Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

twelve feet where she also formed footholds. She then tapped the stone over her head. It dislodged. Dannot shoved in, nearly pushing Lanona to the walls of the tunnel she had just made. He pressed up on the paving stone and slid it aside.

“You can make a better hatch later,” Lanona said then slid down to the bottom of the shaft

Key nodded, watching her pass him back down the tunnel without another word. She returned to where Callen stood chatting with the thugs, pushing past them also. As he watched her go by the bearded warrior to where Tiler stood, Key noticed a plotting look in Callen’s eye that caught his attention. Key sidled closer to the group of thugs, listening.

“…go with him. With the witch you can knock out the guards without them even seeing you. You’ll wear masks and take as much booty to trade, and we’ll make sure it ends up in the hands of those that collaborate with the blue-eyes. I’m sure you know someone who had turned you in that you want to get back at, right?”

Several of the men nodded. Mercenaries in hiding really were the scariest kind of thugs. Key frowned, watching them.

Callen gazed back toward him, giving a nod with a hidden smile behind his whiskers. There was no way Callen was going to let him go searching for that boy unprotected, and this was his way to deal with that.

“Now Key has insight on how those Sky Children work, so he’ll be able to let you know where the best booty is. His men will cover his back. All you have to do is provide a distraction,” Callen said.

“Are we to take any other slaves with us?” one of the men asked. “Or are we just freeing the one?”

“Take any that you come across,” Callen said, nodding also for Key’s benefit. “We don’t want them to notice the boy is our target. There are others at risk if they do.”

Another thug grunted. “Do we get fancy swords, like the one he’s got?”

He pointed at Key.

Callen snorted, looking to Key also. “What do you say?”

Despite his father’s inclination to not deal to Calcumum thugs, Key knew he did not have much of a choice. He reached for his buckle to his Kolden style sword belt and undid it.

“You can have this.” Taking it off, Key handed it over, glancing to Callen whom he knew was carrying one of his longer swords. “Tiler, are you ready for a switchover?”

Tiler sighed, cast the thugs a look and then nodded, turning back to go down the passage where they had come from. He had been watching on the edge of the group silently. Regardless of Callen’s ease with the Calcumum underground, Tiler had not relaxed at all, still keeping to his self assigned duty to watch Key’s back. “I’ll go get them. You stay near Loid.”

The thugs chuckled, glancing at Key and Tiler with mutterings that Tiler was Key’s babysitter, but Loid stepped up with a nod, setting his hand on his sword belt.

“I’ll go with you,” Lanona said, and hopped to Tiler’s side. They walked back into the light and down the passage taking it quick, though her haste seemed more in the desire to get away from Key. Key watched her, wondering what he had done to offend her. An odd sensation of disappointment passed through him and settled into his stomach.

“Ok.” Callen returned Key’s attention to the topic at hand, leading them back down the tunnel also. “We should go out, gather supplies and regroup here tomorrow. Key, Loid, I need you two to go and wait for Edman.”

Making a face, Key exhaled and then walked through the group. “I get it. You just want to get rid of me while you make plans. Fine. I’m going. But don’t expect me to go along with a plan that you don’t include me in.”

Loid smirked, passing through them to go with Key. Traveling back through the long corridor, they returned the way they had come, though Key was in an irritable mood as they walked. It was happening again. Making him feel like a tool, shelved once more until they could use him.

They passed Tiler on his way back up with the swords. Lanona wasn’t with him. Tiler paused, blinking at them before handing Key his long sword. Then he looked Loid in the eye, read his guarded look then ran on ahead to where Callen was. After just a handful of minutes Tiler was soon back on their heels and wrapping an arm around Key’s shoulders with a smile, walking with them as his own long sword hung at his hip. “So…Key. What do you think of that wizard? She’s gotten beautiful, hasn’t she?”

Key blinked then glanced at him sideways, wondering about this topic from out of nowhere. With a shrug, he guessed that Tiler was trying to get his mind off the danger of his task, so he said, “Yeah, sure.”

Breaking into a disbelieving laugh, Loid shook his head. “Kemdin, you are a man for words. She’s gorgeous.”

Tiler huffed. “No kidding.”

But all Key could think about was what he had to do next. Lanona’s surprising good looks aside, he was more worried about the complications because of them. He was more at ease when he saw she was not in the front hall when they arrived. Tiler had told him she had gone off to find a city map herself. So, on that note, Key decided to find Edman. She was doing what she came to do, so now he had to do what he had come to do.

*

The imperial procession was at its grandest in the halls of the Sky Lord.  Everyone who was anyone stood in the great hall in Danslik watching as the scepter passed to the new Sky Lord as he stood on the dais before the throne, the ministers handling the scepter with care. And as it did, Gailert wondered if the aged predecessor had succeeded in passing on the wisdom he had gained from his long life on the throne to this young new ruler. The young man certainly looked the part. His eyes glowed a strong blue as he grasped the scepter in his fist, holding his head up with pride. But image, as Gailert knew full well, was only a thin shell over the true core of any man. And shells often cracked. And despite the magnificent show, he would miss the old Sky Lord.

 

Chapter Twenty-One: Promising People

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fireworks shot into the air over the cheering crowd on that late summer evening. The soldiers had been out patrolling the human areas as the humans themselves hid indoors to avoid any Emergence Day pranks. But the movement of the thugs of the underworld went completely unnoticed. They passed underneath the soldiers’ feet as the celebration went into full force.

All the preparations for the raid on the palace were complete by the time the sun had set. They broke into two teams, each with their own agenda. Callen negotiated it all, starting with the wizard who would make the tunnels under the city.

The main one led into the palace with two passages. Callen watched her back as she worked while Key prepared the raiding party for the palace. As soon as Edman arrived, Key assigned him to lead the group that would provide a large distraction while they escaped the palace. He also gave Edman a copy of his all-key to pick any locks inside the palace so the robbery would look real. The rest of the raiding party would go with him to commit the real robbery. What Key didn’t know until later was the rest of what Callen had planned.

“And you all think I’m crazy?” Key said, staring at the eager faces of the underworld thugs that gathered at the end of that tunnel when he had returned. “If you break into the prison, they are going to hunt you down.”

But Callen smiled, adjusting his weapons’ belt. He planned to go with them.

“I know. But it deflects the blue-eyes off of our main operation and onto the aristocracy. If we stage it right, it will look like the aristocrats broke out themselves, ransacked the palace while the governor was gone, then escaped into their own city. If we sneak them out, they can also provide us intelligence about Calcumum that normally we wouldn’t have. It is a perfect plan.”

“But there are so many things that can go wrong with that plan. You might alert the Sky Children guards that something is up,” Key muttered. He peered down the passage Lanona had made which led to somewhere under the prison tower. “By the way, where did Lanona go after she finished these?”

Pointing back down the passage, Callen said, “She’s gone to work on the rest of the tunnels. Don’t worry. She’ll keep out of the way.”

Key made a face. “I don’t want her out of the way. I just want her working on what she came here to do.”

“Oh, come on, Key. She’s a pretty girl. You don’t want anything bad to happen to her. Admit it.” Callen nudged Key in the side.

Moaning, Key walked up the path where he had to go. “I don’t have time to think about stuff like that. We’re in the middle of a war, Callen. Besides, she’s a wizard and I’m just a smith. She’s better able to take on soldiers than I am. And, she’s…she’s….”

“What? Better than you?” Callen’s whiskers ruffled up as he grinned.

Shaking his head, Key continued up the passage. “Never mind.”

“You know,” Callen followed after him a few steps, “I know what it is like to love a woman who also happens to be a wizard. It’s scary. If I were to ever make her angry she could probably make my heart explode.”

“Where do you get an idea like I’m not in love with her?” Key said, turning back around. “I hardly even know her. Two meetings and then today. That is all.”

“Yes,” Callen said with a nod. “But you’d like to get to know her better, right?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Key moaned. “I can’t believe we are discussing this kind of thing right now.”

With a smirk, Callen waved him off. “Fine. Be off, and good luck.”

Key cast back the smirk. He nodded before going deeper into the tunnel. “We’re not working on luck.”

“We sure aren’t,” Callen murmured as Key disappeared into the dark.

Callen then rushed up the passage at the base of the prison, listening to the fireworks overhead. He nodded to the men, reaching the top where Lanona was waiting.

“Please tell me you didn’t tell him,” Lanona said.

Callen shook his head. “Of course not.”

She smiled with relief. Without another word, she pressed her hands against the rock above, removing it to the side. “I’ll be here, waiting. When you are ready, I’ll open it up again to let you down. Don’t get caught and don’t let them find Key.”

Nodding, Callen climbed through the opening, slipping into the shadows. He urged his small team to follow.

  

Emerging in the dark under a table with his part of the raiding party behind him, Key got the brief impression that he had never left the cellar of General