for as a trained Guilder Tilda had some ability to spot various sorts of traps, and the shukenja had magic of a similar kind. Tilda carried her bow with an arrow on the string, ready to draw it back in a hurry. John Deskata kept close behind them, with Uriako Shikashe and Nesha-tari a few paces further back. Zeb with his crossbow and Brother Heggenauer with mace and shield were the rear guard. The group traveled mostly in silence, though even from the front of the line Tilda occasionally heard a profound sigh from Zeb, far in the rear.
For most of the day the group made their way at a decent if not quite brisk pace further south along the black streets. Every building in the city seemed to have been fashioned from the same stone material, albeit cut into blocks of different sizes. The walls of some structures were stacked simply like bricks, while others were assembled in complicated patterns almost like pictographs. After a few hours of moving while carefully scanning the street ahead for any sign of a tripwire or trigger, Tilda found the unremitting sameness of the surroundings to be very hard on her eyes. A time or two she had to stop and clear her head as her surroundings began to bleed together into one indistinguishable mass, a phenomenon she knew could happen on a gray day at sea when the sky and the water were virtually the same color.
The surroundings became ever more bland as the white disk of the sun visible in the mist above moved to the west. Night would fall early in the city on the valley floor and the party began to observe the buildings they passed more closely, seeking one in which they could spend the hours of darkness. They had all in one place or another heard some legends and rumors of Vod’Adia. During the day a party might move on the streets unmolested, only finding harm if they ventured indoors. Of course adventurers would have to go indoors to find anything worth looting, but that was not what Tilda’s band was after. At night the situation in Blackstone was reversed, for the monstrous denizens of the place ventured out, while the wise party found a place to batten down the hatches.
The trick would be making the switch, and finding a safe place to hide without disturbing something already within. When the sun was so low that the shadows were obscuring the street, they spotted a place that seemed likely. It was a free-standing square structure situated on a corner, lower at two stories than its neighbors but far enough away from them to make getting to the roof difficult. The only access was by two doors on the adjoining streets, which both gave into the same angled front hall. The windows were all on the second floor and they were narrow as arrow slits. The roof looked to be flat and was lined with battlements. The place looked like a miniature fortress, and Deskata ventured the guess it had been a base for city constables, or perhaps some sort of armory.
With only a half hour of useful daylight remaining Tilda and Amatesu crept in to reconnoiter the place, accompanied respectively by Heggenauer and Zebulon. They covered the ground floor rapidly, finding that the building was a hollow square with an empty central courtyard. The high-ceilinged chambers of the first floor had been kitchens, storage, and a dining hall, but all had clearly been ransacked long ago. Stairs were found leading both up and down, and as they heard not the faintest noise in the place nor saw any tracks in the ample dust, the pairs split up to save time. Amatesu crept upstairs with a lantern, Zeb behind her with his crossbow at the ready, while Tilda stepped down a narrow flight of stone steps with her bow at a half pull, Heggenauer behind her with a torch and his mace, shield on his back.
The basement had been an armory. There was a great iron door at a landing but it had been blasted open and the chambers beyond contained only empty racks. Tilda looked at the ruined lock of the door and wondered if it had been destroyed by magic or a powder charge. Given that it had probably been done at least a hundred years ago at an earlier Opening of Vod’Adia, she supposed it had not been powder.
Before she could return up the stairs Heggenauer stopped Tilda by saying her name, or at least, “Miss Lanai.”
Tilda looked at him. They stood in the small circle of torchlight and the flickering flame played to good effect across the acolyte’s handsome features. Tilda knew that was neither here nor there at the moment, but she did notice.
“Brother Heggenauer?”
His face was serious and his blue eyes focused on her intently. Tilda resisted the urge to push any loose strands of hair from her braid back behind her ears.
“You told Sister Paveline you would go after the Duchess, as the lady was under your protection.”
“Yes,” Tilda said. “So did you.”
Heggenauer nodded. “I want to know if you meant it. Is helping the Duchess your true reason for entering Vod’Adia?”
Tilda knew exactly why she was here, even if she had not said it out loud. She did so now.
“Claudja is my friend,” she said quietly, but with force.
Heggenauer smiled faintly, and his posture relaxed. “Good,” he said, and looked up the stairs. There was no sound from above but he took a step closer, holding the torch out to the side and speaking in a low whisper.
“I do not trust the woman, Nesha-tari. She may be here just to stop the Circle Wizard and retrieve his book for the Shugak, but I am not so sure she is as disinterested in the Duchess’s fate as has been implied. She is a Zant after all, as were the men who arranged the Duchess’s abduction.”
Tilda blinked. “Yes, but didn’t she and her people fight against the Ayonites with you and Sir Towsan?”
“They did, but protecting the Duchess did not seem to factor in that. Ayzantium, politically and otherwise, is a contentious place. Nesha-tari could be of a faction opposed to the Fire Priests, yet she could still have her own nefarious plans. The Duchess Perforce may be a part of them.”
Tilda thumbed the string of her short bow.
“You are telling me this as more than a warning,” she said. “You want me to do something.”
The corner of Heggenauer’s mouth turned up a bit more.
“I have heard Miilarkians have sharp eyes, I see now that it is true. Yes, Miss Lanai. While I do not trust the Zant woman, I find it harder to make judgment on the foreigners with her.”
“Foreigners?” Tilda asked, perhaps a tad defensive.
“The Far Westerners, and the Minauan as well. They may be in Madame Nesha-tari’s employ, but they seem…somehow more honorable.”
Tilda could have told Heggenauer that as a samurai and a shukenja, the Westerners were not so different than a Norothian knight and a cleric. They would know as much about honor as a Jobian from Exland, if not more. She could not immediately think of a way to say that however that would not have come out as waspish, and she found she did not want to hurt Heggenauer’s feelings. He was the only person here apart from Tilda herself who seemed to be worried about Claudja.
“What exactly do you want me to do?” she asked.
There was noise from above, Zebulon’s ring mail jingling as he and Amatesu returned down the stairs to the first floor. Heggenauer leaned in close to Tilda’s ear and whispered.
“I have been walking next to Zebulon all day. He likes you. You may be able to talk to him.”
Tilda blinked again. “He said something?”
Both sides of Heggenauer’s mouth turned up in a smile.
“No. But I have seen where he rests his eyes.”
The light of Amatesu’s lamp was approaching the top of the stairs.
“We should go,” Heggenauer said, and turned to lead the way.
“Brother Heggenauer,” Tilda said, but when he turned to look back she closed her mouth and shook her head. They both went up the stairs to meet the others.
The Islanders of Miilark often drew sharp distinctions between themselves and foreigners as well. Tilda had almost violated that sort of chauvinism, and possibly the interests of her House, as for a moment she had wanted to warn the Codian cleric to trust John Deskata least of all.
*
The party was busy for the next hour as night settled over the city. They closed up the broken doors to the street and nailed them shut with tent spikes, then used a bunkroom’s worth of old bed frames with the ropes long since worn away to seal off one long gallery upstairs, along with the corner room that overlooked the adjoining streets through arrow slits. They set aside some boards to brace shut the door that gave access to the stairs connecting to the central courtyard and the flat roof, but left it unsealed for the time being.
The supplies the Shugak had provided included some iron cookware, and Nesha-tari managed to start a small fire in the courtyard from old wood. Tilda did not see her do it but thought the woman may have had to use
