“Bugger off, Roland. Don’t you talk back to Neenah bloody LeFleur, hear?”
Swinging, the chain shook under the blow of the axe, and it rattled in Neenah’s hand. The bluish iron flashed as Terris bound within the holy weapon came alive, sparking against the voidspeak runes. Neenah swung again, her tongue askew of her painted lips, this time the aetheric runes wailed and withered, the metal shrieking as if stung. The chain shattered and both vicars slumped to the ground.
Free of his constraints, and the void runes, he started healing via his Shard Form. Cyan crawled over to Harlequin as she came into consciousness. She began to cry, so Cyan cradled the young vicar’s head with his mangled hand.
“Many thanks, sister-friend,” Cyan said to Neenah as he petted the younger vicar soothingly. “The Scattered Shards will repay you for your service.”
“Bugger the Shards,” Neenah said, helping Cyan lift Harlequin to her feet. She then handed him the axe. “Your tithe can be paid after you bash out the brains of that bloody Solanine.”
Cyan’s eyes narrowed at the name. The scream of Amaranth reared in his ears as he thought back to her murder. His body trembled with anger. “How did you find us?”
The shaggy-haired woman tried to calm the frayed mess with her hands. She shook out some dust. “Neenah LeFleur’s not going to spoil all her secrets, hear? Just be lucky that we were doing a bloody job up on Gargantua for the Ol’ Gutter King. Ol’ King made a fool of the Fallen, he sure pissing well did. But, truth told, been looking for a little bint by the name of Ashe. Ol’ King’s been looking for that pissing sprat. The bloody bikrome sent us to find her.”
“Ashe?”
“That’s what she went by, Vicar Cyan,” Harlequin said. The young woman had stopped her bellyaching and was pulling on her cassock, pulling the sacred robe over her battered body, wincing the entire time. “Lilia. Ashe is her name here.” How did she know such a thing?
“Don’t know no pissing Lilia, but she’s Shards’ trained, that’s for certain. Been looking for her after Ol’ King’s bikrome found us in the chaos sprung during the godsdamned party. Got a soft spot for that bint, the girl, not the bikrome. Brought the girl to Drenth myself.” The woman appraised him, only for Cyan to realize he was naked. His cheeks grew warm as she smiled a golden-toothed grin that betrayed no lie of her intention. “Looks like she might have been with you, once? Lucky bint. Though, I’d say you’re more my age than hers. Savvy?”
“You were the one?” Cyan asked as Harlequin tossed him his tattered cassock. Neenah’s well-manicured brow rose as he hastily covered himself. She wasn’t hard on the eyes either… no, he shut that thought off. Justice, rebuke me for my impure thoughts. “I mean… Lilia came with you to Drenth?”
“Neenah,” the big man said, his fat finger pressed into his ear, “we gotta go. Tris says the Lover’s been compromised.”
“Bloody buggering void,” the woman cursed. “Save it, vicar. We can talk about your… payment later.” She gave him a throaty chuckle. “But you gotta promise you’ll tell everyone in Kalderim that Captain Neenah LeFleur was the one to save you, eh? Got a legend to build.”
With that, the lithe woman and the big man exited the bloodstained bath-like room. Cyan and Harlequin shared a glance before following. His winced as he slipped the Gauntlet over his mangled hand. The room beyond was a sleeping chamber, finely decorated, making Cyan wonder if it was Solanine’s personal chamber. There were more bloodied runes painted upon the wooden floor. A blackened mist clawed from many of them. They appeared fresh. Cautiously, Roland checked the main entrance, he must have found the empty hall beyond to his liking and took off soundlessly. Neenah jogged after him, leaving the vicars to limp behind.
“Where are we going, Vicar Cyan?”
“I don’t know. We must trust in Justice, Harlequin. For He has sent us a guide.” He didn’t know if he believed such a thing, but the woman mentioned a bikrome. Couldn’t be, could it? She’s been the one to mastermind all this, if true…
The captain and her mate led them into a tunnel that branched off the compound. It was hewn from the dark grey stone of Gargantua, smooth as if aether had created it. And it was eerily quiet. No soldiers, nothing.
“Madam, you mentioned a bikrome, did she have long silver hair and speak in nothing more than a whisper?” The face of the bikrome passed across the canvas of his memory, of when she’d placed the babe in his arms seventeen years ago. Little did he know, that bikrome would turn out to be the daughter of the Rēx & Rēgīna of the Golden Throne.
“Ain’t no bloody madam here, vicar,” Neenah said. “I’m air-born through and through. Neenah LeFleur’s the name, captain of Marrow’s Lover, and probably the greatest smuggler this side of the Voidlands, hear?”
Cyan smirked. A vain one, this smuggler. But she… “The bikrome, Captain LeFleur?” The pain in his body was lessening, was more like a dull throb as the corrupted mist wove through his untainted body, cleansing his ails under the aetheric magic of his gods.
“Aye. Daughter of the bloody Golden Throne, too. Not the first time she’s come to Neenah LeFleur about this little bint.”
Nor for he. They were all connected, bound to the Godsblood, his surrogate daughter. But why? What roles were they to play in this game? He wouldn’t… No, you did not fail her. Only Amaranth.
“Cap’n,” came a gurgling whisper in the darkness ahead. A hobgoblin bobbled forward.
There was an audible thwack and Cyan realized Neenah must have slapped the voidspawn upside the head. “Hush, Zig, you toad-breathed hogshit. Might be Imperium bugs all around.”
“I’m Zag, Cap’n,” the voidspawn said while rubbing his gnarled skull.
“I don’t bloody care if you’re the godsdamned rēx. Shut your flaming mouth. You want to be caught in this dank buggering passage?” Cyan heard the hobgoblin mutter an apology. “You find Stray Cat at all?”
The ugly beast beamed yellowed teeth. “Nots by my eyes, Cap’n. But Zig done heard some guardies talkin’ about an escaped girl with a drakken. Crashed they did into the sands.”
Cyan’s heart leapt into his throat. “She’s in the desert?”
Beady eyes took him in. The hobgoblin shrugged. “Mayhaps it was Stray Cat.”
Abruptly, the hallway ended with a metal door. The captain opened it and on the other side was a second hobgoblin who looked identical to the first. Twins, perhaps. He cackled upon seeing the captain before demonstrably beckoning them into the hangar beyond.
The hangar was a hundred feet high and half as much deep. Aethecite lights shone down, and Cyan could make out a gear-turned contraption along the far wall, most likely for opening a part of the mountain to launch an airship. Balconies and steel walkways went to and fro, some attached to the walls, others leading to different parts of the hangar or other areas of Gargantua. Boxes of wooden crate were stacked everywhere, some dozens of feet high.
At the far side of the hangar was an airship made of solid metal, and it stretched seventy feet from bow to stern and at least twenty feet wide amidships. The hull had rounded edges that curved upward toward a point at each end. At near rail level and on both port and starboard side was a cylindrical aethecite engine. A wheelhouse poked up over the metal rail toward the bow and at the stern was a high vertical fin connected to a gear for horizontal steering.
“How did you get in here, Captain LeFleur?”
The pretty captain… he scrubbed the thought away…Neenah LeFleur gave him a big grin. “That bikrome is some lady, eh? Always thought the Golden Throne stingy, but not the daughter. She bloody set this up. Ah, there’s Tris.”
A short dvergir and a giantess were hunched down behind a stack of crates. The voidspawn twins scuttled over toward them, whispering in voidspeak. Neenah and the others bent over and took umbrage behind the crates. The giantess gave the dvergir a sidelong glance after checking Cyan and Harlequin over. The dvergir just grinned.
“What’s the word, Tris?”
The dvergir, who was covered in tattoos, popped his meaty knuckles. “Been quiet since you left for the party, but once those tethers got blasted, everything’s changed. Soldiers running all over. We scrambled at first sight. Bet they’ve been launching everything that can fly. Ain’t seen the bikrome anywhere, but Imperium rats boarded the Lover. Ain’t been able to get her started, though. Was going to wait ‘til you got back before taking the ship back.”
“King’s been busy, eh?” Neenah said softly. To the giantess, “Doll, give me the scope.” The giantess handed the captain a single-eye scope and she propped it up on one of the crates, peering through the twin stacks. “Alright you shit-shoveling, milkmaids’ tits, listen up. Looks like there’s two guards standing just opposite the Lover. The buggers are facing away, but they are packing a wallop. Wheellocks both. With blades to spare.”
Harlequin tried peeking around the crates, but Cyan pulled the willful young woman back.
“What you thinking, Neenah?” Roland asked, his face as calm as a bull ready for the sacrificial knife.
