Steamborn (32 page)

“Do not worry, little one. The first time I saw hair as fiery as your friend’s, I stared at it for half a day.” He paused before adding, “And half a night, but that’s a different story.”

The Cave Guardian turned back to Charles. “As to your original question, they do offer transportation when it’s available. Sadly, many of their best transports died while the hordes made way to Ancora. Many of their masters died too.”

“Red Death?” Charles asked.

“Some,” the guardian said with a nod. “Many more were lost to the mantises, and a few to Sky Needles.”

“Sky Needles?” Charles said as he frowned. “We didn’t see any of those blasted things in Ancora.

“Thank the Steamsworn, Charles von Atlier. Their archers brought down a great many beasts on the other side of the horn. Travel well.”

The guardian pulled his hood up, leaving his face in shadows before he turned and retreated to the doors. Jacob blinked, and the man seemed to vanish.

Charles patted his shoulder and said, “Let’s go.”

“What are the Steamsworn?” Jacob asked after they turned the second corner by a lantern and could no longer see the doors at the entrance. “They’re mentioned in the book a little bit, but not in much detail.”

Charles glanced back at Jacob. “Some people call them the Noble Mechs,” he said as he squinted into the darkness ahead of them. “Not unlike the Spider Knights in their oaths.” The old man looked around the floor. “They used to keep torches down here.”

“Knights of the Deadlands,” Samuel said. “That’s what I’ve heard some of the old men call them.”

Charles grunted. “Well, we’re certainly not young anymore.”

Jacob stepped forward and the floor sank slightly. A moment later, a light sprang to life farther down the hall, and then another and another, until the length of the hall was bathed in dim torchlight.

“Not bad,” Charles said. “Not bad at all. The city is just up ahead.”

“City?” Alice asked. “You mean there’s an entire city inside the caves?”

“Yes indeed.”

The world grew louder the closer they got to the city. A door waited around a slight bend, ringed in a yellow-orange glow. Muffled voices whispered from the other side, along with a raucous laughter and the sounds of a hammer on steel.

Charles pulled the door open and smiled as he ushered the other three through the archway. “Welcome to Cave.”

Towering streetlamps capped with wide copper reflectors lit the town, casting a golden glow on the traffic bustling up one street and down another. People laughed and talked as they moved between the carriages, shops, and inns, and across carefully laid cobblestones nicer than anything Jacob had seen in the Lowlands.

The street was an odd contrast with the buildings. Some sort of gray moss speckled almost every surface, and it made the city look more run down than it really was. Jacob wrinkled his nose when the air shifted, lifting his hair. A subtle, distinct stench, like sewage and rotting food mixed with long-unwashed pets reached them, but it passed as the wind died.

“What is this place?” Alice asked. Jacob understood the awe in her voice completely.

“A long time ago, they called it the City of the Cave,” Charles said as he led them down the street. “In time, it became known simply as Cave.” He sniffed. “Haven’t improved the smell much.”

“Has it been improved at all?” Samuel asked. He frowned and stuck his tongue out like he was trying to rid himself of a bad taste.

“You get used to it,” Charles said as he started down the street. “Five minutes here and you won’t notice a bit.”

“Unless that five minutes involves a fair amount of drink, I’m quite sure I’ll still notice.”

“For a Spider Knight, you do like to complain,” Charles said. He glanced over his shoulder and winked.

Two kids wandered by in clothes that didn’t look unlike Jacob’s. They pointed at Samuel. Jacob didn’t have to hear what they were saying to have a pretty good guess what it was.

“They’re starting to notice your armor,” Jacob said. The group rounded a corner. The next street was just as busy as the first.

“Not to worry,” Charles said. “They’re probably wondering if they can steal it and sell it for scrap. It’s a good alloy, and it fetches a fair price at any smith willing to take salvage.”

“Salvage?” Samuel asked. “I’m still alive and wearing it.”

Charles cocked an eyebrow. “Probably a good reason to keep your guard up, yes?”

“I can’t believe we’re underground,” Alice said. She looked up at a tall marble building with a thin dome near the top of the cave. “Is that a church?”

“Is indeed,” Charles said. “No self-respecting den of thieves would have a city without a church. Or so I hear.”

Buskers stood outside the white steps that led to high, sharp gothic doors. One of them held a lute and picked an intricate melody that Jacob could barely make out over the noise of the street. The other seemed to be telling stories, and whatever they were seemed to have the children enthralled. A tired-looking mother in a gray dress with a bronze cane dropped a coin into the man’s cup.

By the time Jacob turned his attention back to Charles, he almost walked right into the old man.

“Here we are!” Charles walked up a short flight of dark wooden stairs to a modest-looking door. Above the windowless doors, spelled out in smooth river stones, was The Rock Inn.

Samuel stepped forward and pulled the door open, holding it while Charles and Alice and Jacob filtered by. Jacob had expected a loud, raucous room like the bar they’d seen at the Wild Horse Inn. This was nothing like it.

Booths lived in shadow all around the small bar. The only light came from small flickering candles mounted outside the benches. A few loud men sat at the bar in the center, yelling about some brawl on which they’d lost a bet. One bore a deep scar across his left cheek, and the other was dressed in finery to rival that of the wealthiest Highlanders.

A lute and an old drum arrangement stood in the corner, but they were silent, waiting for a musician to return to the darkness of the Rock Inn.

They all followed Charles as he wove between a few awkwardly placed wood tables, and eventually pulled out one of the backless stools at the bar.

“Smart layout,” Samuel said as he glanced back toward the door. “A raid would either have to go around the tables or push them out of the way.”

“You’ll see a lot of common sense prevention here,” Charles said. “They don’t have a police force like they do in Ancora. It’s more of a public-enforced system of … guidelines.”

“Maybe they can hire a Spider Knight for that,” the hooded man beside Charles said. His voice was deep and wore the same kind of cloak as the guardian at the gate.

“I doubt you could convince
him
to do that,” Charles said as he sat down. “He’s a rather stubborn Highlander these days.”

“Hey now,” Samuel said, pulling out his own seat.

“No disrespect meant,” the guardian said. He pulled his hood back. His skin was lighter than the man they’d met at the gate, but still darker than anyone Jacob had met from Ancora. His eyes were canted slightly too. Jacob could tell he was well muscled, the way the cloak spread around the guardian’s shoulders. The man eyed Alice and Jacob for a moment before turning his attention back to Charles. “So it’s true. Charles von Atlier has returned to Cave.”

“What business is it of yours?” Samuel asked, the irritation in his voice palpable as he bit off the words.

“My name is Drakkar, Spider Knight. It is my business because you told my brother of it.”

“The Gate Guardian?” Charles asked.

“Yes.”

Charles nodded. “We didn’t catch his name.”

“You never will,” Drakkar said, turning his pewter stein on the bar top. “He took the oath to guard the entrance to our city many years ago, and he will be Nameless until his death.”

“So his name is Nameless?” Alice said. “Even that’s still a name. You can’t
really
go nameless.”

Drakkar blinked and frowned at Alice. He tipped his stein at her before lifting the lid and taking a deep swallow. “In a way, I suppose you are correct. All Gate Guardians take the Oath of the Nameless. It has been that way since the Melding.”

“Melding?” Alice said as she leaned back to get a better view of Drakkar. “What’s the Melding?”

“Did you not learn of it in school?”

Alice and Jacob exchanged a glance and shook their heads.

Drakkar’s brow furrowed before he took a deep breath. “Many years ago—centuries, in fact—there were far more races of men than you know today.” Drakkar pointed at Alice. “You consider Ancorans a race, and Bollwerks, and Dauschens. They were once many people.”

“How many?” Alice asked, sitting up straighter.

“I know not, child, but many.”

“What changed in the Melding?” Jacob asked, his own curiosity piqued by Alice’s interest.

“Some men say the races were erased by Ancorans and Bollwerks marrying the wrong people. Those men are fools. We do not know everything about the cities lost to time.”

“We don’t know much at all,” Charles said with a short huff.

“We can guess, tinker. When the old cities fell, the people scattered. They loved and married and bore children in new settlements. Most would have been a mixture of a dozen races, and given enough time, those men and women became a new whole.”

“What happened to all the stories from those races?” Alice asked. “It’s sad to think they’re all gone now.”

“Oh no, child.” The guardian adjusted his cloak as he turned to Alice. “The stories of those lost races are
our
stories. Each one lives on in us. We are them, and they are us. They’ll never be gone. All who walk the guardian’s path learn this truth. Every man our brother, every woman our sister.”

No one said anything for a moment. Charles broke the silence. “What do you have to offer?” he asked as he picked up a chopstick from the bar and spun it between his fingers. “We’ll need to resupply. Some of our food was lost to the underground river in our escape.”

“A friend of the guardians owns Traveler’s Cove in the far east of town. He can get you anything you need.”

“For a price,” Samuel muttered.

“Nothing’s free,” Jacob said before Drakkar had a chance to respond.

“Unless you steal it,” Samuel said.

Jacob frowned at the Spider Knight. He had nothing but respect for Samuel, and for him to say something cruel hurt. “It’s not like I had a choice.”

“Hush,” Charles said. “Choose your words more carefully, Samuel. You sound like one of Parliament’s judgmental mouthpieces.”

Samuel stared at Charles, wide-eyed. “I didn’t mean … I’m sorry.”

“And Jacob. Don’t admit to thievery in this place, whatever you do.”

Drakkar nodded. “They will take more than your hands in this place. It has been that way since the founding of Cave.”

“I thought Cave was full of thieves.”

“True,” Drakkar said, “but thieves do not steal from each other. They are bound by oaths here. If you find the thieves along the trade routes, however, be wary.”

Charles rubbed his beard before he crossed his arms and sighed. “What do you have in the way of transportation? We can pay, mind you.

“We were able to save several Walkers, but they will be very expensive. You may prefer to take the Rhinos.”

“Rhinos?” Jacob asked.

“Carriage beetles without the carriage,” Charles said. “You know we’re traveling to the Deadlands, Drakkar. I’m not sure riding a black mount is advisable in that kind of heat.”

Jacob watched Charles lift the medal out of his vest. It was the same medal he’d shown in Ancora to get into the tower.

“Are you sure you can’t find another way?”

Drakkar leaned forward and smiled. His teeth were brilliant white. “Steamsworn. I would not have guessed that.”

“An old pledge from an old war, Drakkar. I’m still all me, no mechanical bits.”

“It is an honor, nonetheless. Let me speak to the proprietor of the Traveler’s Cove. I suspect I can play upon his sympathies for the Steamsworn.”

“Thank you,” Charles said as he hid the medal beneath his leather vest once more. “Do you have any idea what the supplies might cost? We need rooms for the night too.”

“Allow me to negotiate on your behalf,” Drakkar said as he motioned to the bartender. The bartender nodded, acknowledging Drakkar before he turned to help another patron. “The bartender is the innkeeper here, and I know him quite well. I am sure I can save you a great deal of gold.”

“Do I even want to know the price for that?”

“It is a small price.” Drakkar laid his fingertips on the edge of the bar and turned his head toward Charles. “You will join me in my house for a meal, and I will travel with you.”

“Why?” Samuel said, blurting out the question.

Drakkar smiled. “I would enjoy seeing Bollwerk again. If war ravages the Deadlands, the old city will be at its center. The people of Bollwerk took me in and gave me a home when I had none. I owe them much.”

“We’d be honored to have your company,” Charles said as he held his fist out to Drakkar.

The guardian wrapped his hand around Charles’s fist and looked the old man in the eyes. “You have my pledge for this journey, Steamsworn. I will protect you as I would protect my own kin. May we live in peace, or die defending it.” He released his grip and picked up his stein again.

Jacob watched the guardian for a moment. He seemed kind and strong, yet he seemed so different from the people Jacob knew. The man was utterly intimidating. If they could trust him, he’d be a powerful ally.

Jacob exchanged a glance with Alice. She shrugged, and he knew exactly how she felt.

“We’d be honored to have you along,” Charles said. He nodded to Drakkar. The guardian mirrored the gesture before Charles turned back to Jacob and Alice and Samuel. “You three better get some sleep tonight. In the morning, we make for the Deadlands.”

Eric is a former bookseller, guitarist, and comic seller currently living in Saint Louis, Missouri. A lifelong enthusiast of books, music, toys, and games, he discovered a love for the written word after being dragged to the library by his parents at a young age. When he is not writing, you can usually find him reading, gaming, or buried beneath a small avalanche of Transformers. For more about Eric, see
www.ericrasher.com
.