Vol 5, Chapter 12

A girl in an aquamarine robe approached our carriage, so saturated in color it seemed even her hair had a bluish cast… Wait… no, not "seemed." It did. Dye?

"Good-day-father asked me to look after you. Where would you like to go?" she said.

I stalled for a few moments. For two reasons at once: first, "good day" or "good Father"? Because she didn't pause and said the first word softly, I didn't immediately understand what she meant. And when I did, I stalled again. Father? Not grandfather, not great‑grandfather? Not great‑great‑great‑grandfather?

"How old are you?" Asha bluntly wrapped my thoughts in words.

"Older than you, pipsqueak." The guest snapped, then coughed in embarrassment and added, "My apologies, I meant that decent people don't ask such questions."

"Are you saying you don't consider me a decent person?" Asha kept pushing, aiming to get even for the "pipsqueak."

Sparks danced on the woman's fingers, leaving scorch marks on the carriage.

"Stop," I intervened, then addressed our guest. "You said the rector sent you? And you are…?"

"Nala bintu Igni, Lesser Archmage of Water. And you are Viscount Randall Condor, together with…"

"Asha," the mage grumbled, displeased.

Nala paused, waiting for more, but none followed.

"Very well. I'll try to remember, but no promises. Coachman! Leave us. I'll drive myself."

The servant bowed, jumped to the ground, and retreated in a quick, borderline panicked, step.

"It'll be better without extra ears," she explained, taking his place. "So, to begin with, we should head somewhere less crowded. Perhaps the Academy gardens: would you like to look at the alchemical planters? Many plants grow there that were once thought impossible to cultivate in an artificial medium."

"Boring," Asha drawled, but the rector's daughter didn't so much as raise an eyebrow; she waited for my decision.

The gardens were fairly interesting, but wandering around admiring them without being able to take any ingredients… sounded rather dull. Yes, it would be useful to assess the Academy's stocks, but I was more interested in something else.

"I'd like to see the place where this thing was put together. Is that possible?" I pointed at the mechanical spider harnessed to our carriage.

"We won't be able to talk there. Although, if you're interested in various creatures… there is one suitable place."

I nodded in understanding. Judging by who she was and her insistent desire to talk, we'd have to get down to business right upon arrival. I would've liked a little rest, but I didn't mind. Better to sort everything out at once, set things up, and then use any free time to prowl through the lecture halls looking for something interesting.

"But! Go!" she shouted at the spider, squeezing in her hands a short rod with a crystal that vaguely resembled a joystick.

I was almost flung out of the carriage through the open top. The spider didn't move so much as leap forward and gallop, weaving side to side like a drunk. Naturally, the carriage swayed along with it.

"Abyss! The things they come up with… When the golems were horse‑shaped it was much better…" Nala complained, trying to get the controls under control.

Drumming a staccato with its legs, the spider tore along at full tilt through stone corridors whose width could put any subway to shame. Judging by the fact we were descending and the vaults kept growing lower, that wasn't far from the truth. Sometimes there were forks; in places our route would come out to the surface only to dive underground again.

There were no pedestrians here, apparently they had separate walkways, but other coaches did appear from time to time. At the sight of our madcap vehicle, the servants immediately steered their golems closer to the wall. Most golems were humanoid, so you could, with some stretch, call the coaches rickshaws. But there were also more unusual self‑propelled contraptions resembling centaurs.

Turning to Asha, I noticed she'd gone green again. The carriage's rocking was even rougher than a storm at sea!

Who drives like this? Is she yanking that joystick left and right?

Clutching the edge of the carriage, I lifted myself and peered over the shoulder of our inept coachman. Interesting: the lever was completely motionless, but the crystal kept lighting up in different colors.

After watching for a few minutes, I more or less figured out which color corresponded to what. Of course, that didn't teach me to drive, but at least I'd have some idea what to do if it came to it.

It also told me one thing: at least some of the servants were low‑rank mages. To check, I waited until we flashed past another coach and unceremoniously scanned its driver.

Apprentice.

Figures. For some reason I'd thought the servants were ordinary people. I was wrong.

"We've arrived!" Nala announced, stopping beside a gigantic staircase.

Broad steps led both upward, where they were lit by the sun, and down to lower levels, disappearing into the dimness.

Glancing around and making sure no one but us was nearby, she said, "Now we can talk. Since the topic is delicate, let Asha stroll through the zoo." The archmage pointed toward the stairs. "She can clear her head, and maybe she'll stop looking like a goblin."

"Who looks like a goblin? You mean my height?" the mage flared up.

I frowned. The very first mage we'd run into was trying to separate me from my companion. I could guess at her motives, but still…

"She stays with us."

Nala threw up her hands.

"You must have the wrong idea about… our situation. Because of the political climate, Father doesn't want anyone to know about… the arrangement. It all has to look accidental. Do you really think it's better to bring this…" The rector's daughter faltered, searching for the word.

"The girl," I prompted.

"…young lady into our affairs? She doesn't seem very bright."

"Hey!" the girl protested. I had the feeling it wasn't the insult that stung her so much as being ignored.

"She stays with us. I trust her completely." Turning to Asha, I added, "I'm not mistaken in thinking you're capable of not doing anything foolish, am I?"

"If she blabs, I'll freeze her to death." The threat sounded matter‑of‑fact coming from Nala.

Asha opened her mouth, probably to argue, but meeting my gaze she closed it and muttered something rude under her breath.

Damn, the sharp jump in her power had made her a bit too confident.

"Okey... Remember, the responsibility is yours. Now we will go lower. Someone could pass through here, and air mages can hear us long before we hear them." Nala set foot on the stone step, and blue light washed over the staircase, which branched like a stone serpent into the depths beneath the Academy.

Haha, it looks like the mages love digging the ground!

"What is this place?" I asked.

"Up above is the menagerie and the preserve. We need lots of beasts: for training, for alchemical ingredients… for sale, including to your kingdom. The best chimeras in the world are made here."

"You sell weapons to your potential opponents?"

"Potential allies," Nala corrected me. "Mostly to the Second Duchy. By the way, I've heard you have a conflict with the First? Perhaps, after you help us, I can put in a word so you're allowed some access to our offerings."

"What help do you mean?"

Nala tilted her head back to make sure we'd descended far enough, then stopped.

"The same help the King ordered you to provide. You will help me get the Second Prince."

I exhaled. So I'd understood correctly. To be honest, I'd feared that the daughter of a Lodge member would be hard to persuade, but it looked like it would be the prince who'd need persuading if he balked at the last moment.

"And what am I supposed to do? I doubt we can tie him up and drag him to you."

"Your part, Viscount, will be small. You'll be the pebble that sets off the avalanche… but I'll do the main work. You just need to distract him from his tight schedule of official receptions and take him out… anywhere he agrees to, the main thing is outside the Academy. Then let me know. And there I will 'accidentally' run into him."

"I find it hard to believe the Prince always sticks to this 'tight schedule.'"

"You're right… but I can't 'accidentally' meet him in a brothel, can I? You need to take him somewhere respectable."

All this struck me as suspicious. Why so many complications?

"Why not just meet on Academy grounds?"

"No, out of the question! Do you know how many spies are here? The moment I go near him, everyone will know."

"What if we tweaked the schedule? The rector could arrange, I don't know, some practicum outside the Academy and invite the prince."

"Impossible. Everyone would know Father was involved, and he needs to look, with all his might, as if he has nothing to do with it. So no, everything must be as usual: standard lecture visits, an exhibition of advances in magical science, the solstice tournament…"

The arguments sounded convincing, but… not entirely. After all, a person I didn't really know was urging me to pull the prince out from under his guards somewhere out of the way. Still, it would be foolish to voice my suspicions. I'd pretend to agree… But later I'd definitely need to make sure she really was the rector's daughter.

"Fine, we'll go with your plan. How do I contact you once it's done?"

Nala drew a scroll and a small bottle of ink from her sleeve, the contents suspiciously like blood.

"Write the time and place on it. I'll know immediately thanks to a second scroll that will duplicate your message."

Ooh, magical scrolls. Useful things.

"How far does the transmission range extend?" I asked at once, already thinking how to adapt these for my own purposes.

"Don't worry, I won't go out of range, and I'll stay nearby."

"But still?"

The archmage hesitated, then admitted, "Three kilometers at most. Better two. It's more reliable."

I immediately lost interest in the scrolls. If the distance was that short, they were only good for spy games.

Still, it was worth clarifying. "And if I write something while you're outside the range?"

"The inscriptions will duplicate as soon as we get close enough to each other."

"Got it." I folded the scroll several more times and slipped it into my pocket. The vial of blood‑ink went beside it.

"I'm glad we have an understanding. As a token of goodwill, I'll show you something we don't usually show guests. Come. We need to go lower," Nala waved, and we resumed the long descent.

It was getting damp. The steps were slick with moisture; somewhere we could hear drops striking stone. And there were clicks, seeming to come from the monolithic wall at one of the landings of the endless stair.

Nala stepped closer and knocked on the wall three times. For several minutes nothing happened, then the wall slid apart, opening a passage of considerable size. I think we could have driven a carriage in there without trouble—two, even.

Mages emerged from the opening, not in their usual robes and mantles but in light blackened‑leather armor. Each held a torch, and the flames washed out the dim blue of the mage‑lamps.

"Lady Nala? Who is with you?" one of them said—apparently the leader. Unlike the others, he wore tight‑fitting goggles, almost aviator‑like, and his armor seemed smeared with something like webbing.

"Guests. They are with me."

"Forgive me, but in that case you need to undergo a check."

"A check?" She frowned.

"Yes, a Source verification against the sample."

She hesitated a few moments, then sighed. "Alright, but make it quick."

The mage took a rod with a glass orb on the end from an assistant and pressed it to Nala's chest. For a few seconds nothing happened; the air felt taut. It was as if the shadows had thickened.

Another heartbeat, and the orb glowed a steady green.

The mage bowed deeply. "How may I be of service, my lady?"

"I've come for samples, and… give these people a brief tour."

"A… tour?" the mage said, surprised.

"Correct. Tell them what we do here and answer their questions."

"But… but…"

"That's an order."

"Yes, ma'am," he mumbled. "Am I to answer any questions they have?"

"Within reason."

The goggled mage wilted completely, for nothing is worse than the lack of clear criteria. Say too much and you're punished; keep quiet and you're punished too. How was he to know where "too much" began?

He motioned glumly for us to follow. For a time we all moved along a wide corridor, but soon Nala and part of the mages turned down a side passage. We continued on.

"So. What do you do here?" I asked the mage.

"The same as on the other levels: chimerology. The upper tier handles mammals… except humans; humans are handled on the lower tier," the chimerologist specified. "A bit lower we have draconic types and cold‑blooded specimens… on this level, us, and farther down they try to recreate extinct races and study mages' abilities."

It opened up ahead; the corridor ended in an underground gallery lit by a faint greenish glow from moss that had overrun the walls. A few more steps, and a stone parapet came into view, along with stairs leading farther down.

Into a pit, from which a stream of air blew up at us.

The air was close and humid, and the more I breathed it, the ranker it seemed. An acrid, nasty odor, like crushed insects, permeated everything.

Our guide, however, seemed unfazed, clearly used to it. Leaning on the rail, he turned back to us.

"Well… this is what we do," he said, gesturing downward.

The bottom of the pit was thickly carpeted with webbing; egg clutches hung along the walls, and small (only rat‑sized) spiders scurried about. Judging by the passages through the web, this was only the entrance to the nest; tunnels branched off to the sides, too geometrically regular to be natural, definitely the work of human hands. Or rather, magic.

"Ugh, spiders. We should burn the lot," Asha shuddered.

I nodded slowly. After everything I'd been through, I had a certain aversion to many‑legged things.

"Don't burn anything!" the chimerologist yelped, jumping so hard he nearly toppled over the rail. "They're unique spiders… actually, not spiders. More precisely, not exactly spiders. They're magically enhanced chimeras based on spiders. Let's go on to the adults… farther from the clutches."

He led us away from the precious egg masses, as if he truly feared we'd torch the place, explaining his work as we went.

"What's the main problem with chimeras? Labor. If we're talking about unstable forms that can't reproduce, it's an enormous number of potions, surgeries, and transformations. So much work! And at every stage the specimen can die. More stable forms can reproduce, but they have problems too. For example, even the lizard‑types that hatch from eggs need years before they can go into battle and reach the peak of their strength. Insects are ideal… well, almost ideal. In fact, we had loads of problems at literally every step. At first we planned to use fire ants… but there was an accident, anyway, never mind!" He flailed his arms.

"What accident?"

"Well, they burned everything down."

Hearing the chimerologist's words, Asha smiled in satisfaction.

"So we had to use spiders. We tested different species, but… um… that's probably classified information, which exact species we used as the base?" he drawled, turning to me.

"It doesn't matter," I shook my head.

"You're right! It doesn't matter, since there isn't much of them left! Have a look."

The scholar touched another wall like the one at the entrance, and it slid aside, revealing a gigantic storeroom full of glass vessels, each filled with formalin and bodies. A cabinet of curiosities.

To my surprise, most of the specimens were human, and rather ugly. Big fangs, heavy brow ridges. In the greenish light their skin looked green… or was it actually green?

"Those are from the floor below. They had an accident in one of their storerooms and moved their old specimens up to us. They promised to take them back in a month once they fixed everything and cleaned up, and what do we see? They've been standing here almost half a year now, blocking my precious spiders."

"Are these orcs?" Asha asked, tapping a fingernail on the glass.

"Almost. They were trying to recreate them. Bad idea, I tell you. Before the orcs were exterminated, in symbiosis with goblins they were absolutely unbearable. Fortunately, orcs didn't reproduce all that fast…" the chimerologist lamented, leading us deeper into the storeroom.

Bad idea, huh? Strange words from someone who's raising giant spiders. Let those loose and what do you get? A new forbidden zone like the Black Forest?

The specimen tanks grew larger, and so did what floated inside them. At last the scholar proudly patted an especially big vessel where a huge spider more than a meter tall was afloat.

"The first full‑fledged specimen. You wouldn't believe what it cost us to grow it!"

"We would," I assured him.

"Er… thank you," the chimerologist muttered. "Ahem. What do you think is the single biggest problem in growing an insect this large?"

"Food?" Asha guessed.

"No, food isn't the problem. Air."

I nodded in agreement. To my mind, chimeras were walking problems that existed only thanks to magic.

"We could easily grow them to the required size, but they just suffocated and died. We could implant additional cores, but you understand the labor involved. We thought about improving their primitive lungs, but that turned out to be beyond us… um, forget I said that. The research is ongoing, a breakthrough is possible any week now! Please don't tell Lady Nala. The fact we haven't had major success in this area yet doesn't mean we should stop funding the attempts, do you agree?"

We assured the scholar we were fully in agreement, and he calmed down.

"Right, where was I… ah yes, air. We found an elegant and almost labor‑free solution. We simply fix cheap artifacts to their spiracles that pump air into the pulmonary sacs. Survival is almost one hundred percent, except for cases where the artifacts break due to defects… but that's a complaint for the mages in the Steel Tower, not us!"

"So you're creating giant spiders in order to do what? And how do you control them?" I asked the question that interested me.

The chimerologist snapped his fingers and winked. "You look to the essence! They're insects, so they can't be trained. We tried giving them more brains, but… um."

"Not a word to Nala?" I guessed, and the scholar nodded gratefully.

"Yes, thank you. In short, we use specific scents and stimuli like bright light. That's enough to aim them at the enemy and keep them from eating their own… well, at least to keep them from doing it often. But these drawbacks are outweighed by a host of advantages. First, they can be bred by the thousand; second, they're very cheap on a per‑specimen basis. You can even feed them fleshy mushrooms grown by alchemists. They grow several times more slowly that way, but almost for free!"

Meanwhile Asha tapped the glass again. "So how do you saddle it? Legs on all sides. That's inconvenient."

"Um, they're not for that. They can't be saddled."

"That sucks," she concluded.

"Not at all," the scholar scowled. "It's an important tactical unit on the battlefield. Not just a living shield for mages like peasants, but a rather lethal fighter. Its bite is venomous, and the chelicerae are so hard they can… well, honestly, they can't do much yet against thick steel, but we're working on it. In the worst case we can implant enchanted blades. But they're far less sensitive to injury than any other chimeras. And cheaper, don't forget."

"I think it twitched," Asha said, still tapping the glass.

The scholar blanched and nervously took off his goggles. "Uh‑oh. Let's get out of here and talk somewhere else."

"It is… dead, right?" I asked, grabbing Asha by the hood and tugging her away from the glass.

"It should be. But the fellows downstairs thought the same. Remember I mentioned the accident in their storeroom? One of the dissected beasts suddenly came to and blew the glass out, then went on a rampage. We even thought a necromancer had slipped in, but no. They just overdid it trying to recreate orcish regeneration… come on, come on!" he urged us. "I'll take you to the combat chambers instead. That's where we pick the best spiders for breeding. Ten specimens are driven into the arena, and then they eat each other until only one remains. Just like gladiators in a coliseum, but with spiders. I've been watching for years and never get tired of it. Fascinating!"