Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 70

Quigly dropped into the chair. "You weren't kidding," he told Jackal, who grinned.

"Am I ever?" Tibs's friend frowned. "What am I not kidding about this time?" It was only them at the table. Mez was off with his girl, something about making her parents happy. Don had been asked to join other corruption sorcerers for something. Probably reading and talking about stuff that gave people headaches. Khumdar was... well, Tibs had no idea, and had stopped worrying about it some time ago. The cleric had his own things.

"The fourth floor," Quigly said. "What is that thing?"

"Can't talk about it," Jackal said. "You know the—"

"Get off it," the warrior said, lowering his voice. "You're the first one to break the rules when it suits you."

Jackal looked at Tibs, who used the excuse of looking around to confirm no one was close-by to channel air and make a bubble to keep sounds from leaving the table. The inn was already quiet, so nothing changed in what reached them. Then he nodded to his friend.

"Did the guard tell you the fourth floor had been reached?" Jackal asked, extending an open palm to the warrior.

With a sigh, Quigly put a gold coin in it. "What did it look like?"

"A city," Jackal answered casually.

The warrior stared, and finally whispered, "How is that possible? Dungeons are just passages and rooms with traps and monsters there to kill us." He moved to raise his tankard, but Tibs stopped him.

"Once we're done," he said.

"How do we know what dungeons are about?" Jackal said, smirking.

"It's what bards sing about them being," Quigly stated.

"You shouldn't believe them," Tibs grumbled. He'd caught one practicing, and it had sounded a lot like the song was about the Siege, except for the fact the guild had been part of defending the town. Paying attention to others, Tibs had noticed how nearly all the songs were about adventurers and the guild coming to the defense of people. He'd wanted to ask if they had song about Adventurers who got branded. Those who left the guild, but he'd been worried about what they'd think. What they might report to the guild.

Who better to spy for them than the bards?

"You're smart, Tibs. What do you think it's about?"

"I don't know," He replied defensively. Then shushed them as Kroseph brought them tankards. Quigly had to suspect he knew everything they did, being Jackal's man, but Tibs didn't want to risk revealing it now. He finished his tankard as the server placed the replacement on the table.

"You okay?" Quigly asked, then looked at Jackal. "Don't you ever let him rest?"

"I'm not the one pulling him to bed all the time," the fighter protested. "He's the insatiable one." He looked at his man with concern. "When he's feeling better."

Kroseph kissed the top of Jackal's head. "It'll pass. The last caravan must have brought more than their wares. Something's been going around."

"The caravan was here weeks ago," Quigly said.

Kroseph shrugged. "Only way a sickness could get here. The platform has magic to prevent those coming through from spreading them."

"I didn't know that," Tibs said.

"They don't talk about it. I know because dad asked when he was considering opening the inn here."

"I'm feeling fine," Quigly said.

His essence felt fine too, just like Jackal's, and Kroseph's, and anyone Tibs sensed. But just like all of them, the warrior's temper had been easier to trigger.