House of Blades (The Traveler's Gate Trilogy) (21 page)

Denner and Hariman had given him some tips, of course. He would not head in completely blind. But they had spent less time preparing him and more time reminding him of his own weakness and inexperience. Which did nothing for his confidence.

“Strictly speaking,” Denner said, frowning, “Kai should be the one to meet you here after you’re done. If I can find him, that is. He’s more elusive than usual, lately.”

“He went deeper into the House,” Simon said. “He said he was trying to force me to clear rooms faster.” He still felt a flash of anger at that, even if he had to admit it had worked.

“Strange. I checked up to the attic and saw no sign of him.” Denner shrugged. “Still, I suppose I could have missed him. Some of those rooms are quite large, after all. And he could have wandered out of the House for a while. At times, Kai can be...well, you know.”

“Yes, I do.” Simon glanced at the sun again. He had perhaps an hour and a half until full dark. “Denner, I have a question for you.”

Denner seemed startled, but he nodded.

“Ten years ago, around this time of year. It was raining at the edge of a forest. Did you save a boy from Travelers?”

Simon hadn’t realized how much he cared about the answer until he felt his heart speed up. It probably wasn’t Denner. There were eleven other people it could be, after all. But Denner did seem to wear brown a lot, and the swordsman who had saved Simon’s life wore a brown cloak...

“Not me,” Denner said slowly. “But I can ask around, if you like. I’m sure one of us will know.”

Simon shook his head immediately. “No, it wasn’t important. I should probably get going. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

Denner opened his mouth to reply, but Hariman interrupted him. “Well, of course. It was our pleasure. Do try to survive.”

Simon walked all the way to the Orgrith Cave entrance with his sword out and a sharp eye on his surroundings.

The sun had fallen below the horizon but had not entirely left its light behind when the forest of rock spikes began to thin, revealing the entrance. It was a tall, irregular dome of rock jutting out of the otherwise flat ground around it. The entrance gaped so wide Simon thought half the people of Myria could fit inside, but the dome itself barely seemed broad enough to cover the grassland in the garden of Valinhall. If that was the extent of Orgrith Cave, then it couldn’t be so bad.

It was a nice thought, though he was forced to admit that it almost certainly extended deep underground. There might still be hope, though; maybe Denner had exaggerated.

He certainly hadn’t mentioned this: the mouth of Orgrith Cave blazed with light, revealing a half-circle of carts and covered wagons almost completely blocking the entrance. Pairs of oxen grazed on the sparse grass outside the wagons. At a distance, Simon could make out a few people running around inside the circle, apparently excited about something. Not enough people to justify that many wagons, it seemed.

He hesitated for a moment, then walked forward, sheathing his sword. He didn’t know what their business was, and they would probably be friendly to one young man alone, especially with so many of them together. If they weren’t...well, he kept his mind on the brink of calling steel. As long as none of the strangers were Travelers, he was sure he could handle them.
 

As he approached the circle of carts and wagons, Simon saw only three people. A woman, perhaps ten years younger than Simon’s mother, ran frantically from wagon to wagon, peering inside and shouting. Her eyes were wide, her long chestnut hair mussed, and her simple gray dress disheveled. “Andra?” she called. “Lycus? Come out here this instant! Andra!”

She dashed over to the nearest wagon like it held a fortune in gold. “This isn’t funny, Andra! Please...please stop...” Her shoulders shook silently, and Simon realized she was crying.

His stomach sank.

The other two people in the camp, both men rolled on the ground by their bonfire, apparently wrestling. One was younger, though judging by the touches of gray in his hair still old enough to be Simon’s father, and the other even older. At least, his hair was entirely silver. The older man sat on the other, holding his arm pinned behind his back. The younger man screamed, and it was a moment before Simon could make out the words.

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO, PLEASE! THEY’RE IN THERE...THEY HAVE TO BE IN THERE! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!”

The picture resolved itself in Simon’s mind: the younger man was trying to crawl to the mouth of the cave, but the older was holding him back.

The older man’s reply was firm, but Simon barely heard it over the other’s screams. “You’ll die, Caius. You’ll only die.”

Simon stepped into the firelight and intentionally scuffed his feet against the dirt. Hopefully the noise would keep them from thinking he was trying to sneak up. He could have spoken, but he didn’t have the words for this situation.

The older man whirled around immediately, pinning Simon with bright blue eyes. He wore a short sword on his left hip, and though he didn’t stand up or release his hold on the other man, there was something in his posture of being ready to draw.

“I’m sorry,” Simon said. “Is there someone in the cave?”

The screaming man stopped shouting and began to weep, sobbing from deep in his chest, but the other paid him no attention.
 

Gray-hair spoke, voice like flat iron. “Who are you? What is your purpose here?” He sounded like Nurita, giving an order and expecting to be obeyed. Simon’s words caught in his throat, and he suddenly wasn’t sure what to say.

“They’re my babies,” the woman said from behind him. He turned to face her. Her eyes were bright and feverish, and her face was a mask of tears. “My babies are in there.”

“What are you doing here, boy?” The gray-haired man demanded again. He had risen to his feet, keeping one boot firmly planted on the grieving father’s back. One hand rested on the hilt of the sword at his hip. “Speak or be gone.”

Simon looked around, at the weeping mother and the distraught father, at the demanding man with a sword. He never did know what to say at times like this. So he turned and walked straight into the mouth of Orgrith Cave.

As the shadows of the cave swallowed him, he drew his sword.

***

Kai crouched on top of the stone dome that marked the outer barrier of Orgrith Cave, watching the Damascans down below, scurrying around their bonfire like so many moths fluttering over a candle. So much fuss over missing children. But what would he do if one of his precious little ones managed to run off? The thought almost brought him to tears.

He reached down to Otoku, cradled carefully in his left arm. He ran his right fingers down her dark hair, the silky red of her dress.

“I would never leave you,” he whispered.

Sometimes I wish you would
, she responded, an acid edge to her hazy mental voice.

Kai felt himself smile. She had said something this time; sometimes she would stay silent for days at a time. That was much worse. “I love your spirit and your fire. That is how I know you care.”

Maybe I’ll get lucky, and you’ll get eaten.

“You wound me,” he said, but he knew she didn’t mean it.

No, I mean it,
Otoku said.

He pretended not to hear her.

A few minutes passed before Simon arrived. He spoke with the parents—Kai had known he would—and then walked into the cave. Now there was a student Kai could be proud of. Only a handful of days after Kai left him on his own, and he had already earned Benson’s steel and made his way to the Cave. All he had needed was the proper motivation.

Now, if he passed this one more test, he would have fully given himself to Valinhall. And he would be ready to die a man’s death.

Why can’t you be more like him?
Otoku asked. Kai blinked and raised the doll, staring her in the face. For the first time that night, she truly startled him.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Look how far he’s willing to go,
the doll said.
Look at how hard he’s working to save people from the sacrifice. And what have you done about it?

“I’m giving him a chance,” Kai said, still off-balance. Otoku had never questioned him about this decision before. Why now? “I could have left him in the forest. It would have been safer.”

Human sacrifice is a horrible practice, and you should have put a stop to it years ago. You know that’s what Valin wanted, before he...changed his mind.

Kai shuddered. Now, why had she brought up
that
topic?

“Nine people a year,” Kai whispered. “It could be much worse.”

And how many people have died anyway? Not just the sacrifices, but all the others they killed to keep it all running. Is it only hundreds?

“Simon has a chance. He’s in this for the right reasons, and I won’t stop him.”

But you’re not going to help him either.
The drifting wind behind Otoku’s voice sounded harsh, cold.

“I can’t help him,” Kai pleaded. He couldn’t go on with her so disapproving. She almost sounded as if she preferred Simon over him! “Please. I’m doing what I can.”

A man sighed heavily from behind Kai. “And you know Indirial would kill us both,” he said in a familiar voice.

Kai rose and turned to meet Denner, who was still as rough-looking as ever. He hadn’t shaven, and his clothes looked slept-in. Hariman was tucked underneath Denner’s arm, but he remained uncharacteristically silent.

“I did what you asked,” Denner went on. “He’s a good kid, but he’s not ready for this. We can still pull him out.”

For a moment, Kai considered just waiting on the results of the test. Orgrith Cave had been formed in a chaotic battle between Tartarus, Naraka, and Ornheim Travelers, and the caverns shifted form almost constantly. But the Cave was always deadly. Kai didn’t know exactly what Simon would face within, and he could always just let the test run its course. Simon might survive, after all.

Not that Kai would place any heavy bets on it.

“He needs this,” Kai said softly.

Denner sighed again and shook his head.

If you leave him in there,
Otoku said,
I will tell my sisters. We will never let you sleep again
.

Absently, Kai patted the doll’s head. “Don’t worry, little one,” he said. “I will not leave him alone. But he must never know I’m there, or it will cripple him.”

Kai sensed Otoku smile, and it felt like sunlight.

Denner spoke up. “And what about the sacrifice? He’s going to stop it, if he can.”

Kai stared at his old friend from behind his usual veil of hair, whitened years before its time by the powers of the House. “If you wanted him to fail,” Kai said, in close to his usual sing-song tones, “you would have never brought him here.”

Glancing around as if for an answer, Denner finally nodded. And sighed.

***

Simon was almost disappointed. For the first few minutes inside the cave, he kept every sense tuned and his sword in his hand. At every real or imagined scuff of dirt, he swung in one direction or another and froze, waiting for an attack. But inevitably nothing came of it, and he moved on.

The cave led directly into a tunnel, circular and rough-edged, that sloped down into deeper shadows. Once he moved beyond even the faintest light from the cave entrance, Simon began to notice patches of fungus on the walls, glowing softly blue. The deeper he walked, the brighter the fungus grew. Or perhaps he had simply grown used to the light. Either way, it became easier to see.

For perhaps an hour he walked along the tunnel, occasionally following the tunnel’s gentle shifts and turns. He found nothing. No branches, no side passages, no monsters, no missing children. Wearily he sheathed his sword. So far, Orgrith Cave had been somewhat disappointing.

If I can just find some water
, he thought,
I can just sit in this tunnel until time runs out.
They had never said anything about doing anything in the cave, and there was no reason he should risk his life if he didn’t have to.

But what about the kids? He didn’t know the family outside the cave, but of course he wanted to find children that had become lost. He wasn’t a monster. He had to at least make a decent effort to find them. However many there were. And if they were in the cave at all.

He probably should have asked.
 

Simon had just decided to continue when he noticed a ripple in the tunnel’s stone floor. It was accompanied by a sound like a rock falling into a still pond.

It was difficult to see anything in the blue half-light of the fungus, but he reasoned that there must have been a puddle of water collecting on the floor. If a puddle, though, what had disturbed it? He crossed the distance in two strides and knelt, running his hand over the stone floor. It was completely dry. Somewhat smooth and bare of dust compared to the rest of the ground, but there was certainly no water.

He rose to his feet, a quiet alarm sounding in his head, and caught a glimpse of another ripple, farther down the tunnel. He started toward it, but immediately there came another, this one a whole pace closer to where he stood. Then another, even closer.

His sword came out of his sheath just as the stone rippled inches from his toes. He had a good viewpoint this time: the stone of the tunnel had actually shook like the surface of a pond disturbed by a pebble. He felt no shaking under his feet, so it wasn’t some strange earthquake, and the stone seemed solid once the ripples passed. What, then?

A few months ago he would have had no idea. It would have frightened him enough that he would have run from the cave, seeking help. Well, running sounded like a good idea now anyway, but his time in the House had at least taught him one thing: if it’s out of the ordinary, it probably means to kill you.

So it was that when the ripples grew quiet, Simon had his sword reversed point-down above the stone. And when a slimy glowing blue creature with fangs longer than his middle finger sprang from the stone, aiming at his face, it swallowed three feet of steel.

The creature was shaped like a cross between a river fish and an eel, with diamond patterns glowing with the same blue phosphorescence as the moss overhead. Its own momentum carried it up the slightly curved sword, until its teeth almost scraped the hilt and the point split its tail nearly in half.