warforged shook its head at the justicar.
“You must think they made me with half a mind.” Superior looked up at the guards over the prisoners and said. “Kill them.”
“No!” Xalt said.
The guards raised their swords high in the air.
Xalt held out its clenched fist. A wide band of gold shone on its thick, outside finger, a ring forged for a warforged. “Stop!” he said.
Superior scoffed, but the guards stayed frozen with their arms in the air. After a moment, the warforged leader lost his patience.
“What’s going on?” Superior said. “Kill them!” He tried to point at the prisoners, but his hand couldn’t move either.
Xalt walked up to Superior and flicked a finger into the center of the leader’s face. It rang like a muffled bell.
“You!” Superior growled. “What have you done, greaser?”
Xalt turned to the prisoners and gestured for them to rise. Sallah and Brendis looked to Deothen for guidance. Kandler jumped to his feet and helped the old man to stand. The other knights rose, and Sallah freed Brendis from his bonds as Kandler untied Deothen.
“Xalt!” Superior said.
The artificer in the grubby tabard turned back to Superior. “You mean, ‘greaser’?” he said. “You called me that to disparage me. You never thought much of me until something broke on you. Until you needed me.”
“Undo this, Xalt,” Superior said, desperation creeping into its voice. “It’s not too late. I understand your frustration. Put an end to this, and all will be forgiven.”
“I don’t need your forgiveness,” Xalt said. “I wanted respect, from you and the others.” He put his hands to the sides of its head. “How I ever expected to get that, I don’t know. That’s how we got into this situation. It’s why you insisted on killing these people. You don’t respect any life but your own!”
“Xalt. I am… I am sorry.”
“You’re a bad liar.” Xalt knelt down and picked up the prisoners’ swords. Deothen’s staff lay among them. The war-forged handed them back to their owners one by one. “You’d better go now,” he told them. “They won’t be frozen for much longer.”
“What did you do to them?” said Kandler.
Xalt chuckled. “A little invention of my own. I worked on everyone in this camp at one point or another. It wasn’t hard to guess that I might want a fail-safe installed on each of them at some point.”
Kandler clapped the warforged on the back. “Smart,” he said.
“Not smart enough!” Superior said. He drew his sword.
Xalt stood stunned, frozen to the spot like most of the other warforged around. “H-how?” he said.
Kandler brought his blade up to parry Superior’s blow, but it wasn’t aimed at him. Instead, it sliced into Xalt’s hand. The thick finger bearing the golden ring tumbled into the dirt.
“You think I didn’t see what you did?” Superior raged at the maimed warforged. “I found what you implanted into me. I removed it weeks ago.”
“But-but…” Xalt stared at its unmoving finger lying on the ground.
“I faked being frozen when you betrayed us,” Superior said. “I wanted to give you a chance to redeem yourself. I believed you were still one of us.”
Kandler spun about, his blade at the ready. The other warforged were no longer frozen. They surrounded him and the knights.
“You made your choice, greaser,” Superior said. “You chose to stand with the breathers. Now you’re going to die with them.”
Chapter 40
Kandler slashed at Superior with his blade, but the war-forged leader stepped back and waited for his fellows to join in. The justicar took advantage of the momentary space to reach down and scoop up Xalt’s severed finger. It was cool to the touch, wet with whatever fluid passed for warforged blood, and not as heavy as Kandler had expected.
The knights formed a tight circle, covering each other’s back. Sallah reached out and pulled Kandler in to join them. As he fell back, he grabbed Xalt by the collar of its grease-stained tabard and pulled him into the circle’s center. He was busy binding his wound, trying to staunch the flow of his own blood.
While the other warforged surrounded Kandler and the knights, their swords rattling in anticipation of the coming fight, the justicar tossed Xalt his loose finger. The greaser caught it with his good hand, bobbled it for a moment, and then cradled it close to its chest.
“Surrender!” Superior said. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
“On you or us?” said Kandler. “Aren’t you going to kill us either way?”
“You are good and valiant foes,” Superior said. “If you put down your swords, I guarantee you passage from this land.”
“We will die before we submit to you again,” Deothen said. “You tricked us into lowering our weapons once. We will not fall for such chicanery again.”
“I promised you passage from this land,” Superior said with a chuckle that raised Kandler’s hackles. “I just didn’t mention it would be into the afterlife-assuming you have those souls you believe in so much.”
“Step a little closer,” Kandler said, brandishing his blade. “I’ll give you a chance to tour the next world yourself.”
A shadow fell over the combatants. Even in the dimness of the Mournland, Kandler felt the change. He stabbed out at Superior, testing the warforged’s skill, and glanced into the sky as the inevitable parry came.
A smile split Kandler’s face as he looked back into Superior’s eyes. “Surprise,” he said.
The shadow grew larger around them. Superior stepped back out of Kandler’s range and looked up to see what had made the justicar so happy. He gasped and staggered back.
The other warforged looked up to see what had their leader’s attention. As one, they goggled at the airship as she sailed down at them from out of the sky.
“Scatter!” Kandler shouted. “The ring’s coming right for us!”
The warforged turned and ran. Brendis and Sallah started to follow, but Kandler reached out and hauled them back. “That was just to scare them off. Stick close to me. We’re hitching a ride as soon as that thing come down low enough.”
Sallah pointed to the rope ladder dangling down from the side of the ship. “We can’t all climb that at once. They’ll cut us to pieces.”
“That’s not the only way to get on that ship.” Kandler’s stomach flipped as he spoke. While he was thrilled to not be executed, the thought of Esprл diving so bravely into danger made him nauseous. He hoped Burch was with her.
Deothen stared at the justicar. “Where, by the light of the Flame, did you find an airship?”
Kandler herded the crew over to one side of where he thought the ship would land. “It wasn’t through a life of prayer,” he said.
Brendis stared at Sallah. “It’s the prophecy,” he said. “Only a fate as large as yours could command such fortune.”
“Quit yapping and get ready to jump on the lower arch when it hits the ground,” Kandler said. He didn’t know if the arch would come that close to the ground, but he hoped that Esprл and Burch would brave it.
“When it hits the ground?” Sallah said. “If that arch breaks, the entire ship might explode.”
“It’s that or the warforgeds’ blades. Take your pick.”
“I’ll go with you if I may,” said Xalt. Kandler could hear the pain in the warforged’s voice. “I think I’ve worn out my welcome here.”
Kandler glanced at the greaser and grinned. “It’s the least we can do.”
