The Gemcutter's Daughter

7 - The Depths Beckon

Tali hated how deaf she felt in the Deep. Her clicks still painted a picture of her world with the same accuracy, she still felt the draw of magnetic north, but she didn't have an answer or passage that would take her to Thuumdolahr. The armband gave her no clues. Above all else, its silence was deafening.

    They were traveling more slowly now that they had a healing Lekt. Tali had built him a splint and bandaged his leg. Now he could limp along with the help of crutches fashioned from the same mushroom she'd used to build Eiv's pack. His growls as he struggled forward made Tali wish she had something to give him for the pain. Unfortunately, the grove had contained not a single varseth mushroom, which dwarves used to treat pain. The sap-like moisture of the stalk offered numbness when applied to wounds and the spores gave relief when ingested, a gift of Tek.

    Not that Lekt would trust her enough to take it. It had been hard enough to get him to eat the cavefish she'd caught. That was partly because of the tiny fire she'd used to cook it. He was as sensitive as her to light, perhaps more so since she hadn't seen a trace of fire down in the Deep.

    Having a stockpile of food was a relief. They had enough mushroom flesh, smoked cavefish, and dried norvar meat to last at least two weeks. She was grateful that Eiv was with her to carry it. As a golem, her stony guardian wouldn't even feel such a weight.

    Right now, Tali was trying to forge ahead, although she didn't know where to go from here except deeper. She had yet to tell Rhesis and Lekt where she aimed to go. She wasn't certain if it would make her life easier or harder.

    Tali stopped on the edge of a slope. She smelled water ahead, but a foul stench polluted the scent. Her stomach twisted in sudden apprehension that defied explanation.

    "Stop," Lekt croaked as he caught up.

    The dwarf turned to look at him. For once, he wasn't glowering. A tremor of fear touched his movements. "What's wrong?" she asked, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt. The Deep was still terrifying and so were her companions.

    "Elder one dwells in gears ahead." A shudder passed through the forsaken's body.

    "What you would call a demon," Rhesis clarified.

    Despite the terrifying prospect of a demon in their path, mention of gears made Tali's heart leap. "Gears?" She couldn't help the flicker of hope. If they were a machine great enough to house a demon, perhaps they were part of an artifice. If she was fortunate, perhaps it would even be Thuumdolahr. She'd been in the depths for almost three weeks now, which gave her ample reason to hope for a sign of her goal. Dhuldarim needed an answer as swiftly as possible. "Do you mean like a city?"

    "Drowned," Lekt muttered.

    "There might be something to salvage," Rhesis said, brow lined in thought. "If we are quiet, perhaps we can pass without confronting the demon. Or we could bargain with it, I suppose."

    Tali hated the thought of dealing with a demon. They offered mortals bargains, often tempting them with things impossible, but the price was seldom immediately visible and always more than the mortal would have ever wished to pay. She had never encountered a demon or anyone who had, but the stories about them still very much existed. Even after the Revealing's last gasps, demons were a scourge suffered by skyborn and stoneborn alike.

    "Demons are not to be trusted." Eiv spoke with a grinding firmness. "Nor bargained with."

    Lekt clicked up at the golem. "Stonefist is right. Turn back, kinslayer."

    Tali was quiet for a moment, still thinking. Then she studied their forsaken. "This place, these gears... have you been there before?"

    He frowned. "Twice. A broken city almost all below the water."