The Lost City of Ithos: Mage Errant Book 4

by John Bierce

  “Tree branch,” Artur said, pointing up.

  Hugh cursed at that— he’d made a rookie mistake with his ward, and the tiger could easily have crossed through his ward atop the massive branch that stretched over the Despondent Toad.

  “She wasn’t hungry last night,” Captain Narsa said, seemingly unfazed. “Else she would have just torn up the decking to get around your ward.”

  “If that was the Mage-Eater and not another tiger,” Alustin said.

  Captain Narsa just spat over the side.

  Hugh tried not to think about what could have happened if the tigress had been hungry.

  By midmorning, the aether had grown too thin for the water mages to continually propel the ship upstream, so Captain Narsa ordered the poles broken out. Each person poling had to be guarded by someone else while they were working— tiger territories were massive, and they were traveling deeper and deeper into the Mage-Eater’s.

  Even trading off their use in shifts, Hugh quickly formed blisters on his hands. Sabae’s limited healing abilities were having trouble keeping up— though, to Talia’s vocal irritation, no one other than the apprentices developed blisters. At the very least, it would have made sense for Alustin to develop blisters, but the paper mage had well developed calluses from training with the sword. They weren’t exactly the same as calluses from poling, but they were close enough for short shifts.

  At noon, another flood hit the boat. This one was considerably larger, and slammed the Toad into a tree jutting out of the river channel. Sabae was knocked entirely off the boat, but launched herself back onto it from the water before any crocodiles could take notice.

  The tree-trunk put a crack in the side of the Toad, and it took nearly an hour of work before it was ready to go again.

  Alustin spent the whole time they were delayed anxiously staring off into space, in the manner Hugh had learned to recognize as Alustin using his scrying abilities. After a time, Alustin started laughing.

  “What happened?” Hugh asked.

  “The Havathi expedition following us decided they preferred speed to safety, and just sailed right into our mossback friends. Didn’t spot them nearly in time. They lost one of their ships, and at least five people, including two Swordsmen,” Alustin said quietly.

  “Anything from Lake Nelu?” Artur asked.

  Alustin shook his head. “Nothing. I can still barely make it out with my scrying.”

  When the repairs were done, another problem reared its head.

  One of the water mages was missing. After a short search, they discovered a set of muddy pawprints, and a few drops of blood on the deck trailing off into the water. None of them had seen or heard a thing.

  Captain Narsa didn’t say a word, just ordered them upstream.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Lake Nelu

  There wasn’t a main channel of the Lower Ylosa River. There was a main channel of the Upper Ylosa, north of Lake Nelu, but the lower Ylosa’s countless braided channels simply connected and split seemingly at random, and there were literally dozens of them connecting to Lake Nelu.

  According to Alustin, there had been plans to develop Lake Nelu, about sixty years before— a wealthy dragon had dreamt up a scheme to build massive farm barges, and turn the vast shallow lake into productive and profitable farmland. To ship the crops downstream, the dragon had planned a massive dredging project to create a wide main channel to Zophor. Everyone had predicted that would be the doom of the project.

  Ironically, it had been the only part of the project that hadn’t failed miserably. It had proven surprisingly easy to dredge a large channel starting at Zophor heading north.

  The low aether density of the lake had made construction and agriculture highly challenging, and most of the more northerly crops the dragon had shipped in had failed in the humid climate. Huge numbers of workers had been lost to disease and predator attacks, and the whole project had finally been abandoned when the dragon was killed in one of Havath’s early wars of expansion.

  The dredged channel had filled in within a couple years of no maintenance.

  The Toad was poling upstream, everyone tense and miserable, when they arrived at Lake Nelu. They poled around a bend, and abruptly found themselves on the edge of a vast, flat lake. The distance was obscured by mists floating above the water, but even if the air had been clear, it would have stretched almost to the horizon. The water lay perfectly flat and still, with countless thousands of lotus flowers in bloom floating atop it near the shores. Only the occasional dead tree or mossy hummock broke the surface of the water.

  To get out onto the lake, however, required them to pass through an inexplicable column of midges. It spanned the mouth of the channel entirely, and loomed at least a hundred feet into the air. The tiny insects didn’t bite, but they got in your eyes and nose, and everyone was thoroughly irritated by them by the time they broke through to the lake.

  “Mating flight,” Narsa muttered, then spat into the water.

  Hugh decided, then and there, that he absolutely hated the jungle. It had been nothing but misery, bugs, and horrific predators.

  “I hate the jungle,” Talia muttered.

  Hugh couldn’t help but laugh at that.

  They slowly poled out into the lake. The lake, despite its size, was incredibly shallow. There were many parts, even close to the center, where Godrick and Artur would have been able to stand with their heads above water, though the mud at the bottom was dangerously easy to sink in.

  It was far easier to make headway here than it had been in the river— the current in the lake was nearly nonexistent. It wasn’t too long before they cleared the lotuses around the edges of the lake and were out into open water.

  “What happens if Imperial Ithos really is here?” Hugh asked.

  “If what’s here?” Captain Narsa asked. “Why would the lost capital of the Ithonians be in a place like this?”

  The entire group from Skyhold turned to stare at Narsa in shock.

  “Why are you all looking at me like that?” Narsa demanded.

  Alustin shook his head and turned back to Hugh. “Two things. First, I alert Kanderon, and she and as many Librarians Errant as are available immediately head this way. Second, we’re probably going to start seeing the city begin to manifest. Bringing enough people who know about the Exile Splinter to the site where it was activated is going to cause its effects to collapse rapidly. Then we just need to hold out against the Havathi until Kanderon arrives.”

  “Hold out against who now?” Narsa demanded. “You never said anything about no Havathi.”

  “How are we supposed to do that?” Talia demanded. “They outnumber us, and once we drain our mana reservoirs, they win. Not to mention, the only platform we have to fight on is this old hunk of junk.”

  “Don’t you be badmouthing the Toad, girlie,” Narsa said. “And you still haven’t answered my question.”

  Alustin turned to the old woman. “You help us finish this job, you’ll be set to retire in comfort for life. And not the modest sort of comfort— the ridiculous ostentation sort of comfort.”

  “Looks like we’re fighting the Havathi,” Captain Narsa said.

  Alustin rolled his eyes and turned back to them. “I’m guessing the Havathi will get here by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. We’ll have to think of some way to defend ourselves from them in the meantime. And, if the city arrives, we’ll need to figure out a way to defend the Exile Splinter as well. It’s the highest priority target.”

  “And if the Cold Minds arrive with Imperial Ithos?” Sabae asked.

  “Then there’s no point to any of this, and we flee,” Alustin said. “The Havathi Dominion won’t have time to figure out the Exile Splinter in enough time to matter.”

  “There’s really no way ta’ stop them?” Godrick asked.

  “None,” Alustin said. “There’s no amount of brilliant magecraft or brave heroics that will matter in the least against the Cold Minds. You run or you comm
it suicide.”

  “What in the name of Zophor’s splintery arse are the Cold Minds?” Narsa demanded.

  Alustin shook his head, and started setting up his magical instruments on-deck to take readings.

  “In case you all are getting complacent, tigers can easily make it out to the boat. They’re better swimmers than any human,” Narsa said.

  Hugh quickly turned his attention away from Alustin to watch the water.

  It was about an hour later when Alustin finished with his readings. “This is it. This was the location of Imperial Ithos.”

  They were far out into the lake, now. Land was long-since obscured by the ever-present mists, and the only things to be seen were occasional drifting lotuses. Not that Hugh particularly missed the land— it wasn’t much more than great heaps of mud sticking up out of the water with trees jutting out of it.

  “Did the Exile Splinter just tear it out of the ground and leave this lake?” Hugh asked. “Are we going to get crushed when it returns?”

  “I don’t think so,” Alustin said, pulling his communications diary out of his tattoo. “I think the lake must predate Ithos. The floods would be a lot bigger if enough land to fill the lake was phasing in and out.”

  “What happens if part of it phases into the same location we’re occupying?” Talia asked. “Will we die horribly as our flesh merges with the ruins of Ithos?”

  Alustin gave her a puzzled look. “What? No, why would it… that’s a disgusting image. No, it’ll just shove us out of the way.”

  “What’s yer plan if the ancient Ithonians are still alive?” Godrick asked.

  Alustin shrugged. “I highly doubt it, but if they are, uh… try and convince them we come in peace until Kanderon arrives to rescue us?”

  “What kind of city do you think Imperial Ithos was?” Sabae asked. “Was it a tree city, or?…”

  Alustin sighed. “I have no idea, and I need to alert Kanderon.”

  Artur cleared his throat, and Alustin leveled a glare at the stone mage.

  Artur chuckled at that. “Sorry, ah just didn’t want ta’ get left out a’ the annoy Alustin with questions game.”

  The day seemed to drag on interminably. The lake around them was beautiful but unchanging, save for the drifting mists. Every now and then, a fish would leap and make a splash, but for the most part, the only noises were the distant calls of birds and drakes around the edges of the lake. The sunlight was muted by the thick mist.

  It was beautiful, and a relief from the jungle, but it was hard to enjoy the peaceful lake with everything hanging over their heads. Between the Havathi, the Cold Minds, and the Mage-Eater, Hugh was constantly on edge.

  Part of Hugh found it ridiculous that out of all the threats, the Mage-Eater was the one that bothered him most. Havath was the single most powerful nation on the continent, and the Cold Minds were… he didn’t even know what to think of the Cold Minds. He simply couldn’t wrap his mind around them. The Mage-Eater was just an oversized cat. The other two should be the far greater weights on his mind.

  Neither of them, however, had murdered someone on the same boat as Hugh without anyone even noticing.

  No one talked much, because on top of the stress, their voices carried oddly over the water of Lake Nelu.

  Well, aside from plenty of complaining and muttering from Narsa’s hired mages. Hugh still hadn’t caught their names. The captain was apparently entirely serious about her “no names” rule.

  It was approaching twilight when Kanderon wrote to him through his spellbook.

  I am on my way, Hugh. Endeavor not to waste my investment in you.

  Kanderon didn’t answer any of his responses.

  Hugh frowned, and went to go see what the others were doing.

  “Do yeh know what sort a’ labyrinth Ithos had?” Artur asked Alustin. “It wasn’t a mistform labyrinth, was it?”

  Alustin shook his head. “It was a standard tunnel labyrinth. These mists are natural, I believe.”

  “Yeh believe?” Artur asked.

  “I mean, it is somewhat unusual that they don’t seem to burn off during the day,” Alustin said.

  Hugh wandered over to Talia, who was firing dreamwasps into the water. Hugh still thought they should be called dreamflies, but everyone else preferred Godrick’s name for them. Dreamfire’s bizarre effects were oddly muted when it struck water— it mostly just resulted in bursts of odd-colored steam.

  “Should you be using your mana up like that?” Hugh asked her.

  Talia sent a series of dreamwasps at a lotus, then sighed. “My mana reservoirs will refill by the time the Havathi arrive, but I suppose better safe than sorry. I just hate this waiting.”

  Hugh glanced at the lotus, which was dissolving into liquid. It looked as though someone had painted a lotus using colored oils on the surface of the lake.

  He wrapped his arm around her. “It’s pretty miserable, isn’t it?”

  “You can say that again,” Talia said, and leaned into him. “I think I understand why dreamfire does all sorts of weird things when it hits, by the way.”

  “Oh?” Hugh asked.

  “It turns out that those boring philosophy books Alustin assigned me aren’t entirely useless. Remember that whole bit where affinities are intersections between axes that describe physical properties? And how dream and a handful of other affinities are axes rather than nodes? Well, so far as I can tell, dreamfire acts to unmoor the properties of its target along the dream axis, which intersects anything that, well, shows up in dreams. There’s no telling what new node it will land on instead. The whole fire part of dreamfire just serves as a sort of… targeting apparatus for the unmooring effect, I guess? It governs how the unmooring travels through solid objects, at least. If I had learned to manifest a separate dream sort of attack, it would cause the unmooring in an entirely different way. No one’s ever manifested dream lightning before, to my knowledge, but if they did, the unmooring effect would travel in the way lightning travels, rather than traveling the way fire travels,” Talia said.

  “That kind of makes sense, in a really weird way,” Hugh said.

  Twilight in the mists of Lake Nelu almost made up for the miseries of the jungle.

  The sun was barely visible through the mists, but they were far enough east that sunset wasn’t blocked by the Skyreach Range. It lit up the mists to their west in a stunning array of oranges, pinks, and yellows. And as the light of sunset began to fade, the lake began to take on an unreal, dreamlike appearance.

  Once it was fully dark, the algae of the Ylosa River began to glow, lighting the mists from below in brilliant gold. It was like the sun had changed its mind about setting, and was rising straight up through the lake. Hugh could see surprising numbers of fish swimming about in the depths of the water, lit by the algae.

  “How bright is the water for you, now that you have weird sphinx eyes?” Talia asked.

  “About as bright as the full moon,” Hugh said. “I could definitely read by it. What about for you?”

  “About as bright as the crescent moon,” Talia said. “I can find my way around by it, but I couldn’t read by it.”

  Hugh wanted to come up with something romantic to say, but that part of his brain felt like it was worn out at the moment, so he just leaned in to kiss Talia, because it seemed appropriate at the moment.

  Or, he started to lean in, then stopped.

  There was a building out in the fog.

  Or at least the shadow of one, jutting out of the lake.

  Then another, followed by a third, and within moments, dozens.

  “Do you see those buildings?” Hugh asked.

  “No, where?” Talia asked.

  Hugh shaped a spellform in his mind’s eye— the one for the starfire beacon spell that he’d used to light their way through the storm. While for the most part he wasn’t supposed to alter starfire spellforms, this one had a fairly simple series of lines that determined the distance Hugh could ignite the beacon at. If Hugh tri
ed igniting it near them, it would just reflect off the mists and blind them, but at a distance, it should work.

  The starfire beacon ignited out past the closest of the buildings, at the outer limit of Hugh’s range. It took considerably more mana than usual to project it out so far, but Hugh had mana to spare.

  “What are you doing?” Alustin shouted. “Why are you?”

  He trailed off as he arrived by Hugh and Talia, and the others quickly followed, attracted by the yelling and the starfire beacon.

  “Imperial Ithos,” Alustin finally said. “There it is.”

  The shadow buildings stretched around them as far as the light could reach. Hugh could see dozens in the relatively small area lit by the starfire beacon. Each of them jutted up out of the water on a veritable forest of columns. They were all sturdy, impressively built structures, but they weren’t blocky or monolithic— there were countless windows, arches, and balconies decorating them. Graceful arching bridges connected the buildings to one another. There were few proper streets, but docks ran down to the water, making it clear that transportation had all been by boat.

  The shadow buildings, curiously, didn’t seem to cast shadows of their own, and Hugh started feeling disoriented as he looked for them. Not a horrible, intrusive sort of disorientation like the Listener in the Silent Straits had given him. This was a more natural disorientation brought on by looking at something that didn’t make sense to your eyes.

  When the shadows of the buildings started to appear, Hugh was relieved for a moment. It was as though they were draining from the buildings into the water.

  Then patches of stone in shades of orange and pink started appearing in the air as the buildings of Imperial Ithos began phasing into their world.

  “Ah,” Alustin said. “We, uh… might have an unanticipated problem.”

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  “It’s not the Cold Minds, is it?” Hugh asked.