Moving Targets (Exiles in Arms) by Werner C.L

Author:Werner, C.L. [Werner, C.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Adventure, RPG
ISBN: 9781939480019
Publisher: Skull Island eXpeditions
Published: 2013-04-02T23:00:00+00:00

The city of Five Fingers stretched across the tangle of islands that littered the Bay of Stone at the mouth of the Dragon’s Tongue River. Built upon the bones of an Orgoth fortress, what had once been a small outpost of smugglers and pirates had expanded to become the most infamous city in western Immoren, the black jewel in the crown of Ord.

Virtually every habitable inch of land on even the smallest of the islands had been built up over the centuries to provide shelter to those bold or desperate enough to seek their fortune in the lawless city. Great spires of stone and steel stretched up into the smoggy sky, looming above narrow streets and maze-like alleys, casting their shadows across teeming docks and shipyards. The city’s construction had been as haphazard as it had been rapid, buildings built one atop another until they resembled the stacked blocks of some imbecilic giant. A confusion of elevated walkways, bridges and rope rigging stretched between the structures, forming a cobweb hundreds of feet above the ground that danced and jumped with every sea-borne breeze. From the highest towers, great cables reached out across the channels between the big islands, securing the enormous cars of steel that slowly rumbled over the water on their steam-powered wheels, sometimes vanishing into the smoke spewed by the factories littering the ground far below.

For all its filthy appearance and stench of dead fish, Taryn felt her heart swell as she watched Five Fingers heave into view. Many times on the journey across the marshy terrain of Ord she had despaired of reaching the city. The succession of barges and river boats they had employed after leaving the train, the seemingly endless delays as they transferred from one to another, all of it was behind them now. They had done their best to leave a confused trail behind them without inflicting further delay upon Earl Alessandro, yet even so the journey had been fraught with worry. Had they really lost Olt’s men, and could the earl hang on long enough to reach the city and a capable healer? Now that they were near journey’s end, she felt as though a great weight had been eased from her shoulders.

She and Rutger had held true to Earl Alessandro’s commands, even when it seemed their employer must perish from his obstinacy. Disembarking from the train in Armandor the earl had allowed only the briefest medical attention before they were bound for Tarna aboard a steamer travelling down the Dragon’s Tongue. The apothecary who had attended the earl – for the noble would not risk the attention of a professional physician – was quite vocal in his disapproval of the voyage. The wound was more hideous than anything he had seen outside of a codex. The bullet that had struck the earl hadn’t been lead or steel, but wood, and it had splintered on impact, infesting the flesh with morbid splinters that were promoting a rapid corruption.

The apothecary said it was Bloodroot, a noxious substance drawn from a rare carnivorous tree.

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