Sev moved away into some ruins, surprisingly silent for such a big person.
Pierce needn't have feared waking the leader of Gorgonbane. Axebourne was already up, stoically watching the still, silent Testadel.
"Hey, sir," Pierce said, coming up beside Axebourne.
"What you doin' up, kid? I've got the watch, no worries."
"I actually was asleep, but..."
"You hear something, see something?" Axebourne asked.
"We have a defector, sir," Pierce said. "Someone I know from my time in Testadel."
Axebourne's eyes were bright in the dark. "That forgemaster that had pity on you?" he said.
"Yes, sir. Seventy-seven. I call him Sev," said Pierce.
Axebourne was quiet a moment. "Alright," he said. "Where is he?"
"I'll go get him, sir," Pierce said. He began to move away, then stopped, looking back over his shoulder. "You won't execute him, will you?"
Axebourne didn't answer at first. Pierce had seen the way he treated the people he cared about - his wife, his comrades and friends. Inwardly he must be aching at the day's events. He might wish to avenge it in part on one of Kash's minions.
"No, son," he said at last. "I won't kill him."
Pierce fetched Sev from his hiding place, cautioning him to stick to the shadows as they skirted the camp toward Axebourne's position. He'd hate for someone to randomly wake and feel threatened. They might attack, despite Pierce's presence.
Soon they reached Axebourne, who clearly still couldn't see the forgemaster. By this point, Pierce had gotten a sense of what to look for - a spot that was just a little too dark, even in the night shadows of the razed city.
"It's okay, Sev," Pierce said. "Go ahead and... well do whatever, so he can see you."
There seemed to be a hesitation, but Sev deactivated his doubleblack enchantment and appeared just a few feet away from them.
The forgemaster was large and imposing in stature, but something about his bearing removed any threat of violence. He hunched forward slightly, as if the years of toiling away at his forges and worktables had warped the shape of his spine. His head was tilted down, his shoulders drawn in, giving him a wizened look. A grey leather apron hung from his neck and down to the knees of his baggy pants. His skin, too, was grey, looking dry and cracked, as if he were made of stone.
He had fixed Pierce with deep-set black eyes.
He trusts me, Pierce thought. Why? All I did was not to kill him.
"So you're the Forgemaster Seventy-Seven," said Axebourne.
"Just Forgemaster Seventy-Seven, sir," said Sev. "No the."
"Pierce here has told us a lot about you. That was some good work on the blue dust." He said the color's name strangely, as if barely familiar with it.
Sev straightened a little at the praise. His rough lips flattened in something Pierce thought might be a smile.
"So what makes you want to leave the Underlord's service?" asked Axebourne. "Has he not treated you well?" This may have been sarcasm, but Sev didn't get it.
"You are the Cleaver," Sev said. "They still talk about you in Testadel."
"Do they?" Axebourne said knowingly. "And what do they say?"
"That you... cleaved a thousand gen's heads from their shoulders in the Alban wars."
The Cleaver looked out toward Testadel. "Hmm," he said. "Well, close enough."
Sev cast his eyes to the ground. "Yes, Kash treats us well. We are fed whatever we wish, and he helps us strengthen our bodies." He put a hand on his opposite bicep, which bulged under the grey skin. "That wasn't why I desired to leave."
"Why, then?"
Sev followed Axebourne's gaze toward the fortress.
"When Pierce didn't kill me," he said, "I saw a side of Overlanders, a side of everything, I'd never seen before."
He turned his face back to Pierce. "I realize how stupid that sounds," he said. "I'm not simple."
Pierce held up his hands. "Hey, I think I get it," he said. He thought he did.
"I knew you came to steal a bauble or weapon," Sev said, "but I could just tell it wasn't only for glory. You had a purpose. You knew what you wanted out of life, and you were going for it." He looked down again. "Forgemasters don't do that. No one really said we couldn't, but we just don't. So I decided I wanted to find a purpose too."
"With Gorgonbane," Pierce said.
Sev shook his big, bald head. "No. Maybe. It's more that this is the only place I could think of to start."
The three of them were silent. Then Axebourne turned his head to study the forgemaster for a long minute.
"Bah," he growled, but smiled. "I'm no Scythia, to judge the truth in a man. If Pierce trusts you, though, then I do too. Don't make me regret it, Sev Blueforger."
Sev gave another flat smile and awkwardly offered his arm for Axebourne to clasp. The Cleaver chuckled and took it firmly.
"Grip of a dogran, man!" he said. Then, "Come, Pierce, I'm tired of staring at that scum-sucking place. No offense, forgemaster. You take a shift while I go spoon my wife." Axebourne slapped him on the back as he walked away, and Pierce was left on watch with Sev.
"What will you do now?" Sev asked when the Cleaver had gone.
"I don't think we know," said Pierce. "I don't think it's really set in that Grondell is gone. I mean, we're still in it, but now, it's nothing. They called it the Everlasting Temple. People studied the ways of the Blacksmith, and all the forms of power he gifted to us. There was art there from... who knows how long ago. All gone. I'm staring at it right now, but still, it's like it happened in a dream. Like it's not real."
"Such was my master's... such was the Underlord's plan," said Sev. "He
