A Twist of the Tale

by P R Glazier

Chapter 19. The Crossing of the Grughanååven 

  Solvienne stood gazing down at the unending grey lands below her. JDC had once again adjusted the translucency of the crafts outer shell surrounding the control room, the land below could be clearly be seen through the now transparent glazed panels at the very front of the Leviathan. The terrain forming the vast expanse of the Grey Lands, or Grughanååven as the Grûndén named it when they first set foot in these lands looking for mineral wealth in ages past. But, as she recalled from her history lessons they, for all of the Grûndén’s prospecting in these northern lands, all they discovered to their despair was a fierce race of people. They had found the race of the ognod’s, giants towering twice the height of any human man. A people that had been hidden for countless years. A warring people, a proud people, content to war amongst themselves within their northern hideaways cut off from the other races by inhospitable lands and icy oceans. A secret people living within the many hanging valleys of the Iron Hills or the Smòlt Erûûn as the Grûndén knew the regions in the far north beyond the Grughanååven. 

  The hills of the Smòlt Erûûn were hardly hills though, more a range of high mountains set in the far north beyond the continent of Dahl’Ambronis, a region covered in snow most of the year, where vast rivers of grinding ice made their slow progress down the high mountain passes, sculpturing the land over millions of years as they went. The T’Iea had no name for this region, neither had they named the mountains or anything else within it, for only the Grûndén reached this far north in their constant questing for the riches buried deep within the earth. So for years beyond count the ognod’s remained alone, an isolated people divided by their geography into many individual warring clans. But when they were discovered by outsiders; they reacted quickly by setting aside their clan differences and allying with one another against what they saw as a common foe, invaders from the south. Over the next few hundred years of man they progressively and aggressively invaded most, if not all of the lands within the vast continent of Dahl’Ambronis. They raged unstoppable across all the lands to the south. The elder races collectively called these dark times the ognod wars, the resulting turmoil devastated the southern lands, decimated and split all the elder races and reduced their populations considerably. Some would say that even now after all this time these populations still had not fully recovered. For the elder races as individuals live untold numbers of years of man. Their time upon the world is so long they do not need to reproduce in large numbers as the race of humans do. So it was, the ognod’s became the curse of the elder races. A time that the T’Iea remember in their own tongue as Sedral’Coronis’Et’ognod’Na’Tyuosd. 

  Solvienne’s thoughts faded and once again she looked down upon a never ending heavy mist that seemed to hang in the lower lands, she wished that JDC would take them higher, climbing above the grey dismal fog and back into the sunlight that she knew must be up there somewhere. Where the earth stood just proud of the thick cloying mist the colour of the land almost matched exactly that of the heavy water-sodden air. She also knew that parts of this region held host to a horrid black noxious ooze that seeped up from the ground and lay in fetid pools on the surface. Solvienne remembered her mother Minervar telling of these pools and how when she had travelled these lands on foot, her Grûndén companion Łĩnwéé Ârcønrâdenn had made a torch by soaking a rag in the stuff and then igniting it. The resulting fume choked her and her companions but at least it kept the swarms of incessantly biting insects at bay. Solvienne thanked the Maker that her travel in these lands was by much safer and more comfortable means; at least she wouldn’t be pestered by biting insects being shut away in the artificial environment within the Leviathan.

  They had been flying over these lands for the best part of a day now, crossing back and forth, east to west and moving slowly north as they went. They searched the landscape below for a rock road, a causeway that Minervar and Serinae had used to travel to the ognod city. The only solid ground it would seem in the surrounding boggy wetlands. At least the ognod’s long ago had built the road to aid their own travels through the region, or at least they thought the road was the work of the ognod’s. Solvienne took some comfort in the thought that even the ognod’s didn’t like to get their feet wet.  But it was so difficult to see when all the surrounding landscape was the same drab grey colour obscured in endless, swirling mists. These lands certainly lived up to their name. Back and forth they had flown, numerous times they had descended to check out a promising feature and on two occasions so far, they had actually left the machine for an even closer look at some feature or other. But always only to be disappointed, for what they thought might be a road revealed itself through the mist to be only a particular pattern in the way that the low scrub like plants and bushes grew, or in the case of the second time, an escarpment of rock jutting out from the ground for several hundred metres but only around two metres in height at the mid-point.

  Solvienne sighed, for all the advanced technology at their disposal, the one thing they lacked was an up to date map, the machine had been hidden away for ages past, its mapping system had not been updated in such a long time it was completely useless, for it was gathered when the world was a very different looking place. The continents were a different shape and the seas very different because the water level was far lower than it was today. JDC said that the maps bore little resemblance to the present day lands. About the only place that had not changed significantly across the ravages of time was the Rust Desert, or so he thought. She smiled as she thought of the deep irony, that the machine in which they flew was so far advanced in technology it was beyond her comprehension, yet a simple paper chart drawn up by a first year geography student would give a better chance of their finding a solution to their current predicament. She went over to the navigational table in the control room and looked at the rolling map as it slid past beneath her eyes. JDC had shown her days before how as they flew over the land, special devices in the bottom of the hull of the machine would rebuild a new databank with the information they detected from the sensor arrays that dotted the hull. It was like watching a picture being painted by some invisible hand right under her nose. As they flew back and forth stripes of colour and information would be filled in upon the blank canvas. The machine seemed to be able to detect every nook and cranny, even if they could not see the detail through the grey mists that hung about everywhere with their own eyes.

  Suddenly Solvienne had an idea; she walked across to JDC who sat on a stool in front of the main flight control desk as he nearly always did. “JDC?”

  “Aye milady what can I do for you?”

  “The original map data, are you sure that it didn’t contain any information on the whereabouts of the ognod road? I ask because from what I remember of the original data, well it looked a lot like that which was being collected as we fly now. In fact it looks identical as if this land has not changed at all in the intervening ages.”

  “Well, to be honest milady I didn’t really check. But there is not a lot to look at, so perhaps it looks the same because of the lack of features defining it as being different?” He stood and walked across to the navigational table and looked down at the data as it was being painted upon the flat screen below.

  Solvienne explained further. “Yes JDC I understand the featureless part but I am T’Iea, we notice more than some other races. I had a good look at the map data before you removed the chip, this is an ancient place and I have noticed that some features of this landscape may be invisible to your eyes and also believe me when I say that the same features, however rare, are also appearing on the new map. There is much JDC that is identical to my eyes.”

  “Well we have almost completed the next planned scan, once it is complete then I can remove the chip in the main automation room before starting a new scan and put in the copy I made of the original chip if you wish. We can then take a closer look at the original data that the Leviathan held when we got it from the Rust Desert?”


  Solvienne nodded in agreement and said, “I just, well I’d like to check that’s all.”

  JDC nodded obviously humouring Solvienne.

  The next time the two of them gathered at the navigational desk the mapping data they viewed was many thousands of years old, yet, JDC had to agree that now he looked more closely the actually detail of the landscape they viewed looked remarkably similar to the data the machine was collecting an hour or so before. The same rock escarpments, the same dips and troughs. The only difference was that if the map was zoomed out Solvienne noticed the coastal areas were vastly different. The icy seas either side of the continent weren’t there giving the impression that the land mass was thousands of kilometres wider than today and a good deal higher to. She wondered about this whilst JDC ran his fingers across the glass desktop, the map moved across rapidly as he stroked the screen.

  “STOP”, shouted Solvienne, she pointed at the screen. JDC could see nothing it all looked the same grey to him. But he touched a dial with his finger and moved his hand in a circular fashion. The map seemed to enlarge before their eyes. A thin line like a hair appeared and thickened as he zoomed in. “Well I’ll be.” Exclaimed JDC, “yes there,” He stabbed his finger on the glass of the desk. A thin winding line a slightly darker shade of grey became apparent.

  JDC continued to zoom in on the area. Soon a paved road appeared, they could even see the slabs of stone it was made from. “Well I’ll be a Duagnuats cake.” JDC exclaimed once more.

  Solvienne clapped her hands in excitement and laughed at JDC’s remark, for there now plainly in focus they looked upon the grey stone road, it ran diagonally across the screen from one side to the other about two hundred kilometres to the north of their present position.

  JDC said, “but this map is as ancient, the land mass hereabouts has changed dramatically in size and shape in the intervening times. This road must have been here even then all that time ago. I suppose it may even predate the worldwide city that once covered the world. Or maybe it didn’t. Perhaps this land in the north has always been like this, perhaps it did not form part of the worldwide city of the humans of old.” 

  Solvienne commented, “then it’s possible that it predates the ognod’s, they may not have been responsible for building the road after all.”

  JDC nodded in agreement as he moved another control until two cross hairs hovered over the road. They looked closely at the screen. He pushed a button and the craft began to move. “Well let’s go take a look eh?”

  Within the hour they found themselves hovering just above the stone causeway that snaked its way across the landscape. It was the only unnaturally created thing anywhere in these lands. The rest of the landscape had been here probably since the creation of the world, only this thing, this road had been built as testament to a creative culture or creature intelligence. It was strange to see, difficult to imagine its original purpose. No grass had grown between the stones, nothing seemed to have eroded its stone surface, it seemed to be as unchanging perhaps as the surrounding lands themselves. But why was it built in the first place? The surrounding land was flat without obstacles in the main, why then should someone take on the monumental effort to create this causeway. It was well done to, for it had obviously lasted the ravages of time. But then Solvienne had an idea, of course, why had she not thought of it before. It was blindingly obvious why this road was built. If you had to navigate a featureless landscape, one where often you could not see more than a few metres in front of you or above you due to the persistent mists. What would you need? Why a landmark of course, a sure way of finding your way from one place to another and back again. A bit like unravelling a piece of string in the dark so that you could gather it up again and find your way back. The very reason in fact that they had been looking for the causeway themselves. Solvienne laughed.

  “Hmmm, and to what do you find so to amuse you milady may I ask?”

  Solvienne turned and looked at JDC, “ah nothing JDC, just a thought, a silly T’Iea thought.”

  JDC gave her a sideways smile and lifted one eyebrow, he had been around T’Iea often enough to understand their infectious spirited nature, full of endearing charm. “We ought to decide what to do next, I’m not so sure we should fly any further north for risk of receiving a less than cordial welcome, not that there is any guarantee that the ognod’s will look kindly towards our venturing into their lands anyway.”

  “Do not worry JDC, my mother tells a story of the ognod’s being quite courteous hosts, at least when she was here last. If Retta is still leader here I’m sure that we will be welcomed. But you are right, if we were to be discovered on foot in a non-threatening way I understand how this may give us favour in their eyes. Or at least not seed the thought that we may present a threat.”

  “Then I suggest milady that you accompany Amndo along the causeway whilst I fly the Leviathan high above the mists to hide it and await your return. It may also be better to have someone on the outside, someone to mount a rescue perhaps if things go ill with you and you are captured?”

  Solvienne thought this over and had to agree it was a sound plan. Thus she went out of the control room and knocked upon the door of Amndo’s cabin. They had not seen much of the keeper during the flight, he seemed to content to shut himself away in his cabin reading, stating that he had spent so much time on the Leviathan in the past he had no feeling of awe or interest in the machine, he would rather use the time to study and meditate.

  Amndo beckoned her enter and to take a seat, this she did. She told him about the discovery of the causeway and what they planned to do. He didn’t object or pass any comment just nodded slowly in what she took to be agreement. When she had finished he stood and went over to a locker that hung on the wall and opened the sliding door. “there is something mylady that I wish you to have. I have been custodian of this thing ever since we travelled with the lady Nar’Allia, I feel that before the end of all this you will need this thing, or at least someone you know perhaps will need it and you will be able to pass it on to them.”

  Solvienne shuffled in her seat, she was taken aback, she did not expect such a reaction from Amndo. But she slid forward to the edge of her seat and sat expectantly.

  Amndo reached into the locker and withdrew something long wrapped in cloth. He looked at the item and then closing the door handed the thing to Solvienne. She took it looking at it and expecting an explanation.

  “Take a look by all means,” indicated Amndo, “it is harmless enough in itself.” Then with an uncharacteristic wink of his eye he said, “it may go well with that quiver your sister gave into your keeping.”

  Solvienne proceeded to unwrap the cloth that surrounded whatever it was within. She discarded the cloth on the table and looked at what she now held in her hands. It was long, longer than a normal T’Iea arrow; its flights were not of feather, but of some other material unknown to her. But it was the arrowhead that she found most curious. Where she expected to find a sharp lethal looking point, there was a rather unattractive bulbous blunted end, it reminded her or a pear hanging on a pear tree.

  “Keep it with you mylady, keep it safe. Call it a hunch, but I just feel it may be needed before this is finished. Now let us go, we have a task to do and it will not wait.”

  Solvienne couldn’t help but notice that he showed excitement at the prospect of having something to do at last. This made her smile. She left Amndo to his preparations and went to her own cabin. Here she placed the strange arrow back in its wrappings and put it in her cabinet.

  Amndo and Solvienne climbed down the spiral stair of the lower exit hatch of the Leviathan and stepped off onto the ognod causeway.

  JDC hung his head out from the exit hatch and shouted, “don’t forget, I will return to a lower altitude and search the causeway for you in three days.”

  Amndo asked, “what if we are not able to return in three days master Pnook?”

  JDC frowned, not wanting to formulate any speculative answer he just said, “j
ust be here, make sure you are eh?” He then disappeared into the machine, the spiral stair was retracted back up and the hatch closed. Solvienne and Amndo watched the machine rise higher and higher but it quickly became obscured by the mists. Solvienne shivered, was it the hill on the air, or was it the dreadful feeling of loneliness that suddenly came over her now that the safety and comfort of the Leviathan was now gone. She glanced at Amndo, he smiled at her and nodded encouragingly to walk along the causeway. He shrugged and gathering her cloak around her walked by his side.

  Shortly afterwards JDC stood once more in the main control room, he was looking at the thermal detection equipment. He could quite clearly see the two images of Solvienne and Amndo moving slowly north along the causeway directly below. But he frowned for about a kilometre away further to the north and moving south towards the two images of his companions, several other thermal signatures showed. He watched a concerned look upon his features, as the two groups moved ever closer towards each other.