Jaleigh Johnson - Unbroken Chain - The Darker Road

“And there lies the joy,” Ashok murmured.

“For all shadar-kai,” the woman said. “I see in my mind now the warrior who will claim this blade. She haunts my dreams, whispering to me to curve the steel inward, shape the hilt thus and so. She is quite demanding.”

“You know who she is?” Ashok asked.

“No,” the woman said, “and I likely never will. It’s not my place to know where the weapons go when they leave my forge, but I dream of the wonders they’ve seen, the blood they’ve tasted in battle.” She blinked, as if coming out of a trance. “Oh, and my name is Kerthta. Forgive my manner, but I don’t converse with many people. May I know you?”

“I’m Ashok. How is your arm?”

She touched the tattoo, and a fleeting emotion crossed her face, too quickly hidden for Ashok to identify it. “I’m healed. I wear this to honor the leader of the Camborrs.”

Something in the way she said the title struck Ashok. “Did you know Olra?” he asked.

Kerthta nodded. “I wear the snake to honor her. I claim no part in its defeat.”

And something else became clear to Ashok then, as he replayed the memory of Olra running toward the forge huts and raising the alarm, the desperation in her cry. Ashok had never stopped to wonder at it, at why she’d been afraid when she should have been charging into battle exhilarated. And her eagerness to kill the snake … Now Ashok knew what drove her.

“You honor her well,” Ashok said.

The woman didn’t answer. She went to the wall next to the forge and removed his spiked chain from a peg. She brought it to him, and Ashok saw in the firelight that she’d cleaned and sharpened the spikes to razor points. There was more-an odd sheen reflected from the metal, but he attributed it to the wavering firelight.

“I once wielded a similar weapon, before I trained for the forge,” the woman said. She let the links dangle from her hands like rolls of silk. “As I honor Olra, so I try to do the same when I give this weapon back to you. It is more than it was. I’ve placed magic in the steel that can cut where it would never have cut before. May you treat it better than you treated Olra.”

Reaching for the weapon, Ashok stopped and let his hands fall. He went cold inside. “I didn’t mean to let her die. I did everything I could to prevent it.”

“I’m not talking about that,” Kerthta said. “You heard her final wishes, and so did I. They were the words of a friend, yet you discarded them.”

Ashok’s face flushed with shame and anger. “I couldn’t control the shadow snake. A Camborr must always control or, if he cannot, kill. Olra’s rule.”

“So you did. You killed the snake.”

“Not soon enough.”

“Make no mistake, Ashok, the hands of the forge masters guide the weapons of Ikemmu as surely as if we wielded them ourselves,” Kerthta said. “I tell you, you fought well and bear no shame.”

“I keep my own counsel where my battles are concerned,” Ashok said. “Olra was dying. She chose me for an honor I don’t deserve.”

Kerthta shook her head in disgust. “Then take your weapon and go.” She dropped his chain in the dirt.

Jaw clenched, Ashok bent and retrieved it. His pride almost caused him to leave the chain behind, but he knew he would need it for what lay ahead. He left the hut.

Ashok sought out Neimal just after the Monril bell. Having retrieved one weapon, Ashok reflected with grim humor that it was time to reclaim another.

He found Neimal by the city gate, issuing instructions to the Guardians who were about to go out to their posts at the Shadowfell portal.

“Your friend is still out there,” she said when Ashok approached. “I don’t like having my portal Guardians stand out on the plain listening to that beast’s screaming. I’ve had to shorten the guard shifts because of it.”

“It’s my fault,” Ashok said. “I should have done something about him before now. That’s what I came to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” Neimal raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were going off with the caravan to the mirror world.”

“I am,” Ashok said, “but I want to take the nightmare with me.”

Neimal laughed. Ashok had never heard the witch show true amusement, but her voice was full of it now. “You’re the craziest shadar-kai I’ve ever encountered, Ashok, and I’ve seen some interesting things guarding this wall. Taking a nightmare on a caravan run full of humans and horses-I wonder which one of them will bolt first?”

“That’s why I need your help,” Ashok said. He could feel the excitement building in his blood. He hadn’t felt this alive in days and wished he could thank some creature other than the nightmare for it. “I need you to put an enchantment on the beast, as you did for me once before. But this time I need an illusion to make it look like a normal horse.”

“It won’t matter how normal the thing looks or acts-the caravan crew will sense the aura of terror it projects,” Neimal said. “The horses will feel it first and break their harnesses, and then the humans will react. Their dreams will drive them mad.”

“The nightmare has always targeted me with its visions,” Ashok said. “Their dreams will be safe. As for the rest, can you give me a spell to mask its aura? Something to outlast the journey?”

The witch pursed her lips. “No spell I cast will last that long. There is an item I can give you, but it’s highly valuable. If anything were to happen to it-”

“A risk,” Ashok agreed, “but think of what you’ll gain in return. The nightmare won’t trouble your Guardians anymore.”

“You’ll leave the beast in Faerun?” Neimal said.

“The nightmare goes where it wants. I’ve never had any control over that.”

“Why do you want to take it?” she said. “All this time, you could have gone out to the plain to ride the beast, yet you never did. Now you want to take it to Faerun.”

“When Ilvani and the nightmare came together out on the plain, the beast fought off the madness that gripped it,” Ashok said. “If the spirits attack us when we get to Rashemen, the nightmare will be able to warn me by its actions. I’ll know to be ready.”

He’d thought the plan over carefully during the past few days. Although familiar with the shadow beasts of the plain, Ashok knew nothing of the creatures of Rashemen. The telthors, whatever they were, might react with violence toward Ilvani the same way the spectral panthers and shadow snakes had. If that happened, Ashok wanted warning and all the powers he could muster for defense.

Neimal considered his words, and finally she nodded. “Come back at the Tet bell,” she told him. “I’ll have the item for you then. Its suppression aura is continuous as long as it touches the nightmare’s flesh. I’ll weave the illusion into it when you bring the beast into the city.”

“My thanks,” Ashok said.

“Tempus go with you, Ashok,” Neimal said.

Ashok nodded, though as far as he was concerned, Tempus could stay in Ikemmu. The city needed Him more than Ashok did.

Later, Ashok stood on the Shadowfell plain, more than two miles from the portal and the Guardians who stood watch. They’d offered him aid, thinking he meant to tame the nightmare with his chain. They had no idea the stallion was waiting for him.

But maybe I have a few surprises for him, Ashok thought.

From his pouch, Ashok took out the item Neimal had given him before he left the city: a necklace of yellowish bone spurs threaded onto a thin metal chain and magically altered by the witch to fit around the nightmare’s neck. Neimal told him if he could get it on the stallion, the necklace would suppress his aura of terror down to the blood.

Ashok hoped it was impervious to fire.