Chapter 18: The Black Seam

The lift slammed into the ground so hard that Kai’s teeth clicked together.

For a while, nobody said anything. The air down here was hot and heavy and so suffocating that Kai had trouble breathing, and it stank of rotten sulfur with something worse underneath it, the same smell as the drains under the city. It was the smell of gutter maws.

They were standing at the edge of a cave so massive that Kai couldn’t even see the ceiling, lit only by a faint blue fungus growing on the walls that gave off just enough light to see by. The floor of the cave was crisscrossed with rails and carts full of black ore. Across from the lift, a line of torches lit up a freshly dug wall of rock where slaves were swinging pickaxes, and even from where he stood, Kai could hear the clang of metal on stone and the crack of a whip.

Between the lift and the slaves were the cages.

There were dozens of them, each about the size of a wagon, and every one was crammed full of small gutter maws the size of dogs, scrambling over each other with their mouths spinning. Every single one of them wore a collar stamped with Draven’s crest.

"The brood," Mira whispered.

"Forty," Garrick said. "Just like the officer said."

Elowen was facing the far end of the cave, where the fungus stopped growing past the cages and everything beyond them was pitch black.

"There is something at the end of this cave," Elowen said.

"Another maw?" Kai asked.

"No," Elowen said, shaking her head. "All living things have some kind of light. Even the maws have a small glow. But something at the end of that cave has no light at all, and it is huge."

Nobody said anything to that.

[Kai, I do not like this]

"Me neither," Kai whispered.

They slipped off the lift and crouched behind a row of ore carts, where they had a clear view of the work area. There were six guards with spears and two handlers carrying long iron rods that sparked at the tips. About forty slaves were working at the wall, all shackled together by one long chain that was bolted into the ground through a heavy iron ring.

Dagna let out a soft whimper, and Kai followed her gaze to a slave at the very end of the line. He was tall and painfully thin, covered in bruises, with a ragged black beard and black hair the exact same color as Dagna’s.

"Tam," Dagna whispered.

She started to get up, but Mira grabbed her and pulled her back down.

"We can’t," Mira whispered. "They’ll kill him if they see us."

Dagna’s whole body was shaking, but she stayed down.

"Okay, we need a distraction," Kai whispered. "Something that pulls all eight guards to the other side of the cave. Then Garrick breaks the chain, and we get everyone onto the lift."

"The lift can’t hold forty people," Garrick said.

"Then we make a few trips," Kai said.

"Who’s going to make the distraction?" Mira asked.

Every single one of them turned and looked at Kai.

"Me," Kai said.

[You have 15 divinity points. Your followers have increased, and you have Minor Voice. You have not used it yet]

Kai’s eyes went wide as he realized what that meant.

"Minor Voice," Kai whispered. "I can talk to anyone who believes in me."

[Correct]

"So I don’t have to yell," Kai whispered. "We can split up, and I can still talk to all of you. Garrick breaks the chain, Elowen watches the guards, and Mira and Dagna help the slaves."

"That’s actually pretty smart," Mira said.

"I have my moments," Kai said.

He closed his eyes and focused on his friends, and only his friends.

"Minor Voice," Kai whispered.

Warmth spread through his whole body, like he had just opened a door somewhere deep inside himself.

(Testing. Can you all hear me? Garrick, if you can hear me, nod your head)

Garrick nodded, Mira’s eyes went wide, Dagna jumped, and Elowen tilted her head curiously.

(Good) Kai thought. (Okay. Garrick, get over to the chain. Mira and Dagna, follow him. Elowen, let me know where the guards are. And don’t let them see Garrick’s butt, because it’s huge and they’ll notice)

Garrick turned around and glared at him from behind the carts.

(Sorry) Kai thought.

[Kai, I need to tell you something]

"Not now," Kai whispered.

[Minor Voice speaks to all of your believers]

Kai froze where he was crouching.

"All of them?" Kai whispered.

[All 31 of your believers in Millbrook. Pell at the toll chain. Wren, sleeping in the chapel. And Captain Brekk, who is currently lying on his bedroom floor above us]

Kai suddenly felt very, very sick to his stomach.

Three days downriver, old Tobin sat bolt upright in bed.

"THE GOD HAS SPOKEN!" Tobin screamed.

Wren, who had fallen asleep under the crooked halo in the chapel, woke up and burst into tears, and at the toll chain, Pell dropped his spear into the river.

And far above the Black Seam, Captain Hallard Brekk opened his eyes on the floor of his messy bedroom, beneath the carved bear on his bedpost. Someone was speaking inside his head, a man’s voice, and it was talking about a huge butt. Brekk stared up at the ceiling and felt the lump on the back of his head.

"Fuck," Brekk muttered. "The gods are talking to me."

[Faith gained. Hallard Brekk: +6%. Status: Believing.]

Back in the Black Seam, Kai put his head in his hands.

[You just gained faith in four different places. Tobin believes you have given him a vision of Garrick’s ass, and he is going to paint it on the chapel wall]

"Tell him not to," Kai whispered.

[No. I will not do that. I would also like to point out that you now know how Minor Voice works, which is a good thing. A very embarrassing good thing]

"Kai," Elowen whispered. "The guards."

Kai looked up and saw two guards turning towards the lift.

"Did you hear that?" one of them asked.

"I thought I heard someone say butt," the other guard said.

The two guards started walking towards them, and Kai’s heart pounded in his chest, because he needed a distraction and he needed it right now. He looked around the cave and spotted a guard post on the far side, away from the slaves, with lanterns hanging from it and a table covered in papers and a bottle of wine.

"Minor Smite," Kai whispered, and he fired at the guard post.

The blast flew out of his hand, missed the guard post completely, and slammed into the ore cart right beside him instead.

The cart wobbled and started rolling down the slope, picking up speed as it went, heading straight for the two guards walking their way. Both of them dove out of the way as the cart barreled past them down the hill, and it smashed straight into the guard post and destroyed it. Lanterns flew everywhere, the spilled oil set the papers on fire, the bottle of wine shattered, and the impact knocked a chunk of rock loose from the wall.

Every guard in the cave ran towards the fire.

[You missed]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[You hit something better]

"I know," Kai whispered.

(GARRICK, NOW!) Kai shouted with his mind.

Three days downriver, old Tobin fell out of bed.

Garrick was already moving before Kai finished the thought, and he stayed low and hurried over to the slaves with Mira and Dagna right behind him, then knelt beside the iron ring that held the chain and lifted his blessed hammer, which began to glow gold. The slaves turned to stare at him as he swung the hammer down and split the ring in half, and the chain fell away from all forty of them at once.

They all just stood there in disbelief.

Dagna ran to her brother without waiting for anyone else to move, and Tam stared at her with his mouth hanging open.

"Dagna?" Tam said.

She tackled him, and they both went down together, and he dropped his pick and held on to his sister while they both cried, and neither of them cared who saw.

Kai felt a strange warmth in his chest that he couldn’t explain, and he didn’t think he had ever felt anything like it before.

[Faith gained. Dagna Reeve: +15%. Status: Happy.]

[That one was not from a mistake]

"I know," Kai whispered. "Don’t tell anyone."

"Get to the lift!" Mira yelled to the slaves. "Go! Now! Go!"

The slaves ran for the lift while the guards were still yelling and trying to put out the fire. Then the cages went silent, and every one of the small gutter maws stopped moving and pressed itself against the back of its cage, as far away from the end of the cave as it could get.

The fire roared, and the slaves stopped running.

A wet, gurgling noise came from the far end of the cave, the sound of something enormous dragging itself across the floor, and Elowen drew her sword.

"It is awake," Elowen whispered. "The one without light is awake."

Something crawled out of the darkness, pale and at least ten times the size of the gutter maw from the drains, so big that its body filled most of the cave and its mouth could have swallowed the lift whole. Around its neck was a collar the size of a wagon wheel, engraved with a tower, a crown, and a chain.

"That’s not a gutter maw," Garrick whispered.

"No," Elowen said. "That is what makes them."

[Kai, I do not know what that is]