Nyx looked around as she stood beside Miri. “I do not sense anything. This whole place is long dead.”
Rion ran his hands along the sides of the black walls. He could see ornate glyphs were carved in just about each spot in every part of the surface of the room, there were also writings etched on the granite flooring. It was like looking at a gigantic telling stone. Rion unslung his backpack and let it slide down onto the floor as he tried to read some of the glyphs. “This whole place has got writing everywhere,” he said softly.
Miri took off her own backpack and placed it beside Rion’s. She then placed her spear against the wall. “Let us rest up for a while. Do not venture through any of the passageways for now. We need to sleep first, then we need to find any source of water in here.”
“I am not tired,” Rion said as he continued to decipher the writings along the walls. The words that he was able to read from the glyphs were jumbled, but he guessed that they were some sort of dedication to the gods.
Miri sat down, using the side of a stone table as a chair and silently stared at the boy. She had been using her Vis on him all night, slowly making him forget his urgency regarding Devos. By the time they got close to the pyramid, her mindsense was telling her that he had accepted the old man’s demise. She felt it better to suppress his emotions and memories of him until they were in a truly safe place. Only then could the proper mourning begin- not just for Devos, but for Jinn as well.
“Neither am I,” Nyx said while pointing up at an adjacent stairwell. “I shall see what lies above. I will be in earshot should anything untoward happen.”
Miri was too tired to protest. Her head was pounding, and she needed to close her eyes. She saw Nyx make her way up the stone steps and the young Striga soon disappeared out of sight. Rion was at the far side of the room, still looking over the carved writings. Miri leaned back, closed her eyes a second time and was soon fast asleep.
By the time she had reopened her eyes, it was already late afternoon. The sun had drifted over to the other side of the pyramid, and there were long shadows in the great hall. The only thing she could hear was the shrill wind coursing through the holes in the wall. Miri blinked a few times to get her bearings before she got up. She was alone, and neither Rion nor Nyx could be seen. Rummaging through her pack, she quickly took out her leather cuirass and put it on. Even though her mindsense was unable to detect any hostile thoughts, she had a growing sense of foreboding and didn’t want to take any chances.
With her armor now covering her torso, Miri grabbed her spear. “Nyx? Rion? Where are you?”
There was no answer.
She knew that Nyx went up to the second level of the structure, but she wasn’t quite sure where the boy had gone to. There were numerous darkened corridors at the far side of the hall, leading deeper into the base of the redoubt. She hoped that Rion would have had enough sense not to go into a passageway without any light to guide him, so she ran up the stone steps leading to another level of the building. When she got to the upper landing, she noticed that there were massive open windows around the sides, with tall granite columns buttressing the stone blocks above. Each section of stone had intricate carvings of symbols and hieroglyphs that seemed to glow with a slight green intensity as the fading sunlight reflected off of their surface.
Miri began to use her mindsense to see if she could locate either of the two. Her mental tendrils extended from her thoughts and began to snake along the numerous columns and corridors of the upper level. The whole pyramid was at least several leagues across, so it would be prudent for her to cover more ground using her Vis instead of just finding them through visual means. Within moments, she was able to pick up a faint mental echo of Nyx’s thoughts. Focusing her mindsense to locate her young protégé, Miri was soon able to pinpoint her location. Gripping her spear lightly, Miri ran through a shadowed corridor, partially stumbling on a loose rock in the dark, before the passageway opened up towards the other side of pyramid. With the tall windows now facing the glaring sun, Miri squinted as she ran in between more columns, before finally noticing Nyx standing by the ledge of one of the balconies.
As she got closer, she could see that Nyx was looking down below. Miri ran up to her and stopped right behind the girl’s shoulder. “Nyx, why did you not acknowledge me when I called out to you?”
Nyx turned and looked at her. “I am sorry. I had been exploring this place. I thought I saw something down below, so I am walking along the sides, hoping to get a better glimpse of it.”
Miri kept looking around. “Where is Rion, have you seen him?”
Despite the harsh glare, Nyx’s eyes opened wide. “I thought he was with you. You have not seen him?”
Miri let out a deep breath. “No, I was resting. When I woke up, he was not in the hallway anymore.”
“That foolish boy! Where could he have gone to?”
As she looked around, Miri noticed something at an adjacent balcony. She dashed over to it and looked down, before letting out a gasp. Nyx ran over and tried to focus on where she had been staring. When the young Striga saw it with her own eyes, she couldn’t believe it either. Lying near the side of the pyramid was an abandoned sand sail, its greenish bronze hull glinting in the sun. The leather sails had been furled up neatly. They were not alone.
Miri knew it was the Magi. It had to be. The reason why she could not detect anyone meant that they were using mental defenses to shield their thoughts from her. “I am going back to the lower level to look for Rion. Are there more floors above?”
Nyx nodded. “Yes, there are numerous stone steps leading up into the upper levels, but they are mostly in shadow. We may need torches to explore the places above.”
“Do what you can and try to find him up here,” Miri said as she turned and began running towards the nearest stairwell leading below. “If you find him then let us meet in the hall where we had left our packs.”
“At once,” Nyx said.
Rion emerged from the darkened corridor and into another room. He wasn’t quite sure where he was anymore, but his innate curiosity won over his caution as he started reading the glyph carvings on the wall beside him. Small, rectangular openings just near the top of the ceiling had cast narrow shafts of light, which gave him enough illumination to study the writings. While the hall that Miri had been resting in seemed to convey nothing more than a dedication of thanks and prayers to the gods, the last few rooms he had explored told a whole different tale. When he had entered the third room a few hours back, the carvings abruptly changed and he began to notice that the symbols of the Gorgons were now craved into every succeeding room that he had walked into. Upon deciphering the carvings in this part of the structure, he was now recounting the history of the Gorgons, from their mysterious origins to the height of their empire. Reading and making sense of the glyphs took some time, but his interest was so keen, he forgot about his thirst and his fatigue.
The boy took a few steps back while he tried to comprehend the whole story. It seemed that the Gorgons were born of incest between brother and sister. The names of their parents were lost in time, but the tale specifically stated that it was from an unholy union of a powerful Magus and his equally powerful sister, who was a Striga. Soon afterwards, the first Gorgons were born at the same time and were called triplets, and would only continue their lineage through more acts of interbreeding with one another. The other tales that he had found etched along the walls were equally astonishing. The true purpose of the Black Redoubt was not to serve as a fortress, but rather as a library to chronicle the history of the entire world. It was here that the accumulated knowledge of mankind would be preserved in stone carvings along the walls of the pyramid.
Rion had been so engrossed with the writings, he did not notice someone else in the room he was in. As he internalized the tale in front of him, the boy heard something utter a low growl behind him. Rion turned and instantly took a step back while he sharply exhaled in surprise.
Standing a few y
ards away from him was Lord Slane. He had been silently observing the oblivious boy for the past few minutes. His pet canis was sitting on its hind legs and continued to snarl menacingly. Slane bent sideways and patted the beast on its head.
Rion’s eyes were almost bulging from their sockets as he continued to backpedal, lightly hitting his back on the carved black wall behind him. “Who are y-you?”
Slane smiled, showing the terrified boy a glimpse of his sharp teeth. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Lord Slane, chief executor of the Grand Magus. You on the other hand, well, I know you were from Doss, and I have been searching for you for a long, long time.”
The boy was breathing so rapidly that he had begun to hyperventilate. “W-what d-do you want?”
Slane pointed at him. “Why, you, of course.”
Miri had hurriedly gone down the stone steps, but the area she had run into was unfamiliar to her. Despite being on the ground level of the structure, she was hopelessly lost. While it might have been more prudent for her to run back upstairs and make her way from where she had previously come from, her panic caused her to run through several more darkened corridors that twisted and turned until she could no longer backtrack her way out. Her concern for the boy nevertheless spurned her onwards from one room to the next, hoping that the gods would grant her enough good fortune so as to stumble upon Rion and get him to safety.
The fading light still gave her enough illumination to dash through the numerous rooms and adjoining tunnels. She must have sprinted through at least two dozen hallways, barely stopping just to see if she could find any signs of the boy’s passage. The room that she was in had two adjoining corridors to her side, one of the passageways was substantially larger than the other and she could see a massive room at the far end of it. Figuring that Rion would prefer the larger places since they had more carved glyphs on them, she quickly dashed through the bigger passageway and ended up in a great hall, not much similar to the one where they had entered in earlier that day, only this room had an open ceiling, with the second floor gallery just five yards above the ground. But this time she realized that there were others already waiting, her mindsense detected a few stray thoughts coming from the shadowy recesses near two other adjacent passageways at the opposite end of the hall. Miri stopped at the edge of the sloping corridor as two men stepped out from the gloom, into her view.
They both wore black cloaks. The first man was quite tall, with an impressive red beard on his chin. The other man wore a metal mask over the top part of his face. Both were armed, the bearded one had a large metal axe in his hands, while the masked man gripped a steel sword. Miri could tell they wore armor underneath their cloaks as well.
The bearded man stood near the center of the hall. He glared at her with eyes as cold as the night. “Put down your spear.”
Miri held her spear horizontally, ready for anything as she began to concentrate on her Vis. “Only after you put your weapon down first.”
The man with the mask took a few steps forward as he got closer to the other Magus. “There are two of us. One Striga cannot possibly defeat two Magi.”
Miri bent her knees as she got into a fighting stance. “It remains to be seen, does it not?”
The bearded man hissed as he threw off his cloak with one hand. Miri was right, he was wearing some sort of protection underneath. She could see riveted metal plates that had been sewn into his thick leather jacket. If she was going to attack him properly, she would need to strike at his vital areas that were not covered by the armor, a tricky proposition. The other man also threw off his own cloak, revealing a similar type of armor. Both men began to move in different directions, hoping to catch her in between their widening circle.
Just as the battle was about to begin, there was a loud shout coming from the darkened corridor behind the man wearing the mask. Both Magi immediately took a step back as they relaxed their stances. Miri stayed where she was, ready for anything. She could have easily turned around and ran back into the corridor she had come from, but it was clear that the people who were about to enter the room had other plans.
Slane and his pet canis emerged from the corridor at the far side of the hall, laughing whimsically as he pushed at Rion out in front of him, forcing the boy into the room. “Well, well, well! Looks like we are all finally here!”
Miri’s heart began to pound. They had the boy. “Rion, are you alright?”
Rion looked around nervously as Slane prodded him further into center the cavernous room. “Y-yes.”
“Of course, he is alright. If I had wanted to kill him, he would be already dead,” Slane said. “Allow me to introduce our little group here. I am Lord Slane, high executor of-”
Miri cut him off. “I know who you are. I sensed the surface thoughts of your Magus over there,” she said, pointing at Turru. “You are Slane, the masked one is called Turru, and that big brute is Baradine.”
Slane was taken aback. He gave a menacing glance to Turru before returning his stare at Miri once more. He had not been used to surprises like that, and his anger nearly made him lose concentration over his Vis.
Turru himself looked surprised, even though his mask covered half his face. “Lord Slane, s-she is lying. My thought defenses are still up-”
Slane held up a gauntleted hand to silence him. “No more excuses, Turru, your failure has been noted.”
Miri just kept quiet. Her mindsense had detected a momentary lapse in Turru’s concentration when Slane made his appearance, and she was able to slip through his lackey’s mental armor to delve a quick look into Turru’s memory pool. It was clear that they had slaughtered the entire tribe after she had left the settlement. Her own Vis had momentarily ebbed when she felt the pain of loss, but she quickly shunted it away. To reminisce about her murdered friends would be fatal at this point in time. Miri kept channeling her Vis to build up her mental reserves, her desire for revenge tempered with the concern for the boy’s well being.
Slane kept one hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Well, now that you know who we are, why do you not tell us who you are?”
“Why do you need to know my name?” Miri asked.
“I believe in courtesy,” Slane said. “It is simply good manners to know who one is speaking to, is it not? Since you are from the wastes, I had thought that formal greetings are the norm in situations such as this.”
“Very well,” Miri said tersely. “I am Miri, former protector of the Arum Navar. That boy is named Rion, and he is under my protection. I ask that you let him go.”
Slane chuckled. “Former protector? Oh, that is good. Do you know what became of your tribe, Miri of the Arum Navar? They were all killed because of your defiance of the Magi. From what that cowardly elder told me, you murdered our seeker in cold blood. Is that not true?”
Rion let out a shriek as soon as he heard Slane mention the fate of the settlement. The entire tribe was killed because of him. Even though he was exhausted, tears began to drip down his cheeks.
Miri shook her head. She knew that Slane was taunting them, evoking the loss of their tribe to make them mentally vulnerable. Miri used her Vis to calm herself down and she put away the agonizing memory of the loss of her mother for another time. Right now she needed to stay focused if she was to survive. “No, it is not. Your seeker violated the oath of peace and was killed for it. Your patrol has violated the laws of Karma for murdering my tribe. Even if I fall, I am sure that the gods will exact retribution for what you have done.”
All three Magi started laughing. Miri sent a calming thought over to Rion’s mind, mentally telling him that it was not his fault. She sensed the boy’s regret, and used her Vis to alleviate him. Her mental tendrils also drifted over to their opponents as she probed for any potential weaknesses.
Slane’s laughter was loudest. He didn’t believe in the gods at all, and he found it ridiculous that anyone would think that he would bow down to an ancient curse. The best way to deal with superstitious people was to mock their gods,
he believed. “If the gods were truly against my actions, they would have killed me a long time ago. As it happens, I believe I am blessed by them in fact.” His tone was flippant, for he believed in mentally toying with his opponents before battle, in order to throw off their concentration. “Look at what the gods have done for me now, they have delivered to me my quarry- this boy, and they have afforded me the opportunity to battle with a mighty Striga. I must say, it has been a long time since I fought against one.”
“Let me take her,” Baradine said.
“Then let us do this the old way,” Miri said to Slane. “You against me. The winner gets Rion, the rest leave in peace.”
The canis started growling as it shifted its forepaws back and forth, raking its claws on the stone floor. Slane gestured at the beast to remain calm, and it did. He had an overwhelming advantage against this woman, but he somehow sensed that he would lose respect from his men if he decided not to fight. Nevertheless, he was a practical man, and he hated having to use too much effort, especially when he didn’t have to. “Very astute. You realize that the odds are against you, so you demand a fair duel,” he said. “On the other hand, I have quite a significant edge against you and I shall not squander it.”
“Then you are a coward,” Miri said.
Slane chuckled again. She was very good indeed. This Striga was goading him into anger. He felt a begrudging admiration for her boldness and tenacity. “Desperate words, from a desperate woman. Since you seem to be quite intelligent, I shall offer you the promise of safe passage. If you walk away and let us have the boy, I shall spare your life. This is the best proposal you could ever get from me, so do not take this decision lightly.”
Lands of Dust (The Dying World Book 1) Page 22
