The Compass Key (Book 5) (14 page)

Nyx waves her hand and Cyril’s illusion reappears in front of her. She carefully rotates the image, including turning it upside down to look at the faint outline of sewers. Minutes pass as she continues examining the illusion, but she repeatedly goes back to the sewers. With a proud smile, she cocks her head toward Delvin and points at the upside down image.

“
You see what I see, Delvin?”

He matches the caster’s grin and reaches out to run his finger along one of the sewer lines.
“They took the dockyards for easy sewer access. So, whatever they want has to be down there. More importantly, I don’t think they know where it is. If they did, they would have captured an area that is easier to defend. A naval attack could wipe them out, but I assume the Grand Counselors want to avoid that.”

“That option is a last resort. The Grand Counselors have admitted to being curious about the chaos elves’ goals,” Cyril says. He reaches out to pull the illusion to him, ignoring the childish scowl on Nyx’s face. “There are many secrets under Gaia’s streets. The current city was built on top of the ruins of an ancient metropolis. That in turn was built on the ruins of a fortress city. There’s no telling
what era their target comes from or how deep it sleeps.”

“They’re after the
Compass Key,” Luke interjects. He quietly munches on a carrot stick while everyone waits for him to keep talking. “There’s nothing else to think about. We need the Compass Key, which is in Gaia. Trinity and the chaos elves happen to be here looking for something in the sewers. The gods aren’t always subtle, guys.”

“Isaiah said you know about
the Compass Key,” Nyx says. She is about to get to her feet, but stays seated when she notices her masters’ confused expressions. “What’s wrong? Was he lying?”

“We’ve never heard of a
Compass Key,” Willow admits, glancing expectantly at her husband. He shrugs and strokes his chin, struggling to think of something. “Isaiah must be mistaken. Given his age, it was bound to happen at some point. Unless he meant that we have a book that mentions the Compass Key. Our library is extensive and we spent our youth collecting magical tomes that we have yet to read. Time seems to slip away and you forget about all of the leisurely activities that you keep putting off.”

“True, dear
est. It is possible that we have information on this Compass Key and don’t realize it,” Cyril chimes in with a small chuckle. “It would be just like that lizard to know more about our library than we do. I’m sure he’s snuck in to do his own research without us knowing. He never believed in boundaries when it came to knowledge.”

Nyx is on her feet and catching her
falling chair within seconds, her impatience getting the best of her. She pushes her seat in with a wave of her hand then races off toward the library. Fizzle races after her, followed swiftly by Timoran. The barbarian skids to a stop in the doorway to politely bow toward their hosts before hurrying after the half-elf and drite.

“That was odd,” Delvin claims, scratching his head. “Do we have permission to go on the roof,
Lord and Lady?”

“You may, young man,” Willow says with a nod. She pulls a white staff out from under the table and
taps it on the floor. A glowing sparrow materializes on the top of the staff and flies onto Delvin’s shoulder. “This little fellow will guide you. I trust you won’t do anything foolish up there.”

“I will be a proper guest,”
he promises while taking a pear from the table and gesturing for Luke to follow him. “I’m going to need your senses and advice, forest tracker. We have a lot of planning to do and very little information to go on.”

The half-elf
picks up an entire tray of cookies and a pitcher of orange juice before following Delvin to the door. “Why should this situation be any different than my other adventures?”

*****

Gaia is peaceful as Delvin looks over it from the top of Rainbow Tower. He leans on the shimmering bricks, his eyes narrowed to help him see to the distant dockyards. He can see the seven black ships of the chaos elves mixed in with the other ships that are lazily bobbing in the rising tide. Delvin smirks at the idea of taking out their ships, but the idea fades away when he notices that the griffin riders are refusing to go near. Something on the docks has them scared and he would be a fool to ignore the instincts of a griffin. A thought forms in his head until it is destroyed by a sudden interruption from behind him.

“How can you concentrate up here?” Luke asks, staring at the sky. He reaches up to touch the fluffy clouds
and grins at their softness. “You can actually touch the sky from up here. I didn’t think this tower was high enough to let you grab the sky.”

“It’s an illusion, Luke,” Delvin calmly informs the half-elf
. He watches several forms walking along the docks and taps the half-elf on the arm. “Give me a hand here. Your eyes are better than mine, so let me know what you see. Once we’re done, you can go back to admiring the illusionary sky.”

“You know, the trick doesn’t work when you know it’s a
spell,” Luke explains with a mournful sigh. He jumps onto the edge of the tower and meticulously scans the docks. “There are flags on some of the buildings with the symbol of Ambrosine. Those glowing eyes are creeping me out, but that’s probably the effect the goddess is going for. I think those are to mark their territory, which is strange. Trinity could easily put up a magical barrier to prevent entry. I do see chaos elves on the ships and wandering around. Looks like the sailors and townspeople that they captured are free to move around the area. It doesn’t look like a hostage situation, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one.”

“True. On the plus side, they’re treating the citizens well. That means they aren’t interested in a body count,”
the other warrior says, rubbing his eyes and taking a seat on the ground. He watches Luke flip off the edge and land next to him. “You seem much happier lately. Want to talk about something?”

Flashing a crooked smile, Luke sits against the turret and folds his hands behind his head.
“I’m in a genuinely good mood. Sari is in a safe place and recovering instead of being tortured. The Lich is gone for good. We have another exciting adventure in front of us. I feel at peace after all of the chaos of the last few days.”

Delvin lies down on the cool stone and stares at the thinning clouds that race across the sky. He watches a trio of griffins fly over the tower and chuckles at the sight of them passing through the illusion. The calming autumn sky
makes him drowsy and he shakes his head clear. A small noise catches his attention and he turns to see Luke choking down a suspicious sob. Delvin silently admires the way the half-elf fights to keep control of the emotions that are finally coming to the surface.

“Timoran and I have been waiting for you to break a little,”
he admits, moving to sit next to his friend. He gives Luke a gentle punch to the shoulder and grins. “Congratulations, Callindor. You’re a mortal with a soul. Just let the guilt and fear out and you’ll feel a lot better about what you did.”

“It isn’t guilt or fear,” Luke argues. He
abruptly jumps to his feet and retches over the side of the tower. “I think I hit an apprentice . . . or a swan.”

“So, this is about you taking your first humanoid life
. You’re feeling guilt about the blood on your hands and a fear that part of you enjoyed the act. All of us have been there to some extent. I’m sure even the tough and indomitable Nyx had her moment of shock when she first took a life.”

Frustrated and disgusted with himself, the forest tracker pounds his fist against the rough stone.
“I enjoyed it. I have no guilt about killing Kayn because he took Sari and nearly killed me. We treated him like a friend and he betrayed us. He got what he deserved.”

“There’s a difference between enjoying the actual killing and feeling that you’ve done the only thing you could do,” Delvin states. He pushes himself up and puts an arm around Luke’s shoulders. “Look at it this way,
Callindor. You gave Kayn every chance to walk away from that battle. He chose to continue pushing forward until you had to decide between killing him and letting him kill you. Remember that there was another warrior in the battle and he’s responsible for his own actions.”

“What if I make a habit of killing people?”

“You won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

Delvin rolls his eyes and stares at the sky, expecting to see a floating god laughing at Luke’s ridiculous fear. “Fine. I don’t know that. You could very well become a cold-blooded killer. If that happens, Nyx will probably use enough combat magic on you to make it rain Luke dust for a week. Does that put you at ease?”

“A little bit,”
the half-elf whispers with a shuddering breath. “What was your first kill like? If you don’t mind me asking, Delvin.”

“I’ve been wondering when you’d ask me that
. It was probably a week after I graduated from the academy and I joined a group of mercenaries. Tavris was in there too, but we weren’t friends at that point. Our group was hired to remove some thieves from a mountain hideout. I was the only one who hadn’t killed before, so I was nervous. I stabbed a large thief through the neck, he fell on top of me, and I spent the rest of the battle frozen in horror.”

Luke chuckles before he can stop himself. “That must have been embarrassing.”

“If it was, I don’t remember,” Delvin admits. He can see more questions brewing in his friend’s eyes. “It’s nearly impossible for a warrior to follow this path without taking a life. The trick isn’t to avoid killing, Luke. The real trick is to give your enemies every chance to away from the fight. An enemy that forces you to kill him is more to blame than you are if you give them a chance to retreat. After all, you can only control your own actions and thoughts.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke promises with a half-hearted smile. He gently removes Delvin’s arm from his shoulders and looks to the sky. “I’m nervous about what to tell Sari when I see her again.”

The former mercenary turns around to look over the city and see if he missed anything that can give them another edge against the invaders. “The truth is probably best. Kayn betrayed her worse than the rest of us. If anything, she might be relieved that he got what he deserved. I doubt she’s going to be angry and never speak to you again.”

Shouting and clashing weapons catch Delvin’s attention. The warrior moves to the other side of the tower to
watch a small fight two blocks away. Four guards are battling three chaos elves, who seem more interested in escaping. Luke wanders over to take a look and is about to transform to fly into the battle when the other warrior grabs his arm. Delvin shakes his head and continues watching the confrontation. One of the chaos elves drops and she is eventually joined by two of the guards. The remaining soldiers charge forward, but the chaos elves disappear into a hole in the ground. A guard looks into the hole and suddenly stumbles back to collapse lifelessly against a building.

“This is going to be tough,” Delvin whispers as the surviving guard retreats. The
man continues glancing back at the hole until he disappears from view. “The chaos elves were on the defensive until one of their own went down. That proves they’re not out to conquer Gaia and run up a body count.”

“Tough is an understatement,” Luke
says, noticing that the chaos elves have returned to retrieve their fallen comrade. “They care about their own, so this can escalate to a full-blown war at any moment. All it will take is one reckless guard or a thoughtless citizen to make this mess worse.”

“Very astute
. This would be easier with a thief or someone that could manipulate one of the sides into behaving.”

“You mean we need Sari,” Luke mutters. He reaches up to scoop a handful of cloud out of the sky and blows it into the air. “I hope she’s going to be okay.”

“She’ll be fine,” Delvin assures him as he walks to the stairs. “I’m sure she’s asleep and dreaming happy dreams.”

*****

Sari looks around her new surroundings, aware that something has changed. The ice-covered room has been replaced by a serene landscape. She finds herself standing at the edge of a waterfall with a lush forest at her back. The lagoon below her glistens in the sunlight and there is a family of deer drinking at the shore. Distant splashing catches her attention and she turns to see vibrant fish swimming toward her. Flapping bodies of every color dive off over the edge and harmlessly splash into the water. The fish circle around the lagoon before racing to swim back up the steep waterfall.

“It’s beautiful,” Sari whispers, leaning over the edge.

“It looks like you’ve moved to a resting spot,” a familiar voice says. “Just in time too.”

Sari spins around and hurls a dagger at Kayn, who lets the weapon sink into his chest. He brushes it off like it’s an errant hair. With a cruel smile, he takes a step toward Sari and reaches out his hand. Filled with rage and panic, Sari leaps off the edge of the waterfall. A geyser of water erupts from the lagoon and catches her, turning into a hand and holding her safely out of reach of her old lover.

“I told you to get out of my mind!”

“Are we really going to go through this again?” Kayn groans in exasperation. He draws his bastard sword and sits cross-legged on the ground. “I can wait until you’re ready to speak. Even after you wake up, I will be patiently sitting in your happy place. This
dreamland is really impressive, Sari.”