The door had once been stout wood, banded in iron, but it had rotted and warped and now stood half-open on rusted hinges. They squeezed past it and found themselves in a chilly corridor scattered with broken tiles and chunks of stone that had fallen from the cracked ceiling.
‘What is this place?’ Frey asked the whispermonger.
‘An old pumping station,’ Pelaru said.
‘The relics are here?’ Frey said doubtfully.
‘If it were that easy, don’t you think they’d have been found by now?’ Pelaru replied. He was impatient, eager to get on and find his partner. Frey let him lead.
You’d better know what you’re doing.
They made their way along the corridor. It was bare and lightless, and they had to break out gas lamps from Crake’s pack. A nearby explosion made the building shiver, and dust sifted down from the ceiling. Frey looked uneasily at the cracks in the wall, and wondered just how stable this place was.
They passed doorways that led into small rooms containing decayed office furniture, and chambers crowded with flaking pipes covered in levers and turn-wheels.
‘I tried to stop him,’ Pelaru muttered, almost to himself.
‘Your partner? Osger?’ Frey prompted. He was keen to get Pelaru talking. The Thacian had volunteered precious little information so far, but Frey had the sense he wanted to unburden himself. Whispermongers were renowned for being ruthless in their dealings, acting without emotion, respecting only money and taking no sides. But beneath his calm exterior, Pelaru was agitated and distressed. Even Frey could see that.
‘Osger was obsessed with Awakener relics,’ Pelaru said. ‘When he heard about this place, there was no reasoning with him. And you can be sure I tried.’
‘So he went looking for this shrine? What’s so special about it?’
Pelaru cast him a glance, with that haughty expression on his sculpted features that made Frey feel that he was being looked down on.
Thacians, he thought. So very punchable.
‘If the story is true, this shrine has been hidden away for a century. Even before the quake hit, it was only a rumour. Afterward, it was thought lost, if it had ever existed at all.’
‘So what’s changed?’
‘An explorer,’ said Pelaru. ‘Godber Blinn. He claimed to have found the shrine, and had with him a relic as evidence. Nobody believed him: the relic could have come from anywhere. But when Osger heard about him, he had me find the man and we listened to his story. He was demanding an exorbitant amount to reveal the details of its location.’
‘Sounds like a con artist to me,’ said Frey.
‘That was my reaction. Though he’d always been honest in his dealings in the past, as far as I could determine. Regardless, Osger believed him. In the end we made sure the information stayed exclusive to us.’
‘Oh yeah? How?’
Pelaru gave him a long, reptilian stare. The kind of look that said: Don’t ask. And you didn’t need to, after that. Frey wondered if he’d underestimated this man. Maybe he was bluffing, or maybe he was a damn sight colder than Frey had given him credit for.
‘Why didn’t Blinn just loot the place and sell the treasure himself?’ Frey asked.
‘Because he was scared.’
‘Of what?’
Pelaru’s face hardened slightly. ‘Fictions,’ he said, and wouldn’t say any more.
The corridor ended in a spacious rectangular hall, dominated by several huge pumps, their pistons and screws drab with dust and shadow in the lanternlight. Most of the ceiling had fallen in, and the floor was cluttered with debris.
‘Look for a way down,’ said Pelaru. ‘It’ll be here somewhere.’
They split up into three groups and made their way through the hall. Ashua went with Frey and Pelaru. Frey noticed Pelaru glancing in Jez’s direction as she moved off with another group.
There it is again, he thought. This man has way too many secrets.
The darkness brought on an instinctive hush, and they moved quietly. Outside, they could hear the crackle of gunfire and the occasional explosion. The fighting was not far off.
‘I worked it out,’ said Ashua to Pelaru. ‘Why the Awakeners are here. This Korrene place is dead, right? No strategic value, no resources worth taking, not even a particularly good place for a stronghold. Only one reason they’re expending so much effort here.’ Her eyes shone slyly in the lanternlight. ‘They’re after the same thing Osger was, aren’t they?’
Frey watched Pelaru closely. The same thought had crossed his mind.
‘I can only guess at their intentions,’ said the Thacian. ‘But yes, it seems likely. Blinn told a lot of people what he’d found in Korrene before we found him. But he told only us the exact location.’
‘So they came here to find it,’ said Frey. ‘But the Coalition got wind of their movements and intercepted them. Now the Awakeners are trying to hold out long enough to find this shrine.’
‘They must really want those relics, huh?’ said Ashua.
‘Maybe,’ said Pelaru. ‘Maybe they just want to be sure no one else gets to them.’
Frey grabbed Pelaru’s arm and pulled him round roughly. He stared hard into the other man’s eyes.
‘I’m sick of games, Pelaru. What’s in that shrine?’
Pelaru held his gaze a long time, not in the least intimidated. ‘I don’t know and I don’t care,’ he said. ‘Osger was excited but he wouldn’t tell me why. He said it would be a surprise. He was the one interested in relics, not me.’ He shook off Frey’s hand and looked away into the dark. ‘I want to find him. That’s all.’
‘Hey!’ called Malvery. ‘Over here!’
They converged on the doctor, who was standing near the top of a caged spiral staircase which drilled downward. Frey went first. After dragging his long-suffering crew into the middle of a warzone, leading from the front was the least he could do. It took the edge off the guilt a little.
‘As long as I don’t abuse their loyalty, I can look at myself in the mirror. The day I do is the day I don’t deserve to lead them. Same applies to you.’
Trinica’s words, that she’d spoken to him during one wonderful night in a restaurant in Samarla. She’d been talking about her crew, the crew of that rot-damned frigate she was shackled to. The crew that she’d chosen over him, in the end. Because her feelings for him were putting them in danger. Just as he was doing now, with his crew, for her.
I should give it up, he thought. I’ve got a good thing here. Good friends, good times. We can ride out the war in style and we’ll still be standing at the end of it. Forget Pelaru, forget Trinica. Turn around now, fly into the sunset and enjoy the rest of your life.
But he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.
As he descended, he noticed a foul smell, growing stronger with each step. A stench of wet decay, of slime, of shit and things unimaginably worse. By the time he reached the bottom, it was making his eyes water. He could hear groans of disgust from the men above him.
‘Come on, fellers,’ he said, summoning up some brio. ‘It’s not that bad.’
‘Cap’n,’ said Malvery steadily. ‘It smells like I just buried my face in Pinn’s cavernous arse flaps.’
Pinn’s riposte was a pointedly vicious fart, more eloquent than anything he could have managed with words. Ashua broke into hysterics somewhere up the stairway.
Pelaru gave Frey a flat look: This is your crew? Frey grinned at him and shrugged.