Chapter 17: Truth Serum

All of them were nervous, because it was a pretty simple plan, and maybe a little too simple.

"Sister Kaia goes to the captain’s quarters," Kai said, lying face down on a bunk with his ankles crossed, still wearing his long white robe. "She brings him some wine and a goodnight prayer, and once he falls asleep, I take his keys."

"How is he going to fall asleep?" Garrick asked.

Kai dug around in his robes and pulled out a small cloth pouch, then opened it up to show them a handful of tiny white flowers.

"Sleepweed," Kai said. "The cook keeps some and puts it in her tea every night before bed. So I took some."

"You stole the cook’s weed," Mira said.

"I stole the cook’s weed," Kai said.

"I guess you did," Mira said with a chuckle, and she didn’t seem the least bit worried about it.

Elowen stood by the door with her back against the wall and her face turned towards the stone.

"The keys are in the captain’s quarters, one flight of stairs down, third door on the left," Elowen said. "They have not moved in the last hour, so he is sleeping."

"What if he wakes up?" Dagna asked.

"Then you two punch him," Kai said, pointing at Dagna and Mira. "Try not to kill him."

Dagna grinned in a way that made it very clear she was going to hit him as hard as she possibly could.

[You have 32 minutes left before your glamour fades. You may want to hurry]

"I’m trying," Kai whispered.

He crushed the sleepweed into a cup of wine and stirred it in, then filled a second cup with plain wine and set both of them on a tray, one on the left and one on the right.

"He gets the one on the left," Kai said, tapping the cup. "I drink the one on the right, so he sees we’re both drinking."

[The one on the left is his. I will remember]

"Thanks," Kai whispered.

The stairs were dark and cold, and Kai carried the tray down them with his robe trailing behind him and Mira and Dagna following close behind. Elowen stayed at the top of the stairs, facing the third door on the left.

Kai stopped in front of the door, took a deep breath, and knocked.

A muffled voice answered from inside, footsteps came closer, and the door swung open to reveal Captain Brekk in nothing but a shirt and a pair of pants, with a tuft of hair sticking straight up in the air. Behind him, the keys hung on the wall, glowing, and Brekk’s face lit up even brighter than they did.

"Sister Kaia!" Brekk said.

"I couldn’t sleep," Kai said in his sweetest voice. "I thought the captain might like a goodnight prayer before Lord Draven arrives."

"Of course, Sister. Please come in," Brekk said, stepping out of the way.

Kai set the tray down on a small table next to the bed and glanced around the cramped room, which had a bed too narrow for two people, a chair buried under a pile of clothes, and a bear’s head carved into the top of the bedpost.

"I brought us some wine," Kai said. "One for you, and one for me."

He handed Brekk the cup on the left, and Brekk took it with a smile. Then he set it back down on the tray and picked up the one on the right instead.

"Ladies first," Brekk said, handing Kai the cup on the left. "I insist."

Kai looked down at the cup full of sleepweed.

[He switched them]

"I know he switched them," Kai whispered through his smile.

[You have to drink it, or he will get suspicious]

"I know," Kai whispered.

"To your health, Sister," Brekk said, raising his cup.

Kai looked down at the wine and then up at Brekk, and he thought about the forty gutter maws about to be shipped down the river on iron barges, and about Tam, wherever he was down there in the dark.

"To your health, Captain," Kai said, and he raised his cup and drank every last drop.

[That was a lot of sleepweed. I believe that was all of it]

For about ten seconds, Kai didn’t feel a thing. Brekk sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to him, so Kai sat down in the chair across from him instead, right on top of the pile of shirts, and that was when everything started to tilt.

At first, it felt like he was back on Harl’s boat, and then the candle on the table went blurry and his tongue started to feel huge in his mouth. Everything Brekk said sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well.

"Are you okay, Sister?" Brekk asked, leaning closer. "Something’s happening to your eyes."

"Your face is doing something," Kai said.

"What?" Brekk asked.

"Your face," Kai said, pointing at him. "You have a scar. It looks like a road. For ants. Little tiny ants could drive down that."

[Kai, you are saying everything that is on your mind]

"I’m saying everything that’s on my mind," Kai said out loud. "This is crazy. I never do this."

Brekk frowned, got up, and walked over to him.

"I think you need to lie down, Sister," Brekk said.

He reached for Kai’s arm, and Kai tried to stand up and get away from him, but his legs refused to cooperate. He was tangled up in his long white robe and very, very drugged, so instead of standing, he fell right into Brekk.

They both went down together, and Brekk’s head smacked into the carved bear on the bedpost with a loud thud. He went limp and slid to the floor, and Kai landed right on top of him with a tiny pop.

[Your glamour has broken. You fell on the floor. And on the captain]

Kai rolled off of Brekk and lay on his back staring up at the ceiling, back in his fisherman’s clothes and looking just like himself again.

"I did it," Kai said.

[You knocked him out with your own sleepweed]

"I did it," Kai said again.

The door flew open, and Mira and Dagna came rushing in, and then they both stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Kai lying on the floor next to the unconscious captain, grinning like an idiot.

"What happened?" Mira asked.

"He switched the cups, so I drank the sleepweed and fell on him, and his head hit the bear," Kai said, pointing up at the bedpost. "The bear did its job."

Dagna walked over, took the glowing keys off the wall, and tucked them into her belt. Then she grabbed one of Kai’s arms while Mira grabbed the other, and together they dragged him back up the stairs to where Elowen was waiting.

"His light," Elowen said, turning her head towards them. "It is flickering, like a candle in the wind."

"He’s full of sleepweed," Mira said.

"Elowen!" Kai beamed. "You’re here. Your voice is so pretty. It’s like a church bell." He paused for a second. "A sexy church bell."

Elowen’s hand went to her sword, but it didn’t light up, and she turned bright red.

"That is true," Elowen said softly.

"It is," Kai said. "I can’t lie right now. There’s sleepweed in me. Just like you. We’re the same."

[Kai] Syraphim said, in a strange tone. [Since you are being truthful tonight... what about me?]

Kai stopped right in the middle of the hallway, which forced Mira and Dagna to stop with him.

"What about you?" Kai asked out loud.

[Nothing. It is not important]

"You glow," Kai said, to nobody in particular. "You were glowing on the beach, like the stars. You’re my favorite, and you don’t even have a body. That’s not fair."

Mira and Dagna stared at him in confusion, and inside Kai’s head, there was a very long silence.

[I will keep that one] Syraphim said quietly.

[Faith gained. Mira Vallen: +2%. Status: Blushing. Dagna Reeve: +3%. Status: Laughing. Elowen Ashgrave: +4%. Status: Embarrassed.]

"Why are all your numbers going up?" Kai asked.

"Walk, and shut your mouth," Mira said.

By the time they reached the central pit, it was almost three in the morning, and Kai had sobered up enough to walk on his own again. Garrick was already waiting for them in the shadows beside the pit.

The pit was a massive circle carved out of the middle of the fortress, and it went down so far that Kai couldn’t see the bottom. A wooden lift hung over it from thick chains, with an iron gate in front of it guarded by two men.

The guards looked up as Elowen approached.

"Sister Inquisitor," one of the guards said. "It’s the middle of the night."

"I know what time it is," Elowen said. "I need the lift. I believe what I am looking for is in these mines."

Her sword stayed dark, and the guards exchanged a look.

"We don’t have the key, Sister," the other guard said. "Only the captain has it."

Dagna held up the glowing keys.

"The captain gave these to us," Dagna said.

Elowen turned her head towards her.

"Kai gave these to us," Dagna corrected herself. "He fell on the captain."

The guards were too tired to ask any more questions, and one of them just waved them through and sat down on the ground, yawning.

Garrick used one of the glowing keys to unlock the gate, and they all stepped onto the lift, which creaked under their weight. Then Garrick pulled a lever, and the lift began sinking down into the pit.

The deeper they went, the less light reached them from above, and the air grew hotter and the booming grew louder. Then they heard the screeching, dozens of creatures shrieking somewhere far below them with a wet, whistling, hungry sound.

Dagna gripped her gaff hook tighter, and Mira reached out and grabbed Kai’s hand, and he held on just as tightly.

[Kai] Syraphim said quietly. [We are almost at the Black Seam]