darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,125

for this, Triss? I asked as I looked up into the raw opening. I don’t know what we’re going to encounter up there, but the chances are good that I won’t be able to loose you until it’s all over.

He sent the Shade equivalent of a sigh. I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about. You might be able to hide your worries from Faran and Kelos, but I can sense exactly how conflicted you are about all of this. Don’t let indecision get you killed, all right?

I won’t . . . I hope.

Not very reassuring. You know that, right?

I wish I had a better answer for you, Triss, but I don’t. I could never go back to the way it was before, with Namara making all my decisions for me. I know that. I’ve grown beyond being that person, but sometimes I wish that I hadn’t. I wish that someone else was making the hard choices. . . .

I don’t. There’s no one in the world I trust more to do what is right, Aral. No one. I may prod and push and tease, but I believe in you more than I ever believed in any goddess. You will make the right choice when you have to. You always have. I just hope that it’s a choice that’s got a happy ending.

That would be nice, I sent, though I had very serious doubts about it.

It would. But, if it isn’t . . . well, I’ll go with you to face the lords of judgment without any regrets. We’ve had an amazing run, my friend.

We have indeed.

Let’s go get ’em.

My sense of Triss as an independent presence dropped away as he slid into the dream state that allowed me to use his skills and senses as my own. Kelos gave me a boost into the base of the shaft then, and I began to climb. I paused briefly when I reached the top to brace my feet solidly in the holes where the supports had once been. There, I pressed my ear to the thick jade plate that concealed the workings of the pump from defiling the garden view above.

Nothing.

But then, I hadn’t expected to hear anything. Not unless Siri’s distraction had grown into something earth-shattering. The garden was designed to emulate the peace and opulence of the Celestial City. Having guards, human or risen, visibly tramping around it would have interfered with the faux divinity of the setting, and that was true whether there was an emergency in the outer wards of the precinct or not.

Next, I extended the portion of me that was, at least temporarily, a thing of elemental shadow down the short ceramic pipe that led from the top of the pump to the concealed outlet in the pond. The pipe opened under the arched bridge that divided the pond into two unequal halves. But my borrowed darksight revealed nothing more than my ears had. The dawn light spilling across the courtyard garden was simply too bright for me to perceive anything much beyond the immediate area around the bridge with Triss’s senses. Lacking any other choice, it was time to move.

I pulled my shadow back in tight around me and reshaped it into a shroud of darkness, rendering myself functionally invisible. Then I took a deep breath, put both hands under the center of the jade plate, and pushed straight up. It grated very faintly as it lifted free of the lip, and though I expected the noise, I winced. Straightening my back and shoulders, I rose up and tipped the plate to one side, lowering the edge silently to the rich soft earth of the garden.

The pump access was concealed within a small clump of shrubbery, allowing the gardeners to perform maintenance without visibly inflicting their peasant presence on those who believed themselves their betters. As had so often happened in the past, the triumph of aristocratic aesthetics over practical and security considerations created an opening I could exploit. Not to mention providing me with a protective patch of shade. It was a small justice of the poetic sort.

Once I had the plate stowed, I climbed out and pulled my sword rig up behind me, slipping it on over bare shoulders and reattaching my new trick bag. The shaft was too tight for me to fit with the rig or even a shirt on my back, though I hadn’t needed to strip completely. I chose not to waste the time and create the momentary