Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 42ii

Tahlia stood looking up at the strange design, a feeling of excitement rising inside her.

"I knew it!" she said. "I've tried playing with the ones I have come across before, but I could never get them to do anything."

She reached out a hand to touch one of the design's three concentric rings.

"Do not touch it!" snapped Dak, and the unfamiliar harshness in her friend's voice stilled Tahlia's hand instantly.

"Where does the door go?" asked Grifford, who had come to stand beside them.

"The access tunnels to the utility areas," said Dak, sounding far from enthusiastic. "It is where the workings of the fortress are. The pipe-work for the heating and water and sewers and such."

"And how far do these tunnels go?"

"They are going everywhere," said Dak.

Grifford stepped forward, looking up at the thing that Dak had called a moon lock.

"Sister?"

Tahlia understood Grifford's question instantly.

"Yes, there is one near our parent's rooms, near to where the servants take the laundry. It would have been easy for whoever took our brother to reach there without being seen."

"But that is an impossibility," said Dak, though there seemed to be little conviction in her voice.

"Why? It seems to make sense to me."

"It is an impossibility because these doors can only be opened by an Engineer."

"By an Engineer?"

"Yes."

"An Engineer?"

"That is what I am saying."

Tahlia frowned at the memory of a voice.

'That is an easy thing for you to be saying. It is me that is to be taking the risks.'

"Vlambra is an Engineer," said Tahlia as the realisation dawned.

"What!" said Dak and Grifford together.

"Vlambra is an Engineer."

"How are you knowing that?" said Dak, a look of shock on her face.

"Because of the way he was talking when he was in Merchant Dres' tent. It was different to when I saw him in the courtyard. He was talking just like you and your father talk. You know, 'I am thinking this,' and 'Do not be making me do that'. He was talking like an Engineer. And he was big. Not as big as your father, and nowhere as immense as a Forge-guard, but he was still big."

"No!" said Dak, her hands pressed to the side of her face. "An Engineer would never be having a complicit involvement in this!"

She was still staring at the wall in front of her.

Tahlia was also looking at the wall again. Another forgotten piece of memory had resurfaced in her brain.

'It is looking like an unnecessary risk if you are asking me. I am still not content at the thought of having to hide down in that stinking place for I do not know how long.'

"Did you say sewers?" she said to Dak.

"I did. Why?"

"Because I have just remembered that last night I heard Vlambra say something about hiding in some stinking place."

"Oh, but the sewers are not stinking," said Dak. "Well, excepting where the..."

Her voice trailed away.