Chapter Twenty-Nine
A thought occurred to me as I was heading to the interrogation.
The bridge had fallen. Why? I had looked over the plans for dismantling it, and they were sound.
Yes, the rot had spread extensively, but the city architects had come up with a way to dismantle it safely.
The bridge shouldn't have fallen as it did.
Turning on my heel, I headed for my lab.
Once there, I grabbed my satchel and left.
On the stairs, I hesitated. I had promised Falken I wouldn't leave the palace without guards.
Orro wasn't enough. But the King was in an interrogation, and I didn't want to interrupt him.
This could be nothing. It could also be everything.
At the bottom of the stairs, I shouted for Torli. Then again, “Torli!”
At last, the sound of his footsteps echoed to me, and then the man himself came running around a corner. He stopped before me and bowed. “Master Sevarin, how may I be of assistance?”
“I need to investigate the fallen bridge, but I promised the King I wouldn't leave without some guards. Could you arrange that for me?”
“Of course, sir! Come with me.” Torli motioned down the hallway and led me out of the palace. He left me on the steps to speak to a guard on duty, and then headed into the stables.
Activity began to my left, and then a group of horns strode across the courtyard to the stable. A few minutes later, the horns and Torli emerged with saddled horses.
Torli led his horse to me. “For you, Master Sevarin.” He handed me the reins. “Shall I inform the King of your whereabouts?”
“Yes, thank you.” I took the reins. “He's in an interrogation right now. Maybe you could wait until he's finished?”
“Yes, sir. I will.” Torli bowed and headed into the palace.
As I mounted, I heard a dog bark. I settled on my horse and turned to see Lord Orro and Leera come out of the palace, passing Torli. He smirked at me, his skin glittering in the sun.
“Where do you think you're going, Alchemist?” Orro sauntered over to me. Then he saw my bandages. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“Someone tried to kill me with my lab equipment.”
“Shit.” He looked at the guards.
“I'm investigating the bridge.”
“Not without me, you're not.”
“That's not necessary, but thank you.”
“You have a murderer after you, and the King's nowhere in sight. I'm going with you.” He headed for the stable. “Give me a minute, and I'll join you.”
“I have guards!” I called after him.
“None of them are me!” he shouted back.
Leera yipped, but stayed where she was. I grimaced.
“Master Alchemist?” A mounted human horn guided his mount over to mine.
“Yes, we'll be off as soon as Lord Orro joins us.”
“I'm coming! Keep your britches on!” Lord Orro rode out of the stable, ducking to make it past the doorway.
He cantered over to us. “Leera.” He leaned back, and the dog jumped onto his lap.
Holding her steady, Orro flicked the reins and headed for the open passage that once held the gate. He looked back at us. “Are you coming?”
Chuckling, I turned my horse to follow Orro into the city.
After catching up to him, I settled my mount into a matching pace.
There were fewer people out than usual, and I wondered if they were at home waiting for the collection teams or just scared.
Those who were out nodded or waved to me as we passed. For the moment, they were on my side.
As we neared the bridge, clattering noises came to us.
Then it came into sight, and the noises revealed their sources.
Men were busy clearing the debris, some of them using magic to lift the larger pieces.
I brought my horse to the edge of the site and dismounted.
Leera jumped down as I tied my horse's reins to a tree.
“Don't you head off without your guards!” Orro jumped down and secured his horse to another tree.
The bridge crossed a river, and a park took up most of the shoreline, so there were more than enough trees to secure our horses.
Rolling my eyes, I waited for the horns to dismount and join us. “For fuck's sake, Orro. I let you come. Stop whining.”
Some horns chuckled as they joined us.
But the Orro snapped, “Someone tried to kill you. I'm not whining. I'm being cautious.”
I shrugged at the wide-eyed looks of the horns who were suddenly seeing my bandages in a new light. “Well, come on then.” I headed to the bridge.
Orro, Leera, and the horns hurried after me.
The bridge had once been the architectural jewel of the city.
It had soared across the river on stone stilts with arches forming railings and statuary posed between them.
Now, it was like the skeleton of a giant beast, rib bones poking up out of the water.
A Ricarri man stepped into our path. “Uh, you can't be here.”
“I'm Master Sevarin, Alchemist to the King. I'm here to investigate the fall.” I peered around his shoulder. “It looks like you've made great headway. Have you seen much evidence of Silver Rot?”
The man blinked and cleared his throat. “Yes, sir. I'm the foreman here. Name's Hud. Most of the foundation is covered in rot.”
I went forward. “Anything else?”
Hud kept pace with me, motioning to a path between the stacks of stone to direct my way. “Anything else? Uh, no. But we haven't cleared the enchantment room.”
I stopped. “Enchantment room? I thought the ward was buried in the foundation?”
Hud stopped. “For major structures like this, we put the ward in a room in case it needs to be maintained. Even wards with resonant enchantment loops get checked on.”
“If the ward was in a room, why wasn't it simply brought out? You wouldn't have had to dismantle the bridge.”
“The bridge was already crumbling when the King ordered us to remove the enchantment.” He shrugged. “The room was buried under rubble. We were working on clearing it when the bridge fell.”
“Is it clear now?”
“Yes, would you like to inspect it?”
“Indeed, I would.”
“This way.” Hud went forward, his thick, glimmering, gray arms bulging out of his sleeveless tunic.
It didn’t surprise me that most of the construction team, or rather, deconstruction team, was Ricarri. The mountain folk knew stone and had Metal Magic. There were a few humans on the team as well, but no other races.
“Clear a path!” Hud shouted. “I've got the King's Alchemist with me.”
“I'm Alchemist to the King, not his alchemist,” I muttered.
Orro chuckled. “Big difference, eh?”
“Yes, it is.” I glanced at Leera, adroitly moving among the debris. Her breed was from the mountains as well.
The Ricarri men backed away, many smiling at Leera. The dog yipped happily at the attention, stopping for a few quick head strokes before dashing ahead. She found the uncovered room first and sat by the door to wait for us.
Hud chuckled. “She's special.”
“Yes, she is. Thank you.” Orro opened the door.
“Wait!” I called out. “You need a mask.”
“We need masks?” Hud scowled. “No one told us that.”
“I informed the architects who were supposed to advise you.”
“They didn't tell us.”
“Have any of you experienced any eye pain or other health issues?”
“Uh, no.” Hud looked around at the other workers. “Not even the humans.”
“Huh.” I chewed on my lip and looked at the door. “Have any of you been inside the enchantment room?”
“Not yet, sir. Not our job.”
I nodded. “Good. The masks are merely a precaution, but if you come in contact with the rot, you need to wear one. Any strip of thick fabric will do. As long as you don't burn the rot, your eyes should be safe.”
“Burn it? We ain't gonna burn it.”
“I didn't bring anything,” Orro said.
“Stay up here then.” I motioned at the horns. “Do any of you have fabric you can use?”
They shook their heads.
“I guess I'm doing this alone.”
“We have dust masks,” Hud said. “Would those work?”
“They cover your nose and mouth?”
“Yup.”
“Ah, yes. Those are perfect. Can we borrow some?”
“Sure thing.” Hud motioned at some of his men, and they headed for a temporary structure off to the side of the site.
A few minutes later, we were all wearing professional masks. Hud donned one as well.
At my pointed look, he said, “I need to escort you. I'm responsible for everyone on this site.”
“All right.”
“Leera, stay here.” Orro pointed to the ground.
She sat down and yipped.
“They'll look after her.” Hud motioned at his workers, one of them already petting the dog.
“Thank you.” Orro nodded to the workers and then headed into the room.
Before I could go in, two of the horns followed Orro while a third motioned for me to wait. I sighed as they searched the room. Here was yet another example of what life as the King's mate would be like.
Then Orro called out, “Master Sevarin, you need to see this!”
I rushed ahead, Hud and the rest of my guards following.
Once inside, I found Orro standing before a doorway.
To my left was a massive metal box covered in Silver Rot.
I assumed it was the ward to protect the bridge.
I would have gone to that first, but Orro had a light tube in hand and was aiming it into the doorway.
Holding my wounded tail out of the way, I went to Orro and stared down into a stairwell glittering with Silver Rot. Then I looked back at Hud. “Do you know where this leads?”
Hud shook his head. “That shouldn't be there. It's just supposed to be a small room to contain the ward.”
“It must have been behind this shelf, but the vibrations from the bridge collapsing knocked it aside.” Orro motioned at a metal bookshelf on the floor, its contents spilling forth. “Where do you think it goes?”
“Down.” I smirked at Orro, and he snorted.
Hud peered over my shoulder. “There was a facility here once, before the bridge was built. Maybe it leads to that.”
Orro and I turned to look at the man.
He cleared his throat and met our gazes. “I've heard stories that instead of filling it in, they just built over it.”
“What kind of facility?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Dunno. It was one of those secret royal facilities. Some say they experimented with magic down there. But I always thought that was just a scary story. You know, the kind of thing workers tell the new guy.”
“I think your scary story is based on fact.” I pulled a light tube from my satchel and turned it on. But when I started forward, Orro grabbed me and pulled me back.
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head and then motioned at the closest horn—an Argaiv man. “You first.”
“Me?” The man's wings shivered as he pulled them in tight to his back.
“I need to stay with the Master Alchemist, and it's your job to protect him. Go!”
I handed the man my light tube. “The Silver Rot only affects enchantments, but maybe put on some gloves.” I pulled a pair out of my satchel and pulled them on.
“What?” the Argaiv squeaked as he rapidly pulled on a pair of leather gloves.
“Come on. I'll go with you.” A Ricarri horn joined him, already wearing gloves, and they went into the stairwell.
As they went down the steps covered in piles of silver rot, crunches came, similar to the sound of footsteps in snow. A whooshing followed it. They were clearing the steps with their boots.
Orro went next, using his light to guide us. There was a railing, luckily untouched by rot, but the steps were covered in it. Even with the guards clearing most of the rot, a layer remained, making the way unsteady. I glanced back to see that Hud was still with us.
At my lifted eyebrows, he said, “I told you I'm responsible. I also need to see what's down here if we're going to rebuild.”
Orro grunted in approval.
I watched the horns in front of us, making their way down the stairs. Their passage created a steady rhythm of crunch, whoosh, pause. It felt as if we descended for twenty minutes, but that was only because of how slow we had to go. Finally, we reached the bottom.
“I see a light pull,” the Ricarri horn said. “Dear Gods.”
The sudden illumination made me blink. The light was brighter than I expected. Then the vast space before us came into focus, and Orro pushed the Ricarri out of the way so the rest of us could enter.
“Holy fuck,” Orro whispered.
The entire room was covered in silver, magnifying the light from the lanterns above.
Worktables, counters, and other pieces of furniture had been turned into little silver hills.
Under my boots, silver mounds collapsed with cracking sounds.
It felt like walking over delicate webs of glass, not like snow at all.
I paused, waiting to see if disturbing it would release silver spores into the air, but the rot only crumbled in on itself to become glittering sand.
As long as we didn't try to burn it, we should be fine.
“There's another stairwell over there.” Orro pointed.
“And you will not be descending it without me!” a roar echoed through the room, causing silver to rain down from the ceiling.
We all ducked while simultaneously turning to see the Dragon King standing at the bottom of the stairwell with his Dragon knights. I think several of them were smirking at me, but I couldn't tell since they all had construction masks on.