Surfacing Ch. 17

"I think he would like to see me," I said with confidence. "He may come out of his meditation if he senses me." When Kellan didn't answer and the other dwarves shifted on their feet, I added, "Or did Talov place restrictions on where I could go?"

"Only that no one leaves the compound and no one bothers Mourn until he wakes," Kellan answered. "Ye can move around as ye like inside, but put harm to anyone here and we're to put ye in chains."

I smiled, tempted to think they could try but then deciding that they'd probably succeed. Where had I to run, anyway?

"Well, then. I'd like to see the Captain, please. No harm to him, per my hosts."

"'Tis only polite?"

"It's convenient to agree. There's no reward to me for harming him."

With some lingering reservation, Kellan led me away from the others down to my right and just around the next corner. He knocked on a third door to give warning, but there was no answer and the Guild mage opened it a crack to look in.

He shrugged and whispered, "No change. If he doesn't come awake to talk with ye, I can't leave ye alone with him."

"Fair," I said, motioning my intent to go inside. He allowed it, and I had to leave the door open as I had with Jael while he remained outside.

The room was as sparse as Jael's with three pallets and a basic table along the opposite wall, though I did notice two chairs as well and wondered whether Gavin hadn't so much demanded the writing furniture as he had simply moved it to his preferred place within the room, which was next to his chosen pallet on the same side of the room.

It was becoming clearer that these rooms could be used for resting Guild members as well as a possible infirmary where some quiet and privacy was possible, certainly some isolation if there was any communicable disease or captive to be held. As it was, the Guild had simply placed three non-Guild in their own rooms as we waited for others to arrive. It would probably become much more crowded in here over the next few days.

For now, though, I approached the Knight Captain, who was sitting straight-backed and cross-legged on the far pallet. He was out of his armor, which had been cleaned and tended, now free of blood and undead bits and set next to him. His helmet was off and set aside with the rest of the plate mail and his new shield, his blond hair in need of a wash but was nonetheless combed back smoothly, rather unlike my own tousled, fuzzy braid. He wore a sweat-stained, off-white linen shirt of some quality and dark brown leather trousers, also of quality and made to fit well. His gloves were off; his boots were on but had been wiped down and were free of dust and dirt.

His eyes were closed, however, and he did look to be in some kind of trance.

Isboern looked like a young Captain, I thought, if I'd known what a male one was supposed to look like. He'd cleaned himself up to be presentable, like the ranking officers among our own fighters, and certainly like Elder D'Shea and the Prime. Elder Rausery was probably a little more lax inside the Cloister, but she'd earned enough reputation to where it harmed nothing. One thing she would be harping on me right now was not having gone over all my equipment yet. But then, I hadn't been left alone since I arrived.

I walked around Isboern in a circle one time, noting where everything was before setting Soul Drinker down on the middle pallet, not out of reach but a good lean away from me. Then I sat cross-legged as well, facing the Human.

I waited, reassured my two surviving spiders when they moved again at my nape, and considered what I'd say if he actually sensed me. Not a lot, if Kellan remained outside listening as he was. There was no silence spell on this door the way there had been on Gavin's, and it was still open in any regard.

Isboern's eyes moved beneath his lids and his chin tilted slightly. My ears listened keenly for a change in breath, which there was, just before he opened Sky blue eyes. He smiled as if he was glad to see me, and I couldn't tell if he had any concerns for those he'd left behind. Surely he must have.

"You look better, Sirana. You've rested?"

I frowned but nodded. "What is happening with Tamuril and your Men? You made a deal with Talov."

"They aren't in my range to speak yet," he said with obvious regret. "But when they are, I already have permission to do so, and Master Talov would also give me a partial update since he is in communication with those with them."

"Very well. What is that update? I don't have even that."

"The Guildmistress will get here first, and soon; she has two wounded who won't make the journey by normal means. I've agreed to help if I can. The two teams from the temple, with Tami and my Templars, are moving more slowly. If they make it to a certain point, Talov and Krithannia may be able to help shorten their journey, but they are mostly without horses and they still have the civilian with them."

"Are the Templars and that Woman coming here?" I almost didn't believe Talov would allow it.

"They have nowhere to go except where I am," Isboern said soberly, that earlier sadness beginning to creep into his tone. He'd just fully remembered again that his city didn't exist anymore.

"What about the rest you contacted on the wall before the rift opened?" I asked. It was interesting to think that haunted look on his face might've been similar to what Talov had seen on mine earlier.

"I cannot tell you specifics. It would be a danger to them."

"Tamuril said you were 'communing,' not just giving orders," I said bluntly. "Then you come out of it, help save me from being abducted, and in return beg me to bring my consort to the Surface on behalf of your god. What else did you see while we were fighting the undead and defending your body?"

Isboern's mouth turned downward. "That is between me and Musanlo."

I smirked, keeping my voice low. "But it concerned something you want me to do. I will tell you I cannot do it. I will be killed on sight if I go back."

Isboern whispered as well. "They would not with a babe in your belly, surely."

I shrugged. "Very well. Captured, imprisoned until I birthed then baby, then killed with the cord still attached. That might even be the preferred outcome to my queen deciding my new talent could be of some use to her as well."

The Godblood's eyes widened in horror, but he also looked at me as if he was testing me for untruth. I continued since I had nothing to hide there, and he looked ill for a moment that this was a real possibility for me.

"Same with Jael. What you did to her, you've condemned her to exile. That's why she wants to kill you."

It was far too easy to make him show regret on his face.

"I know. I am so sorry for how little I can help with that."

"So tell me about your communion in the temple while the dead were rising."

"That would not earn me forgiveness from either of you," he said, still calm but his tension was beginning to grow as he'd risen above a whisper. "You only seek to coax from me a confidence I have already said I will not betray."

I pushed harder. "Your god wants something from me that will have a high cost to me, for his own benefit."

"I was only telling you what you already know. That oracle, your 'consort,' will die if you do not rescue him. You can choose to do nothing, Sirana, but your inaction will condemn far more than just the father of your child. It is for the greater good."

I scowled, knowing quickly why the anger flared as it did, and I didn't want to go in this direction quite yet. "Perhaps, but what my Sister? You opened a wound and let her bleed for days."

His square jaw flexed and he swallowed. "She wouldn't allow me to help further. I cannot force her."

"You had no idea how to handle her, so you chose to do nothing as well!"

He blinked and I felt an involuntary pulse from him as he finally scowled. "I was preparing for an attack and siege on my city!"

I was so glad I had gotten him to raise his voice. Kellan was still outside, and I shifted to where I could roll out of my position and to my feet quickly if necessary. Isboern was gripping his pallet, keeping his hands flat; his face quickly became flushed but he wasn't going to swing first.

I leaned forward, hissing caustically, "You did the worst thing possible and, by sheer chance, ruined any option I had to reveal what I am now to Jael in a way that wouldn't make her hate me!"

"I did not force you into a link with her, I am not even aware of how that happened."

"It was still an arrogant mistake, Captain. You made several of them! We were unable to leave the chamber sooner because you wouldn't break open the damned door yourself. Remember, you told Mourn he should do it, even though you *could have* helped and Jael being forced to use her magic before she was ready would never have been necessary!"

His face firmed up like stone and he stared right at me, threatening a link that we both didn't want that.

I spoke forcefully, knowing Kellan would hear every word. "We couldn't drag you out surrounded by the dead as we were, either. I had to link with her by force to save your useless 'communing' ass from the Ma'lok, who wanted to slaughter you and drag your bright and shiny soul to the Greylands so you could be a gem in a Greylord's crown! That's why I asked what was so fucking important that you couldn't help us!"

His eyes filled with tears and he made no attempt to prevent them from dripping down his cheeks. "You asked me in the middle of that chamber to let my soldiers die, to let my people and all their children be possessed by spirits, to *eat* each other, to be slaughtered and scattered by the Ma'ab, and any survivors exiled from their home of centuries. You and your leader said it was the 'greater good' to prevent the Ma'ab from gaining our city, and to dismantle its government at the same time."

"And you know we were right," I said flatly.

He nodded once; he was trembling and he looked away at the wall for both our protection. "You received what you asked for, Sirana. Now I've told you what you must do to gain my forgiveness for what you've done. You have no right to ask anything else of me. Jael is still alive. Blame me for it if you want, but it is up to her now to face the rest of her life, and you, yours. It's more than most at Manalar will have the chance to do."

Isboern turned around then, spinning on his pallet to put his back to me; a monumentally stupid thing to do on a Drow, most would say—and I did have the very real urge to pick up Soul Drinker and stab him in the back. But he wasn't an ordinary Human.

"Please leave me," he said.

I was more than glad to do so; the bastard. I picked up Soul Drinker and gained my feet to walk away before I could consider any actual harm. I was glad he would suffer thinking about the battle we'd escaped.

After I swept by Kellan and he started following me, however, it came to me that, as far as accusations of not helping when one could have, the Knight Captain hadn't brought up what had happened in the crypt when I'd given him the perfect opening.

******

I roamed the underground compound a bit more escorted by Kellan, mapping the place in my head without effort though I still had the scowl on my face. The movement helped purge some of the excess anger.

The scent of heavy sweat was fresh as I rounded one corner and saw a bundle of Guild dwarves guarding a door; they weren't the ones sweating. My sensitive ears picked up a female voice I knew and I genuinely wondered just how Krithannia had made it into that removed room without my having heard anything coming through the front entrance. Had it been while I slept in Gavin's room? I didn't think so; the sweat and exertion seemed as if she and several others had literally just stumbled in.

I approached with deliberation, keeping my hands clear and empty as the dwarves watched me. Ultimately they didn't stop me from looking in over the tops of their helmets. It became clear why; I only saw stone wall. The door didn't lead straight into the room, there was a sharp turn to the left and probably another fifty paces to go.

When I breathed in again through my mouth, not only was there the heavy sweat, dirt, and heat of hard-working bodies, but blood, metal, dwarf-oil, and magic all seeming to lace around my teeth and sliding along my tongue like gel.

My nose wrinkled at the heavy scents clogging my throat; I didn't know why I'd actually done things that way. Was that something Kain or Kerse might do? Or Mourn. He breathed in scents through his teeth all the time. Although I did remember Draegloth doing that on occasion as well. I didn't know which I preferred as the origin of that particular tick; I'd try not to do it in the future.

I shook my head once, ignoring the look one dwarf gave me, and signed, *Let me pass.*

They blinked, hesitated, but ultimately obeyed the Guild's Silent Tongue. Kellan followed me in.

Krithannia coughed something out of her throat then asked tersely, "Is Mourn awake yet?"

Talov's gruff voice answered amid shuffling footsteps and shifting equipment. "What do ye think?"

"It's been eight hours."

"It'll prob'ly be days."

"Who is guarding him?"

"The puff lizard with the bad attitude."

I blinked. *Graul was here?*

"Damn Highwater," she muttered as if that was a curse, albeit it pretty mild one. She sounded distracted and tired. "So be it. Cage and Ardor need healing, fast."

"My boys been ready. Move and let 'em work. Now...ye need something, Sirana?"

I'd just stepped into the room but not into the torchlight; I was still-well shadowed but didn't waste time being astonished or wondering how he'd known. His dwarves at the door hadn't spoken a word but that didn't mean they couldn't communicate.

The Noldor and greybeard both turned to look at me; Krithannia was badly in need of a bath and clean clothes. It looked like the whole squad had fallen into a swamp, covered in rotting vegetation. To the side, both her teams were complete but two were down, dirty wounds being exposed as the Guild signed between each other.

*-caught a drop in a cut on the wall. Nothing was wrong till—*

*-barbed spear tip in the thigh, had to break if off , can't—*

"Sirana?"

I looked back a Talov, then behind him. I only saw a wall. How had they all just arrived? Another transport trick like Mourn's?

"Wanna be useful and carry some equipment?" Talov asked, though I could tell it wasn't a request.

I smiled. "Sure. If Krithannia can show me where to clean up as well."

I wasn't the freshest coming from Manalar; I could hardly judge the new arrivals. It was also satisfying to see the two were just slightly surprised by my request. Slightly.

Krithannia nodded once; she was still frowning. I put my gloves on and stepped to test-lift a pack kit, deciding I could carry only one if it wasn't far. It had been taken off one of the full-grown Human Men, after all, and they could pack more on their backs. The equipment was coated in an algae-heavy slime as well, and I wondered just where in the Abyss they'd been?

"Where to?" I asked.

The two Guildmasters exchanged another look and, though the Pale Elf likely would have preferred to go straight to see Mourn, I was guessing that Talov convinced her to take the opportunity presented to clean up and find out what I wanted. They didn't need words, expressions, or hand signals; they still had the Pearls...

A moment later, I rethought that. It would mean everyone else holding a Pearl would hear it, too. So maybe it really had all been non-verbal?

"Follow me," Krithannia said brusquely, confidence lining all of her tall, lean body in a familiar way as she signed another Guild member to come with us.

She strode past me and into the hall past the dwarves, not looking back as one of Net—Pitfall, I thought—followed and brought the other pack. I was correct in assuming Krithannia had been here before; she showed me first to the equipment room where I was to drop the pack of one of the injured Men. Pitfall began to break down both kits as soon as I'd gotten my hand off mine. The ordinary-looking Noiri had his face set in stone and his focus entirely on his task.

"Debriefing after you've all cleaned up and eaten, Tag," Krithannia said. "Collect the others."

He nodded. "Yes, Guildmistress."

Whoops. At least I had the correct team.

The dark-haired Pale Elf showed me next to a small, mostly clear room with the same broad tiles not only lining to floor but the walls as well. To one side there was a stout bench set in the middle and, like the pallet rooms, one table set against a wall, though this one was stocked with supplies. It held what I assumed were various suds-makers and cleansers, as well as drying towels, enough for more than just the two of us. Talov had truly been prepared to meet us here and provide for many Guild members at once.

"Remove your boots," Krithannia said in a clipped tone as she did the same. "Leave them by the bench."

She was irritable but I couldn't tell if it was primarily my presence or not; she could just really want to get clean. I decided to do as she said while I looked around.

On the other side of the room, three spouts stuck out of the wall at even intervals, seeming ready to guide water into a metal bowl with many, small holes drilled in it where it would flow out like a small area of rain straight out of a cloud, or maybe more a trickling, underground spring. I also counted three drains in the floor and reflected on the fine construction.

It wasn't unlike the bathing rooms in the Cloister, actually, though it looked a bit rougher still and more appropriate for consistently taller bodies. Everything, that was, except for the little colored stones set at dwarf-height. Krithannia leaned down to push the opaque blue one. This started the water flowing on one of the showers and straight down onto her.

"Will Vim and Net join us here to wash?" I asked, curious primarily because there were only three spouts and eight very dirty Men.

Krithannia shook her head. "There is a larger room for the men."

She didn't seem to care that she was getting her dark, Guild clothing soaked as she stood underneath the water, looking up and letting it wash off her face first thing and dampen her sodden hair. She undid her tangled braid to let the length lay on her back then began stripping, roughly scrubbing off the worst of the muck as she removed each article before tossing it aside onto the tiles. She was still scowling.

I watched for a while, wondering how far she'd go with me standing fully-clothed, if bootless, when it became clear that she would go down to the skin. Despite her appearance the first time I'd met her, being so well-dressed and elegant back at Augran, I could recognize in her movement another Elf with field training like the mine, or like the Men.

She was filthy and had been through a day-long battle and a long escape, and right now it seemed she didn't give a fuck that I was watching her. I hadn't expected this frank practicality from Noldor, somehow. I could admit it was a little arousing and reminded me of home.

"So what do you have to say to me?" she asked bluntly. "I am tired, Sirana, and still have much to do."

"Mm," I grunted. At first I'd thought to probe her a bit about the mission or about Mourn, or about anything that caught my fancy that could be useful, but now that she was acting more or less like Jaunda after a multi-cycle mission, I abandoned the tactic.

"Good work, Noldor. We did it."

She turned to look at me with iron-grey eyes, clear, cool water still streaming down her head and naked shoulders, rivulets of water flowing across her palm-sized breasts, hardening her rosy nipples. I had long since answered my own question; she was pale and pink all over like Tamuril. Only her hair was dark. Above and below.