BOOM!
The sound was starting to ring more frequently now. A shred of color caught the corner of my eye, and I instantly slid across the ground, nearly dropping Freya from the force of the stop.
“Well, that wasn’t any fun,” the elf complained as I set her down. “Why did we stop here anyway?”
“That.” I pointed behind her. She turned around and her eyes widened.
There in front of us was a deep pit. At the center stood a tall pillar of white metal, rising high up into the air. I took a few steps forward, not getting too close to the steep downward slope ahead. I skirted around the edge and placed myself flat on the ground.
The pit was even wider close up, and at the center of it stood a massive machine. Its base was like a pyramid with the pointy half cut off, and from the flat top rose the pillar of white, going at least two hundred yards in the air before ending in a pointed tip. Gold and silver markings covered the machine, glowing with haunting shades of iridescent light.
“What’s going on here?” Freya asked, her voice quiet.
A high-pitched hum hit the air, increasing in frequency with every moment. The markings on the machine started glowing bright, until its light was nearly blinding. All of a sudden, both the noise and the light cut off.
Only for a moment.
BOOM!
A soundwave erupted from the pillar, ruffling through us as it went past.
“What the hell?” I asked. “What’s that machine doing?”
“Absolutely no clue,” Nyx said. “But I can take a guess as to who it belongs to.”
“What?” I asked, and then I realized what he was talking about. I looked closer at the base of the machine and saw a small group of Knights standing there, all of them dressed in pure white armor.
“Oh, gods,” Freya whispered, catching the sight just as I did.
Unease spread through me as I realized who we were looking at.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I sighed.
The Lumina Knights were here.
***
CHAPTER FIVE
It’s always nice to meet old friends.
Unless, of course, they were friends who’d taken you in and then double-crossed you. And those were exactly the kind of “friends” the Lumina Knights had been to me—they weren’t friends at all.
“What are they doing here?” Freya asked, hunched beside me on the dry ground.
“I have no clue,” I said as I peered down at them once more. “But I wouldn’t imagine they’re up to much good.”
“It looks like they’re the ones that set up that machine.”
I looked at the flecks of white that scuttled around the base of the tall machinery. “Looks like it,” I said, none too happy.
“I can’t recall anything about what that tower might be,” Nyx said. “It appears foreign to me.”
That’s fine, I thought. However, the machine gave me quite a bit of unease. It didn’t unnerve me that I didn’t know what it was, but it certainly did that I had no clue what it was doing. So far, it’d been booming at regular intervals, emitting waves of sound and light that permeated lands far from us.
“It looks like a beacon, to be honest,” Nyx suggested.
“A beacon for what?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Nothing obvious comes to mind, even given that we’re in the desert.”
“What do we do?” Freya asked, sounding a little concerned. “We can’t just stay still here.”
“Yeah,” I said, watching the Knights crowding around the machine. I could see no obvious openings to exploit at the moment, and a full-on frontal attack, even though it was something I was strong enough to do, was not exactly the smartest of ideas.
Right now we had the higher ground, but I wasn’t sure how much of an advantage that was. It certainly helped with scoping the Lumina Knights’ actions from afar, but it remained to be seen if it offered any other significant benefit when it came to attacking.
“I can’t find any openings to exploit,” Nyx said.
“Same,” I said, watching the tight circle the Knights formed around the machinery. I couldn’t help but wonder how exactly they were here in the first place. I couldn’t see tents or any sort of shelter close by, and this place was a ways from Aingard’s border.
They probably set up camp somewhere further down, I thought.
“That doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do, considering how they’re in possession of this huge machinery,” Nyx said.
Maybe they’re confident nothing will happen to it.
“Look.” Freya tapped me on the shoulder. “One of them is leaving.” She pointed, tracing the path of a man in white robes walking away from the crowd. A few people followed him, and the rest began to disband, albeit very slowly. It seemed more like they were relaxing rather than actually leaving.
“What are they doing?” Freya asked.
“Not sure,” I said, and we sat there watching the Knights as they moved around, not really performing any particular task. The man who’d left before didn’t go far either, hovering a few yards beyond the rim of the pit. Freya and I lay still on the ground, trying to keep ourselves as hidden as possible.
“Boy, you probably didn’t expect to see them here, did you?” Nyx asked.
“I did not,” I said. “To be fair, this is the first time I’ve seen the Lumina Knights ever since…”
“That battle with the Dark Lord?” he asked.
Yeah.
“Hopefully this doesn’t end in a similar way.”
“Yeah,” I said once again, more robotically than the last time.
“Look. They’re dispersing.” Freya leaned forward, giving herself a better view. I looked down and watched the white crowd slowly move away, all heading in the direction directly opposite us. My mind raced as I formulated a plan in my head.
“Follow me,” I said as I shuffled around the pit, not taking a step onto the slope that led down to it. The Lumina Knights cleared out quickly as we made our way around. I hastened my pace a bit, making sure I didn’t lose sight of the big crowd.
“Where are they headed?” Freya asked as she followed beside me.
“I have no idea,” I said. “I’m assuming they’re heading back to a local camp they’ve set up.”
It didn’t seem like there were enough horses for all the Knights in the crowd, and that meant they were headed somewhere close by, since walking all the way back to their headquarters in the Kingdom would not be practical.
I turned to Freya. “Stay behind them for now,” I said. “I’m going to sneak up closer and see what they’re talking about.”
“You realize I’m an assassin, right?” She rolled her eyes. “My stealth skills are more diverse than yours.”
“Yeah, but I’d rather have you out here as backup in case the Lumina Knights have something up their sleeves.”
She sighed. “Fine, go have fun.”
I chuckled. “If you say so.” I closed my eyes, focusing on my chest and feeling the presence of all the mana inside my body. “Hiestia,” I whispered. Darkness surged out of the ground, like liquid rising from the earth, and sealed my body, plunging it into darkness.
When I could see again, I found myself on a solid pathway of black. I looked around, noticing small openings in the space around me, images of the outside world filling them as a dark haze floated from their borders.
“Shadow Travel,” Nyx said. “This skill is so trippy.”
“Which is why it takes about six hours just to recharge,” I said as I looked at all the images surrounding me.
There. I smiled as I caught the image of white armor against a muddy background. I walked along the pathway till I was standing right under it, and I looked through. I saw a cohort of Lumina Knights marching along, the image keeping along with them as they walked over the muddy terrain.
I focused on the image, willing it to move closer to the head of the pack. The portal’s image shimmered for a bit and then sh
ifted, contorting and dissolving until it focused on an old sage.
He wore classic white robes, although his outfit had pristine gold threading of a kind I had not seen before. He held no staff in his hand, which was surprising, considering he was a sage. I could see he was saying something to someone else, but I couldn’t hear what it was.
“Might be something useful,” Nyx said.
It probably is. I’ll go listen in.
“With your Shadow Cloak skill? Are you sure?”
Yeah, it’s fine.
“If you say so.”
“Utulio,” I said, thrusting my hand into the air. The darkness around me swirled in like a maelstrom, twisting around my wrist and sinking along my skin, coating me in a hazy black. I willed the portal I was looking into to come closer, and it did, the image floating right in front of my face.
I pushed my head through, letting my eyes push out first. I could immediately tell I was in the shadow of the man and his horse, and that neither he nor the Knights around him could tell that I was even there.
The Shadow Travel/Shadow Cloak combo works so well, I thought as I pushed out a bit more, lifting up more of my face. I moved along with the shadow, and my Shadow Cloak skill concealed me from all view. I focused my attention on the sage and listened in.
“…there are still many locations to scout.”
“I get that,” another voice said. “But we need to be faster about this. I want progress, and fast.”
What are they talking about? I wondered.
“Beats me. It doesn’t sound good, though.”
“It’ll be hard, my lord,” the old man said.
My lord? I moved a bit, trying to see who he was talking to. Where I’d expected to see a person, there was instead a screen hovering in the air, and on it appeared a young man with brown hair and sky-blue eyes. I saw some text at the corner of the screen and focused hard on it.
Markus Goodfield, I read, and my eyes widened. The Markus Goodfield?
“Seems like it,” Nyx said.
“You already have all the resources you need,” Markus said. “I do not want any more delays in this.”
“I understand your concern,” the old man said. “However, I urge you to save this conversation for a more private time. We do not want our enemies catching wind of our plans.”
His eyes shot towards me, power within them. I stumbled back through the shadows, falling out the portal.
I was on the dark pathways once again, sprawled on the ground, breathing hard. I was completely shaken.
“Did he know we were there?” Nyx asked, sounding confused.
“It seemed like he did,” I said. “But that isn’t possible. Shadow Cloak and Shadow Travel are both untraceable magic skills.”
“Well, clearly he seems to have traced something.”
“It was probably just sheer luck. We’re overreacting. It was a coincidence.”
“Maybe,” he said, not sounding one bit convinced.
And to be completely honest, I wasn’t convinced by what I’d said either. That had completely thrown me off. I hadn’t expected to be called out like that, and now I was forced to fall back on plans that I wasn’t entirely sure about.
I focused on the dark space I was in and swished my hand to the side. The darkness around me folded fast, quickly dissolving into nothing. I was back on the desertlike land again, on the rim of the pit holding the machine. I looked around, but Freya was nowhere next to me.
What the hell? My eyes widened.
“The field map says she’s moving away from here,” Nyx said. “I think she might be following the Lumina Knights.”
“Why the heck is she doing that?” I muttered. I quickly opened up the Ga’em menu and sent her a message.
“Hey. Is everything okay? Where are you right now? What happened?”
And then I waited. My feet skirted the rim of the pit, and I peered down, my gaze following the incline all the way to the machine. The tower of white metal stood there silently, no longer making any loud booms. I still had no idea what it was supposed to be doing. I wasn’t even sure if it was a weapon. Seemed to me like it really wasn’t, and that was just confusing.
DING!
A Ga’em prompt popped up.
Everything’s okay. Two men came up to where I was, and so I used Air Cloak to hide myself. They said something about the machine being used to “find something.” I ended up following them, given that I was already well hidden and we needed to know more about the machine. I’m about fifty yards behind the Lumina Knight squadron. I’m still using Air Cloak right now and they haven’t noticed me, so I’m gonna keep pushing forward.
My mind immediately went to the man leading them, of how he had scoped me out. Coincidence or not, I wasn’t willing to risk having him find out about Freya. I quickly sent a message back.
Abort mission. Their leader might be able to sense you even with your cloaking abilities.
“You’re awfully worried about this,” Nyx said. “Feels like that man has you shook.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I mumbled. I had to admit he was partly right. It was disconcerting to think that man could scope our cloaking skills. But I was still quite confident I could take him out on a one-on-one battle if it came to that.
Actually, I could probably take him out regardless, I chuckled. I should use Analyze on him the next time, though. Just in case.
“Sure, you’re not worried,” Nyx teased.
DING!
Are you sure? I think I’m almost near their base. I can see white tents a few hundred yards ahead. And some of the men said something about it too. This is a good opportunity to find out what that machine is doing.
I panicked a little. I wasn’t happy that she was so close to enemy territory. Usually I wouldn’t be worried, but like I said before, that old sage bothered me a lot. I wasn’t sure if Freya could take him out on her own. Having him take her hostage would be the worst possible outcome, and one I wanted to avoid. I sent her a message.
Stay where you are. I’ll come to your location, and we can decide what we want to do.”
DING!
Sounds good. I’m holding ground where I am. Find me on your map, and we’ll talk once you get here.
“Is it Shadow Travel time again?” Nyx asked.
“Are you kidding? You know I can’t use that skill again for six hours. It has a crazy cooldown time.”
“You should be more careful with how you use it, then.”
“It was the safest way to find out what the Knights were up to.”
“So, are we just walking to Freya now?”
“Well, we can always run.” I chuckled and charged forward.
Wind whipped my face as I charged across the desertlike land, dust and sand kicking up all around me, swirling around in the gusts of wind I’d wrapped around myself.
“Nyx, can you pull up my Map menu and see where Freya is?” I asked.
“Already did,” he said. “Head a little more to your left, and about a mile head.”
“Gotcha, thanks,” I said, making the adjustment and pushing forward.
“Five more seconds and stop. About five hundred yards straight ahead.”
I counted down in my mind and then dug my heels into the ground, bringing me to a stop right where Nyx had wanted me.
“Wow,” a voice said. The air in front of me unfolded like a wall of paper, and Freya emerged from within it, a grin on her face. “That was a pretty good entrance.”
“Where are the Lumina Knights?” I asked, getting right down to business.
She looked a little taken aback at my seriousness, but it seemed like she understood it as well. “They should be quite a ways away from us by now,” she said. “If you look closely, you can see the tents over there.” She pointed behind a few dunes in the distance, and I saw white tents peeking over the valleys between them.
“Ah, okay,” I said, registering that it was about a thousand yards away. “We need to be careful about
making our way there. That guy I told you about before gives me the creeps.”
“How do you suggest we do this? I see no way other than cloaking.”
“I’d agree,” I said. “But we need to keep a close watch on what’s going on around us, just in case something does happen. I want at least one of us to be guaranteed a way out.”
“What?”
“If we get attacked suddenly, I’ll take them on. You get out as fast as you can.”
“What do you mean, you’ll—”
“Just go with it, will you?”
“Fine.”
We made our way to the dunes, and I was on full alert the whole time, wondering if there was anything suspicious about the place. And much to my credit, I was right.
“Wait.” I caught Freya’s shoulder, pulling her back as we neared the top of the dune.
“What’s wrong?” She fell back to where I was.
“Don’t you sense it too?”
“Sense wh—” She stopped. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s a trigger barrier around here.”
“I can attest to that,” Nyx said. “I sense it too.”
“Ugh,” I mumbled. Trigger barriers were the worst. They weren’t defensive barriers, so they wouldn’t force someone out, but because they didn’t do that, they had a super small energy signature and were nearly impossible to detect from far off. Their main selling point was that the moment someone passed through one, the caster would immediately be alerted, and that was exactly what the Lumina Knights were trying to do here.
Of course, my first impulse would have been to just throw something over in order to activate the trigger, but things didn’t work that way. The barrier would only be triggered when something with a life signature passed through it.
“What do we do?” Freya asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, thinking hard. I was a bit annoyed, honestly. I’d been spending quite a lot of time learning to control my mana and power so people couldn’t sense my presence as easily, and the fact that I was stumped by a simple trigger barrier was not fun to think about.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 29
