a small knife had fallen from his hand.

“Someone needs to watch out for you,” Lei said. She didn’t smile as she offered him a hand up. “Around here, watch your purse.”

The incident on the bridge helped to cool Lei’s anger, and by the time they had reached the docks on the Dagger’s edge she had dropped the wall of silence.

“Why haven’t we been here before?” Daine said, stepping over a pile of what appeared to be ogre dung. He could see a few of the massive creatures unloading crates from a nearby cargo ship; apparently they weren’t very particular when it came to hygiene. “It’s got all the comforts of High Walls, not to mention a thief in every crowd and fresh shit in the streets.” He studied a pair of merchants who were haggling with their fists. “I wonder how much one of those little caves on the cliffs costs.”

“I came down here a time or two during my guild training,” Lei said absently, studying the ships.

This wasn’t much of a surprise, considering that it was Lei who’d known the directions to Greenman Pier, but all the same Daine wondered what business a young Lei might have in such a dingy neighborhood. “Why was that, exactly?”

“Oh, combat training.”

Daine glanced at her, but her face was a picture of distracted innocence. “You couldn’t do that at the enclave?”

“My instructor said it wasn’t the same if you learned under controlled conditions. Though I don’t know … looking back on it, perhaps he was just trying to get rid of me.”

“Yeah … perhaps.”

Pierce paused, and Daine almost walked into him. Pierce pointed toward the river. “I believe that is our ship.”

Greenman Pier was, surprisingly enough, green. Daine couldn’t make out the names of the vessels docked there, but Pierce’s eyes were far sharper than his. The ship Pierce had chosen was a small boat, its hull stained black and silver. The sails were black, and the kraken’s arms of House Lyrandar were emblazoned on the main sail.

“There’s a wind spirit bound to the sail,” Lei said thoughtfully. “See how it’s rippling slightly, but none of the others are? Should make for a swift voyage, even if it’s not as fast as an airship or a larger elemental galleon.” She pondered the ship for a moment, and just as Daine was about to start walking she spoke again. “Who is she?”

“Lakashtai?” It had to come up sooner or later. “We met her at the King of Fire months ago, during that whole business with Teral and the brainsucker. She bought us drinks. Remember?”

Lei rolled her eyes. “Of course. She bought us drinks, and eight months later, she shows up and threatens to kill you, and on that basis you’re about to jump on a boat with her? She said you sought her out.”

“Oh, that . Well. Yeah.”

“I don’t like this. I don’t like her . How do you know anything she says is true?”

“I don’t, Lei. All I can tell you is that I trust her. I had a problem when we first came to Sharn, and she helped me with it. You don’t have to come.”

“Don’t start that again.” Lei looked back at the boat. “It’s just … did you ask for her help this time?”

“No,” Daine admitted. “She just showed up.”

“How did she even know you were having problems?”

“Because I am the cause of them?” The voice was right behind then.

Daine and Lei spun around. There was Lakashtai, a backpack slung over a shoulder and her cloak draped across one pale arm. She was wearing dark blue breeches tucked into tall boots of black leather and a sleeveless shirt with the same indigo hue. A wide black belt was wrapped around her waist, dark leather laced with an intricate, mazelike pattern of silver lines. Her only other adornment was a silver pendant bearing a large green crystal. The stone was exactly the same shade as her eyes, and it too seemed to glow in the shadows. Seeing their expressions, she laughed musically.