Warriorborn by Jim Butcher

Author:Jim Butcher [Butcher, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781039452435
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2023-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

Once they had descended to the streets of the habble, even Jenson’s nose wasn’t good enough to scent the enemy through the chemical stench the slugworms had spread all over the place—but Maybell suddenly froze, her eyes wide, and the rest of the warriorborn stopped in place, not moving, all without any other signal.

Benedict looked back at the thief, lifting his eyebrows in question.

Maybell pointed a finger at her ear and then ahead of them, to the left.

Benedict nodded and gestured for everyone to hold position. Then he ghosted forward in silence.

He found the enemy in the habble’s monetorium. Of course.

Most habbles had been constructed by the Merciful Builders with a number of pre-formed buildings of nearly indestructible spirestone. One of those buildings was nearly always chosen to house a habble’s financial center, the monetorium, where cash, precious metals, valuable crystals, gemstones, and other expensive objects were often stored for safekeeping.

Benedict could not imagine that a monetorium for a Spire as small as Dependence contained any vast amounts of wealth—but the building would have only a single entrance and would otherwise have a roof and walls of unbroken spirestone. If one was to choose a place to spend the night in this slug-haunted habble, the monetorium would be the logical choice.

Low voices came from the building, and perhaps a little less than a score of men in mostly civilian clothing were stationed outside. They carried blades and long guns, and wore ethersilk tunics that looked newer than they should have for surplus civilian gear. The men had four sentries in an outer perimeter, standing facing out away from the monetorium, and the others, though they had doubtless been ordered to wait silently while their companions swept the building, were standing in loose groups, talking quietly.

In other words, Benedict thought, behaving like Marines.

He made certain the scattered lumin crystals of the deserted habble wouldn’t backlight him to the guards and crept as close as he could, using a rough masonry-built smithy to shelter from sight. He crouched down and watched intently.

“… don’t understand this at all,” growled one of the men, a lanky, tall warriorborn. “Why don’t we get out of this place, light the rockets, and go?”

“You’re not Auroran, Dannon,” muttered another man. “You don’t understand duty.”

“I understand that we’re sweeping the monetorium,” replied Dannon, in a derisive Piker accent. He nodded toward what looked like a sack on the ground. “We already got a witness to take back. How long before those slug things figure out there’s more food where the last three came from?”

“Shut up,” snapped one of the men, in a clear Auroran accent. He said something in the rapid, liquid tones of Auroran and then added, “That means that we know how to treat your kind in Aurora.”

Dannon showed the man his fangs in a lazy grin. “Yeah, you just try it, Mendoza. The slugs won’t leave anything behind of you but your bones.”

“Quiet, both of you,” said another, quieter Auroran voice. “I mean it. If you get loud, you’ll draw more of those worms, and they stink.

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