In Shadows of Silver by Ben Green

Author:Ben Green [Green, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781734821857
Publisher: Loamseed Press

Gather the Pieces

The leadmages give Koglim a fifty percent chance of living through the healing process. I watch through a slotted window, bordered with hard rivets of iron, as they affix some contraption to his side and upper leg. Long screws drill down into the marrow of his bones—drill down and reverse back, drill down and reverse back. Six separate gears, varying in size, made from a copper-lead alloy, spin on the screw heads. I don’t hear his screams until the door opens briefly and Rugnus steps out.

Feral wolf attacks are rare. These leadmages are specialists, housed deep in the belly of Tungsten City, in a cave dripping rust-tinged water. I don’t know much about Loamin sanitation laws, but this doesn’t seem to pass the grade.

Rugnus stares at Torlina’s staff, shrunken by half somehow and lashed to my bag with a leather strap. “The leadmages can’t figure out how to keep him sedated. The expert on this type of stuff... she was killed during the attack on StoneYoke.”

“But he’s alive,” I say.

Rugnus smiles softly. “And if he lives through it, he’ll never stop telling everyone how awesome it was. He’ll still probably want to try and tame one of them.”

I bring up my arm and shake the bracelet on my wrist. “Peerless in shields, and I still couldn’t stop this from happening.”

“Not your fault. Takes a special type of craft to heal wounds caused by a feral wolf. Leadmages say they haven’t used tooth gears in decades, but the injured are always out of Wolfstaff when they do.”

Andalynn pushes through the door next, and Koglim’s screams reach me again.

“Well, they won’t have to worry about that anymore,” I say.

Andalynn frowns. “Worry about what?”

I take a deep breath. “Whatever I did, when I took this staff out of the dungeon, I think I destroyed it. The lobby came tumbling down around me. Wolfstaff said... she’d be free.”

Rugnus eyes the staff again. “Can’t be possible. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s gone.”

From around a corner, Hemdi and Winta duck into this branch of the cave. Winta struts toward the window and looks down at Koglim. “Idiot.” She spins back to Rugnus and me, hands hanging away from her midsection. “Spill it. What happened?”

“Wait.” Andalynn puts up a hand, sorting through something on bluelink. “Jeiah sent me a message. Clayson, are your notifications on?”

A knot of fear twists in my stomach. Jeiah had been chasing that lead on Bazalrak. I open bluelink, scan my notifications, and find a few messages she’s sent me. Before I can read them, a video chat pops up. It’s her.

I smile. “Hey, what’s—”

She breathes a sigh of relief. “There you are. I have some news.”

“Yeah, so do I.”

She squints. “What’s wrong? Never mind, where can we meet?”

“You look—are you okay?”

“Sure, besides being followed through the city and having my paladin’s access revoked by the new Bluekeeper.”

“Brick.”

“Yeah.”

I peer through the video to the rest of the group. “I’m going to head to my vault. Jeiah has news.”

Rugnus looks between the tiny window and me.

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