Kandler saw the backs of his friends disappear through the portal straight in front of him, which formed a long, dark tunnel. A moment later a roar went up from the other side of the wall.
“By the forge that made me,” Xalt said, reaching out his good hand to slow Kandler down. “Tell me they didn’t go in there.”
The warforged dragged the justicar to a stop and stared up at the wall with his jaw wide open. The structure stood four stories tall and stretched from one edge of the city to the other, at least a hundred yards across at this point. With the exception of the tunnels that ran through its base at regular intervals, it was a solid wall of graying tarpaulins stretched taut over an intricate wooden frame, the outlines of which were visible beneath the thick, oiled canvas.
Kandler spun back at the stunned artificer. “What is it?” he said.
The warforged didn’t seem to hear him.
“Xalt!” the justicar said. “What’s through there?”
“This is bad,” Xalt said. “Not just bad. Awful.”
Kandler stepped into the artificer’s face. “Can you be more specific?”
Xalt brought his obsidian eyes back down to look at Kandler. He focused on the justicar as if he were seeing him for the first time. “It’s the arena,” the artificer said. “And from the sound of it, there’s a match going on.”
Kandler closed his eyes.
“What is it?” Esprл said as she turned around in his arms to stare at Xalt. “What’s going to happen to Burch and Sallah?”
The justicar kissed the girl’s cheek, never taking his eyes from the artificer. “How many warforged in there?” he asked.
Xalt shook his head. “That must be why the streets are so empty.”
“How many, Xalt?”
The greaser spoke slowly, as if waking from a deep sleep. “A few score at least. Hundreds? Maybe more.”
Kandler grimaced as another roar sounded from inside the arena.
Esprл pulled back from Kandler’s neck and sat on his hip. She furrowed her brow at him. “What’s going to happen to them?” she asked.
Kandler looked back at her, and her eyes were as blue and wide as he had ever seen them. He reached up with his free arm and brushed the blonde hair back from the elf-girl’s face. Even in the Mournland’s half-light, it seemed to glitter.
“I just found you,” he whispered.
Kandler kissed Esprл on her forehead and handed her to Xalt.
“Get her out of here,” he said. “Take her someplace safe till things quiet down, then get her back to Deothen.”
Xalt nodded as the girl slid from Kandler’s arms and grabbed his thick, three-fingered hand. She bit her lip and said, “Wait! I can help.”
Kandler shook his head. “The world needs you safe,” he said, “but our friends need me.” He drew his sword and stared down the black tunnel toward the circle of dim light at the other end. “I have to go.”
“Wait!” Xalt said. “What is the plan? What are you going to do?”
Kandler glanced back over his shoulder as he left and said, “I’ll be damned if I know.”
Chapter 49
As Kandler reached the end of the tarpaulin-lined tunnel, he saw Burch and Sallah racing into the middle of a sawdust-floored open area that seemed to stretch on forever. The shifter loosed his crossbow at something above, and Kandler poked his head out of the tunnel to see Te’oma flapping away on her cloak, which had transformed once again into batlike wings.
The justicar craned his head around to see the entire arena. Rough-hewn bleachers lined both of the longer sides of the place, each of which stood behind a system of split-rail fencing that kept the crowd separated from the arena floor. Hundreds of warforged stood in them and stared at the shifter and the knight who had just barreled into the place.
For a moment, it seemed that the observers thought the intruders were part of the show, but when Burch’s errant bolt sailed into the stands on the opposite side of the arena, the crowd leaped to its feet and roared in outrage. In the center of the arena, two of the largest warforged Kandler had ever seen turned from where they had put a halt to their fight and stomped toward the intruders.
“What in the name of the Silver Flame are those?” Kandler heard Sallah shout to Burch as she pointed at the massive creatures. They looked something like a warforged, but they stood over twenty feet tall, even hunched over. The plates of armor that formed their skin were each at least an inch thick, and foot-long spikes rose from their backplates and the backs of their limbs. In place of hands, their arms terminated in massive weapons. The right was a massive hammer made of battered granite. The left was an axe-head nearly as tall as a man.
As the creatures lumbered toward Burch and Sallah, they rasped their weapon-hands together. The edges of their steel axes drew huge lines of sparks from their hammers’ stony surfaces.
“Titans!” Burch exclaimed.
The arena floor shook with the massive creatures’ every tread.
Kandler glanced behind him and saw a squad of five war-forged warriors stomping up the tunnel behind him. “So much for the stealthy route,” he said to himself before dashing out to join Burch and Sallah on the arena floor.
As Kandler reached the pair, Burch growled a greeting at him. “Just like old times,” the shifter grinned with a bravado the justicar wished he felt.
Kandler shook his head as he looked up at the titans and said, “I don’t remember them being this bad.”
The lady knight stood transfixed by the sight of the creatures rumbling toward them. Kandler grabbed Sallah by the arm and turned her to face him. “Ready to fight?” he said.
Sallah stared at him with wide, green eyes. “Those things?” She pulled her arm away as if he was mad.
Kandler jerked his head toward where the warforged now blocked their way back through the tunnel. “I like those odds better,” he said.
As the words left his lips, he glanced about and saw identical squads standing at the end of each of the other tunnels. Their best shot was to try for the closest tunnel, right back the way they came.
The three warriors turned together and charged at the warforged standing in the mouth of the tunnel. The defenders stepped out to meet the intruders.
The titans slowed as they reached the brawl, unable to storm in against the strangers without killing their smaller brethren. Instead they stood hovering over the fight, their arms raised high as they waited for a chance to slam down a killing blow.
“Stop them!” a voice rang out from the stands, piercing through the noise of the battle and the roar of the crowd. “Capture them alive!”
“Follow me!” Kandler screamed as he engaged the first of the guards. Having been ordered not to kill, the warforged held back, and Kandler soon had the best of his foe. A shot from Burch’s crossbow took out another.
Just as Kandler saw his way clear to the nearest tunnel entrance-only a single warforged still stood in his way-something that looked like an ornate shield slammed down in front of him. Its edge bit deep into the floor as it sliced down through the hapless warforged before him, cutting it in half.
Kandler looked up and saw that the shield was actually the axe-arm of one of the titans. The monstrous creature shambled in front of the tunnel door as it tore its weapon from where it was embedded in the floor.
A scream came from behind Kandler, and he turned to see the other titan knock Sallah aside with its massive hammer. The blow smashed into her chest and sent her flying back and skittering across the arena floor. Her sword sailed away from her grasp and landed several yards beyond.
Kandler started to run toward the fallen knight, but the other titan’s hammer slammed down just behind him.
