by Logan Jacobs
“Emeline, it’s up to you,” I cut in.
Emeline had managed to get to her feet but her gear pack nearly sent her back to the floor. Maruk steadied her, then added her pack to his own. I kept an arm on her elbow as we made our way back to the ground and stayed close as we trudged onwards. I could tell that her breathing was more strained, and that she was desperately trying to conceal it. I grabbed her hand in my own and gave her a little boost of my own mana. The effort cost me more than I expected, but she gave me a look of gratitude as her breathing became steadier.
We found the junction, a meeting of three roads that merged into one wide highway. The highway could still be seen beneath the dust and dirt, it’s massive concrete blocks cracked but otherwise still intact. I opened my mana to do a quick check on the rest of the Shadow Foxes and was once again surprised at how much energy was sapped by that simple act.
Maybe my theory was right, that somehow the spell had broken the bonds between the flesh and mana. If so, using mana may only drain someone faster. I smiled grimly as I pictured the mages behind us trying to cross this forbidden country without using their magic. If I couldn’t stop them, maybe their own magic would.
We were almost on top of Augustine before we even realized that we had arrived. The walls that had once surrounded the city had crumbled, leaving great piles of stone scattered around the plains. Every building had collapsed, burying the streets beneath a layer of dust and debris.
Sometimes, we would find a small reminder of the people who had once lived here, like a child’s wooden pull toy or a shattered bowl. But mostly we just found desolation. We hadn’t found any human skeletons, but seeing the city buried beneath its own buildings, I guessed that most of the people had been caught by the falling debris and their bones interred below the rubble.
“What kind of spell could do this?” Lena whispered as we slowly picked our way between blocks of stone and concrete.
“A terrible spell,” Aerin replied. “A manipulator spell. Sorry, Gabriel.”
“I’m not sure,” I said as I peered at the destruction with my mana. “I don’t see any traces of a manipulator in the fragments that I can still see.”
“But what type of elementalist could do this?” Aerin persisted.
“Combined, they could,” Emeline answered. “Like we did at the oasis.”
Aerin still looked dubious, and I couldn’t blame her. For centuries, people had been told that manipulators had destroyed this city and that was a large part of the reason that they were hunted now. But, as my grandfather told me repeatedly, the winner writes the history books.
“So what do we do now?” Cat asked. He still had the frog skin on top of his head, but he also looked like the freshest member of our group.
“Well, clearly the new city wasn’t just built on top of the old city,” Imogen said as she surveyed the ruins. “Wherever they did build, it would have to be somewhere protected from this unbound mana.”
“I’m guessing you already have a few ideas,” I replied with a grin. “You’ve certainly been thinking about Augustine long enough.”
“Since the first time I heard the stories,” Imogen admitted.
“Those caves were protected,” Lavinia mused. “At least, we didn’t suffer as much when we were inside. So maybe rock somehow blocks the mana.”
“There was a seaport that was part of the Augustine protectorate,” Emeline offered.
“Yes,” Imogen said with a nod, “and a coastline that was mostly cliffs. It was probably pockmarked with caves.”
“I’m guessing most of the survivors would have been there,” I added as I nudged a fork with my toe.
“How do we find this seaport?” Maruk asked as he wiped his brow with a handkerchief. His skin was looking more yellow than green at the moment, and I wondered if Lena had given him a large enough dose of the medicine.
“There was a road at the eastern gate that ran down to the coast,” Imogen replied. “It’s only about a mile from here.”
“But first we have to get through this mess,” Lavinia sighed. “I really hope there’s some sort of caves or something at the other end, because we’ll need it.”
“You’ll need more than that,” an angry voice declared.
The Shadow Foxes had their weapons out in a heartbeat, and we formed a circle without a single word being uttered. Merlin pulled himself out of my bag, and though he didn’t shift forms, he plopped to the ground and hissed angrily at the unseen assailant.
I scanned the ruins and finally picked out someone covered head-to-toe in some sort of camouflage. Even the face was covered with some sort of protective gear that made him look suspiciously like the alien on the Vima welcome sign. I could just pick out a bow, already notched, and I had a feeling that there were quite a few more warriors hiding in the rubble.
“Archers,” Lavinia hissed.
“Quite a few,” I said as I risked a quick look with my mana.
“Which one of you is the leader?” the voice demanded.
“I am,” I replied as I tried to find the owner of the voice. “My name is Gabriel Vega of the Shadow Foxes, and we’ve been sent here to find Augustine.”
There was a long pause, and if I hadn’t taken another look with my mana, I might have thought they had all left.
“You’ve found it,” the voice finally replied, and this time I spotted the man standing just above us, near a column that was somehow still standing. “Now you can either turn around to die on the steppe, or stay here and be killed by us.”
“Ha!” Dehn blurted out.
“We’ve been sent by Theira,” I continued. “We’ve come here because there is a manipulator who will destroy the world unless we can stop him.”
“The world has already been destroyed,” the man replied.
“Please,” I said, “There must be someone we can talk to. A mage or a governor? We need your help and you need ours.”
There was movement near the speaker and a second person stepped out of the shadows. There was an intense conversation and then the speaker held up his hand. I saw the archers double check their shots and I was convinced we were about to have a rain of arrows descend upon us, when the second person stepped forward again and continued their urgent conversation.
“It seems you have a third option,” the speaker declared. “We will take you into custody as our prisoners.”
“I’m nobody’s prisoner,” Dehn declared.
“We’ll do it,” I quickly yelled out.
“Gabriel, are you sure?” Lavinia asked as several more camouflaged soldiers began to appear and close the distance between us.
“We need to find the new city, and this is the quickest way to do it,” I pointed out.
“But as prisoners?” Imogen protested.
“I don’t think it’s that simple,” I replied as I looked up at the speaker and the person who had just prevented a very bloody battle. “There’s something more going on here than just scaring off a bunch of trespassers.”
“I hope you’re right,” Lavinia murmured as the soldiers began to climb down from their hiding spots.
“Merlin,” I said urgently as I lowered my pack. “Hide the Shodra knife just in case they find the bag with the rest.”
Merlin chittered and ducked back into my pack. He emerged a moment later, this time as a black possum. I couldn’t see the knife, but I figured it might be in the possum pouch.
The soldiers quickly surrounded us, and following my lead, the rest of the Shadow Foxes reluctantly turned over their weapons. The soldiers were unconvinced by Maruk’s claims that he never carried a weapon, but their search of his belongings turned up nothing more dangerous than a paring knife, which they quickly seized. Dehn had the opposite problem, as he kept handing over knives, axes, and even the gardening shears. The fire sticks drew some interest as well and Imogen scowled as one of the soldiers started to experiment with it.
Several of the soldiers eyed Merlin suspiciously when they realize
d he had shifted forms and more than one archer looked like they would be willing to put an arrow through the puca. Merlin hissed at them and two of the soldiers started to draw their swords. I stepped in front of the puca, ready to defend him, but the leader gave a hand signal, and the soldiers backed off. As soon as my bag had been cleared, I opened it wide and Merlin scurried back inside.
When the last of our gear had been thoroughly searched and everything even remotely resembling a weapon had been removed, two more soldiers stepped forward, carrying a large supply of manacles. I felt everyone in our group tense up, and I held up a hand in protest.
“There’s no need for those,” I declared. “We’re not here to harm the city.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?” the speaker demanded.
“It’s true,” Lena protested.
“I am the Marchioness of Constello,” Yvaine added. “I will not be cuffed like some common criminal.”
The mystery savior spoke quietly again, and the speaker growled at whatever was being said. He held up his hand again and then waved off the manacles.
“No manacles,” the speaker agreed. “Private Kesta will serve as your bondsman. If you try to leave or attack the city, Kesta will be punished with you.”
“We won’t try to leave or cause any harm to the city,” I reiterated.
The speaker was unconvinced, but he gave a signal to his soldiers, and we were herded through the city to a spot near what I thought must be the center. There was a single wall still standing here, and judging by what I could see, it looked like the last vestige of some government building. Two of the soldiers moved ahead of our group and disappeared behind a collection of collapsed columns that must have been massive in their day.
We were led towards the same spot, and when we came around the edge of the pile, I heard several gasps of surprise. The two soldiers who had gone ahead were standing by an open cellar door, except this one was made of steel and was big enough for a school bus to fit through. Just beyond was a large tunnel that sloped downwards towards some unseen endpoint.
A few sharp pricks in the back had us moving forward again, and I let out a low whistle of appreciation as we started down the sloping road. The tunnel was neatly paved, and the walls and ceiling had been covered in tile. Markers along the way showed distances and depths and a row of mage lights kept the whole thing as bright as any surface road. We also passed several guard stations on the way down, manned by soldiers in the same uniform.
I still had no idea what any of our captors looked like. The camouflage they wore covered everything, including their faces, and darkened lenses protected their eyes. The speckled gray and brown pattern of the fabric blended perfectly with the ruins above, and I was willing to bet that more than a little magic had gone into their design. I opened my mana for a moment to confirm that theory and received a poke in the back for my effort.
Walking through a tunnel is not the most exciting exercise in the world, even if it is at the point of an arrow. Twenty minutes in I was ready to turn around and head back to the surface. I’d tried to entertain myself with solving the riddle of the fresh air that was clearly flowing through the vents but even that couldn’t hold my interest. Whatever was at the other end couldn’t possibly be worth the monotony of the tunnel.
It turned out I was wrong.
The tunnel finally came to an end at another massive steel door though a smaller, human-sized door had been built off to the side. We were nudged through the normal door and found ourselves in a miniature city.
There were tree-lined streets, beautiful colonnaded buildings, fountains that spouted sparkling water, and people. Lots of people. And all of this existed in a massive cave yet you would never know that you were underground. Someone, somehow, had created the illusion of sky and clouds and a sun bright enough to turn a dark hole in the ground into noontime on top.
In the distance, I could see crops of some sort, and even animals, including a pair of horses pulling a carriage. I also spotted dogs in yards and a cat sunning itself in a window. It looked like someone had picked up some quaint Tuscan town and dropped it underground.
“Whoa,” Aerin breathed.
“Whoa, indeed,” Maruk murmured.
“It’s real,” Imogen said happily.
“Come with me,” one of the soldiers said. Definitely a woman, and probably the one who had saved the lives of her fellow soldiers that day.
“Private Kesta?” I guessed.
“Yes,” she replied as she peeled off her hood and face mask. She was a pretty human, with soft brown eyes and dark brown hair pulled into a tight bun. “Please, you need to go to the clinic to be treated and then the High Mage will want to meet with you.”
“Lead the way,” I replied.
Kesta nodded to the team leader, who had removed his own face mask to reveal a tall black man with graying hair and a very large scowl. Private Kesta hesitated for a moment when he didn’t say anything, but then she looked at me again, and started down the winding staircase that led to the town below.
Our progress through the city became a small parade. Clearly, outsiders were an uncommon phenomenon in New Augustine, as I thought of the city, and what started as a small crowd near the tunnel quickly became a large mass of people as Private Kesta tried to lead us along the streets. No one looked scared or terrified, but there was definitely a mix of curiosity and wariness.
Maruk probably drew most of the attention, and I heard several people in the crowd try to guess what he was. Maruk maintained his cool, despite the fact that several people claimed he was a troll. For my own part, I noticed that most of the people here were humans, though I spotted a few elves as well. I didn’t see any panthera or ladonae, but since the good people of Augustine were familiar with these two species, I figured there were probably some here somewhere.
The end of our journey brought us to a nondescript three-story building with a simple sign out front that showed a pair of hands. Healing hands I realized as we stepped inside. This was clearly the clinic, and the lobby we walked into looked like every emergency room in every hospital I'd ever seen. Rows of uncomfortable chairs filled with miserable-looking people, waiting for their name to be called, an understaffed nurses’ station where a frustrated elf tried to explain to a patient how to fill out a form, and, above it all, the nose-tingling scent of disinfectant and things I didn’t want to identify.
“Come on,” Private Kesta told us as we stopped to look at the controlled chaos. “The treatment center is on the second floor.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Yvaine sighed. “I think I was getting the flu just standing here.”
We climbed a pair of gray steps in a gray stairwell and found ourselves in a lobby painted a soothing shade of peach, with scattered clusters of comfy chairs and a nurses’ station panelled in some sort of exotic wood and manned by a bored looking human who was filing her nails. She looked at us in surprise, and I’m not sure she even believed we were real until Private Kesta actually stepped up to the desk and picked up a clipboard.
“They’ll need treatment for exposure,” Private Kesta informed the nurse. “The High Mage will expect treatment to begin immediately.”
The nurse looked from Private Kesta to us and then back to Private Kesta. Private Kesta made a tutting sound and then started to dig through the pockets on her pants. She pulled out a small pendant on a chain and held it up for the nurse’s examination. The nurse gave a small nod and then turned a dazzling smile on the rest of us.
“Well, while your friend takes care of the paperwork, why don’t I take you on back,” the nurse said.
She stood up from the desk and sauntered towards a door with a sign that read ‘Please wait until you are called’. She pulled it open and ushered us inside. A long hallway lined with doors spread out before us. Each door had a number painted on it and a nail with one of those flip signs that said ‘In Use’ on one side and ‘Vacant’ on the other in several languages.
“
You’ll need to remove your clothing and put on one of the gowns for the examination, and then we can get you checked into your rooms,” the nurse instructed us in an overly cheerful tone.
“I’m not sure I like the sound of this,” Dehn muttered.
“Now, I see we have three elves, two humans, one panthera, two ladonae, one… troll?” the nurse guessed.
“Orc,” Maruk sniffed.
“Of course,” the nurse said brightly. “And one…?”
“Halfling,” Dehn muttered.
“Of course,” the nurse agreed in that same cheery tone. “You’re very tall for your kind.”
Dehn turned to face the rest of us. “See, I told you.”
“And one puca,” I added as Merlin finally stuck his head out of my bag. “But he won’t need his own room.”
“Of course,” the nurse repeated. “Now, Mr. Halfling, you can go right in here to exam room one. Mr. Elf, you can have exam room two. Oh, you’ll need to remove your… headgear as well.”
Cat gave her a puzzled expression and then reached up to remove the frogskin.
“Forgot I had that on my head,” he replied in an embarrassed voice.
“Of course,” the nurse reassured him.
She went on to assign examination rooms to the rest of us. Merlin and I were in room six, which included a very cold steel examination table and the traditional paper-thin cotton robe. Merlin sniffed around the room and then retreated to my pack.
“You’ll have to come out for your exam,” I warned.
Merlin raspberried me from the deepest depths of my pack, and I could hear him rustling around inside it. A moment later, I heard a cracking sound and I realized that he had found the last of the peppermint candies.
Apparently, our exposure was not a high priority. I poked around the examination room, but didn’t find anything interesting or unusual or even just something to relieve the boredom. I thought about pulling out one of the text books, but Merlin growled at my hand when I tried to reach inside. He had a death grip on the peppermints and a look that definitely said ‘don’t mess with me right now’. I left him to his candies, did another tour of the room, and then finally sat down on the table. My buns were frozen in a matter of minutes and I knew I was going to leave a layer of skin behind when I stood up.
