Kingmaker

CHAPTER 47

  A horn sounded from the direction of Urgaruna.

  “They’re calling in their rear guard,” Phedam interpreted.

  “We’d better join them, then,” Tirud said. “In the press, no one will doubt we are Akdren.”

  “Can’t we just dig a tunnel the way we did before?” Butu asked.

  Everyone looked at Lujo except Jani. Lujo shook his head, staring resolutely at the tent wall. Blay looked down at the sand.

  Something’s eating him. What happened to him, last night?

  “Corp, what are our orders?” Tirud asked.

  Blay met Tirud’s eyes. The red-skinned sordenu saluted. Slowly, everyone else did as well, and Butu forced himself to do the same. Tirud is right. We’ll need the whole squad for this, and that includes Blay.

  Blay nodded and saluted back.

  “We’ll try it Tirud’s way first,” he announced. “But if we can’t find a way to the city, we might have no choice. This way, the option is still there.”

  “Only if we need it,” Retus said, his voice not cracking.

  “Only if we need it,” Blay agreed.

  “Let’s go,” Tirud said. “The Kadrak army will be here soon, and...”

  Butu completed the sentence. “And if they catch us, they’ll execute us as deserters.”

  Blay and Tirud didn’t answer, but the squad filed out of the tent in the predawn light and joined the lines of Akdren soldiers ascending rope ladders into Urgaruna. Butu couldn’t quite shake the fear one of Philquek’s guards would recognize Lujo or him, but he sensed no familiar people nearby.

  The Ahjea walked with the confidence of a squad of sordenu who knew exactly where they were going, and no one questioned them. Butu and Lujo guided them through the maze of rooms, each filled with Akdren soldiers — eating, gambling, sleeping, or doing all the other things soldiers did between battles.

  They don’t have enough food and water to survive a long siege, but there’s little they can do except wait.

  At last, they neared the tunnels down. No guards patrolled back here. As far as the Akdren were concerned, everything important had been removed from Urgaruna.

  “We’ll need a lamp,” Butu said quietly when he was sure none of the Akdren could hear them.

  “I thought you could still see in the dark,” Lujo commented, hugging himself as if cold, though the air was slightly warm. “Have you lost it?”

  “No, but the way to the road down is marked, and I can’t see the marks without light.”

  Blay and Tirud nodded. They passed through a dark room filled with sleeping Akdren. Retus grabbed the extinguished lantern with the most oil and a piece of flint. They could easily use a sword for its steel. At the entrance to the winding tunnels, he lit the lamp and handed it to Butu, who gestured to Blay and Tirud.

  “The chalk marks the way in. The charcoal marks the way out,” Butu explained, holding the dim light up to the wall so they could see.

  “So, you’ve learned to see,” Tirud said, clearly pleased.

  Butu blushed at the compliment. I have, haven’t I? “I wouldn’t have claimed to know where Pisor was if I couldn’t take you to it. This wasn’t just a ploy to keep us from having to kill Amber.”

  “I never said it was,” Blay said defensively. He glanced over his shoulder.

  “Second thoughts?” Tirud asked.

  Blay shook his head but said nothing.

  They traveled single file through seemingly identical, narrow corridors carved through grey-black basalt by the magic of children. Butu led, holding the lantern.

  “We should’ve brought extra oil,” Jani said, pointing to their rapidly dwindling supply. Only about half remained.

  “It’s too late to go back for more,” Butu said. “The road should be just ahead, and there aren’t any more branches after that. We’ll have to make do with whatever we can find in the city to get back. Maybe some of Philquek’s men left lamps behind.”

  “Maybe.” Jani didn’t sound like she believed it.

  The lantern’s reservoir was only a quarter full by the time they reached the far side of the maze. Butu snuffed the fire as soon as he was sure they had reached the long tunnel. The squad started lamenting their lack of oil only minutes after the light was gone. Only Butu could see the tunnel despite the darkness. To him, the slope was gentle, and the floor was smooth. His squadmates seemed doomed to find every hole and jutting point of rock along the way, stumbling, tripping and sometimes even falling hard, scraping elbows and knees.

  Jani and Lujo and I didn’t have this much trouble the first time! Butu thought, picking Retus up again. He couldn’t help but notice how the other sordenu’s arms had gotten thicker.

  “Shanubu!” Retus muttered. “It’s almost like the Urgarun curse is still working, but all it can do to us now is make us bruise our shins.”

  “The city is well-lit,” Butu assured them cheerfully. “It’s not as bright as sunlight, but it’s brighter even than a triple full moon.”

  At last, they reached the edge of the city. The Urgarun Wail burbled under the bridge, echoing like the weeping of a small child. Butu, Lujo and Jani took several steps onto the bridge before Butu noticed the rest of their squad had stopped walking. They stared speechlessly at the magnificent crystal walls and gates and at the buildings beyond them.

  “It’s incredible!” Blay breathed.

  “That’s the view from outside,” Jani said, sounding a little sad. “The inside is — well, you’ll see.”

  Butu let Jani and Lujo explain the salt and the corpses and the falling buildings and all the other things they had discovered on their first trip down here. He kept his eyes open for any Akdren presence, and he was happy to see Tirud did the same. They found no lanterns or oil walking into the city, or, blessedly, any Akdren at all.

  While they talked their way through the city, Butu let his mind wander idly to thoughts of Amber and Paka, musings about the kingmaker and king — anything but what he was looking for.

  Then he found it.

  It was gone an instant later, but at least he knew which way to go.

  I was right. There’s a gate on the far side of the city.

  “We’re close, now,” he called to them, pointing. Everyone closed in a little tighter and followed him, past the large palace.

  This part of Urgaruna looked like a city destroyed by fire and reclaimed by the desert, but instead of sand dunes, towering stalagmites of salt marked the passage of time. When they reached the edge of the city, Butu at first mistook the towers of the fallen gatehouse for two huge stalagmites. Only the gap in the crumbling city wall betrayed them.

  Butu crept across the slick salt until he reached the edge. Below, he could see light reflected from the waters of the Urgarun Wail. The iron drawbridge on the far side of the underground river had corroded almost entirely to rust, revealing a cave barely above the mirror-like surface of the river.