The Lost Mark: 02 - The Road to Death by Matt Forbeck

Author:Matt Forbeck [Forbeck, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7869-6496-3
Publisher: Fanversion Publishing
Published: 2018-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Hey,” said Trisfo, the Karrn who hoped to fly Phoenix to Fort Zombie and back the next day, “do you see that?”

Xalt froze stiff. These were some of the words he dreaded to hear most in what had been a pleasant conversation so far, covering subjects ranging from the vegetation of the Mournland to the airworthiness of ships like Phoenix.

Monja smiled. “I can’t hear much of anything standing this close to the ring of fire.”

Trisfo stepped between the halfling and the warforged to peer toward the fort’s gates. “I said, ‘Do you see that?’ Puakel’s gone from his post again.” He pointed up at the guard post above and to one side of the gates. “He’s going to spend a year in Khyber for that if Berre catches him again.”

“He’s probably just gone to relieve himself,” Xalt said. When Monja stared at him, he added, “I understand humans have to do that all the time.”

“Warforged don’t?” Trisfo asked, intrigued.

“No,” said Xalt. “Compared to breathers, we have a tremendous amount of control over our bodies.”

“If you don’t eat, how do you stay alive?” Trisfo asked, still keeping one eye on the gates.

“It’s complicated,” Xalt said, warming to the subject, happy to be talking about anything but guards and gates—especially guards near gates. “Mostly we are motivated by a complicated system of magical means, much like a golem. We don’t need any more sustenance than that. However, the wizardly researchers who designed us wanted us to have some measure of free will—as much as any other self-aware creatures, it seems. To that end, the running theory is that they decided to make us as much like breathing people as possible.”

“Fascinating,” Trisfo said, now completely engaged by the conversation again. “You mean to say that you have a heart, lungs, a brain?”

“In some sense, yes,” Xalt said. “You might even recognize them as such if you were to dissect one of us. They have the same form, even if they are not constructed from the same substances.”

“Then there is no flesh to you nor bone?”

“Not, again, in the traditional sense. I have an underlying framework that is just as strong as bone, and I have fibers that move in much the same way as your muscles, but they do so without need for food, drink, or even—”

A heart-stopping howl rang out in the night, and for a moment Xalt forgot from where such a horrible sound could have come. Monja reached up and grabbed the warforged’s hand and started pulling him toward the gates. As he turned, he saw them start to creak open.

“What’s going on here?” Trisfo said, stunned. Then he shouted at the top of his lungs, “The gates! Puakel! The gates!”

Burch came charging out of the stables, still howling as he rushed up behind Xalt and Monja. “Stay here!” he snarled at them as he bounded past, faster than either of them could move.

Xalt halted in midstride and nearly tripped over his own feet. He turned to face Monja, who stared at him with horrified eyes.

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