Chapter 74
Can reptiles sneeze? As it turns out, they can. The Kroxigor opened his maw wide and let out a sound like a hollow snort. Great. There was plenty of dust around, and even more cobwebs.
On the tunnel walls, I noticed niches for lamps and murder holes where traps might be hidden. I hoped the Shades had checked everything.
After entering the city through a different gate, we managed to reach the safehouse the scouts had prepared for us. They had discovered a desolate undercroft beneath the foundation of an abandoned house. However, the dwelling was not entirely empty. When we reached the "foyer" of the subterranean lair through the tunnel, two corpses of young elves lay on the floor. Both were dressed quite poorly.
"Dinner," the leader of the Shades said, pointing at them with his dagger and flashing a bloodthirsty grin. "Will you join us, my lady?"
"No," Liandra replied curtly. "Have you prepared a place to sleep?"
"Of course! Your loyal servants have already seen to it. A bedchamber worthy of a noble lord for you."
I didn't like the Outcast's tone at all. He seemed submissive, but there was a distinct mockery in his voice. I wondered if I would have to slaughter these three mercenaries as well. The Shades watched us with the greedy, hungry gaze of a pack of hyenas trying to spot the first signs of weakness. And unfortunately, there were signs.
I had managed to heal Liandra, but she had not yet returned to top form after her encounter with the Khainite and his sorcery. The Shades seemed to sense this.
"Do you wish to inspect your new domain, my lady?" the Outcast asked with the same mocking servility.
"Not today. I am going to sleep. Did you do everything as I instructed?"
"Yes, yes. Your room is deep within the cellar, and there is a nook for the pets in the vestibule."
"Let us go."
And so we went. The Shade leader showed us the dual apartments. A large antechamber for me and the lizards, and a single bedroom for Liandra. The Shades had lightly cleared the dust and thrown sleeping bags and straw onto the cold stones of the dungeon.
"Bad place. Dangerous, like a quagmire," Tezal clicked in the language of the lizards, pointing to the wall nearest us.
There, one could see a dust-covered bas-relief depicting many figures arranged around a large central one. Looking closer, I realized the outline of the overall composition resembled... the eight-pointed Star of Chaos. It seemed a secret cult had dwelt here.
Liandra's room was a narrow cell with a metal grated door. There were almost no amenities, but the elf could lock herself in from the inside. The metal of the door was protected from rust by black paint. The door looked almost new, despite being covered in cobwebs.
"Is there anything else I can help with, my lady?" the Outcast inquired. "Water, food, a tincture of..."
"Silence," the elf interrupted. "Leave us until tomorrow morning."
"As you wish. If nature calls, it is down the hall to the right," the Outcast said, backing away. "We opened the sewer valve. There is water."
Well, damn. That was great news. It meant I wouldn't have to shit in a bucket.
Once the Outcast left, Liandra carefully inspected the bedrolls they had prepared for us. There were dark shadows under the girl's eyes. It looked like she could barely stay on her feet.
"Ghil, before you lie down, feel through the sleeping bag. But be careful. There might be needles or..."
"I get it. Nothing to worry about. I have a qualified assistant for that," I said, then switched to the lizard tongue. "Tezal, do you have a good sense of smell? You need to check these pallets for traps. Look for poisoned needles or sleeping herbs."
"Good smell," the lizardman nodded. "I check everything, Commander Jurg. I find all problems."
The Skink leaned two looted spears against the wall and began to check the bedrolls intended for us.
"Be careful, be vigilant," the girl said in a dull voice. "I need to recover my strength."
Liandra staggered off to her room. Soon, the bolt of the metal door clattered shut. The grate was fine enough to almost hide the cell intended for the elf from view.
Unlike Liandra, the Skink already felt quite energetic. Perhaps the spells had affected him better, or maybe Lizardmen simply surpassed elves in resilience. It wasn't surprising. It seemed to me that Lizardmen were constructed more simply than many other races. Not in the sense of being primitive, but precisely simpler. They have no reproductive system, which drains a lot of the body's resources. Their thinking is sharpened for specific tasks but devoid of doubt. This allows them to function predictably and efficiently. No soul-searching or hormonal swings.
The Kroxigor, for example, didn't seem to give a damn about the wounds sustained in the recent fight. The Skink had removed the bolts stuck in his hide. No other help was needed. The wounds weren't bleeding.
"Must check," Tezal muttered, meticulously but carefully fumbling with the sleeping bags. "Then remove bad signs from walls. Foul, enemy symbols."
"What were you before you were captured?" I asked the Skink. "A hunter? A soldier? A scout?"
"No. Tezal carved glyphs on stones, worked wood, decorated walls."
"Lay tile? Hang wallpaper? Install ceilings?"
"Tile? Yes. Sometimes. Wallpaper? Do not understand. Ceilings? I sometimes cut signs on ceilings, but how can they be installed? Unless one makes a simple hut and stretches ropes instead of a ceiling? Then place palm leaves on them. Is that what you mean, Commander? Oh! A spider here. Looks poisonous. One moment..."
Tezal carefully extracted a tiny spider from the sleeping bag with his claws, then popped it into his mouth, chewed, and concluded:
"Slightly venomous for warm-bloods. Weak poison. Causes fever and muscle weakness."
I wondered if it was a coincidence or a surprise from our wonderful mercenaries. Who knows, but I had to keep my eyes peeled.
"We'll take turns on guard duty tonight," I said to the Skink.
"Not necessary, Commander Jurg. I am a very light sleeper. Any rustle, any scent, and I wake. I am not a warrior, not a scout, but I know how to hunt. Everyone must know how, to get food and not be a burden."
Oh, well, that was excellent. It meant Tezal had some combat skills after all.
In addition to two spears from the dead Druchii, the lizardman had also taken a long dagger for himself, which looked like a short sword in his hands. But we hadn't picked out a weapon for Bone-render yet. He needed something truly massive and destructive. However, even without a special weapon, he could easily finish off any Dark Elf if he could get to him.
We had left the cage upstairs in the ruins of the house above the cellar. It might still be useful. After the throw, the outer spikes were bent in places, but the cage remained functional.
I had to settle one more matter:
"Bone-render is too long every time," I said. "Sometimes I'll call you BR. Got that? Either Bone-render or BR. Both are you."
The Kroxigor, sitting on a pile of straw in the corner of the room, looked at me intently and then repeated:
"Bone... der... All me."
By then, the Skink had finished searching for dangers in my sleeping bag and moved on to checking other areas. I dragged the pallet into a small nook so I wouldn't feel the constant attention of the reptiloids. I had no doubts about their loyalty; I just wanted to be alone for a bit. However, there was no hiding from my internal reptiloid.
"Without the oversight of the Old Ones, their civilization has reached a dead end, and their culture has degenerated. Can lasting alliances be forged in the absence of devotion and trust? The entire structure of their society is full of cracks through which the miasma of the Ruinous Powers seeps," Loom-Pia commented briefly on the situation.
"True enough, but this world is full of creatures much worse. I need to sleep."
After sending the Kroxigor to rest and the Skink to stand watch, I finally fell asleep. No one disturbed me again until morning. I woke up when I heard the clatter of the latch. Liandra had left her bedchamber. The elf looked much better than she had yesterday.
"Did you hear the conversation last night?"
"Yes. While I was falling asleep, but I don't understand the language of the lizards."
"Not with the lizards. Let me explain the situation."
I recounted the conversation with the mercenary who had tried to incite me to betrayal. I mentioned the poisonous spider in the sleeping bag too. Liandra's reaction was quite calm.
"Maybe we should get rid of them?" I asked.
"No. It is fine. I expected something like this. It is good that they acted rationally and did not attempt to attack you."
"They haven't attempted it yet."
"We will not give them another chance. If luck is on our side, those three will not care to remember the betrayal."
We'll see. In any case, I should look for more potential allies who aren't elves.
There was indeed water in the dungeon. One of the rooms had clearly once been a sauna. A dusty, empty pool, dry as the skin of ancient mummies, served as a reminder. However, some water remained. A small fountain-waterfall was built into the wall. The water was cold, clean, and pleasantly bracing. I washed up and then visited the latrine. It was much more comfortable than one might expect from such a location.
A toilet of the "hole in the floor" variety. It doesn't sound very appealing, but it's much better than doing your business in a corner. Especially since the sound of water from some underground river or sewer could be heard rushing below. There would be no problems with odors.
When I met the Shades again, the Outcasts behaved much less threateningly than they had yesterday. The hints of threat or mockery had almost completely vanished from their leader's tone.
"I see you are feeling better, my lady," the Dark Elf said with a short bow. "You are more resilient than we thought. We are ready to carry out any order of yours."
Hmph. The wonderful world of the fair elves. Just last night they were planning to rob her, give her to the Chaos-worshipper for his amusement, and then sell her, but it didn't work out. And today they're talking normally. The would-be victim doesn't voice any complaints. How do the Druchii not go insane? Living like this in constant tension, expecting that even allies might stab you in the back at any moment... Though who's to say they aren't insane? They are, and quite massively so.
From the room where I had slept, the sound of rhythmic tapping on stone could be heard. That was the Skink trying to get rid of the foul signs on the walls as quickly as possible.
"There is a spacious circular room here with a level floor," Liandra informed me. "An ideal place for training. We need to go to the surface for supplies, and then we can work on your combat technique."
Sounds great. Actually, it would be better to send the Shades to the surface, but we can't trust them with buying provisions. That means I'll have to expose myself again. Choosing the lesser of two risks.