Steamforged Sorcery - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Angel examined his arm to make sure all the gore was cleaned out of it. He grimaced as his clothes stuck to his skin. Without the wind to cool him, the sun was more of a menace than any monster ever could be.

“Shall we continue?” Angel asked, grabbing the board from his back and tossing it onto the ground.

“Yes. We’re only a few hours out,” Cowl said, his wings sprouting. “I want to arrive well before nightfall.”

They both glanced at Vanessa. She gave one final glance at the monster’s corpse before activating her skates and giving them a nod.

The three sped off with Cowl at their head, leaving the warg in the sand behind them. The remainder of the trip to Dune Valley was entirely uneventful. The dunes grew larger and deeper until they were practically mountains.

The sun hung low in the sky by the time Angel got his first glimpse of Dune Valley. The city was precariously perched atop a large dune. Massive metal supports sprawled across the entire sandy hill, holding the city aloft.

A massive, curved disk of shimmering silver metal was held over the top of the entire city with trusses and bars. Thousands of slack wires hung from the disk, dotted with flickering lanterns. The impossibly tall buildings towered over the city’s short walls, casting a shadow long past the base of the dune that it was perched on.

The gates to the city were about fifty feet in the air above the ground. A large, steel plate sat on the ground before it, partially covered with sand. Iron chains individual links the thickness of a man’s head ran up from each corner into a huge pulley system in the air above them.

Cowl’s wings retracted into his back as he led the other two onto the plate. A few moments passed. Then the platform rumbled. The pulley started to turn, steam rising up from exhaust vents as gears churned along it.

The platform rose into the air one shuddering link at a time. It took several minutes for the metal plate to finally grind to a halt as it grew level with a small outcropping before a rather plain looking gate.

They walked off the platform and the pulley let out a rattle as it slowly lowered the platform back down behind them.

“No guard at the gate,” Angel observed, glancing around the entrance. “No annoying merchants either.”

“The gate is automated,” Cowl replied, leading them inside the city. “Nobody comes to Dune Valley for anything other than business. It’s a wretched, ugly city with nothing of value.”

“Sheesh,” Angel said. “What did it ever do to you?”

Cowl just grunted. The main road was about as wide as some of the side streets in Bronze City. It winded and curled around tall buildings with barely enough room for the three travelers to walk side by side.

Dune Valley wasn’t as dark as Angel had expected. There must have been thousands of lanterns scattered throughout the city streets, not even counting the ones suspended in the air above them. The air was chilly and frigid, likely due to the massive piece of metal blocking out the sun overhead.

“What’s with the metal roof?” Vanessa asked, craning her head back to look up at it.

“There’s a lot of blimp traffic in the area,” Cowl replied. “The city didn’t have a good spot for them to land safely since the dunes are always shifting. People were also asking for some cover from the sun, so the city combined the two. They made a giant landing pad that doubles as a roof.”

“That seems like a huge waste of money,” Angel said.

“You’ve got no idea how much money comes from blimp travel,” Cowl said, laughing. “The people that can afford to get on one can usually afford to spend several Vei a day on just about anything that catches their attention. If you can get them to stop at your city, you generate a ridiculous amount of money.”

“Is a Vei really that much money?” Vanessa asked doubtfully. “My skates cost fifteen Vei, but my mom gave me an allowance of five Vei every we–”

Angel clapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish the sentence.

“Shush,” Angel hissed. “You can’t go around yelling that. I’ve seen people killed for a few Vex.”

Vanessa’s eyes widened in shock and she nodded once. Angel took his hands off her mouth and shook his head, letting out an exaggerated chuckle.

“You keep dreaming that you have that much money and maybe you’ll get to see a Vei one day,” he said loudly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Cowl picked up the pace and the three of them slipped out of the alley and deeper into the city.

Angel let Vanessa go after a few minutes. He glanced back over their shoulder, but all he could see were the low hanging lanterns.

“Watch your words when we’re in the city,” Angel said in a low tone. “They’re no safer than the deserts. The monsters are just wearing human flesh.”

Vanessa swallowed nervously. They continued on in silence for a few more minutes before Cowl suddenly came to a stop before a warped wooden door. The man pulled it open and dim orange light spilled out into the narrow street.

They slipped through the door and Cowl closed it behind them. The room they’d stepped into had a single chair and table in the center. Both were made of plain metal and stone, and a dirty mug sat on top of the table.

There were no windows, and the only other exit was an open doorframe at the back of the room. Angel peered through it to see several straw beds stuffed inside a small room the size of a closet.

Cowl paced through the building, examining it carefully. He pulled out a thin green tag from beneath one of the table’s feet and walked back to the door. He unlocked it and opened it, hanging the tag from the handle before closing it once more. Cowl unclipped his sword and set it down on the table before sitting down in the chair.