The canary-colored, brick-shaped object I pulled out was nicknamed the ‘Tac-Spec’, the latest model of handheld ‘tactical’ spectrometers. It wasn’t nearly as good or precise as the one in the Chem Lab, which could pick out specific elements down to the millionth part. But the device could identify narcotics or hazardous substances, and it could do it by simply pointing the sensor at a glass bottle or plastic collection bag.
It took me just a few seconds to scan my samples before the Tac-Spec emitted a ping. I held my hand up over the thing’s cramped screen and squinted to read it. Across the board, there were elevated levels of sodium hypochlorite, hypochlorous acid, and several types of oxidizing agents. That didn’t sound good, and I bit my lip as I tried to remember all the way back to my first year of college chemistry.
“Thy brow is furrowed,” Shaw observed. “‘Tis thy conclusion that burdensome?”
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “There’s nothing jumping out at me, but I’m missing something. Something big.”
“What next, then?” Liam asked.
“I’m going to have a look inside that building,” I said, after a moment’s thought. “But I’ll have to go alone.”
“Alone? Into unknown demesnes?” Galen exclaimed, aghast. “We cannot let you do that. Besides, Grimshaw has already discerned a way for us to make our way through the field of bodies.”
I sat down and began pulling on some new shoe covers. “Well, I’d appreciate the backup, but I want you guys to stay outside the entryway. I’m seeing trace evidence of various oxides in these bodies. You normally see this stuff associated with home cleaning products, but they can irritate your skin. And I happen to be the only one with protective gear on.”
He sighed. “Very well.”
Once I was completely re-gowned, we picked our way through the minefield of corpses under Grimshaw’s direction. I led the way, while Galen followed close behind. Liam came next, looking more resigned than nervous. Shaw brought up the rear, occasionally calling out course corrections to me.
We stopped just outside the entryway, which was blessedly free of dead wyverns. The angle of the wall overhead protected this area from the sun, turning it into a chilly patch of deep shade. Up close, I noticed that the eroded edges of the entry had empty cavities or sockets in all four corners.
“Check that out,” I said, surprised. “What are those holes for?”
Galen considered it for a moment. He snapped his fingers as he said, “That’s where one might install hinges. There used to be an outward-swinging door here.”
“That implies whoever lived here wanted to keep something out,” Liam said darkly.
“Perhaps,” I acknowledged. “Yet, it also implies a higher level of civilization than a rundown anthill.”
Shaw chuckled under his breath. “Neither griffin nor fayleene use thy kind’s ‘doors’, yet we count ourselves above ants as well.”
That made me grin. “You got me there, big guy.”
Rummaging around in Galen’s saddlebag, I located my flashlight while he murmured a spell under his breath. Liam looked around his side, ears perked and listening. Shaw followed suit, peering with his bright eagle eyes into the darkness.
“That same strange sorcery I noted outside permeates this dwelling,” the Wizard announced. “Yet as far as my spellcraft can discern, the interior contains no magical traps.”
“‘Tis more than I can tell you,” Shaw added. “Mine own eyes could not pierce the dark beyond a dozen yards, and I saw nothing thou might find of interest, save more dead wyverns.”
“That’s because the room inside is cavernous,” Liam said. “My ears have picked up the sound of air moving from a far distance inside. That must mean there are several long passageways connecting into that large open space.”
“Any movement?” I asked, hoping devoutly for the answer to be ‘no’.
Liam paused. “I’m not sure. These ‘ruins’ are in very poor shape. Faint sounds can come from pebbles if they fall from a crumbling rock wall or ceiling. I suppose it is possible that something could be in hiding, but if so it is doing a masterful job.”
Well, that was reassuring.
“Sounds like I better trust in the luck of the fayleene, then.” I switched on the flashlight, then taking a deep breath, I stepped inside. I had to, before my brain could conjure up something frightening enough in the darkness to stop me in my tracks.
The temperature inside dipped noticeably, while the smell of the bodies at my feet jumped up a notch. I flicked the light towards the floor at first as I picked my way around yet more dead wyverns. Luckily, the corpses weren’t as thick in here as outside, allowing me to walk around without too much trouble.
A low moan caused me to jump hard and I almost dropped the damned flashlight.
I swung the light to each side, seeing the gaping maws of first one, then several connecting passageways. Air movement. It was only air movement I scolded, firmly telling myself to settle down. Everything in this place was long dead, and I wasn’t the designated ‘screaming female’ starring in a horror movie.
That’s when I came across a tar-black leathery egg the size of a watermelon.
I froze. Images of it opening and something jumping out at my face, a la every B movie I ever saw, swam across my mind.
I had to use my free hand to grab my other wrist. Otherwise, I couldn’t stop shaking long enough to keep the flashlight beam steady.
“Dayna, art thou all right?” Shaw called.
“I’m fine,” I called back, though my voice sounded as shaky as my hands. “Just a little spooky in here, that’s all. Liam’s right, this is a gigantic room. Several passageways lead deeper into the rock. Or the building, if it goes further on. There’s some more wyvern bodies here. And a large egg.”
Galen called back this time. “Only one? Wyvern lore says that they kept entire nurseries of eggs.”
I played the flashlight around some more. “Yeah. That bit of lore looks like it might be right.”
The first egg I’d seen had a large crack on one side. Greenish yolk had spilled out into a dried heap on the floor next to it. Further on, several more wyvern bodies lay amidst dozens of eggs. Each body – the wyvern nursery caretakers? – cradled four or five eggs in each arm. More eggs lay scattered across the floor, shattered where they fell as what appeared to be the main body of wyverns fled.
The intact eggs in the caretakers’ grasps were all opened as well. The eggs had hatched prematurely. The half-formed embryos inside resembled mummified snakes crossed with plucked chickens. It was a sad and horrifying sight.
The wind set up another resonant moan from the closest passage. I spotted the gleam of some shiny object just inside, so I walked closer. Something about its shape made my hair start to stand on end.
“Dayna?” Galen called out again.
I didn’t answer, not quite yet. I was focused with laser-like intensity on my goal. Especially since I now saw several other objects with the same shape. A metallic, strangely familiar shape.
My nose started to register a new smell. It was faint, very faint. Only my weirdly acute sense of smell would have picked it up, especially given the miasma of half-rotting, half-dried meat that pervaded the cavern.
The tickle of cayenne pepper, a sickly sweetness behind it like gone-off pineapple syrup. My mind went back to a chemistry class where we mixed caustic substances and came out with hypochlorous acid.
What had gone into that mixture?
“Dayna?” the centaur’s voice repeated.
My flashlight beam fell upon the objects. There were six of them, set horizontally on the floor. Beyond, the passageway sloped sharply downwards into unknown depths.
Each object looked like a large stainless-steel SCBA tank, though about twice the size. My unease grew as I spotted a diamond-shaped icon with the words INHALATION HAZARD stamped on the side. Unease turned to flat-out fright as my beam played across a black field adorned with a scarlet skull-and-crossbones e
mblem. Below the crossbones, stamped in glaring red: Cl2.
Images from a half-forgotten high school textbook of dying soldiers being hauled out of trenches flooded my memory. They’d been victims of a new kind of warfare.
Chemical warfare.
“Dayna, are you in trouble?” It was Liam this time. “We’re coming in to get you.”
The cavern echoed with the sound of hoofbeats and paw pads. The sound broke me out of my glassy-eyed stare as fear for my friends gripped my heart. I turned and ran towards them, yelling as I went.
“Get back! Get back outside!” I cried, the echoes shouting back at me. “Someone’s hit this place with chlorine gas!”
Chapter Nine
The sharp-but-sweet smells of cayenne pepper and pineapple turned rancid in my nose, threatening to make me vomit. I let out a strangled cry as I half-dashed, half-staggered forward. My body and brain felt torn like never before. A not inconsiderable part of me wanted to run at breakneck speed towards the exit. But an even bigger part wanted to avoid any sort of rapid movement that would kick up more chlorine-laden dust.
I also worried about doing anything to cause me to breathe more deeply. As a matter of fact, I found myself holding my breath to avoid inhaling at all.
The completely ridiculous walk-run-walk also totally messed up my cry of warning. Rather than clear out, my three friends stayed and watched, puzzled at my odd gait. It wasn’t until I made a sort of ‘shooing’ motion with my hands that they backed off. I rejoined them in the hot sunlight outside, my breath bursting out in a ‘pah!’ as I swayed on my feet.
Both Galen and Shaw moved as if to steady me. I leaned away from them, waving them off. Both griffin and centaur looked a little hurt as I did so.
“No, don’t touch me!” I gasped. “I don’t want to take the chance of contaminating any of you. Come on, let’s get back to where I put out my forensics supplies.”
I led the way back through the field of dead wyverns, my friends following, though at a noticeably discrete distance. I returned to where I’d left my equipment on its makeshift stone table and immediately swapped out my gloves. Next, I took a sample scraping off the sole of my shoe cover and held it under the Tac-Spec.
“Dayna,” Galen called over, “given that none of us are familiar with this threat, might you inform us whether we are still in danger?”
“You’re out of immediate danger,” I confirmed. “Chlorine is an extremely poisonous substance, one that’s usually released as a gas.”
He frowned. “Certainly I can comprehend the danger of a poison, but if it is a gas, haven’t we all inhaled it already?”
“I don’t feel ill,” Liam observed. “Perhaps none of us have breathed in enough of this vile substance.”
“Thy view must be the correct one,” Shaw said. “I for one do not sense the glorious approach of death. Though, now that I have seen the effects of ‘chlorine’ up close…this mode of death is more nightmare than glory.”
“Chlorine is a gas,” I clarified. “But it’s much heavier than air. It quickly settles to the ground, dissipates, and leaves traces in the dirt. Which is why I don’t want any of you cleaning off your hooves or paws just yet. If you lick something contaminated with chlorine, you’ll introduce it to your body in a very unpleasant way.”
The Tac-Spec let out a ping.
I squinted at the results and sighed in relief. The levels were elevated, but barely made it into the yellow ‘warning’ zone. That told me a couple of things right off the bat.
“We’re going to be okay,” I said. “The threshold limit value is low enough inside the main inner chamber that I can go back inside for an extended time with protective gear. All I need to do is add a face mask and eye protection to my outfit.”
“Praytell, what about the rest of us?” Galen inquired.
“At these levels, you don’t want to go walking around in there more than ten, maybe fifteen minutes without protective gear. Avoid kicking up dust, and as I said before, no licking your hooves or paws clean.”
Liam gave a cute cervine snort of outrage. “As if fayleene treat their hooves in that way!”
Galen chuckled. “That act verges on the impossible for any centaur, even a contortionist.”
The two then looked over at Shaw, who fidgeted uncomfortably.
“Nay,” he protested, “I do not remove soil from mine own paws in that manner!”
“No, but you might touch your face, particularly when eating,” I pointed out. “Just let me use one of my wipes to clean your paws after we’re done.”
“Given how concerned you are,” Liam said, “tell us more about this poison, and how it was able to slay so many creatures.”
I put the sample scraper in a disposal bag and then rummaged through my equipment as I filled my friends in. “Chlorine can be used as a powerful chemical weapon, one that inflicts major damage to exposed mucous membranes. That’s what you call the ‘moist’ tissues like the eye, the inside of the nose, throat, and lungs. Once the gas contacts these tissues, it reacts with the body on a molecular level. It’s like…well, like burning someone from the inside.”
The Wizard frowned. “Might I ask what the antidote is?”
“There isn’t any, that’s why it’s so deadly. Guys, I’m sorry, I should have figured this out more quickly. Chlorine hydrolyzes with body tissues to form hypochlorous acid, among other things. I put us all at risk without cause.”
“Well, I for one am glad that you puzzled things out before any of us were injured,” Galen said. Liam and Shaw nodded firmly in agreement. “And yet one comment of yours piques my interest more than any other: you said ‘someone’s hit this place’ with the chlorine. I gather that this wasn’t a naturally-occurring phenomenon?”
I shook my head. “In my world, we can synthesize or collect chlorine gas and store it in large metal cylinders. Sometimes it’s for lab experiments, or other peaceful purposes. But in other times…”
“You use these cylinders as ‘weapons’,” the Protector said darkly. “I’d thought that using a poison dart to kill my predecessor was a dastardly thing. But to slaughter a massive number of creatures this way…it’s hard for me to fathom.”
“I wish it were as hard for my kind to do that, Liam. Several decades ago, we humans first used chemicals like chlorine and phosgene to kill large numbers of soldiers in trenches. It was during one of our old wars.”
How fitting, my mind put in, with a mirthless chuckle. That this poison was used during our own ‘Old War’.
“I wonder…wouldst such as I use gaseous poison to kill wyverns?” Shaw mused, in a meditative voice. He grunted as he went on. “Even though I mislike wyverns as a species, and have fought enough of them o’er my lifetime, I would not use it. This strikes me as a dishonorable form of combat.”
My brain did one of its weird little clicks then.
“That’s good, Shaw,” I said. “Because I don’t think these are wyverns.”
Galen raised an eyebrow. “How do you mean?”
I slipped on a pre-shaped dust mask for my mouth and nose, following up by settling a pair of safety goggles over my eyes. I motioned my friends to follow me back through the field of wyvern corpses, pointing to a couple of the bodies as we passed them.
“I’m thinking that wyverns must have different sub-species. There’s anatomical differences between these bodies and the ones I’ve seen the griffins fight. Placement of the wings. Differences in the structure of the skulls, the hands. And there’s one more thing to consider: the fact that Shaw’s battled wyverns for his entire life.”
The Wizard gave me a puzzled look as we drew close to the entryway. “I’m not sure that I follow you, Dayna.”
“Shaw’s people have never fought this specific type of wyvern, I’m sure of it,” I insisted. I gestured into the blackness of the opening next to me. “These have been inactive for a long, long time.”
“Might you have an idea of how long?”
“Simple. For lo
nger than the centaurs have kept records. That would be what, hundreds of years?” Galen nodded, so I continued. “Had this colony of wyverns been active, your histories would have noted it.”
“That does seem to follow logically.”
My brain did another of its weird little clicks. “And since none of these creatures have been seen prior to their emergence here, that means they’ve been hibernating. They must be nesting, deep within the earth.”
“How dost thou figure that?” Shaw asked.
“Because of the poison used. I saw a half-dozen tanks of chlorine placed by certain tunnels leading off the main chamber. Like I said, chlorine gas is a lot heavier than air. If the nests were kept below, all you’d have to do is open up the tank valves…”
“And let the gas seep into the lower passages,” Liam finished with a shudder. “Nasty.”
“Then yet another question must follow,” Galen pointed out. “Who would know the wyverns were here? Bonecarver? Grayson Archer? Who?”
Suddenly, Liam’s ears stood at attention, fur bristling.
“Quiet!” he hissed. “I heard something this time! Something big–”
Whip-fast, something covered in a mix of black and coppery-gold scales lashed out of the darkness. It looped about my waist before I could do so much as cry out, coiling about my midsection, pinning my arms in a hellishly strong grip.
“Dayna!” Galen cried.
“We are under attack!” Shaw roared.
The scaly coil squeezed. My breath whistled out as the thing lifted me into the air.
In a flash, it snapped back into the darkness.
And it took me along for the ride.
Chapter Ten
I awoke in darkness. The kind of darkness where you can’t see your hand in front of your face. The kind of blackness at the bottom of a mine shaft.
Yeah, I quickly put that thought out of mind before I jumped up and started screaming.
My back was to a cool, smooth wall of stone. My legs were stretched out before me, and I brought them in slowly. I placed my hands on my knees and did a slow pat down in the dark. Nothing seemed to be broken or bleeding. A dull ache radiated from my waist, triggering my memory.
A Warrant of Wyverns Page 5
