23 (II)

Tunnel

It closed around the Young Lord’s neck and started pulling him toward the ambush rupture with reckless ease. And Adam would have been dragged across and through if not for Shiv gripping the assailant by the arm.

“No,” Shiv growled. The enemy stopped dead and tried to pull hard. Shiv clenched his teeth as his Might of Mass grew, allowing him to match strength against strength. For a half-second, they were at a stalemate while Adam gagged. Then, Shiv ended the contest by boosting his strength with a surge of Biomancy. “Get your own Young Asshole!”

Instead of Adam getting yanked into the gap, Shiv ripped the final crow into the tunnel and swung them around. Umbrals ducked. The automaton crow struggled and slashed at him with a nightglass dagger, which Shiv blocked with his own blade. Chips of bone flew off Shiv’s dagger as edge met edge, but that was as far as the crow got before the bone drill arrived.

Two meters of diamond-edged bone punched straight through the automaton’s chest before twisting upward and tearing out the enemy’s insides. The mechanical crow shuddered—and then Shiv seized the assassin by a gap in its neck and tore, flexing Might of Mass and Biomancy at the same time.

A horrible noise sounded. Steel, glass, plastic, and more came asunder. Coolant sprayed and sparking wires whipped through the air. The Deathless dropped the two halves of his enemy and turned to pull the stunned Young Lord back onto his feet.

Reflexes > 49

Knife Proficiency > 27

“So, how did you miss this one?” Shiv asked, pointing at the bifurcated automaton on the ground.

Adam rubbed his neck and swallowed painfully. “I… I… I don’t know. They were… quiet.”

Shiv scowled and looked around. “I guess their Stealthmust’ve been more ridiculous than your Awareness.” He turned back to the convoy and sighed. “Uva, I think these rats have been living in your walls for a while.”

A cold and terrible dread followed her reply. “I was thinking the same thing. Composer… Have we truly been so blind? Have they truly pierced our Sisterhood so deeply?”

“Psychomancer Uva, we have a problem.” The urgent-sounding thought came from one of the mages in their convoy. She was looking down at an unmasked crow—and the dead woman proved to be an Umbral. At first, Shiv assumed the problem was the revelation of Umbral traitors, but the actual issue proved to be even more chilling. “I recognize her… This is Cherished Sister Gehe. She… she died last month protecting some of our Honored Mothers from Compact Raiders at an outpost.”

Shiv felt at the dead Umbral using his Biomancy. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her from what he could tell. But he was still mostly a thug with his magic. Mostly brute force and violence. They needed an actual expert.

“I recognize this sister too,” another Umbral in the group cried out. “Composer—she went missing last year!”

“Shiv,” Valor said, breaking his long silence. “Can you explain to me what is happening? The fighting sounds like it has ended, but what is wrong with the bodies?” Shiv conveyed to the dagger what the Umbrals just discovered, and Valor scoffed. “Ah. New Albion falling back on old tricks again. They’ve always been intent on getting Umbral bodies for use—and not just any Umbral bodies, but those of the sisterhood. Buying corpses or prisoners from other Faiths is very much in line with their methods of operation. You’ve stumbled on quite a sophisticated operation, I suspect.”

“Yeah, well, they’re throwing bodies at us.” Shiv eyed the walls with paranoia. The gaps the crows came through were closed now. But at any moment, even the ground beneath his feet could see Shiv betrayed… “It would have ended worse for us if Adam didn’t sense them coming.”

“All of them but one,” the Young Lord said, still staring at the automaton crow that nearly got him. He looked at Shiv briefly but shook his head instead of saying anything.

“How many did you just kill?” Valor asked.

“Around twenty or so,” Shiv said.

“Twenty-six,” Adam said, giving a more concise count.

“Hm. Proceed with greater caution. But know that you are close to what they’re trying to hide. Aviary is not afraid to spend the lives of its agents, but doesn’t do so wastefully. The fact that they are throwing these forces at you in such numbers represents desperation. Or a necessity. Nearly thirty crows dead is practically decades of careful insertion and tradecraft undone.”

“So, what, we just cleared out a good portion of the spies here?” Shiv asked.

“I wouldn’t call it a good portion, but a not-insubstantial percentage of their active agents hidden in Passage. Their bigger loss is the exposure of this branch. The crows and ravens are assassins, and assassins are not to be seen or known. Now they are drastically exposed. But that also means they believe this operation is something worth sacrificing all their people for. I also know they are unready for proper confrontation because they are throwing lives to stall us instead of setting up any traps—I suppose they hadn’t the time.”

“Then let’s see the rest join their comrades,” Uva said, entering the conversation. There was an undercurrent of growing unease that she channeled into anger.

Shiv studied Valor for a moment, wondering why he didn’t reply, before he realized the dagger can’t hear Uva’s thoughts. “Uva, could you tether Valor too?”

“No,” she said. “His cage is… It is a prison in more ways than one. The fact that he can be heard is a small miracle already, and a testament to his great power.”

The Deathless winced.

“It is fine, Shiv,” Valor said. “I can hear enough. And I have lived through enough battles to guess that you are very close. Proceed with caution but aggression. But I also recommend using subterfuge. If you can confuse the enemy and inflict a paranoia in them at the heart of their defenses, you will have an easier time getting through.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Shiv said. He looked at the rest of the convoy as they stripped the fallen crows of weapons. One of the Weaveress knelt in mourning over the mutilated Weaveress the automaton crow used as a shield to ambush Adam. There was a building tension in the group that matched the pressure in the air. As for the Young Lord himself, he kept closer to Shiv. So close Shiv could hear the other man’s breathing.

He might be a warrior, but he’s not used to near-death encounters yet, Shiv realized. Adam was talented, well-trained across a variety of skills, and a prodigious Adept-Tier Pathbearer. But he spent most of his time refining himself at an academy and facing enemies in controlled situations. Aside from the attack on Blackedge and the battles he experienced in the Abyss, Shiv didn’t know if the Young Lord had any practicalcombat experience.

In comparison, Shiv was nothing but practical.One had to be when hunting lesser vampires as a Pathless.

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“Just let it hurt,” Shiv said.

“What?” Adam rasped. His throat was bruised. Maybe even swollen. Shiv could feel the inflammation.

“The fear. The tension. Don’t give it any thought. Just let it be a feeling and focus on other things. That’s what always made the pain weaker for me when I was raiding vampire nests.”

Adam breathed. Shiv guessed he wanted to say something about how easy it was for the Deathless not to fear death, but the example Shiv gave predated his Path. “Why did you do it?”

“Hunt vampires?” Shiv replied, scanning his surroundings. He was receiving mental images from the other members of this force. The Weaveresses kept their hands pressed against the webs now, trying to track vibrations. The tunnel was starting to get wider. A gust of air washed over Shiv, telling him there was probably a channel up ahead.

“Yes. I asked Adept Tran about you after—”

“After you got back.”

“Yeah. He told me that you killed your hundredth. I didn’t want to believe him, then. But I knew. Even when I was looking at you. I could smell their blood on your body, and I hated the fact that you weren’t a coward.“

“Don’t get sentimental on me now, Adam.” Shiv chuckled. But the Young Lord didn’t insult him or laugh. Shit. His mental state must be a mess right now.

“Hey. Are you good? Can you keep going?”

“Don’t mock me, Lowe! Do not mock me!” Adam almost snarled. Shiv turned to glare at him—partially for using a name Shiv didn’t acknowledge, but also to make sure the Young Lord wasn’t going to turn into a liability when the fighting started up again. The people in the back were beginning to look uneasy. Uva was about to say something, but Shiv responded to her first. “Let me handle this. We don’t need this problem when the fighting starts in a minute.”

“I’m not,” Shiv bluntly said to Adam’s face. “No one doubts you but you right now. Whatever you want to say or do with me, we can deal with that after. Right now, we need your shit together. Is it?”

Adam swallowed. The part of him that remained the hurt, traumatized boy from all those years ago during the night of the ritual wanted to continue his building tantrum. Roland Arrow’s heir locked that boy away. “Yeah. It is.”

“Okay,” Shiv said. “I trust you.”

Their trek continued on in active silence for some time. Shiv checked his Quest status every few minutes, worried that the failure condition might register. So far, though, it seemed that Yunni hadn’t triggered her bomb yet. Whether that was because of a malfunction or a delay, he didn’t know, but he heeded Valor’s words the most.

“If you rush in and lead the others to their deaths, the outcome will be the same. I have failed Quests and come out a better man for it, despite the rewards lost and the punishments inflicted. Do things well before you do them fast. And do everything you can to avoid letting the enemy set the terms of this battle.”

Then, their approach finally came to a halt as Adam called out again. “Wait. Huge—huge clearing ahead. Like the size of a cavern. Five hundred meters of space across. Maybe. Close to that. And there are…” He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. “At least fifty people there. Crows. Their footsteps are very light, but their heartbeats are loud. There must be more.”

“Fifty?” Shiv thought. That was… quite a bit more than he was expecting. But his own group wasn’t insubstantial either. They had around thirty Umbrals and four Weaveresses in total. Quite a few full mages in the group as well. “Well, that’s a big nest of rats to clear. Nice job, Adam. Any chance your hearing’s good enough to guess their Tiers?”

“Ask me in about a month or so when I become a Master.” The Young Lord noted Shiv’s surprised stare. “My Awareness is, indeed, ridiculous.”

“So, then, how’d you sleep at the academy?”

“What?”

“Since you can hear everyone’s bowel movements so well?”

“Oh, get tainted, you street rat bastard.”

Shiv laughed. To his pleasure, a few of the Umbrals did as well. The Weaveresses were more reserved—and furious. They seemed to take the loss and disfigurement of their kin on another level.

“Okay, Adam,” Shiv said. “What the hells do we do now?”

The Young Lord blinked. “You’re asking me? I thought you were the leader of this damned expedition.”

“I thought I was just the meatshield. I’m only in front because I’m expendable—and to stop anyone from taking advantage of your waifish physique. You’re the one who went to Flaming Chicken Academy.”

“Phoenix,” Adam growled mentally. The Young Lord sighed before looking to the Umbrals behind him. “You all still can’t get the webbing to part?”

“No,” a Weaveress replied. “Every time we try, it is like a counter-pressure pushes back against us.”

“Ah. The bastards put vacuum lining along this tunnel. We’ll need a proper team of Adept Jump Mages to deal with that. Or a Master. That also probably means we’re being led along a forced path—into a killbox. Not optimal for anyone but Shiv.”

“It’s not optimal for him either,” Uva added, a heat in her voice.

“Well, the rest of us don’t get stronger from dying over and over,” the Young Lord said with more than a little envy. “I suspect we will be trading lives if we make a hard push.”

“Shiv. We’ve stopped. I suspect that means you know where they are?” Valor spoke.

“Something like that,” Shiv said. He held the dagger closer to Adam. “The Young Lord here’s trying to figure out how to get through without making this a bloodbath.”

“I have a recommendation—though it carries its own risks.”

“Yeah? And what’s your idea, dagger?” Adam snorted. “Stab them in the eyes?”

“No. But I wouldn’t be against it if Shiv did that to you right now if that would make you listen and let me finish you stupid, ugly child!” Adam flinched back from Valor’s outburst. “Now. Have you all looted the crows you slew?”

“Some. Why?” Shiv wondered where this was going.

“Because if they have a mask and cloak, you might just be able to confuse the enemy long enough to let you walk into the middle of their nest—especially if you had a prisoner in tow, along with an invaluable relic containing one of their ancient foes…”

Shiv had a pretty good idea where this was going.

“Alright.” Adam nodded, his face taking on a look of appreciation. “That’s not bad, dagger. Not bad at all. But… who’s going to be the crow? And who’s going to be the prisoner?” Shiv grinned at Adam. The Young Lord bit back a shiver of unease as the man wearing his own skeleton beside him stayed quiet. “I… can be the crow. I attended a few acting classes back at the academy.”

“It should be one of us,” Uva said from the back. “They have infiltrated our sisterhood. They might not notice so fast.”

“No,” Shiv said. “Too much risk. And I don’t think the subterfuge is going to last long. Just enough for us to get a gauge on their defenses—and try to break whatever formations they have going.”

“We still haven’t decided who’s going to be the crow,” Adam said.

“Yes, we have,” Shiv replied, patting the Young Lord on the arm. “The victim requires more acting chops anyway. The crow just has to be strong and silent. Strong. That means muscles, Young Lord.”

“I have muscles,” Adam said with a scowl, folding his arms. And he did. He really did. But Shiv felt like being a bit of a bully.

“Not compared to him, you don’t,” one of the Umbral Pyromancers muttered. “It’s like he’s smuggling my grandmother’s washboard under his skin.”

“Sister,” Uva said, tone tense. “Please focus.”

“I am focusing,” the Pyromancer said, chuckling. “I am focusing, indeed.”

As Uva glared death at the Pyromancer from the back, Adam flexed his arms at the Weaveresses, trying to get the spiderfolk to compliment him.

Shiv, though, felt the weight of the moment press on him. He might be Deathless, but the others… I really, really don’t want to see any of these people die.

And so he was going to make damn sure that none of them fell. Even if it killed him. Especially if it killed him.

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