Don Bassinghtwaite - The Binding Stone

"It was more than his hand!" chimed in a half-orc woman on his other side. "It was a whole arm. My boy saw it hanging there before the watch and took it away!" She held up one hand and made a circle over it with the finger and thumb of her other hand. "Big ruby ring on it too! The woman would have to be mad to leave that behind."

Natrac's ring, Dandra realized. Her hand sought out Singe's and squeezed it tight. If they'd come back last night, they could have stopped this.

The wizard must have realized the same thing. He looked slightly pale. "The watch," he said, "will they investigate? Will they look for the man whose hand or arm it was?"

The half-orc woman laughed. "Not unless someone wants to come forward and pay the fee!"

"Or unless this mad woman starts cutting off more parts," said the man darkly with a glance at the woman. "Only the cult does that and not even the watch will stand for their type in the city!"

"Any idea what 'blue doors' means?" asked Geth.

The man and woman shook their heads, but Dandra seized Geth's hand as well as Singe's and pulled both men out of the crowd and down the dock. When they were out of sight of Lightning on Water, she stopped and looked at them. "I know what 'blue doors' means." She took a deep breath. "When Tetkashtai, Virikhad, and Medalashana came to Zarash'ak, they met Dah'mir in a house with blue doors."

"Are you sure?" asked Singe.

She nodded. "It's all a message for us," she said. "Do you remember what Natrac said after the fight with Ashi? The cult of the Dragon Below kidnapped his cousin and left parts of him in the canals. Vennet and Ashi left Natrac's hand and ring as a message to say that they had him. They left the words to show where they've taken him, knowing I'd understand but not anyone else."

Singe's eyes narrowed. "But how could Vennet know about this house?"

"The crystal band," Dandra told him grimly. "Vennet has used it to contact Dah'mir and Medalashana. One of them must have told him what to do."

"Twelve bloody moons," cursed Singe. He looked at Dandra. "Suppose Dah'mir wants to come to Zarash'ak. How long do you think it will take?"

"More than a week," Dandra answered. "Even if he left the Bonetree mound as soon as Ashi told Medalashana we were coming to Zarash'ak, he'd still be days away from here."

"And you can find this house with blue doors again?"

She nodded.

A growl rumbled up out of Geth. "It's going to be a trap-and after all that last night about not going back because we'd deliver you right to them…"

"I know," Dandra answered.

Tetkashtai's presence shook inside her. Dandra, this is too much! We don't even know that Natrac's still alive. Light of il-Yannah, he's had a hand cut off!

Then we have to go to make sure he's dead, Dandra said. I won't leave him to the cult of the Dragon Below.

Dah'mir and Medalashana will know we're in Zarash'ak for certain now.

The suggestion sent a tremor through Dandra's belly, but she forced it away. All the more reason to confront Vennet and Ashi and get the crystal band back. She glanced up at Singe and Geth. "When should we go?"

"I don't think we have anything to gain by waiting." Geth tapped a fist against his right arm. Hidden under a loose sleeve, the metal of his great gauntlet rang solidly. "Let's go now."

Dandra looked to Singe. The wizard nodded. Dandra steeled herself. "All right then," she said. "This way."

The ship that Tetkashtai and the other kalashtar had taken from Sharn had made port at another part of Zarash'ak's dock.

Dandra led Geth and Singe along the waterfront until she found the point where the ship had berthed. Dredging her memory, she began pacing through the city, following landmarks and tracing the route that the kalashtar had taken those months ago. At one intersection, though, she had to stop. To the right, the plank street broadened into a wide and busy thoroughfare lined with fine, large homes.

To the left, it became narrow and crooked, leading away into an older, more rundown part of the city.

It would have made more sense for the house with blue doors to be to the right-it was big and very pleasant and would have fit that neighborhood. Memory, however, suggested that the kalashtar had turned left at this spot.

Tetkashtai, she asked, which way?

The frightened presence confirmed her memory. Left. Dandra moved on, turning where memory prompted her. The district, however, was nothing like she remembered. Empty windows gaped like black eyes form the faces of dilapidated houses. Occasionally, feet scampered on the wood ahead as figures scrambled back into the shadows.

"Squatters," said Singe.

Not all of the figures ducked away. A lanky orc-full-blooded, with coarse features, lean muscles under his gray-green skin, and heavy tusks that made Natrac's look small-stared at them from the shadows of one house, red eyes gleaming. His clothes were rough and swamp-stained; he looked like some kind of marsh nomad, looking for easier prey in the lawless places of Zarash'ak. Dandra's grip tightened on her spear and Geth made sure that the orc saw the heavy sword at his side.

"Dandra," he asked, "are you sure about this?"

"Yes," she said. She turned a corner.

In her memory, the house with blue doors was a grand and luxurious building, three stories high with dormers along the pitched roof. It stood alone on its own platform, surely a luxury in a city where walkways and platforms had grown haphazardly together over time. The doors that had stuck in her memory and in the minds of the kalashtar were tall and striking, their bright polished surface painted a deep blue that was exactly the color of an autumn night's sky.

The building that she faced now might once have been much like what she remembered. It had the shape of something grand, but it had been a long time since it could have been considered luxurious. Much of the roof had fallen in and the dormers with it, leaving the house looking like a crushed skull. The wood of the house had gone gray with age. If it stood alone on its own platform, it was because its neighbors seemed to lean away, as if shunning the decaying structure.

The blue doors were still there, as tall and striking as in her memory, but the color on them was faded and old, a stain on the wood. One door hung askew. Dandra could say nothing, struck dumb by her memory's betrayal. "This isn't what we saw," she managed finally.

"Dandra, is it possible that Dah'mir's domination of you and the kalashtar began before he met them?" asked Singe after a moment. "Some kind of illusion spun into your minds…"

Dandra nodded slowly. "It's possible, I suppose. This is the house, though. I'm sure of it."

"If this isn't the right place, we don't have anything to worry about," said Geth. "If it is the right place, they'll be expecting us. Be ready." The shifter studied the broken house carefully, then loosened his sword in its scabbard. "We should make getting Natrac back and out of here our goal, but I don't think dealing with Ashi and Vennet would be a bad thing either."

"I agree." Dandra shifted her grip on her spear and took a step into the air, skimming the ground and ready for combat.

They moved forward, stepping cautiously over the gap that had opened between the building's platform and the planks of the street. The murky water that lapped the shadows beneath Zarash'ak was visible far down below. Dandra glided up to the faded doors. She was about to put a hand to them when Geth pointed at the step beneath her feet. "No dust," he said. "It's been swept clean."

"Wind or rain?" suggested Singe.

The shifter shook his head. "Probably not."

Dandra pushed open the door. She recalled a beautiful foyer with stairs rising up to the second floor and the distant sound of trickling water. What actually lay beyond the door was a rickety, broken room with huge gaps in the walls. Stairs-every second step seemingly broken-rose to a second floor that sagged so badly she wasn't sure she would have risked crossing it. The sound of water was the splashing of the river, echoing up from somewhere below.