Beyond the Crimson Mists: The Tidestone Chronicles by Nicholas Wolf

Author:Nicholas Wolf [Wolf, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Immortal Works Press
Published: 2024-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Fifteen

Iopened my eyes.

It was still nighttime, and outside the Suncatcher, the pall of clouds rendered moot the light of the Moons. I heard a strange sound over the low drone of the Suncatcher’s engines, and the muffled rattle of wind buffeting the makeshift covering I’d bolted over the cabin’s now-doorless bulkhead. I wrinkled my brow and squinted, tilting my head to better hear. It was a soft, rhythmic thud, less heard in the ears than felt through the deck plating.

The sound of something uniquely unsuited to stealth trying to be stealthy.

I groggily rolled over on my cot, knocking over an empty gryg bottle with my elbow. Sure enough, on the other side of the fuselage, was Urthanq, slowly plodding towards my cabin at the aft of the airship where Nyomi was asleep. The golem’s domed head revolved like a lighthouse beacon the way it did when scanning for danger.

“Psst.”

The golem’s domed head swiveled sharply. It’s single glaring eye fixed on me for a long, brittle moment, but it didn’t stop advancing.

Something was wrong. I felt it in my gut. I shuffled off my tattered coat, the only blanket I’d had for myself with Nyomi sleeping in my bed, and whispered across the darkness. A gun and a dagger were never far from my hands, and even through the gryg haze, my fingers had little trouble in finding a pistol and a blade from my belt lying next to my cot. “Psst. Urthanq. What are you doing?” I called out in a hoarse whisper.

Urthanq’s domed head whirled, glancing first towards my cabin, then back at me. The glowing optic flashed from emerald to ruby. I felt a sick chill run down my spine, and before I was even aware of what I was doing, I bolted across the fuselage and positioned myself between Urthanq and Nyomi’s room.

“I asked you a question, Urthanq,” I said firmly, but quietly, not wanting to wake the girl. “What in the bloody Depths are you doing?”

The golem drew to a grinding stop. By the Depths, it was impossible not to feel cowed by the sheer height and mass of the bloody automaton. I swallowed, but tried to keep my demeanor calm and casual. Normally in situations like this, I’d have cracked a rakish grin, the kind that’d gotten me out of scrapes before, but I had a feeling the charms that coerced angry customers and made maidens smitten would have little impact on a looming hulk of roqlyud-forged metal.

“What needs to be done,” Urthanq droned.

Something in the golem’s toneless burr chilled my blood. Urthanq’s voice was usually the tonal equivalent of a slab of metal, but there was something else to it now. Something I hadn’t heard before. An almost hungry edge I didn’t like. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

“I am going to kill Nyomi,” Urthanq stated, in a voice so blasé that it hit me like a sucker punch.

I almost yelled but quickly stifled my cry. I glanced at the cabin door behind me and thanked the Moons it was still closed.

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