Underlord (Cradle #6)(39)
Eithan threw his arms wide. “And quickening your mind! I had a sixteen-step plan for perfecting you as a Gold, but I couldn’t believe it when I saw you move. Mental enhancement at Gold is a rare and valuable thing. You have a stronger foundation than I ever dared to hope, and thanks to Northstrider, we’re ahead of schedule!”
His phrasing caught Lindon’s attention.
Dross, has he not scanned you? Lindon asked.
[You know, I don’t think so, but now I’m questioning it. I’m starting to wonder if he can see thoughts.]
“Once you reach Underlord, then your real training can finally—”
With a gentle effort, Lindon pushed Dross out of his palm.
The spirit manifested, one-eyed and purple, and raised one of his stubby arms in greeting.
Eithan froze in mid-speech, his wildly gesticulating arms stopping in the air.
[These things can be awkward, can’t they? I know who you are, but I’m not sure if you know who I am. Do you know who I am?]
Lindon imprinted Eithan’s expression of pure astonishment in his memory forever.
Eithan slowly lowered his arms. His spiritual sense swept through Dross, and then—in a focused probe—flicked through Lindon’s spirit. He focused especially on the spot at the base of Lindon’s skull where Dross usually lived.
“I had no idea,” Eithan breathed. “Even now…if I couldn’t see you before me, I would have no idea there was a spirit inside him. With a fully formed consciousness and madra system. Tied to…” His eyes widened, and he slowly shut the box of Heaven’s Drops, setting them to one side. “…tied to his brain…”
He waved frantically at the bustle around him, where workers and spiders were still moving around them. Some glanced curiously over at them, but most continued setting up Fisher Gesha’s barn.
“Fisher!” he shouted. “Would you clear the area for us, please?”
Gesha gave a loud ‘harrumph.’ “Underlord or no Underlord, if you’re walking into my place of business and telling me to clear out—”
Eithan pulled out one of the sacks of natural treasures, which—at Lindon’s rough guess—was worth enough to buy Gesha’s entire business. He shoved it at her, as well as reaching into his pocket and throwing an entire purse of scales after it, and Forging another superior-grade scale out of nowhere. He pushed it all at her, adding, “You can return if you like, but keep everyone else away.”
Gesha’s eyes bulged almost out of her head. “Right away! Never said I wouldn’t do it, did I? All of you! Drop what you’re holding! Drop it on the ground and get away!”
As the spiders and workers scurried away, Eithan fumbled behind him for a seat, pulling it up.
“I’m not used to asking this,” Eithan said. “What happened?”
So, with a certain pride, Lindon told his story in Ghostwater from the beginning. From finding Dross in the Dream Well, combining him with the Eye of the Deep, to upgrading him over the entire facility. All the way to the end, when they completed Northstrider’s grand work.
Orthos crawled off to chew on some nearby lumber—he had been present for the entire story. But everyone else, even Little Blue, listened attentively. He skimmed the parts with Harmony, for Mercy’s sake, though that left some holes in the story at the end.
He had shared most of these details with Yerin already, but not everything. He hadn’t had a chance. Now, he was glad to have the whole story out there. Fisher Gesha returned at some time in the middle, listening quietly.
Dross popped in every once in a while to add a correction or embellishment, but for the most part Lindon was allowed to tell the story without interruption.
When Lindon finished, Eithan sat quietly, hands pressed together, staring off into the distance. The darkness of the Night Wheel Valley settled around them, the wind cold.
In the end, he turned to Dross. “If I’m not gravely mistaken, then you are only a seed of what you will eventually become.”
[I don’t like to think of myself as a seed. Not very flattering, is it? Maybe an egg, but a really nice egg.]
“Oh, we will make sure you grow. Yes…” Eithan’s smile slowly widened until Lindon would have called it manic. “Planted in the fertile soil of Lindon’s spirit, we will grow you until you dwarf Dreadgods and tower over Monarchs! The world itself will struggle to contain you! When I fear I have set my sights too far, I find that I was not ambitious enough! Who will dare to hold us back when we have such an ally? Let the day you completed Northstrider’s work be known as the day that the very foundations of history trembled!”
He cackled like a madman, and Lindon honestly couldn’t tell if it was for theatrical effect or not.
A thread of doubt wormed over from Orthos, Yerin folded her bladed arms in front of her, and Mercy looked at Eithan askance. Little Blue pressed herself against Lindon’s head and shivered.
Dross, by contrast, laughed along with him. [Aw, go on! No, really, please continue.]
~~~
Eithan spread the four Heaven's Drops before him, hanging gray and dull in the air.
“What you are about to experience is a myth for many Golds. It is their life's ambition. The glory their families strive for.”
He lifted a bottle—provided by Lindon—over his head.
“Let's get it over with, shall we?”