We even saw, maybe fifty miles to the north, a small green patch, that couldn't have been more than three or four hundred yards across with the shimmer of water in the middle.
Bowyn explained to the children and me that it looked to be, “An oasis. Like in the Burning Desert. Where the yearly rains are captured and create a tiny pocket of life.”
I nodded. Water was life.
It was getting late in the afternoon when Bex called out, “We'll need to find a spot to anchor for the night.”
He smiled and pointed out to the kids, a large squat cone of a mountain poking up on the horizon dead ahead, the peak of its caldera dusted in snow. I recognized that as important for explorers, as that snow was another source of water.
He said, “That volcano is about a hundred miles or so out, we can see it from here because it extends up over the horizon. We'll pass over it before midday meal tomorrow.”
The girls ooed, and Jace nodded, though I could see his excitement. We had but one active volcano in Sparo, just beyond the Fringe of New World Keep. It is something I wished to see in my lifetime.
I had already visited half the realms on missions, and now was going to be visiting the rest in my capacity as Templar... possibly the only good thing to come of George's political agenda for us. I had already resigned myself to having to deal with politicians, but this would give me a chance to show Misty all the amazing realms.
I turned when Celeste said to Bex, “On our way back, we'll need to stop there and test the water for drinkability.”
He nodded. “It could be an ideal location for a future weigh station. I wonder how many more are out here like that.”
They were both already thinking of the exploration possibilities afforded to us with vessels like the Outrider to map out all the terrain.
The oasis was the only interesting change in the barren landscape we had seen for hours. Besides it, the only memorable sight had been a fissure that ran for almost fifty miles in either direction that would have taken the Cristea a week or two to get around at our backs. It had been filled with steaming lava. I smiled at the thought of another serpent of fire. I was going to get Emily for that.
There were a few curious features to the north that Sara had noted on the map. They looked almost like trails from our vantage point, which is impossible. Bex postulated that maybe they were dry stream beds that have filled with sand over the eons. We weren't about to go off mission to investigate.
Bowyn suggested, “Maybe we could do a flyover on the return trip since the oasis was to the north as well?”
My Lady nodded, her brow creased in thought.
A minute later we were heading to a fairly level portion of the stone landscape that had been covered with blowing sand. We dropped anchor, and before long we were setting up camp for the night, and I sent the dejected looking children off to muck the horse stalls in the Condor, to the amusement of us all.
I sighed as dust blew all around us and I wrapped my scarves tighter across my face, and grudgingly put on the goggles Donovan had provided. We still had another eight days of the same bland and uninteresting view of the rocky landscape before we would be forced to turn back.
I took one last long look in the direction of the volcano that we couldn't see from ground level and wondered if the Cristea had found it interesting too in their long travels. I'm sure they would have been grateful to see anything but the endless barren stone landscape.
I smiled to myself and went about helping the others to set up last meal.
Chapter 8 – Westlands!
As we ate breakfast in the cargo bay of the Falcon with the other squads; it was the only space large enough to shelter us all from the little dust devils and blowing sand as we ate; a scout stepped in from outside, unwrapping his scarf and moving his goggles to the top of his head.
A metal tray of food was pushed into his hands as he approached us. He looked nervous and moved up to Celeste who was sitting on a crate of supplies with me, eating, and he whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened slightly and then nodded sadly once before he joined his comrades with his tray.
She looked first at me, then the children sitting on the deck under us, feeding tidbits of their bread to Bitsy, who by the way, had everyone looking on in wonder and curiosity. She gave me an apologetic look then simply raised her eyes to the rest of our Greva.
There must have been something in her eyes because Alexandru stood quickly, excused himself from the group of Altii gathered around to hear his fantastical tales of adventure. Sara trailed behind him.
He just said softly in question, “Soras?” Then leaned in when Celeste motioned, and she whispered something to him. He exhaled slowly and nodded, and just gave Sarafine a look. Then the two headed outside.
I was going to burst. “What?”
My Lady just shook her head, winging her eyes down to the girls. Ahh... she'd tell me later.
I said, “Girls?”
They looked up, and I had to smile. Bitsy was standing on Misty's shoulder, her little tail that got bushy at the end was twitching under my daughter's nose, like a little mustache.
I scrunched my shoulders down and whispered conspiratorially as I handed them the dried apple slices from my plate, “Why don't you two give Goliath a little treat before we lift off on the hour?”
Ingr hopped to her feet and pulled Misty up before retrieving their plates and saying as she led our daughter away, “Come on Mist, the grownups wanna talk.”
I chuckled as they went. Ok, so maybe I wasn't as sly as I believed. I turned to see an amused looking red headed knight. I muttered with a grin, “Zip it, woman. Now, what's going on?”
Her amusement seemed to increase as she asked with a twinkle in her eye, “Well, my love, which is it? So you wish for me to umm... zip it, or do you wish me to tell you what the scout found?”
I explained everything to her with my response, “Grrr.”
She smiled then exhaled, all the playfulness being tucked away, “The scout found seven markers a hundred yards south.”
I blinked, and she explained, “Seven graves. They looked ancient to him, the stones themselves covered in sand but the markers still visible.”
My good mood flowed out of me like sand through a sieve. Then I got even more reserved when she asked herself, “I wonder how many we missed, cruising at altitude if they are being covered by time like that.”
I cocked my head, and she explained, “They were running out of supplies. Most likely water.”
My eyes widened in understanding. Mother Luna. She thought these weren't the first to die on the Cristea's expedition. I swallowed, knowing that humans could only survive three days without water whereas we can survive weeks without food.
How much water had they taken? The great oxen of the Mountain Gypsies could pull heavier wagons than horses, but their strength was still finite.
Rain had told me when the Cristea had left to the four corners of the compass, their wagon trains were loaded down with supplies for three months. But even I knew it would be impossible to haul three months of water for all the oxen, and the hundreds of the People said to have undertaken the journey.
I think they were so confident in their belief that Sparo couldn't be the only Habitable Lands in the world, that they had faith they would find water along the way. I thought of the twisting canyons of the broken lands that had stretch for miles, and the weeks it would take on foot to find a path through the labyrinth, and the fissures that would have added a week or two more to their journey west.
It seemed like such a short distance by air, traveling in but an hour, what would take the better part of a week, picking their way through the rocky landscape. And we had seen no water but that oasis they would have never found so far north of their path. My thoughts echoed Celeste's, wondering how many graves we had missed.
I took solace in the knowledge that at least some of their band had survived, the man laying at Sparo's doorstep was irrefutable evidence of
it. We had to be getting close, we could see over a week of their travel to the horizon, and if they were losing people, that meant they were out of water at the very least. They couldn't have survived much longer.
I voiced this. “We have to be getting close.”
She just nodded in silent agreement, the same black realizations painting her face. How many had died simply because they had faith that something was out there? I absently wondered if I had that much faith in anything. That I would lay my life on the line for that faith.
I answered myself when I saw Celeste's emerald eyes regarding me. I had my answer. Love. Love and family. I voiced it in my raspy voice, “I love you, my inspiring Trapper.”
It was a privilege to be able to witness the Blade of Temperance of Wexbury shed her mantle of strength and power, and melt into that insecure girl living inside her. “And I love you, my impossible Herder.”
She hopped off the crate and put her hands up. I blushed as she lowered me to my feet by my waist, showcasing how much strength she possessed as she stopped before my toes touched the deck and kissed me. I blushed as knights all around us whooped or dawwed at the display.
She chuckled as she lowered me the rest of the way, “Fuck you all. I don't see any of you with your girls.” To everyone's laughter and my chastisement of her harsh language. She rarely cussed anymore, trying to leave the vulgarities behind as we raised our daughter. But sometimes she or I would take delight in letting roll an expletive like that.
I had been known to be crude from time to time before Misty, my goto profanity had been 'shit.' Now I attempt to substitute old archaic curses like Mother Luna which are more akin to saying darn or oh poo. I get endless teasing about it, well – I looked around to be sure no young ones were around, even though I wasn't speaking aloud – fuck them.
I giggled at myself, embarrassed to even think it now. By the Three Sisters, was I domesticated now?
I glanced up to Celeste rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she turned away and proffered her elbows. Did she know what I was thinking? Sylvia took one arm, and I placed my fingers primly in the crook of the other and raised my nose imperiously to the chuckles of the knights, as she led me past them. Then our leader was back in her voice as she called out, “Lift off in fifteen, people.”
Everyone went into motion, and we stepped out into the dusty wind that seemed to alternate between hot and chilly, I could smell the slight odor of sulfur that I had come to associate with the Uninhabitable Lands.
We wrapped our faces and went in search of the girls.
By the time we were back in the Outrider, Bowyn, and Verna already had the pre-flight done with Bex. A stoic Sara and Dru had met us at the door as we entered. Sara moved to the table and rolled out her map. I didn't need to look to know she would have seven more graves marked on it.
Celeste gave them knowing looks and said to our tall blonde pilot, “Would you be so kind as to get us out of here Lord Bexington? And stay as low to the ground as is safe. We're going to be taking this slow from this point, half speed.”
He nodded, feeling the tension in the air. Then he was calling out for us to secure the doors as he raised the anchor. My mood lifted a little as I wondered if he had to call it out every time. But the freckled man was sort of an odd duck like me, so nobody ever asked.
In the next couple hours, nobody spoke much, as we found more and more graves every ten miles or so. That was probably where the Cristea stopped each night, then they buried their dead before moving on. After the hundredth grave or so I lost count and didn't want to know, nor know how many we missed in our search.
But then Misty perked up from where she was playing on the floor with Jace, Ingr, and Bitsy. She ran to the window searching. We could again see that squat volcano on the horizon even at our lower altitude.
We moved to the window as our daughter scanned the sky, her eyes glowing lavender on the verge of drizzling sparks. Sylvia spoke first, “What is it Misty?”
Our girl didn't answer. Instead, she studied the sky expectantly, licking her lips. I wondered absently if she knew how many of Celeste's habits she had picked up. Then she stabbed a finger to the southwest. “There! A bird!”
We all crowded closer to the window, a sense of anticipation seemed to hang over us until Jace repeated as he pointed too. “A hawk!”
Then we saw it too, a bird of prey was circling in the sky. This meant... this meant that we were extremely close to inhabitable lands. This was life. Birds needed water like we did, and a source of food.
Celeste was spinning to look at Bex, her smile wide and almost manic. “Ascend to cruising altitude! We're close, now.”
Her nervous excitement was infectious, and we were all buzzing with anticipation as we started climbing at a sharp angle for the Outrider, maybe fifteen degrees. I hesitated a moment to look at my daughter, her face plastered to the window. She had... felt... that bird out there?
In our crash ascent, the world got smaller and smaller under us, and we could see more and more. The volcano took up half the horizon now, and a band of green seemed to extend from a collapsed portion of the caldera into the barren rock-strewn world almost the whole distance to us until it narrowed to nothing.
It was a river! A river coming from the melting snow of the volcano's peak. And lush green fields and forests bordered the river. But even at the base of the cone, it couldn't have been more than a mile or two wide. There wasn't much inhabitable land. Was this the Westlands? It was so small, how could it support a band of people?
I hesitated in my thoughts as Jace called out in boyish excitement, “The Westlands!”
I shook my head slowly at everyone's smiles as we saw a herd of something moving along the river. “No. It doesn't look right. Not like my vision with mountains surrounding us.”
Just then we had raised higher than the caldera of the volcano, and oceans of green forest and fields became visible in the crater. A large domed mountain sat in the middle of that huge sprawling crater which extended to the horizon.
Celeste was spinning back yelling, “Down, Bex! They mustn't see us!”
He was already yelling, “Hold on everyone!” As he was slamming levers forward, causing the propellers to rotate to send us plummeting toward the ground in a steep dive as the compressors pulled helium out of the dirigible. He yelled out, “Oh Shit!” As he spun the wheel as we all grasped the brass rail.
We veered left as we slid past the Condor which had been slowly lumbering up to follow us. Unprepared, we slammed into the windows, then we were rolling across the floor as we pitched the other way. My heart was pounding as I scrambled to get to the children. I could hear the whupping of giant propellers which missed us by mere feet as we slid past the Falcon on the other side.
I actually caught a glimpse of the wide eyes of the panicked people in the little windows of the gondola of the Falcon as we passed while I pulled Misty and Ingr against me. Jace had been snagged by Dru, who still had the brass rail in his grip, preventing my brother from tumbling.
Then Bex was pulling levers back, almost standing on them and letting helium flow back into the body of the Outrider as we leveled out at around five hundred feet. He was yelling, “Is everyone ok?”
We all made affirmative grunts as Sylvia and I checked the girls over, but the girls were more concerned about Bitsy.
Then Verna stood shakily, driven by adrenaline as she started flashing a mirror at the other vessels above us, informing them to stay low.
It all made sense now, that is how I saw mountains all around me in the vision, it had been in this giant crater. I laughed nervously, shaking with my own adrenaline that was coursing through my veins, and said to my brother as we all collected ourselves, “No, dear brother mine... THAT was the Westlands.”
Everyone joined in my nervous laughter.
Mother Luna!
Chapter 9 – Caldera
I adjusted Misty's tunic, dusting it off as we stood in a great meadow at the base of the col
lapsed portion of the caldera.
It was only about a quarter mile high there, much lower than the rim of the volcanic crater that reached up almost three-quarters of a mile. The collapse was covered in green, a valley of life overtaking it long, long ago. Due to the scale of the stubby volcano, it looked more a crack in a vase, than the two-mile-wide gateway that stood before us.
After the airships landed, and explanations were shared, we all couldn't believe that we had found it. Another land, full of life. Intellectually we knew we were so very far from home, but if you could forget that and ignore the looming barren rock volcano at our backs, it could have been any meadow at home, on a river bank as it all bled into the forest.
Bex and two other knights had been excitedly babbling about some of the odd grasses and tree species that pockmarked otherwise familiar species as Sarfine filled in the map and added sketches of the new species, taking clippings to put in a small tome in her pack.
I told my daughter, as she watched the horses graze, Bitsy peeking out from behind her left ear, “You have to promise me. Promise this time you will stay with the airships. This is a new world here, and we have to assess all the dangers. Let us adults do our jobs. If things go well, we can explore a bit together before our return to Sparo.” I added as I glanced at Ingr, “Both of you.”
Celeste was standing behind me lending her ominous support with her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrow cocked. Misty looked as though somebody had just kicked a puppy as she tried to keep a pout off her face.
Sylvia stood behind Ingr, her hands on her shoulders. “Ingr?”
The slim girl nodded, her rich dark curls bobbing gently down her back. She looked so very much like her mother, she was going to be a rare beauty when she reached the age of consent. She spoke softly in resignation in the tongue of the People. “Yes, my Sora.”
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