Little Blue chirped out laughter, and Orthos snorted smoke.
“You look more like my daughter than his,” Orthos rumbled.
Yerin moved her eyes up to look at Lindon upside-down. “You get a royal audience with the Silent King? You his puppet?”
“Yes. Apologies, but I have to feed you all to a Dreadgod now.”
“I’d bet my spine that’s really what you’d say.”
Dross drifted out of the back of Lindon’s neck, giving an unnerving chuckle. [Speaking of the Silent King, we have presents for you. Perfectly innocent presents. Don’t we, Lindon?]
Everyone in the room turned to look at Lindon. Mentally, Lindon cursed Dross for the worst possible introduction.
“In the course of evacuating Dreadnought City, Dross and I exchanged words with the Silent King.”
Orthos coughed out a mouthful of apple.
Ziel’s face grew grim. “It can speak?”
“It knew me,” Lindon admitted. “It invited me to join it of my own free will, I suspect because it can’t capture me. And it made some…threats.”
[Against each of you,] Dross said. [By name.]
Yerin sat up abruptly, scattering the healing constructs in a swarm of green-and-red sparks. Little Blue’s gasp was a chime, and Dross drifted over to the Riverseed. [It didn’t mention you. Probably because it has something even more horrible in mind for you.]
Lindon smacked Dross on the back of the head and picked up the trembling Little Blue. “Blue and Dross and I will be fine. Everwood is on the other side of the world. Without something like the labyrinth, it would be difficult to travel through space to get here. Even if it did, it would have to leave its minions behind, and it’s the least-powerful Dreadgod on its own.”
“That’s like calling it the smallest mountain,” Yerin said.
“At least it’s not the biggest one. As far as we know, the only thing it can do at a distance is try to invade your dreams, so we have constructs to prevent that.”
Lindon hadn’t stowed three of his scripted boxes in his void key, but had kept them piled against the wall. He levitated two of them now on dense wind aura and drifted them before Orthos and Yerin.
Ziel walked over to the other box, and Lindon cleared his throat. “Apologies, but I had intended to give that one to Mercy.”
Ziel gave him a dead-eyed stare. “Mercy.”
“The Dreadgod mentioned her by name. He didn’t mention you.”
“…is Mercy here?”
“Ah, no. I do intend to make you one, just in case! Once I find more materials.”
“You’re going to make me one. Later. Instead of giving me the one right here.”
Lindon winced. “The Silent King mentioned Mercy, so I can’t help but feel that she’s in more danger.”
“Couldn’t the Sage of the Silver Heart make her something like this? And if she can’t, wouldn’t her family provide you with the materials?”
Lindon’s face heated. He hadn’t thought of that.
Dross slipped his voice into Lindon’s mind. [I thought of it. But I was hoping for this moment.]
“My sincere apologies, Ziel. I would be honored if you would take that construct.”
“Thanks.” Ziel picked up the box from the ground and removed the white-and-purple clamshell construct from inside.
Yerin patted Lindon on the knee.
“It works best when you keep it in your soulspace, if you have room,” Lindon said, to distract everyone from his embarrassment. “If you don’t, you can wear it in a locket or a bracelet close to your skin. It won’t last as long that way, and it might take effect more slowly, but it will still work.”
Yerin expelled Netherclaw from her soulspace, the black-bladed sword sprouting out of her midsection as though out of a pool of water. She grabbed it by the hilt and tossed it aside, absorbing the construct instead.
Lindon suspected she could hold both the construct and the sword inside at the same time, but it would be better not to risk it, in case of a conflict.
Orthos absorbed his, and Ziel manifested his hammer before swallowing one into his spirit as well.
“I don’t expect these to be necessary—”
[I do,] Dross interrupted.
“—but if they are, they should negate the Silent King’s technique as soon as it’s placed.”
Ziel leaned on his hammer. “Of course, this is only an issue if we’re staying in this world.”
Once again, everyone looked to Lindon.
Yerin shrugged one shoulder. “Not saying I’m panting to leave this second, but…” She glanced at the ceiling. “…every step we waste is a step behind.”