by Blink, Bob
“I suppose so,” Gagan agreed reluctantly. “Sometimes I fear we rely too much on our magic. In such a place, weapons seem appropriate. What about someone more skilled with swords? Don’t you have a friend who was exceptionally talented in that way?”
Rigo thought briefly of Kaler. Then he pushed aside the thought. “Those without the gift should not wander the Ruins,” he said firmly.
After touching on a couple of other topics and agreeing that they would all meet again after the first day of travel, the three adventurers took their leave of the Elders. Burke and Tara went to take care of their own personal business, while Rigo went in search of Ash’urn.
“She’s still mad at you, isn’t she?” Ash’urn asked right off.
Rigo nodded glumly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ash’urn told him. “She’ll get over it. Once you go out and come back home each night, she’ll come to see it as no different than any of the other wanderings that you wizards are always doing. Trust me. She’ll come around. A lot of her concern is probably because she is pregnant. A boy, you say?”
“According to Jeen,” Rigo said. “I have no way of knowing.”
“Well, my congratulations. I think you have chosen well. And the Binding ceremony is still a way off?”
“I wanted to move it forward. I thought if we held it now, before the journey were to start, she might see things differently, but she has it in her mind that it must be at the time she selected. She can be a stubborn woman at times.”
“I think she will have to be given who she will be consorted with,” Ash’urn said with a smirk.
“You said you had something to help us in the Ruins when I saw you the other day?” Rigo asked.
Ash’urn nodded. “Of course. It’s over here.”
He led them to a table in the back of his study. There were any number of strange items scattered around. Rigo knew that Ash’urn had systematically retrieved all his notes and artifacts from his journeys over the years and brought them here. He wondered if Ash’urn knew what all of this stuff was for.
“I found a reference to this in one of the books in the library here,” Ash’urn explained. “Nycoh and I spent some time understanding the principles, and then we had a couple made. This is the second iteration of the design. I’ve had Nycoh ferry me around the Three Kingdoms to test it, and it appears to work as advertised everywhere we have tried it. That’s not to say it will work the same in the Ruins. There is something unnatural about that place, so who knows what will happen out there. You will have to test it and see if what it tells you is consistent with what you know to be true.”
“What does it do?” Rigo asked.
“So much of the Ruins looks the same, it is easy to get lost. Up to now, trips have been limited to specific locations, with the plan of simply using magic to jump home. This time you will be wandering on foot as you try and push deeper into territory that no one has explored before. Remember when the five of us hiked a few days into the Ruins before we knew about Bypasses? Once we lost sight of the land we could easily have been turned around and lost had it not been for the pull of Daim’s lair that directed you. This time you won’t have that, so you’ll have to take care not to wander in circles.”
As he talked Ash’urn lifted three pieces out of a carefully padded small leather box. Rigo could see the box had been designed to be small and rugged, and he knew Ash’urn had had it built to protect the pieces while Rigo traveled. Ash’urn assembled the pieces, then stood back and watched as the wobbling indicator swung and then pointed off to one side.
“It always points that way,” Ash’urn explained. “From what we know about our location here at the Outpost, Sulen is over there somewhere,” he said, and waved an arm about a third of the way around a circle away from the direction the indicator was aligned. “Once you get into the Ruins, when you still know from Daim’s memories which way the three kingdoms are located, set this up and learn where they are relative to the painted arrow. If this works the same there, then you can always know which direction is toward, and which direction is away from here.”
“How does it work?” Rigo asked as he stared at the device.
“I haven’t a clue, to be honest. Nycoh and I haven’t figured out much of the science behind it. They were well ahead of us back then. We have concentrated on getting a working model ready in time for your travels.”
“It will be of great help if it works,” Rigo said truthfully. He had been worried about being able to maintain a straight track as they ventured deeper into the unknown. One can look back on his tracks, but even then a very slow deviation can turn one around over time.
“When you come back after tomorrow’s first day, come and let me know if it works. I will be very curious if the rules that govern nature are the same out there. Magic is certainly somewhat different, but we don’t know what else.”
As they stepped out onto the orange-colored sands that were characteristic of the Ruins, Rigo felt the strangeness of the place seep into his bones almost immediately. It was always this way, and he’d never come to be entirely comfortable with the sensation. They had come to the starting point, a place well into the Ruins that Rigo and Burke had visited several times before. It was the farthest that Daim had ever ventured into the hostile land, and Rigo had used the old wizard’s memories to locate the place the first time he had come here. Now it was familiar to the three of them, and after today would be to Koess as well.
“This looks no different than it does near the towers I’ve visited,” Koess remarked with a touch of a shudder. “I really don’t like this place. How will you know which way to go?”
“I don’t know how Daim originally determined it, but the three kingdoms are that way,” Rigo said, pointing opposite from the squat lonely hill that occupied the landscape to their left. “We will start using the hill as a marker and then hopefully locate other landmarks to use as guidance.”
Koess looked at the hill and the surrounding country.
“That’s going to disappear after a couple of glass and I don’t see much else in the distance that will help,” he said.
“We’ll just have to make do,” Burke said. He didn’t want any negative thoughts to delay their start.
“We also have this,” Rigo said, and extracted the small case Ash’urn had given him from his pack. As he set it up, he explained how it was supposed to work. Once the needle had settled, he was gratified to see that it pointed consistent with the direction Ash’urn had shown him back at the Outpost. By using the device, he was able to locate where the Three Kingdoms were.
“I can’t believe you are going to rely on that,” Koess said.
Even Tara was looking at the small object with suspicion.
“It will be one more aid,” Rigo explained. “We have nothing else. Magic doesn’t offer a way to determine direction, at least not one we know. We also have to be suspicious out here of our magic as well. We don’t know how it might be affected.”
Burke had sudden thoughts of the problems they had encountered in the tunnels which were far closer to home than they were at the moment. He knew his magic worked here. They had been here before and tested. Nonetheless, he would make periodic checks to see if anything seemed to be changing.
Four glass later they stopped for lunch. Each of them realized they were deeper into the Ruins than anyone had been in thousands of years. Only a few of the wizards in Daim’s time had gone farther. The hill they had used as a marker had long disappeared behind them, and they had seen nothing but endless orange sand and a number of strange looking lizards. At least something lived out here, but how it survived they had no idea. They had seen only a few Hoplani, and those had been at a great distance and hadn’t been anything to worry about. Rigo wondered if there were more tunnels under the burning sands. Even if there were tunnels, he had no wish to travel in them. He had learned that there were problems with magic in the tunnels, and he wouldn’t know where they were headed. Of course, they mi
ght be missing what they sought by avoiding the underground passageways, but he didn’t want to believe that. They would search above ground for now. If that failed, perhaps they would have to search for an extensive tunnel system.
There was no shade, and they simply plopped down in the sand. Burke set a small bush afire just to satisfy himself that he still could. As they ate and drank as much water as they could hold, Rigo brought out Ash’urn’s device. He had checked it just before they lost sight of the small hill and it had read true then. What he saw now appeared to be consistant with what he expected. It appeared the device was going to work.
Not wanting to stiffen up, they headed out again within a quarter glass. Midway through the afternoon they encountered a strange bush with flexible branches that tracked them as they passed. Tara was who saw one of the bushes eject some kind of projectile at a lizard.
“I’ll bet whatever that thing spat out is poisonous,” she said.
“We better give them a wide berth,” Burke suggested. “He blasted one of the bushes with Brightfire to verify they could eradicate them if needed. He was also reassured that his magic had not been impaired as they traveled deeper. He wasn’t sure what to expect out here, but he recalled Rigo telling him that Daim had said there was a reason the wizards of old hadn’t ventured farther. When he’d asked Rigo a few weeks ago, Rigo hadn’t been able to recall the memory.
By the end of the first day they hadn’t seen anything of any use. The day had been about as unpleasant as they had expected, and after taking a few moments to lock their current whereabouts into their memories, the four weary travelers happily stepped through the Bypass that Tara had created to take them back to the Outpost.
Chapter 12
After a few days it became routine if no more fun. The Ruins was uniformly unfriendly and wearing. The strange fierce light sapped one’s energy and had they not been as determined as they were, each would have given up the task gratefully. The team of four, the three regulars and whoever had the rotation, would go out mornings, and return weary in the evenings, usually just before dark, but sometimes a few glass earlier. They elected to take every eighth day off and stay home. Rigo doubted he could have gone on without the break.
They saw nothing of value and little of interest. Without Ash’urn’s device they couldn’t have been certain they were even heading in a consistent direction. Several large herds of Hoplani were spotted, usually at a distance and generally not acting in a threatening manner. Only twice had they been required to engage the creatures, and then their Brightfire had quickly settled the matter. A few of the larger Morvane were frequently seen with the herds they observed this far into the Ruins. Rigo was more convinced than ever that the larger beasts were somehow leading or directing the others. The Ruins deserved awe if only because of its sheer size and consistency.
The strange shooting plants were not uncommon, but for some reason always existed in clumps. Days could pass without encountering a single plant, and then they would have to dodge around or burn their way through them all day. They also frequently encountered fields of sharp crystalline spikes. Each spike was almost a hand span high, and they grew out of the sands spaced with barely enough room to place a boot between them. It was nearly impossible to break them and it was obvious right off that they would penetrate a boot without fail. How they were formed and what their purpose might be was not clear, but given the dangerous nature of everything out here, they either worked their way around the smaller fields of spikes, or used Brightfire to burn a clear path through the things. Surprisingly birds were sighted almost every day, but they never got close enough to learn any more about them. Rigo wondered where they might be heading, and their existence convinced him that something was out there.
Ash’urn’s predictions about Inge had been correct. After the first few days as their schedule settled into something predictable, she had begun to soften. By the end of the first week they sometimes had dinner together, and by the second week they were back to their old routine. When Inge’s father was out of town, Rigo either spent his nights at the estate, or Inge made her way into the village to the apartments where Rigo lived. While she still didn’t like his trips into the forsaken lands, the arguments were a thing of the past. The only question that Inge repeatedly asked was, “How long are you going to keep this up? You haven’t found anything different so far.”
“Until we learn what we need to know,” Rigo would reply, but even he wondered if they were wasting their time. He couldn’t help recalling Queen Mos’pera’s warning that the trip would be unproductive. It was only the birds that kept him convinced there was something to be found.
The first troubles began on their thirty-fifth day in the Ruins. Burke was the one to realize their magic wasn’t working correctly.
“Rigo, I can’t start a fire,” he said worriedly during their mid-day stop.
“That’s pretty basic magic,” Tara said with a frown. When she tried, she was no more successful.
“What about Brightfire?” Rigo asked, and released a burst of the magical energy. “That seems to work,” he said relieved. Brightfire was pretty important if they needed to fight.
Remembering the problems they had found in the caves, Burke attempted a Bypass. Like the magic that created fire, it didn’t appear to be working. Neither Rigo nor Tara, nor Raya who traveled with them today were able to open a Bypass portal.
“This is not good,” Tara said nervously, giving voice to the obvious. Unlike the caves where the range was limited, they couldn’t open a Bypass to a spot a dozen paces away. Here it simply didn’t work at all.
“We had best head back the way we came,” Rigo suggested. “We know it worked where we started this morning, so the question becomes, where did the Ruins change and start to block us?”
Half a glass walk brought them to a place where their magic was no longer being blocked. Happily Tara opened a Bypass back to the Outpost. There they informed the Elders of what had been found, and the group spent the rest of the day considering how best to proceed. Rigo decided not to mention the anomaly to Inge just yet, and the next morning they set out with extra water and food as a precaution. They wanted to see if the dead zone was continuous, which would totally change their approach, or whether it was a local phenomenon they would be able to walk through. Burke suggested that they arm themselves. Even though they had never seen Brightfire fail, if all of their magic were blocked out there, they would be defenseless.
Each was equipped with a Kellmore Serang, the lightest yet most durable fighting sword available. Rigo enhanced each blade with his special metal skill, having learned some time ago to make the strengthening he’d impressed Kaler with a permanent alteration. The blades wouldn’t be of much use against the Hoplani or Morvane, but everything else they had encountered could be dispatched with the swords.
The dead zone they had encountered the previous day required just over two glass to walk across. On the far side, their magic was as effective as it had been everywhere else in the Ruins. Within the dead zone, certain magics failed completely, others were weakened. Rigo was certain his Brightfire was not as strong as it had been elsewhere.
They pressed on, finding no other affected areas that day, and returned back to the Outpost as usual. Over the next week, they discovered other dead zones, and decided the Ruins were rippled in this region, with large sections where normal magic was corrupted. They even found places were none of their magic would work, not even Brightfire, which had seemed the most resistant.
On their eight-day, Rigo paid a visit to Queen Mos’pera and reconfirmed her visions. She verified that nothing she had seen had changed, which convinced Rigo that they were safe enough. The next day the group set out once again, aware that the danger they faced had grown considerably by the effects of the Ruins on their abilities.
One night when Inge was staying with him, she confessed. “Rigo, I’m scared. I have a bad feeling that something is about to happen.”
“It’
s okay, Inge. The Ruins have changed where we are now exploring, but the regions are small. We have always been able to walk out of the dead zones in a few glass. If the worst case were to happen, we might have to spend a night and then backtrack to a place where magic worked before. That hasn’t been necessary as yet.”
“I just wish you wouldn’t go back there anymore.”
“If we stop now, then everything we have done would be for nothing. The Ruins cannot go on forever. Somewhere we have to find another boundary.”
Inge hadn’t been mollified, but she had let the matter drop without argument to Rigo’s immense relief.
Two days later they found the canyon. Immense was barely adequate to describe it. How in Risos name did the Hoplani cross this thing? They had seen some of the creatures coming from this general direction the previous day, but now that they were here there was no obvious path they could have followed. Rigo knew that some of Daim’s contemporaries had ventured deeper into the Ruins than he had, but had eventually stopped their explorations for reasons that Daim’s memories hadn’t explained. Was this what had stopped them?
As a group they carefully walked to the edge and peered into the darkened depths below.
“How deep is it?’ Tara asked as she timidly backed away from the precipice.
Burke seemed less intimidated by the drop in front of them and made a serious estimate.
“I’d guess at least two thousand large paces,” he said. “Maybe a bit more.”
Rigo had to agree with his assessment. It was all of that if not more. More importantly, the walls were nearly vertical, dropping away with nothing to grab onto. One slip and one wouldn’t slide, he’d fall to the bottom.
Rigo looked to the right and left. He could see nothing in either direction as far as he could see that suggested it was any less steep that way. Then he studied the bottom, at least what they could see of it. He guessed it would take the better part of three days to walk from this side to the far edge they could barely see in the distance, and that would be true if the bottom had been more or less flat like the land they had been crossing for weeks. In fact, it was anything but flat down there, and much of what looked like small ripples and bumps were almost certainly large hills with steep walls not unlike the side of the over all chasm.
