Silas, and Feri and Asinis using their rings of disguise, followed Mr. Noarwin through the dark city streets. Feri stuck to Mr. Noarwin's side, seeming to know where he wanted to go. The streets they turned on carried a grimy scent hinted with iron and bile. Silas frowned at it and the steam curling from different building corners. The three moons, one a sliver in the sky, one almost full, and the last a dot behind them, provided some light, but not enough to show the faces of those they passed. They left that district into another. The smells softened. Some seemed herbal, though a little unclean, masking the closed up scents from the perfume and botanical shops. Mr. Noarwin entered a shack-like building wedged between them. No one occupied the counter where a snake plant sprouted in a clay pot, but the sound of someone's weight shifting on the plankboard floor signaled their arrival hadn't gone unnoticed.
A half-orc entered from a side room and scowled when he saw them. Silas's guard rose at the way he regarded Mr. Noarwin, but Mr. Noarwin showed no signs of intimidation. Was the half-orc baring his teeth for show?
"What're you doing back so soon, Noarwin?" he asked, stomping past him and throwing a wet, soiled cloth on a nearby table with a pile of others.
"There's a party below, isn't there. I need passage," Mr. Noarwin said.
"Most people have to pay to use this entrance, and you bringing so many folk is defeating the purpose of a secret door."
Mr. Noarwin chuckled. "How about this, Waverly. In exchange for letting us through, I'll take Dar off your hands for the night."
The half-orc, Waverly, paused, one eyebrow cocked as he considered. "The whole night?"
"Sure. I've got a job he's too stupid to refuse." Mr. Noarwin shrugged.
"Will it kill him?" Waverly asked.
"Nah," Mr. Noarwin said.
"Damn. Then what's the point?"
"A night where you don't have to worry about anything getting broken," Mr. Noarwin purred.
Waverly pinched his lips. His yellow gaze flitted to the room he'd come from. "Fine. Take him and go. I don't want to see you or him or any of your friends until after dawn," he said.
"You have a deal, Mr. Waverly." Mr. Noarwin all but pranced past him.
Silas, curious, followed despite the others hanging back. He peeked in after Mr. Noarwin, who'd approached a mass of blue-gray stone slumped and sitting in the center of the room. Mr. Noarwin planted a kiss on its cheek as he leaned on it.
"Good evening, Dar. How about you and me go on a little adventure," Mr. Noarwin said.
Silas stepped into the room. Two eyes of moss-green light blinked on an arrow-shaped face. Its flat head bent toward Mr. Noarwin, the change in its eye shape making it appear pleased. The runes on its body glowed brighter, and it rose with the grinding of stone.
"Careful not to upset your big brother by breaking anything," Mr. Noarwin reminded Dar, who hesitated before moving more deliberately.
"What is such a creature doing here?" Silas asked. He'd seen similar beings in the woods. Most slept longer than he did and rarely ventured out among civilization. They bore from a mix of magic and earth, and some by a mage's hand. This one felt different, though Silas couldn't pinpoint why.
Dar, the golem, approached to look down at Silas, who stood a head and a half shorter than it.
"Dar, this is my friend, Silas. Say hello," Mr. Noarwin said.
YOU ARE READING
Cerberus Rex, Nameless
FantasyIn the woods south of the capital, a man born of magic wakes after a long sleep to experience his first taste of tragedy. Broken by the loss of one who cared for him, he becomes a monster he's never transformed into before. When he wakes up, a small...
