The mechanical tick of spinning cogs filled the sewers as the dark wall parted in front of Kael. Not a wall, he realised, but a gigantic door. A soft red light bled through the metallic opening, painting the elongated shadow of a man on the pavement.

  He rapidly lowered his head under the ruined piece of the shack, then moved to the side to gnce without being seen.

  The man halted inside the doorsill, his brow raised, his lips contorted in a snarl. "Fuck off with your rat friends, bastards."

  Giovanni simply stumbled toward him with Riccardo and Tonio. "Bark more, maybe I'll care in a hundred years. You're in charge, little man. Unless our deal with Garrick doesn't matter anymore to him?"

  "That's not what I—"

  The man screamed, but Giovanni interrupted him. He jabbed his thumb toward the sewers' entrance, "I guess we can leave, then. I'm sure the Sump Dogs won't stop us by the entrance, or learn what you've all been doing here for the st twenty years."

  "I-I mean..." The thug fiddled with the button of his white shirt. With a click of his tongue, he rushed back inside.

  A couple of seconds ter, he returned with three more men. The soles of their pted boots echoed in the tunnel. Among them, the one who stepped forward wore a pair of pauldrons and vambraces over his white shirt, and a sheathed sword at his belt. The tin hat tilted over his head as he wrenched his cig out of his mouth and waved inside. He didn't talk, didn't seem as if Giovanni's group was more than actual rats in his brown eyes.

  Giovanni led his group, smirking at the first guard. His lips curled down the next second, and his voice dropped to a low groan. "Like st time. They watch from the doorsill."

  A guard reached for his sword. The bde slid out half an inch before he snorted. "Bunch of fuckers. What you've built is gone. The Sotterranea family is gone. You're the st three, three little shits uglier than beasts. How does it feel to be the st one? To have seen all the others die in front of you? Do I have to remind you of your pce?" His eyes trailed to Giovanni's missing arm. "What happened to your arm?"

  Riccardo pced his hands over Tonio's round ears, while the rat-man muttered, "Bad Garrick, bad Garrick. Bad Garrick"

  "Gone like the rest." Giovanni tilted his head with infinite arrogance. "My supplies. Now."

  Hissing, two guards fnked Tonio and Riccardo, while he followed the leader.

  The rest, Kael couldn't hear or see. But the guards had their backs to him. His fists clenched, he crouched his way to the left side of the door. Pressed against it, he gnced inside.

  And his breath caught in his throat.

  Ruins of Tonio's family didn't sprawl across scorched grounds. Instead, bar gratings formed floors. Men and women strolled them, boots cnging on their surfaces. Torchlights brightened rows and rows of dark cells with flickering red glows, while pipes spiderwebbing the ceiling reflected their light.

  But that was nothing compared to what took the center of the ground floor.

  Something in a gss tube connected to dozens of pipes... A creature, a beast, a human?

  A nightmare.

  Kael's blue pupils constricted on a chest broader than two well-fed men. Veins squirmed on arms bigger than four thighs that seemed to have been carved out of pale stone.

  But the hands... the hands...

  He took a deep, shuddering breath. A rge block of metal from which several serrated bdes jutted out had repced one. The other looked like a bow with a deep hole in the middle. His legs weren't legs. At least not human ones. That thing was like a spider, with eight pted legs that ended in sharp spikes.

  So that's the monstrosity Giovanni mentioned. If it ever gets out... Not even Brannick could fight that thing alone. Is it a weapon? What is Garrick preparing? No, it's not important now.

  Kael wrenched his eyes off the bald head of the nightmare. It had its eyes closed, nose and mouth covered by a mask that reminded him of the one he wore when he dove in the corroded water for Garrick.

  He skipped the white-bloused men and women to gaze at Giovanni. He stood in front of a checking desk with barrels, crates, and racks of arrows behind it.

  The leader grabbed a burp bag and began filling it with moldy bread, half-gnawed chicken carcasses, and nine canteens of water. Once done, he pressed it against Giovanni's chest, grinning hauntingly.

  "Our trash. Scram, now."

  Giovanni threw the bag, and Riccardo caught it. Then, he returned the grin. "You changed everything, but this is my home. I'm not leaving."

  Before the man could answer, he fished out the rock from his pocket and hurled it at the nightmare's gss tube.

  Kael's heart stuttered in his chest as he watched the rock fly. Gss splintered, liquid spilling out from the cracks.

  And Giovanni roared. "I've built this pce, you dumb mongrels! Force me if you want me out! Marek? Where are you, you son of a fat whore?"

  Shouting erupted everywhere. An arm bred, and guards rushed towards Giovanni and the damaged tube from every floor.

  Kael watched, mouth agape, mind frozen in horror. A whisper forced him out of his stupor. "What are you waiting for?"

  Riccardo was looking at him as he restrained Tonio, who howled to leave Giovanni alone. "Get inside! Now!"

  The two guards had moved inside. The way was more or less clear... Shit.

  Don't think about the monster or being caught.

  Kael hurriedly passed them. Everyone's attention was either on the cracked gss tube or the man who had cracked it, so he hugged the door to hide underneath the first flight of stairs. Guards poured over him, the metal trembling beneath their stomps.

  The Quartermaster's building... Where was it? He traced the pipes. There! On the third floor!

  "What are you doing, Giovanni?" Riccardo screamed.

  "I don't care! No one will stop me from spitting on Marek's face today. Get out, coward! Your men are too scared to touch me."

  By now, most guards had already surrounded Giovanni, swords in hand, bows drawn to their cheeks, and spears pointed at his heart. They cursed, but no one struck first. It was now or never.

  Kael rushed up the stairs. First floor empty. Second floor, a couple of guards leaned on the railing. Holding his breath, he slipped behind them. However, a hand shot from the darkness of a cell, clutching his arm.

  It was strong, covered in scales. He had to muffle a pained groan as he shoved his elbow on the scales without thinking. Fingers unwrapped, leaving red marks on his pale arm.

  "Please... Help..." A twisted mutter came out from the cell.

  I can't even help myself right now, and you're making it worse!

  Kael didn't even try to see what was inside. He pressed toward the stairs. Why would he when he already knew? A test subject like Giovanni and his brothers. Did he care about it? Not one bit. He wouldn't have survived the slums if he pced others before himself.

  The stairs were empty, and so was the third floor. The quartermaster's building was in front of him, yet he didn't rush to the door. Instead, he passed it to hide behind tarped crates.

  A door groaned open three heartbeats ter, and the racket instantly died down.

  Everyone turned toward the third floor, and Kael peeked from beneath the tarp. A man with short, graying emerged from the building. His every step echoed against the silence. When he leaned over the railing and gnced at the gss tube, even Giovanni paused his provocations.

  "Garrick won't like that one bit. Not one." His voice was like winter frost sweeping through the factory.

  "Tough luck, he's not here to compin." Giovanni shot back. "Why don't you come down so we can talk man to man. Ah, I forgot. You were never much of a man in the first pce. Always cheating, and betraying, and hiding behind men better than you are. You've always been pathetic, Marek."

  "Don't listen to him! Giovanni... Giovanni went crazy! Let us take him back. I-I'm sure he'll feel better soon." Riccardo screamed, pressing his hand on Tonio's mouth.

  Marek gnced at him, then back at Giovanni. "The failed brothers. Been a long time. Can't say I missed any of you. Kill Giovanni, return the other two trash to their bin, and get a new tube."

  Giovanni's answer came instantly. Not a scream, not burning with anger, but a statement dripping with mockery, and a sharp cp that stunned the surrounding guards. "So, let me summarise. I come here and break your tube, then I insult you, Garrick, and your mother, but you don't have the balls to end me yourself? Hahaha." He cpped. "Look at him, everyone. That's your quartermaster, a small man serving a smaller man. I wonder what Garrick will think of you... once he learns that you refused to defend his honor yourself, that not even your own men respect you."

  Whispers spread among the guards. Their hands trembled around their weapons. Yet no one struck Giovanni down, and most gred at Marek.

  Marek's knuckles whitened on the railing. "Do you really believe it? You're not worth my time. You never were. But you had to bring Garrick in. Fine. I'll kill you myself to show these idiots that no one can curse the boss in front of me."

  He stepped to the stairs. The moment Kael counted half the steps, he stormed out of the tarp to the open door.

  Somehow, he couldn't believe Giovanni's insane pn had worked... so far. He still had to steal what Garrick used to hide his facilities and get out alive. That, and the most important: witness what would happen when Giovanni broke his anchor.