by Blink, Bob
“One of them is mine anyway,” Rigo replied. “She could have kept the other I suppose, but that would have reduced our chances of success, and she’s not petty. They have no use for it anyway. There has been enough travel to demonstrate anyone can travel from the Outpost to Oasis Three and from there to Oasis Four without needing a staff. That means they can get to the Hoplani Farms without using one. The staff can’t overcome the blocking effects inside the caverns, so it can’t help them with the problem there anyway.”
“She believes you have found what you sought, and every effort should be focused on destroying the caverns,” Lorl said, from his position atop the Hoplani. This trip they each rode atop one of the beasts. Rigo still didn’t know how Ash’urn had managed to convey their desire to travel east to the Dunerider who had provided them with the Hoplani mounts and who now led them across the sands. Rigo knew Ash’urn had shown him a section of a tree limb and pointed off to the east, indicating their desire to find another oasis that way. The Dunerider had apparently understood, at least they were betting that he had, and he now led them through the sands into territory they had never seen before.
“I understand her concern,” Rigo replied, “but the simple truth is after three weeks of thinking about the problem, I don’t think we have a means of accomplishing the task. None of our magic works where it would be required to disable the farms. Attacking the production chambers manually would take forever. We hacked away at the one we tried to disable with both our own Kellmore blades and those blades made from bones to little avail. We never succeeded in doing enough damage to prevent the thing from working. And that was only one of what, a thousand such production chambers?”
“So what do we hope to gain by returning to these despicable sands?” Orna asked.
“We haven’t learned who built the Hoplani farms or for what purpose,” Rigo replied. “Everything we have learned suggests the Farms have been running for centuries without guidance. Someone, a long time ago, used magic on a scale we can’t even imagine to create them. It wasn’t the Duneriders. They are a product of the Farms every bit as much as the Hoplani. I don’t think we are going to find it within our means to alter what is happening there in any significant way. That means we must find whoever is responsible for bringing the Farms into existence, or at least the magic that was used, if we are to have any hope of destroying them.”
“And you believe the answers are out here?” Lorl asked. He sounded as if he was having second thoughts about coming along. Well, if that was the case he could change his mind once they found an oasis that would allow them to make the jump back to Oasis Four and the Farms.
Rigo shrugged. “Something must be out here. The Farms were designed to send half of the Hoplani in this direction. There’s no evidence that we missed anything coming out from the Three Kingdoms.”
Ash’urn listened to the interchange without adding anything of his own. He and Rigo had discussed the risks of continuing, but both were of a mind that finding the Farms had not provided a solution to the problem back home. Now they were engaged in this risky venture. Traveling at Hoplani speeds, they were well beyond the range of the staff to take them back to Oasis Four and safety. They had already traveled seven back-breaking days without reaching an oasis. Two days on the Hoplani, traveling day and night, had brought them to the limits of the staff’s reach in the past. That meant going home from where they currently were would mean creating several Bypass portals that began and ended in the dead zone. That was why Lorl had been so disturbed and why he had initiated the discussion that had started a while earlier. They had talked about all of this before.
Ash’urn was more interested in what lay ahead. He had shown the Dunerider the branch he had carried along, and the little man had pointed east and continued riding. He supposed there was little to be lost by continuing onward until they reached the limits of their food and water. A couple more days was Ash’urn’s estimate. Then they would have no choice but to gamble and risk the possibly tainted Bypass.
It was the middle of the afternoon on the ninth day that the first sighting of green was made in the distance. Orna whooped when she spotted the patch, and Ash’urn flashed a tired grin at Rigo. It was starting to look as if the gamble might have paid off, at least in terms of reaching deeper into the forbidden lands of the Ruins. Half a glass later they rode up to the edge of a very large oasis, formally christened Oasis Five by Rigo. There was a pond almost as large as they had found back at Oasis Three, and the weary travelers fell into the water and then lounged on the grass in the shade while their clothing dried.
After they had relaxed, Rigo said finally. “Shall we head back? They must be very concerned back home.”
Everyone was ready for a return to the Outpost for a few days. Rigo considered jumping back to the Hoplani Farms to check on matters, but he knew the Dunerider wouldn’t make use of the Bypass, and they really needed to get all the way back to the Outpost, so he pictured the large enclosure in Oasis Three where they had spent so many days. It felt as if the Bypass was slow to form, but then there it was, the glowing arch a welcoming sight after the days in the dead zone when they couldn’t safely create one. Rigo sensed he might have trouble making the Bypass without the staff, even though they were in the middle of a normal zone. Somehow the Ruins was exerting an effect that was trying to block the magic used in creating the Bypass.
As they prepared to step into the opening, Rigo looked around for the Dunerider, but saw that he was already heading back into the Ruins, heading west back toward the Hoplani Farms so many days behind them. Rigo wished he could communicate with them. There hadn’t been anyway to thank the man for getting them here. Then they were back at Oasis Three, and moments later back home in the Outpost. Rigo and Ash’urn headed toward Nycoh’s office to report in, and were greeted by a look of relief as they were welcomed into her presence.
“We were worried,” she said simply.
Rigo explained how far they’d had to travel to reach the oasis this time.
“You found nothing on the way?” she asked, already certain of the answer.
“It’s a dead zone the entire distance. The Farms are clearly in the middle of the worst part of the Ruins. I don’t know if the Farms cause it, or they were located in the middle for another reason.”
“We have made no progress with the problem,” Nycoh admitted, her eyes reflecting her exhaustion. “Manual labor, which is what we are reduced to there, is not going to suffice.”
Rigo nodded. “That is what I believe as well.”
“Do you really expect to find answers deeper in the Ruins?” Nycoh asked. Rigo had never seen the normally upbeat young woman so dispirited. “What if there are more Hoplani Farms out there?”
Rigo shook his head. “I have no idea. There has to be something somewhere. There certainly doesn’t appear to be anything that will help us at the Farms. Knowing the origin of the creatures isn’t going to stop them from attacking the barriers. I thought at first we might be able to control them like the Duneriders do, but even they only interact with a small number of those that are produced. I also don’t see a means of bridging the language barrier anytime soon.”
“You’re going to continue your searches?”
“After a couple of days. We need a break. The Ruins wear on one, and it feels that the region we just crossed was especially unsettling. Has anything happened back here or in the Three Kingdoms we should know about?”
“A couple more towers were breached. That has been dealt with, but the constant occurrence of the attacks underscores the importance of finding an answer.”
Two days later, the four explorers retraced their steps back to Oasis Five. From Oasis Three, Rigo tried to make a Bypass to Oasis Five without the staff. He was unable to do so. None of the others could either. They jumped to Oasis Four at the Farms, and from there Rigo attempted the Bypass to Oasis Five without the staff. Once again, he couldn’t make the arch form. Concerned, he used the staff. He felt th
e same hesitation he’d noted when they left, but the Bypass formed, if delayed very minutely. This was something they would need to keep in mind as they ventured farther across the Ruins. A staff was required to get from Five back to the more familiar territory.
Now they were on foot, which meant their progress was far slower than it had been while riding the Hoplani. Within a day and a half of walking, they found the next oasis. A day later they found another. Both were smaller than Oasis Five where they had left a large stockpile of food, but the closeness made their traveling easier. Each day they returned to Oasis Five, where they camped, sent back a message to Oasis Four that was to be relayed back to Nycoh at the Outpost. For the next week they found the Ruins riddled with the frequent patches of green.
The team had grown close together over the past few days. The adventures since they had left the Hoplani Farms had been risky, and they had learned to count on one another. Rigo and Ash’urn had known one another for a long time, but the bond to the others had now matured. Orna was an especially good traveling companion. She always did more than her share of the camp chores, and had a quick wit and an unusual sense of humor. She could find something to laugh about in almost anything, and had helped to keep everyone’s spirits high.
After eight days the Ruins regained its hold, and the spacing of the frequent shelters widened once again. When they came to a very large oasis they named it Oasis Six and made a run back to the Outpost for supplies and a couple of days away from the sands. They discovered that even with the staff, Oasis Three could no longer be reached. They had to jump first to Oasis Four at the farms, then to Three, and finally all the way back to the Outpost.
Rigo was uncomfortable with the blocking effects of the Ruins, but as yet it was not restricting them in any substantial way. After restocking their camp at Oasis Five, they jumped to Six where they had ended their searches a couple of days earlier, and moved onward. Three days out, they located a wide zone where the deadening effects of the Ruins were no longer active. This was more like the Ruins they knew along the border of Lopal back home. While they were crossing the normal zone they had their fourth encounter with Hoplani since leaving the farms. The creatures they encountered out here were more like those they had known back in the three kingdoms, not the docile, obedient beasts used by the Duneriders. Twice before they had been forced to use their magic to kill many. Once it had been Orna’s quick eyes that had detected the presence of an attacking beast and saved them from a possibly dangerous encounter. This time there was an angry Morvane, and while all three of them had access to their magic here in the normal zone, they chose to create a Bypass and avoid a fight that served no purpose. They had been in the clear zone for almost another day when Orna spotted a reflection to the south of them.
“What is it?” Lorl asked, unable to see any detail.
“I can’t tell either,” she replied. “Perhaps we should have a look.”
The flash appeared to be a walk of a glass or two, but they were looking for anything unusual, and this was the first unexplained sighting they had made since leaving the farms. Rigo pointed toward the flash, and Orna took the lead.
“It’s some kind of metal,” Ash’urn noted when they approached close enough to see the object that had reflected the light toward them.
It was indeed metal. It glowed with a yellow color much like gold, but when they approached and tested it, the metal was something else, and resistant to their attempts to mark it. The section that was protruding from the sands stood almost a man height above the surrounding landscape. It was rectangular in shape, roughly five hands wide on each face. Strange symbols covered each of the four faces, the markings remarkably sharp and unworn for something that must have been in place for thousands of years.
“Can we uncover it?” Ash’urn asked. He had taken out his journal and was sketching the object and trying to capture the symbols on each face.
Using magic, it was a simple matter to clear away the sand that surrounded the object, and gradually they revealed a pillar that was three times the height of a man before the bottom of the column widened into a rectangular base. A little probing showed nothing under the base but sand.
“Do you recognize any of the writing?” Rigo asked the elder scholar.
“I’ve never seen any of the symbols before,” Ash’urn replied with certainty. “There are also four distinct sets of characters. I think the same meaning is repeated in different languages.”
Rigo hadn’t noticed, but now that he looked closer, even he could detect the uniqueness of the characters on the four faces. They waited while Ash’urn captured the symbols on each face, probing the sands with magic in hopes of finding something else, but nothing was present within the range of their magic.
Finally, marking the spot in his memory, Rigo led the others onward. They found the end of the clear zone a day later, and another two days of dead zone brought them to Oasis Seven. From Oasis Seven they could jump back to Five, but now the Hoplani Farms and Oasis Four required a second jump. The Ruins continued to project limits on their range. Five was retained as their main base, because they could send back their reports from there. After reporting back to Nycoh what they had found, and leaving Ash’urn’s journal in the library, they continued their journey.
Oasis Eight was reached late in the day after more than ten days of fighting their way through an irregular dead zone. It wasn’t that the separation between Oasis Seven and Eight was so far, but the country between the two was broken by several large chasms. These were nothing like the massive chasm that had almost gotten Rigo killed back closer to home, but they were large enough they had to expend considerable effort to walk around. They couldn’t use the Bypass to jump across, because both ends would have been in a dead zone, and none of them were willing to risk that just yet. Not after all they had endured to get here.
Slowly they made progress, jumping back to the oasis at the end of each day. Finally they reached Oasis Eight, a particularly pleasant place, with one of the largest pools they had yet discovered. They elected to spend the night in the new location, knowing they would have to head back for resupply and a couple of days of much needed rest in the morning. They could have left then, but once they had sat down for a rest, no one had the energy to make the multiple jumps required to get home, and they knew there would be a few glass of questions to answer before they could rest if they went back. They all agreed it was better to let that wait until morning.
“Rigo, look at this,” a very concerned Orna urged walking quickly toward him early the next morning. Her face was scrubbed fresh and the orange dust from the Ruins had been washed out. She had made good use of the water available here in the oasis. She was carrying the staff gingerly in her hands that were extended toward him. He reached out and took the offered staff, only to find it broken into two halves as he grasped it. Surprised, he had to juggle a bit to keep the pieces from dropping to the ground. This was impossible. He’d never known anything to be able to even permanently mark the magical creations.
“What happened?” he asked.
Orna shrugged. “It was that way when I picked it up a few moments ago. It was fine last night, I’m certain of it.”
Carefully Rigo fit the two pieces back together but he could sense the magic that had been concentrated in the device was gone.
“Have you tried it?” he asked, knowing the answer.
“I stepped out in the dead area,” Orna confirmed. “It doesn’t work any longer.”
The others had gathered and caught the tail end of the discussion.
“Without the staffs we can’t travel out here,” Lorl said unnecessarily.
“What about your staff?” Ash’urn asked pointedly.
Rigo had just been having the same thought, and he handed the pieces of the now useless staff to Orna, then turned back to retrieve his own. He called it to him, pleased to see it still responded, and was about to pronounce it sound, when he noticed a deep crack in the shaft that had ne
ver been there before.
“Risos!” he cursed. “It is cracking just like the other one.”
“Will it still work” Lorl asked worriedly. They all knew that they could move between the oases to a limited degree without the staff, but the jump from Oasis Five back to anywhere that would get them home had always required a staff. If Rigo’s staff failed like Orna’s they would be stuck out here.
“We better find out,” Rigo agreed, and with an urgency he hadn’t felt in many years, he opened a Bypass back to Oasis Five, the farthest he could go in a single step. With a sigh of relief, he watched the arch appear, and hurriedly they all stepped into the portal, exiting in the familiar surroundings of Oasis Five. One more jump, back to either Three or Four, and they would be at least safe. Rigo concentrated on the Bypass he needed to make, and just as he felt it about to form, he felt the staff in his hand split into two pieces. He felt the device change from an object of power into an empty shell.
“Let’s go,” Lorl urged, wondering why Rigo was waiting.
Rigo held up the two pieces of his staff. The implication was not lost on the others.
“Great gods!” Lorl swore. “Yours too?”
“Are you certain you can’t create the Bypass without the staff?” Ash’urn asked calmly.
They all tried, but to no avail.
“The staff is required,” Orna said softly when it was clear they weren’t going to be successful. “We’re stuck here.”
They tried every place they could think of, but the only locations they could reach were the three oases to the east of Oasis Five. Water wasn’t a problem, but they had only a limited supply of food, less than a day’s rations unless they cut back. That meant they needed to act quickly. If one of the Duneriders could get to them, they could ride back the same way they had come here, but the likelihood of one coming this way, especially carrying the food they desperately needed, was vanishingly small.
After several glass huddling together and discussing options, Rigo indicated his intention to go back to Oasis Eight and gather up their belongings. Then they would wait in Five against the almost impossible chance of someone coming this way. He opened the Bypass, and they all followed after him, none wanting to be separated from their fellows at this time.
