51
Clack crouched in the duct. Close to the vent.
Milo might have been surprised to know that little golem’s thoughts were drifting from its task to its latest obsession.
Food.
The Mess was a place Clack loved to sit in the ducts and observe.
Clack didn’t see the world like humans did. Its vision came from a crystal set into the front of a small sphere of dwarven bronze which formed its head. It could swivel its head a little, but it was more natural to aim its body.
The crystal gave it a wide view. Wider than a human’s.
This let it observe the entire kitchen.
It would patiently watch the cooks rush around cooking for the students. The clatter of large pots. The bubbling stews. The steam rising in clouds.
Watching them work, the little spider golem had learned to love their wares.
And much of its time was spent wondering.
What did food taste like?
Milo didn’t seem to enjoy food as much as the other humans. The human called Cerena really liked food. She would smile if she tasted something she liked. Closing her eyes, she’d shiver and make sounds that showed her appreciation for what she was eating.
Her love of food fascinated Clack.
It wanted to feel what she felt.
One of its legs twitched as its thoughts drifted over the food it had seen in the Mess today. Breakfast time was one of the more interesting times for Clack. The food didn’t look as complicated to make as the evening, but the students seemed to really love some of it more.
Like bacon.
They’d squabble over the last pieces like seagulls.
Making Clack think bacon must be magical.
It twitched again as it heard a sound it had been waiting for. A heavy sound. Followed by a pained grunt as Jin Stimpleton slammed one of the guards back into the wall with such force it cracked the man’s skull.
Watching closely, Clack’s crystal eye followed the other mage as he reached for an alarm.
Only for his head to explode as a round of mana blew his head apart.
He had been shot from a distance behind Jin’s shoulder.
Clack watched the blood slide down the wall, feeling nothing. It didn’t understand death. And its mind was considering Cerena’s love of the little sausages she always took three of.
Exactly three.
Never two.
Never four.
Three.
Fulka’s stealth rippled as she stepped from the shadows. Fergus was beside her. The young man looked almost as surprised by Jin, who whirled on her with a hiss.
“We said no killing!”
“But he was going for the alarm!” She shrank from his anger, sliding behind Fergus’ shoulder. “I didn’t want to!”
Fergus sighed at last. “What’s done is done.” He waved a hand at Jin. “We knew some things might go wrong and that we’d have to fight with everything we had.”
“Well, she’s gone and done that, hasn’t she?” Jin shot the young woman a disgusted look. “You know if they catch us now, they’ll execute us. You know that, right?”
“They won’t catch us,” Fergus said, trying to calm the big man down.
“We just need to get in, get the Primal Core, then I can get us out without anyone even knowing we were here. We hide the core. In the next dungeon, the normie will be exposed. Maybe even die. Then we can put it back. It’s not like we’re stealing it. ”
“Shit!” Jin shook his head and turned to the door.
“I don’t know how I let you talk me into this.
It’s madness, Fergus. We’re gonna get caught.
And then what? You might get away with it.
Your family’s big. Your father is someone.
But me? Mine? Nothing. They’ll kill me if I’m lucky.
Toss me into prison if I’m not. Throw away the key. ”
Fergus put a hand on the big man’s shoulder. “Jin, you’re a brother to me. I won’t let anything happen. Trust me.”
“Alright.” But Jin didn’t seem convinced.
“Besides, you’re right. My dad’s important. If worst comes to worst, I’ll give the core to him. He’ll know what to do.”
Jin froze. “You think if you give it to him, he’ll use it against the Court?”
“Only as leverage,” Fulka insisted. “It’s not rebellion. It’s to prove that that normie is being supported by the teachers here. It’s corrupt!”
“Exactly,” Fergus nodded. “You heard the teachers defend him. They’re in on it. All of them. How else can we prove it?”
“I don’t know,” Jin said. “But it’s just… It’s a huge risk, Fergus. And now? Now we’ve killed someone. Ain’t no going back now.”
“You’re right.” Fergus wore a grim smile. “Ain’t no going back. The only way out is through, right?”
“I guess so.” But Jin turned and scowled at Fulka. “But no more killing!”
“I told you, I didn’t mean to,” she snapped. “But I had to stop him, and you were too far away from him!”
“Stop it, please,” Fergus growled. “We need to be a team now. Let’s argue about it after we’ve got the core.”
Jin grunted, but turned back to the door. He held out a hand and Fergus dropped a small brass card into his palm. The card glittered in the light. It was small. Light. Ribbed with small grooves.
Clack’s leg twitched again as it watched Jin slide the card into a slot by the door.
The three humans held their breath.
“It’s not working,” Jin said. “Are you sure it’s still valid? Maybe they changed them since your dad was here?”
“No.” Fergus shook his head, but he looked nervous. “He said it can take a few seconds. It’s disabling the wards.”
Suddenly the door started opening with a dry grind of stone and a heavy clank of gears.
Clack stayed motionless in the duct.
Watching.
Fulka gulped and moved closer to Fergus, grabbing his arm with one hand as she stepped behind him. Her rifle was loose in the other. The muzzle didn’t tremble.
Click chittered lightly.
Her head snapped up.
Searching the walls.
“What’s the matter?” Fergus asked.
“Nothing, I guess,” she said. “I thought I heard something. Maybe it’s just the door.”
The door rumbled to a stop.
Revealing the corridor which would lead to the Core Chamber.
“Here,” Jin tossed the card back to Fergus, who slipped it into his pocket. “We’re in, I guess.”
Lifting his wand, Fergus stepped hesitantly into the corridor. His eyes slid over the runes, noting they weren’t glowing.
“It seems okay,” he said. “But be careful. There’s still old dwarf traps. They should be marked, but some aren’t. Step where I step, okay?”
Jin nodded. “Okay.”
The three students stepped inside, and the door started to rumble closed again.
Clack moved. Its arms snatched a glittering object, and it scrambled back down the ducts. All thoughts of food momentarily forgotten as it raced for a pipe leading down.
Without hesitation, it jumped into the darkness.
It bounced from one side of the pipe to the other, kicking off with its legs. The glowing crystal eye lit up the way down.
The ground rushed up to meet it.
It spread its arms like wings, scraping the pipe’s walls which screeched in protest.
Noisy, it thought.
But there was no time to be subtle. The Keep was a place where noises weren’t uncommon. Who would think one more strange sound was unusual?
Landing with a loud clank, the spider golem shook itself then raced along the ducts. It ducked from one to the next, down a pipe which swept downwards at a 45 degree angle.
It slipped through the slime that had formed over the years.
Then it leaped out into the air through one vent. Landed in the middle of a large hall. A glass wall divided the middle. It ran the length of the hall, ducking into another room before scrambling up the wall into another duct.
It felt the thrill of chase.
Made more thrilling by the knowledge that the duct was echoing with the sound of another spider golem’s chase. Click. Coming up fast behind.
Chattering excitedly, the two golems linked up.
Click tried to take the object in Clack’s arms.
Clack refused.
Slapping Clack with one arm, Click gave up trying to take the object and instead chose to harry the other golem to go faster.
Move! Clack shouted at itself. Gears clattering loudly.
Until, with a scream of gears, the golem launched itself from a vent and landed beside a pair of boots. It looked up.
Into the gleaming gaze of its master.
Who eyed the object in Clack’s arms.
He reached down and patted the spider golem, who purred with all its gears as the object was taken away. “Good job, Clack,” Milo said, pocketing it. “I knew you could do it.”
It was in that moment that Clack thought it might know something of how the human called Cerena felt about bacon, because if Clack could have closed its eyes and shivered in delight, it would have.
Click thwapped it on the head with one heavy arm.
As Milo turned to the other two golems waiting eagerly. Tania and Selma, dressed for war.
“Alright,” he said. “Time to go.”
“At last.” Tania grinned. “Let’s get this caper started.”
Clack watched them go. Then it wondered if it could make it to the Mess in time for lunch.