home

search

2.7 The Undercity

  Bernt was still cramming the st bits of soggy, soup-drenched bread into his mouth when they arrived at the breach. Uh. Former breach. Sometime in the past week, the pce had been transformed – probably by Kustov or maybe even Janus. It was a lot of stonework.

  What had previously been little more than a sloped hole ireet, leading down to a tuhat had been torn into the sewers below, was now a semi-circur set of broad steps that led down to an imposing-looking stone archway. It was set directly uhe city wall, giving people entering the Uy the sehat they were walking into a cliff-face. There was no sig of any sewer access. Alongside the wall oher side were gently-sloped ramps to allow for the passage of modestly-sized carts.

  The houses across the street had been torn down, the rubble removed, and the earth beh paved over with smooth, magically shaped sandstoo create a small pza – and to ehere would be enough space for traffic to pass by, Bernt assumed.

  On one side at street-level stood the stone shell of a new guard station.

  They were still a little early, but Bernt already khey weren’t the first ohere. Kustov was sitting in the doorway of the guard station, sipping from a bottle. He sat across from Jori, who was eaining Gnugg and Trip by cramming aire spicy cabbage roll into her mouth as they cheered her on.

  A moment ter, Jori saw them ing and waved, and the others turo look.

  “Is it safe to just have your demon i freely with children like that?” Josie asked, speaking quietly so they wouldn’t hear.

  Bernt supposed she must not know how a mage’s familiar bond worked. Jori could hear everything he did when they were this close together, as long as she chose to spare any attention for it.

  He shrugged. “Jori’s been looking out fnugg since before he even got here. I don’t think there’s anyone he feels safer around. She’s gottey attached to them both and she sees them as her responsibility. I think it’s good for her.”

  Josie looked at him strangely, but then just shook her head and waved back to the group as they reached them.

  Kustov the humans and offered them the bottle, Josie first. She deed with a polite shake of her head and he held it out to Bernt. He accepted and took a sip.

  It was not water.

  “This pce looks great!” Bernt wheezed, coughing as his eyes teared up. “Is it all your work?”

  Kustov nodded proudly, graciously ign Bernt’s sputtering. Dwarves normally sidered it rude to pull a face or cough when drinking – it implied that the host had offered a beverage of inferior quality. But dwarven spirits also weren’t really meant for human ption.

  “Wele to the new Uy Gate! It’s not half do, but it’s good enough to be put to use. The rest wait until we’ve got people moved in down below. We got a few eomao help out down there, including a few of the military’s engineering corps. It’s just about ready.”

  Bernt whistled, impressed. “I ’t believe you mao do so much so quickly. How do you keep yourself from burning out?”

  “I am a stoneweaver, boy,” the dwarf scoffed. “This is what I do. If you had the right augmentation, you could do the same easily enough.”

  Bernt huffed out a disbelieving ugh. Kustov wasn’t just incredibly powerful for a magister, he was clearly a skilled engineer. Just building a pza that would properly drain water during a rainstorm was an engineering challenge. Rearranging a sewer system to make space for this new bit of city architecture without colpsing the buildings that were built right on top of it was something else entirely. But the dwarf had do, somehow. If he hadn’t, the streets near here would already be bathed in raw sewage.

  “I’m serious.” Kustov said, seeing his face. “You just have the one iure for now, but I’m sure you’ve noticed the difference already. Eae will reinforawork a little further. Finishing ymentation will make an even bigger difference. You’ll be using fire, sure, but you’ll surprise yourself with what a differe makes.”

  “Alright. I guess I’ll find out.” Bernt allowed. He did want to finish his augmentation, though his heart sank at the reminder of what he’d need for his sed iure. “Eventually, anyway,” he added gloomily.

  “Why?” Kustov asked, peering at him. “There’s no sense in waiting too long, so long as you afford the materials and you’re well-practiced enough to get it dht. The sooner you practice with the full augmentatioter.”

  Josie was listening to the versation curiously. Bernt supposed she wouldn’t know very much about mage adva. The basics weren’t much of a secret, but someone who wasn’t born with the talent to bee a mage would have no reason to learn about it.

  “It’s the sed iure,” he expined. “I have to get my hands on a perpetual fme.”

  “Ah” Kustov said, wing slightly. “Yes, that might not be quite so easy.”

  Perpetual fmes sustaihemselves on ambient mana, never going out unless deliberately extinguished. What made them so dangerous was that, if you let them, they ed magic of all kinds – including things like ented armor or shield spells. es. Needless to say, perpetual fmes were tightly trolled and almost never propagated by anyone who possessed one.

  “I don’t know that there is one iy. It’s possible that the t has one in his private armory, though… or perhaps the Mages’ Guild. But they wouldn’t just hand you something like that. Have you asked, at least?”

  “Not yet.” Bernt said. “I’m not eveo the first iure yet. My casting is still much too slow.”

  It sounded like an excuse, which probably meant that it was one. He didn’t want to ask Archmage Iria for a favor, especially sidering that he already owed her quite a bit. But he would have to, he knew. He was just putting it off as long as he could.

  Reizing that fact, he sighed. “I’ll go and make an appoi on my day off.”

  “Ah, you’re all here,” came Ed’s voice from below. He stood in the mouth of the tunnel, fnked by Dayle and Fiora. Bernt was fused for a moment until he looked around and saw Yarrod making his way down the ramp from the opposite side. “e on down, I’ll show you around.”

  –-----

  The tunnel into the new Uy had been enrged signifitly, nearly as wide as a normal street and tall enough for a mounted rider to pass through. Ed led them straight down the gentle slope toward the inal set of chambers he entry, but Bernt saw several unnels brang off and curving around out of sight, likely leading down underh the city. The dragon’s ir had primarily been located outside the city to the west, with the kobold’s infiltration tunnels brang out toward and underh Halfbridge.

  “Goodness, Kustov,” said Yarrod, “whyever did you widen the tuhat the kobolds used to attack the city?”

  The dwarf shrugged. “The t wahe new Uy mainly built directly underh Halfbridge for defensive purposes. The main tunnel here branches off the inal one in a few hundred paces and curves down and around as well. We expa out from the infiltration tunnels – only about a fifth of it is even part of the inal dungeon. It’s just as well, the general didn’t want to give us his space, and we want to keep the civilians as far away from the duergar lines as we .”

  “I suppose,” Yarrod sighed. “But I hope you kept in mind that this means the new denizens of this Uy could tunnel right up into the basements of our fair citizenry. I fear that a warren of tunnels isn’t necessarily going to attract the cream of the crop, so to speak, in terms of the quality of its future denizens.”

  Kustov narrowed his eyes. “What is that supposed to mealy?”

  “Please, my friend,” the gnome said, looking pained. “I do not impugn the honor of our fair dwarven neighbors. I rather would point to the enerally more surface-oriented races who would hide their activities from the light of day.”

  Kustov rolled his eyes and Dayle snorted. “You worry too much. What do you think we’re there for? We’ll keep everyone in line.”

  Yarrod shook his head, muttering something that sounded skeptical, but he let the matter drop.

  True to Kustov’s word, the main tunnel did turn back around in a wide arc, leading them down and underh the city until they came inte chamber – a cavern, really.

  The dwarf turned around and swept his hand around in a presentational gesture as they stopped to admire it for a moment. The stone ceiling was held up by massive stone ns and lit by a rge mage light that someone, probably Ed, had hung high up he ceiling. A rge, empty market square spread out in front of them, already plete with stoalls for merts. The sides of the square cavern were lined with the pin stone facades of unfinished buildings, and at the ter of each side Bernt could see the mouth of a rge tunnel – the main thhfares of the new district.

  The walls of the space weren’t smooth – a deep, natural-looking crack rouhe entire cavern horizontally about twenty paces up, and smaller cracks radiated outward from it at regur intervals in a pattern that made it clear that it was not, in faatural at all.

  As they watched, a robed man oher side of the square pced a hand against the stone and bowed his head, his softly spoken words eg through the spaintelligibly.

  At first, nothing happened. But the noticed a soft greenish-yellow glow ing from the cra the stht above the man. A momehe source of the light wiggled its way out of the crack, followed by several more of the things. Bernt shivered, thinking they were some kind of worm until softly glowing leaves began to sprout from the tendrils. Seds ter, infloresces of tiny flowers emerged from underh and bloomed, bathing the cavern in bright white light like tiny clusters of stars.

  Within a few mihe vines emerged from the rge crack all around the cavern, growing inward and finding purchase in the smaller cracks to y down roots and quest out further until they found the outer ns. It turhe space from imposing but mostly practical into something uniquely beautiful.

  Bernt’s breath caught looking at it.

  This was incredible. He could get used to this, Bernt decided. No, he needed to live here. It was roomy here, not at all like the former dungeon, which was sized for tiny kobolds. He had no idea what the rest of the Uy would look like, but this… well, he was friends with the dwarf who’d made it. Friendly acquaintances. Whatever. Kustov would help if he asked, and even he could see that he’d be an idiot not to ask.

  “What do you think?” a rich, melodious voice asked. Bernt dropped his gaze from the glowing vines and turned, surprised. The robed man was watg them, eyes twinkling. He was a half-elf who wore a long, brown beard that made him look more human than elveook a moment to give Ed a brief nod, but he was clearly addressing Kustov.

  “Archdruid Leirin. Yes, fine, ” Kustov said in a clearly relut tone of cession. “It looks better than rune lighting.”

  “Just as I told you!” the archdruid said proudly, but then his formal demeanor cracked and he grinned. “Dwarven architecture has too many straight lines. You have to break it up with some more anic elements or it just doesn’t feel homey.”

  Kustov frowned, but waved the man off. “Be off with you. We’re not paying you to chat.”

  “You’re not payi all – the t is,” the druid chuckled and winked as he moved toward one of the far tunnels, presumably to tinue his work of lighting the pce.

  “Arrogant leaf-muncher.” Kustov grumbled, but Bernt could tell he leased.

  Ed patted the dwarf on the back as he passed him, heading toward the right side of the cavern. “Rex,” he said. “It’s the results that matter. This is perfect. I think we’re going to get a lot more ihan old Narald bargained for.”

  Bernt couldn’t help but agree.

  Ed led the group through an archway that robably supposed to hold a set of double-doors ter inte, open chamber. The keystone of the arch was marked with a stylized are glyph under a crest, the whole thing bisected by a vertical line.

  Inside, several of the new underkeepers did spear drills uhe watchful eye of a regur city guard who Bernt didn’t reize. And behind them Bernt could see deep into aire plex of empty rooms through a series of unfinished windows and doors.

  “Wele,” Ed said with a grandiose gesture to the surrounding space, “to the new Underkeepers’ headquarters.”

Recommended Popular Novels