Memoirs of a Fallen God

Chapter 28

“Blood?” Tismet stuck his head out the doors and glanced around. “Where? Sometimes we have strays squabbling in the alley here. It might be your sensitive nose picked up on that.”

I shook my head. If only it were that simple. “I smell blood. The same way I smell stone.” I tapped him on the chest. “And dying flowers.” I nodded at Myara.

“Hey! You didn’t tell me they were dying.”

Conveniently, the seriousness of the situation gave me an excuse to pretend I didn't notice the annoyance in her voice. “There is blood on the wind. Blood magic. I’ve smelt it before.”

“Bleeders? Here?” Tine stepped out of the doorway and looked up and down the street. “But how could that be possible? We’re nowhere near the shore.”

“A village was attacked only a few days ago, less than a hundred miles from here. And the fort…well, let’s just say there is suspicion about how it burned.”

Myara took a furtive glance up and down the street, but seemed to notice nothing out of place. “You think there might be bleeders in the city? Spies, maybe?”

I shrugged. “That might be it. I don’t think so, though. They don’t seem like the spying type. I don’t even know if they can understand our language.” I shook my head, glancing up toward the sky to the east, the direction the feeling seemed to be coming from. “I think something bad is about to happen.”

Tine stepped out to stand beside us. “No sense having your very own magic detector if you don’t listen to him. Do we run or do we fight?” He seemed, to me, startlingly unfazed by my declaration of looming danger. “The city has a good stout wall, and there must be half a regiment of troops and officers in town, you know--though half of them are likely too drunk to buckle on their sword belts. Still, we’re hardly defenseless. Even the townsfolk will put up a fight if it comes to it.”

“I don’t know. It’s too vague for me to say an attack is coming, or there are bleeders outside the walls…or anything, really. I think panicking the city is the worst thing we could do. But I do think I need to warn the fort. Tonight.” The thought of such a long journey in the middle of the night, and of attempting to explain how I was so sure of an enemy presence, weren’t thoughts I relished, but I didn’t see a way around it. If the bleeders got into the city it would be a slaughter.

“You’ll have to lie,” Tismet said, matter-of-factly. “Tell them you saw enemy troops, or signs of a blood sacrifice. Something like that. Easier than trying to explain your…talent. And safer.”

I nodded. Lying to a superior was a bad idea in general, but letting a wizardborn know I could sense magical residue in the air seemed like an even worse idea. At least I’d be able to tell Jeer.

“I’m coming with you,” Myara said, stepping to my side.

“Nonsense,” Tismet said. “You’ll stay in the Temple with me. We’ll weather this storm as we’ve weathered all others.”

“Nonsense,” I repeated, though my heart raced a little faster just for knowing she wanted to go.

She rolled her eyes. “As if either of you could stop me.” She turned back to Tismet, who had stepped back to the Temple doors. “It’s our town in danger, Tismet. How can we ask these soldiers to risk their lives defending it if we’re not willing to take a little risk ourselves? I know you must stay here, Tis, and that this Temple is important to protect. But if it’s so important to get a message to the fort, well, I’d say I stand a better chance of getting there unseen than any soldier. Besides,” she added, as if stating the most obvious thing in the world, “if the danger is here, in the city—wouldn’t I be safer heading away from it?”

Tismet opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it closed. With a sigh that verged on poetry, he shook his head. “I am not your keeper, Myara. Just your friend. You’re quite right, if you want to go, I can’t stop you. I think it’s foolhardy, but then, I’m no stranger to playing the fool. At least your foolishness is for a good cause.” Strangely, he smiled at me as he said the last.

I would have argued, but it would have taken time I didn’t have, and I had a strong feeling nothing I said would have changed her mind. Besides, I didn’t really want to.

“Myara, can you take me back to the tavern? I can’t leave without my friends…and your secrets should be safe with them, too. They won’t ask too many questions. I think they trust me, and they have secrets of their own. Besides, the tavern is on the way.”

Myara stared at me for a long moment, appraising. Then she shrugged. “What’s one more risk? I suppose if they rat me out, at least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ll be hanging from the tree beside me.”

“No sense standing around, then,” Tismet said. “The Seven watch out for you both.” He stepped forward and clasped Myara in a fierce hug, and gave me a nod over her shoulder. “I hope me meet again in better days, Telth. Good luck.” He stepped back into his Temple, and the broad stone doors closed with a dull thud of finality.

We were half way to the tavern when a range of voices cried out from near the east wall. A moment later came the furious ringing of an alarm bell.

“Fire,” Myara said, staring from beneath a hand, off toward the direction of the alarm. “Can just see the blaze starting up from here.” She glanced toward me. “Could that be what you’re sensing?”

I thought for a moment, took a deep breath, letting the strange sense wash through me. “No. Wrong direction. And it’s still out there, as strong as ever.”

“So they started a fire as a distraction, do you think?” Myara asked, as she started leading me toward the tavern once more at a jog. I would have rather a dead run, but realized sprinting through unfamiliar streets in the night was likely asking for trouble. “You said they burned the fort to the ground. Maybe that’s their plan here, too. Get all the people out of their homes, scurrying around like a bunch of panicking ants on an overturned anthill, and then, and then…”

“And then the foot comes crashing down,” I said, hoping she was wrong. Strange, that I’d never really attributed any real intelligence to the bleeders before that moment. I mean, it was clear that they, or at least some of the leaders among them, were capable of formulating extensive campaigns that put the best defenses we could mount to the test. A test that was failing, as it happened.

Yet in all the real world, all-too-close-up-and-personal experience I’d had with their kind, they truly seemed to be what all the stories portended—little more than bloodthirsty savages mindlessly bent on harvesting innocent Imperials for the liquid gold that ran through their veins. They seemed incapable of speech, incapable even of the most basic survival instincts, considering the way they threw themselves against us during the village encounter. Even the shaman, for all of his power, hadn’t seemed much more aware than his minions.

Where, then, was the mind behind it all? Myara’s fears had me thinking: were we the ants, or were they? For that’s what the bleeders I’d encountered so far seemed to be. Ants.

Surely there had to be something more. Some hidden layer we were missing. Some piece of the puzzle that would make sense of it all. And hopefully something we could put a sword through.

“Telth,” Myara said, grabbing me by the shoulder and shaking me from my thoughts. “We’re here.” I’d been so caught up in my inner musings I hadn’t even noticed we’d reached the tavern.

I glanced toward the warm glow of the tavern doorway. I turned back to her. “Give me a few minutes. If things start to look bad and I’m not back…just go. Follow the road until you come to the fort, ask for a sergeant named Jeer. Tell him his least favorite recruit, the one who once wore a brand, sent you. He’ll listen.” I glanced away from her. “And…and I’m glad I met you, Myara. Even if the bleeders bring the town down around our heads, it was worth it.”

“Oh, stow that kind of talk, would you?” Myara said, giving me a gentle shove toward the door. But even as I turned away, I caught the shadow of a smile on her lips as the words left her mouth. “Get your friends.”

I dashed into the still bustling tavern, wondering, as I passed through the door and into the noisy common room, how the hell I was going to convince my friends to leave the warm embrace of earthly pleasures for a night of cold jungle and fear.