Kyle was taken by the intuition of his companion. Lucky guess. There was nothing lucky about it. When he thought he knew the depth of the character sitting next to him, he was continually surprised by the additional descending layers.
“The faint blue lines that made up the symbol in the palm of my hand have spread. Two of them have crossed my hand and have started toward my wrist. Look.” Kyle twisted his arm so Legan could see.
“When did you look last, because they’re at your wrist?”
“What?” Kyle said, pulling his arm back and moving it closer to his own eyes. Legan was right.
“Could I borrow a bit of ink and a writing nib?” Kyle asked.
“Sure lad. What do you have in mind?” Legan asked pulling the pieces from his pack and handing them over.
Kyle dipped the nib in the ink and carefully touched his skin at the points that the lines ended.
“Might as well track their progress,” Kyle said, handing the materials back.
Legan repacked the pieces.
“And ponder their final destination?”
Theirs or ours? Kyle thought.
* * * *
The sun rose above the horizon into a cloudless sky, warming the air and drying up the ground that was sopping wet six hours earlier. Beams of bright sunlight filtered in through the holes in the roof and provided lighting for the three friends who were finishing their light rations for breakfast. Legan examined two of his maps before he rolled them up and put them in his pack.
“Amber? Kyle? There is a small fountain in an alcove over there that tastes like it’s fed with spring water.” Legan indicated a passage off to his left. “I think you should fill your waterskins now while you have the chance.” When both gave him a questioning look, he added, “You don’t know what the future holds,” and slipped on his pack.
After disappearing for a few minutes, Kyle and Amber returned to the main room, slinging the filled skins around their necks and adjusting them at their waists. Amber slipped her pack onto her shoulders and walked out through the doorway. She looked at the silence stretched out before her. The rain washed some of the dust away, but it didn’t help the depressing feeling the current state of the once vibrant city could instill in an onlooker.
“What you must have been, so long ago,” Amber whispered to the dead city.
Kyle and Legan came out a few minutes later and Kyle touched her shoulder causing her to jump. Something fell from her hand, and with startling reflexes, she caught it before it fell to the floor.
“Nice catch,” Kyle said.
“I have my moments,” Amber replied, and put the small gem in a pouch at her hip.
“Another piece of found treasure?” Legan asked, theatrically, raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes.
“No, actually it is one of several magic items I have...acquired...in my travels.”
“A thief using magic. Amber, you never fail to surprise me,” Legan said.
“Ehh,” Amber said, shrugging her shoulders, “They are just small trinkets that give me a bit of a defensive edge. Nothing special. I’m hardly the magic user that even Delas is.”
Kyle shook his head.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked.
The three descended the stone steps and started northward through the wide deserted streets. Kyle kept glancing around as they crossed another intersection, wary of anything that could be watching them from afar. Legan on the other hand was walking casually, enjoying the sunshine warming up his deeply tanned skin, and had his weapons packed with his bedroll across the bottom edge of his pack.
It took an hour to finally clear the city’s limits. They passed through another stone arch and stone monoliths guarding this passage into the city. This time, Legan didn’t stop to collect etchings on the stones since the symbols appeared to be identical to what he’d already captured on parchment on their way into the valley.
The wide path gradually began to ascend into the mountain pass. As they continued onward, the rich green grasses lining the path along the way began to thin, changing from a rich green to a sickly yellow. Three quarters of the way to the crest of the pass, the high grass gave out altogether. It was replaced by large stone outcroppings and smaller boulders. Scrub grass grew against the base of these stones and small woody bushes struggled to survive in the rocky landscape.
“Feel that?” Kyle said, holding up one hand. Warm air blew past him, moving his hair and rustling his clothes, and then it was gone.
“Are you complaining? A warm breeze feels good after all the rain we’ve had to walk through and the damp chill of last night,” Amber said, her mood brightening with the weather. Her pace quickened and soon she was leading the group up the incline. She was nearly at the crest of the hill when she stopped while the others caught up. When Kyle and Legan made it to her side, the three of them continued the climb and slipped through two boulders that were partially covering the path, obviously fallen from the surrounding hills.
They crested the pass and stopped. Stretched out before them, as far as the eye could see was Crystal Bay.
Chapter Fifteen
The dry, warm wind blew over them, drying the moisture on their skin from the climb. Amber squinted as she looked down the long road in front of them that led to the golden slopes of Crystal Bay. As far as the eye could see were sweeping waves of blowing sand and mostly barren flatlands. Dotting the landscape was hardy, low-lying scrub brush, able to survive in the arid climate.
“I thought Crystal Bay was…” Amber started to ask.
“Made of water?” Legan finished for her. “It was. Remember the wizard’s curse, I told you about last night? This is what I was talking about when I mentioned the hazards of wizards and their magics.”
“The gods,” Kyle whispered in awe of what he was seeing before him.
“Imagine. All of this at one time was teeming with life. It supported Crystal City, as the Valley of the Stone King was called back then. The bay was surrounded on two sides by green hills filled with hard woods and plentiful game. The fishermen would travel up and over this pass with wagons laden with salted fish of all types, squid, clams, oysters and even plants from the sea that could be dried and used for fuel. The wagon loads of food that didn’t travel this way would travel out that way, loaded onto huge ships and sent to all corners for sale.”
Legan looked out over the lands and shook his head.
“It was all over like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.
Kyle unconsciously closed the hand that contained the blue etchings into a fist.
“Now what?” Kyle asked, eager to move on.
“Now, we walk. It’s about a day’s walk in that direction to get to the other side of this bay,” Legan said, pointing toward the sandy dunes and started walking down the packed sand path.
They walked down and onto the valley floor for an hour before Legan turned and lead them off the hardened path and onto the sandy dunes, where the loose sand made the going slow. They covered some distance, stopping periodically to rest and drink. The warm breeze they felt coming into the valley at the pass had been replaced several hours before by a stiff wind buffeting their clothes and stung their skin with fine sand particles. During their last stop, Amber had torn up a piece of thin cloth that she carried in her pack into squares they folded diagonally and tied around their noses and mouths to try to keep the blowing sand out. They slogged on for most of the day, their pace slowing considerably with fatigue.
With eyes squinted against the setting sun and the stinging, blowing sand, the group found it difficult to continue. The wind picked up again and with the imminent setting of the sun, Kyle pulled himself closer to Legan and called out into his ear.
“We need to settle for the night,” Kyle choked out behind the cloth covering his mouth and nose.
Legan nodded his head in understanding and quickly scanned the nearby area. They’d entered a rocky patch of large boulders and Legan was looking for a sheltered area. He grabb
ed Kyle’s arm and pointed toward a large cluster of stones off to their right thirty meters away. Turning, he found Amber fighting the blowing gale winds and pointed her in the same direction. As they continued on together, they helped one another as each slipped in the shifting sand until they got a foothold on the firmer ground where the boulders stood.
With the stone buffers surrounding them on three sides, the attack from the wind and blowing sand diminished considerably. They were finally able to remove the cloths providing them protection and shook them free of packed grit.
“If this wind doesn’t calm down, I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep a fire burning tonight,” Amber said.
Kyle started laughing.
“What’s funny?”
“Amber, even if we could get a fire started, look around. Where are we going to get firewood?”
Amber chuckled at herself. “Good question. That is why you’re the brains of the group. Legan here, is the muscle.”
“What about you?” Legan chimed in.
“Me? Obviously, I’m the strikingly good looking one.”
After long groans followed by good-natured laughs, they pulled out their equipment and set up camp. Soon they were sitting together, leaning against the smaller boulders and watched the shifting landscape, out to the horizon.
The area was lit by the full moon moving across a cloudless sky. Off in the distance, the cry of a nocturnal creature caught their attention. Legan looked off in one direction, slowly scanning the illuminated terrain when the sound cut through the night again.
“What was that?” Amber asked, her hand falling to the dagger at her belt.
“I’m not sure,” came his reply. He lifted his axe from where it leaned on his pack and placed it across his lap. The metal gleamed in the moonlight as he tightened and loosened his grip on the leather strips of the handle.
“I think I’ll take first watch, just in case,” he said.
* * * *
Amber was the first to wake. She lifted the blanket covering her head and felt the loose sediment slide to the ground. Sitting up she saw Legan standing, leaning against one of the boulders at the entrance to their camp. Next to her was Kyle, still sleeping, a featureless mound of tan dust.
“Legan, what happened?”
Legan jumped at the sound of his name breaking the silence. He turned, and walked to Kyle’s sleeping form and nudged the lump that was probably his foot. Kyle stirred a moment later.
“A bit of a sandstorm blew in at dawn. It was pretty thick at times, so I thought it was best to make sure you two didn’t suffocate in your sleep.”
“You’ve been up all night?” Kyle said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “You should have woke me.”
“The howling we heard drifted off in that direction away from us after an hour or so. No sense in everyone losing sleep. When it got quiet again, I got some sleep. Don’t worry. I woke to the sound of the coming storm, covered you two and then watched it as it came in from the East.”
Kyle stood up and shook the sand from the blanket that covered him and stuffed it and the blanket he slept on into his pack.
“Well, I hope with the storm gone, and barely a cloud in the sky, we’ll have an uneventful day. We should be able to get out of this bay, and continue on to Oldenmill,” Kyle said.
“Uneventful? That would be a grand idea, lad, but I don’t think so. Take a look at what showed up when the storm passed.” Legan said, pointing out at the sandy plain.
Without taking his eye off the plain, he motioned for Amber to come alongside him.
“What…”
In a depression on the plain, sat a wooden sailing ship, slanted to the port side, with sand obscured two thirds of her hull. The top third was bone dry and bleached from the harsh sun and arid conditions of the desert. At the sand line, there was the top edge of a large hole in her side and her sails hung from what remained of the broken masts. The faded cloth hung in tattered remnants flapping lazily in the breeze. On her bow was a carving of an animal none of them could identify. The harsh winds had sanded and pitted the surface, making it into a grotesque caricature. Impossibly, attached to the side were several knotted ropes which gently swayed back and forth against the hull and the sand beneath them.
“I’m not an expert, but isn’t that a little large for fishing in what used to be a bay?” Amber asked.
“That is the curious thing I was mulling over while you two slept and the ship appeared. You are right Amber, it isn’t a fishing vessel. That ship is a corvette. They are known for their speed, and wouldn’t be used for mundane tasks like hauling salted fish from place to place. No, corvettes were used to move treasure, King’s fortunes, from one place to another over the seas. It is completely out of place in this bay.”
“I say we give it a closer look.” Amber said, a bright smile on her face.
“Where did it come from? Could that last storm have unearthed it?” Kyle asked, ignoring Amber.
Legan thought for a few moments before answering, “It’s possible. There isn’t much visible, but I don’t know,” Legan paused, “I just have a bad feeling about it. I say we just bypass it and continue on our way.”
“I agree. Considering the storms we’ve experienced just since yesterday, I would think this ship gets uncovered and covered back up again regularly. I think we should just continue on to Oldenmill and wait for Adam and Delas to meet us.”
Amber stood with her arms crossed across her chest and gave both Legan and Kyle withering stares. She rested her gaze on Kyle until he finally sighed and asked her what was wrong.
“We had an agreement when I joined up. If we had an opportunity for treasure in our travels...” Her voice trailed off.
Legan shook his head. “Didn’t you learn from the jewel in the eye of that statue? It was a trap and almost caught us in a stone tomb.”
Amber laughed, “That? That trap was an insult to thieves everywhere.” She waved her hand absently in the air. “I just want to have a look around. There’s probably nothing inside but a bunch of sand, but who knows? C’mon, what do you say?”
* * * *
Amber grabbed the edge of the wooden railing and hoisted herself over and held on. The angle of the ship, as it rested in the sand made footing difficult but not impossible for the nimble thief. She poked her head over the railing, looking down at Kyle and Legan inching their way up the knotted ropes and smiled.
“Look alive, you two,” she called.
“Look alive, my…” Legan muttered under his breath as he put another hand over the first and pulled himself higher. He looked over and up at Kyle, just in time to see him climbing over the side. With his pride wounded and a healthy grunt, Legan doubled his efforts and within moments was swinging his own leg over the wooden railing. Kyle grabbed him around the arm and pulled him onto the slanted deck.
“Nice of you to make it Legan,” Amber teased.
“Thank you Amber. It’s a pleasure to climb the side of a derelict ship, in this heat, for your amusement. Maybe next time the rope will snap and I’ll break my neck. Then you can have a good hardy laugh.”
“Awww, don’t be angry,” Amber said with a smile.
Pointing a finger at her, Legan said, “Just find your way below decks and into the hold. If she has anything of any value, it’ll be there. Be quick about it, I still don’t feel good about this.”
“I won’t be long, I promise,” Amber said and carefully made her way to a section of the deck where the planking had been broken away. She slipped on a pair of leather gloves to avoid cutting her hands and gripped the edges of the splintered wood. She slipped over the side and dropped down to the darkened wooden floor below, softening the blow with bended knees. She took a few steps toward the bow of the ship, but looking around, all she could make out of the bow of the ship was it was almost completely filled with sand, courtesy of the large hole in the ship’s side. She could make out several large mounds which rose from the smooth lines of sand, but those
could have been anything.
Turning, she made her way back toward the darkness of the aft area of the ship. There was sand collecting along the hull here as well amidst the flat planking, broken bits of wood and thick coils of rope. She found a table, lying on its side, and several metal mugs, plates and ironware lying half buried in the sand. She picked up one of the mugs, poured out the sand inside and wiped the dust away from its surface. Along the base was an etching of an unfurled scroll and in the center of the scroll was the name The Black Sun. Curious, she thought and slipped the mug into her pack. Further aft, she saw a square hole cut into the floor with the edges of a ladder visible.
Stepping carefully, she made it to the ladder and looked down into the semi-darkness. Streams of light shone through the cracks in the hull. Several solid beams cut through the darkness where entire planks had been snapped and splintered at some point in the past. The dust from the sand filtered up like stars in the still air, reflecting as they drifted along. The light also made it easy to see the two chests chained to the hull’s floor through their metal handles.
Holding onto the sides of the ladder, Amber descended into the hold. The perimeter of the hold was covered in mounds of sand that had collected there. The hold appeared to be empty except for the chests lined up from bow to aft. She carefully made her way forward and examined the first chest’s lock. To her disappointment, the latch had been broken. She lifted it to be sure and the metalwork fell apart in her hands. Tossing it away, she lifting the lid anyway, allowing it to fall open. As she suspected, the chest was empty except for a handful of sand that managed to slip in through the crack along the lid’s edge. Damn.
Stepping to the side, she looked at the second chest’s lock. This one too looked broken. There was scoring on the metalwork around it from some kind of prying tool. With a sigh, she pulled at the lock mechanism. It refused to budge. She pulled her hand back in surprise.
“They couldn’t get it open?” she whispered. A smile spread her lips as she fished through her pack and pulled out a piece of rolled up leather tied closed with a cloth ribbon. She unfurled the leather to reveal the contents: a series of finely crafted iron probes and various pieces of bent metal.
Medallion of the Undead Page 17
