by Blink, Bob
After careful examination, Daim said. “Ash’urn is very thorough in his sketches. This is indeed like several artifacts known in my day, although this is considerably larger. I have seen most of the text before, but never on a single artifact like this. I’m also certain that the single line of symbols that scroll around the base are related to magic in some way. They clearly match those on the viewer that shows Rigo. The metal from which it is made is also something I’ve seen before. However it is made, it resists everything. I would like to know its secret.”
They returned to the oasis for the night. Daim and his support squad returned to the Outpost. The next day, the eight explorers returned to the artifact with the intent of pressing onward, now more on their own as Ash’urn’s journals that recorded the missing team’s travels from this point had been with the elder scholar when he’d disappeared. They arrived to find a large dust storm brewing. This area appeared to have more issues with the weather than much of the Ruins they had seen. The object had been almost covered when they’d found it, indicating other storms had passed since Rigo’s visit, and now another was forming. Burke voiced the opinion that magic wasn’t blocked in this part of the Ruins. Perhaps whatever blocked their magic had some effect on the weather as well. The Ruins back home where their magic worked had often shown violent dust storms as well.
Realizing that travel wasn’t going to be possible for the next day, possibly two, they returned to the Outpost. Jeen happily spent the next two days with her family, and the others attended to personal matters as well. All too soon they were back in the desert, the storm having passed by.
They maintained the heading that they had been following previously, assuming that there had been nothing out here that would have caused Rigo to alter the course he’d been following. Two days later they spotted a welcome patch of green in the distance.
“If they have magic you will be over matched,” Jeen objected, when Daria insisted she and Kaler make an advance scouting of the oasis before the entire crew rode up on it.
“That assumes anyone there would see us,” Daria explained patiently. “You know that I can move silently and without being seen far better than the rest of you.”
Jeen had to acknowledge the truth of Daria’s words. She had seen her in action before. The Black Ghost had earned her name all those years ago.
“What about Kaler?” Jeen asked.
“He’s had time to learn. You and the rest wait here. You would only give us away. Kaler and I will leave the horses and have a look. If all is clear, we will signal with the mirror. From here you can make a Bypass directly into the oasis. If we don’t signal, then stay hidden and we will come back and explain the situation.”
Reluctantly, Jeen agreed. They waited what seemed an impossibly long time, eyes straining toward the distance patch. She had almost decided that something had happened to her two friends, when the agreed to pattern of flashes was spotted by Kirl. A very short time later, Jeen and the rest of the team lead their horses through the Bypass portal and stepped into the oasis.
“There’s no one here now,” Daria said, “but they’ve been here, just like the other places.” She showed Jeen and the others the signs that revealed that more than their friends had visited this place. Jeen Linked and cast a spell to verify no one was concealed behind an invisibility spell, but Daria, as usual, was correct. The place was deserted.
She sent Burke back to the Outpost with the news of their finding the next oasis that Rigo’s team had found. They were still on track. Burke made the jump back to the Outpost.
Ela and a squad of wizards returned with Burke, once again forming a large group of those who knew of this place. Satisfied, Ela and her team left, while Jeen and the others returned to Oasis Six where their supplies were stored. They’d camp there, and start out again the following morning.
Travel beyond Oasis Seven was difficult, and Daria and Kaler reacted to the slow pace. Even though word from Nycoh indicated all was well with Rigo, he was still a prisoner and his situation could change at any time. They still had no idea where he was or how far they had yet to travel before finding him. The chasms they encountered blocked forward progress, and repeatedly they had to detour and work their way around the deep splits in the desert. Once, after more than a day of travel, they found their way blocked by a sea of molten rock. They had climbed over a small rise, to find it was the outer edge of a large crater, filled with the sulfurous smelling brew that stretched impossibly far ahead of them. At least they didn’t have to ride all the way back, being able to jump back to the oasis and then to the point they had turned north instead of south. But it had cost them a couple of days.
Slowly, they worked their way around the deep cracks. Once they spent almost two days to reach a point that had been within view of where they had encountered the canyon, but they hadn’t dared try and make a Bypass because of Daim’s warning about both ends being in the dead zone. Another time they found a pair of inter-linked chasms, which took multiple false starts to work around. Often Jeen would select a direction based on the flight of the birds that Rigo had indicated he often tried to follow. Daria muttered that the birds gave no better direction than random choice.
“There,” Kaler said pointing. His sharp eyes had been the first to spot the patch of green in the distance. Soon it became apparent that they had finally found another oasis. As before, Daria and Kaler scouted ahead, the others following when the all clear signal was sent.
“I don’t think they were ever here,” Kaler said when Jeen and the others stepped out of the Bypass to join himself and Daria, who was refilling her waterskin from the pool.
“Perhaps the weather erased any sign of them,” Burke suggested, looking around. The oasis was small, and he could see that little was here.
“It’s possible,” Kaler said, “but I don’t think so. Look over there.” He pointed to a small cluster of the glowing flowers. “If they’d been here, they would have eliminated those. They have everywhere else they encountered them.”
Jeen knew he was right. “No signs of anyone else?”
“None,” Daria said as she stood up from filling her skin. “Rigo never came here.”
They all knew what had probably happened. Working their way around the chasms, they had come out on the opposite side of them in a different place from where Rigo’s team had. They had found an oasis, but not the one Rigo had visited. They would have to go north or south, and some distance east or west to pick up their trail.
“Let’s go back and report. We can have Ela bring the group out so they can find this one again, and we can consider the best way to proceed.”
As Jeen formed the Bypass that would take them back to the Outpost, Kirl burned the patch of flowers out of existence. There was no point of leaving any of them alive.
Chapter 49
Back at the Outpost a lot of information was exchanged. Nycoh explained that the same indications of visitation had been found at a number of the oases in the cluster around Oasis Six. From the notations in Ash’urn’s log, it appeared that only those that had been visited by Rigo’s team had also been visited by the unknown enemy. That suggested very strongly that they either had Ash’urn’s notes and had explored after the fact, or had some means of tracking where they had been. Three locations that Rigo hadn’t visited showed no sign of any previous visitors either. It was both interesting and puzzling.
A long discussion developed when the matter of how to proceed from the current oasis which hadn’t been visited by Rigo’s team was considered. Since he was mostly heading east, it was decided that they should bias their direction that way. A careful examination of their notes showed they had drifted quite far south as they avoided the various canyons, so a northeastern direction was decided upon. It was a gamble, and if nothing was found, they might have to regroup and adjust their planning. The chosen path could well miss an oasis that the team had found, but hopefully some indication of their passage would be found.
Before the group left to begin their explorations, Daim handed out replacement amulets, collecting their old ones. He’d discovered an interaction between the Ruins and the magic in the staff that he thought would cause the original ones to degrade. He voiced concern that the staffs that Rigo had taken could eventually fail, and they might have become stranded had they not been captured. He’d made modifications that would make the newer ones immune to the effect. They looked the same other than being a bit grayer in color. He also explained that he and Nycoh when Linked with a half dozen others, could now produce the amulets.
Two and a half days after they had started off on the northeastern trek, they came upon signs that Rigo might have passed this way. A very large patch of the dangerous flowers had been burned away. The destruction had been recent enough that the ash was only partially scattered, and with a bit of searching a few widely spaced footprints were found in low spots in the sand. The tracks suggested a far more easterly direction, and the eight members of the team agreed it was time to adjust their heading.
By now the eight explorers had become close, the misery of the Ruins bringing them into a tightly knit team. They had shared many days out here, and despite the frequent trips back to civilization, the trials of making their way into the unknown had forged strong bonds. Jeen and her old friends Daria and Kaler had reestablished their old closeness. Jeen had come to know Burke, and now understood why Rigo had spoken so highly of him. The remaining three members of the group, who had been almost unknown to the others when they started, now were closer than friends they’d known for years. Each knew he could rely on any of the others if the need arose. Jokes were shared. Many of them based upon events that would make the jokes meaningless to anyone outside the group. Shara in particular demonstrated a quick and incisive wit. Diny, the youngest, was a grumbler, but it didn’t mean anything. He more than carried his share of the tasks that needed doing, and Jeen sensed he would be more dependable than others might expect should problems arise. Kirl was the pensive one. Initially the more talkative, as they pressed deeper into the unknown, he said less and watched and scanned the horizon more carefully than any of the others. He sensed they were getting close to something, but couldn’t have told anyone why or what.
A couple of days travel brought them to another oasis, and they found indications that someone had been here. There was no way to tell who, but given what they had seen thus far, everyone was certain it had been both Rigo’s party and whoever had been following them. They jumped back to the Hoplani Farms, and then back all the way to the Outpost to report their discovery.
After a day of rest back home, they set off again. Heading eastward once again, hoping to find further indication of their friend’s passage. They found nothing that helped guide them, but after five days of travel, Daria pointed toward the horizon.
“I think we might be across,” she said. Her eyes were sharper than the other’s, but within half a glass everyone could see what she meant. A faint line of trees could be seen in the distance, and a range of bluish mountains beyond them. Clearly, something was changing. They had never seen anything like what lay ahead anywhere in the Ruins.
“It’s likely that our friends came across this land somewhere not too far from here,” Jeen suggested as they continued to ride eastward. “Perhaps we should return home and think about where we want to enter this place.”
They discussed the matter as they rode, detouring toward a dust cloud behind a low range of hills that Kaler had pointed out. As they grew close they heard screeches and shouts coming from the far side of the hills. Carefully, they dismounted, and leaving the horses. Made their way carefully up the backside of the hills to have a look.
“Great Risos,” Kirl said softly. “They are fighting the Hoplani with swords on horseback.”
“The uniforms match some of those we have seen in the viewer,” Jeen noted.
“Their swords look like the ones the Duneriders carry,” Kaler added.
After watching the soldiers fight the Hoplani, aided by a lone wizard carrying some kind of staff with a glowing crystal, Jeen signaled it was time to go. They made their way back down the hill and once they had returned to their horses, opened a Bypass back to the oasis, and from there made their way back home.
“He’s near an ocean,” Nycoh said, the following day as they discussed how to proceed.
“There was no ocean where we saw the soldiers,” Burke said.
“More than likely you found their interior border, much as Lopal is our own,” Daim suggested. “Their ocean could be a significant distance away yet.”
“However will we find them?” Shara asked. “If this land is anything like the Three Kingdoms, they could be anywhere. We could search for years. We can’t even reveal ourselves to anyone, not that it would do any good. We can’t speak the language.”
“That might not be as big a problem as we assumed,” Nycoh said. “I don’t know how they would have learned our language, but I’ve watched Rigo for hours, and both he and Ash’urn are obviously conversing with some of the people. That suggests you might be able to as well.”
“Have you learned anything else?” Jeen asked.
“Only that their day is shifted almost eight glass from our own. Even when I arise early and check, they are well into their day. They also seem to go to bed while it is still in the afternoon here. That yields some idea how far away they must be.”
After a full day of discussion, the plans were agreed upon. The same team would continue. More people at this point would simply make them more obvious. They would wear clothing that had been made guided by the images and would hopefully make them less likely to stand out. They would jump back to where they had been, then make their way northward some distance before starting east again, hoping to avoid any villages. The goal was to find the ocean, and then work their way along the shoreline until they could find anything that looked familiar. Jeen would bring the artifact along so they would have the images to compare. Each night, they would make a Bypass back to the Outpost so progress could be reported.
The following day they all spent in the Three Kingdoms. While they had passed through the Ruins, which were not infinite after all, the greatest dangers might lay ahead. They assembled once again late that night and made the transition back to the oasis where they would make the jump back to where they had seen the soldiers fighting the Hoplani.
“Wait,” Jeen said, as Burke was preparing to make the last Bypass. Look at the artifact.” She had taken it out after arriving to see if anything had changed and that it still worked here on this side of the Ruins. Since they didn’t know how it worked, there had been some concern it would lose the images they were counting upon.
“The symbols are glowing,” Daria said, seeing that several of the markings along the perimeter were now pulsing with a faint green light.
“There’s something else,” Jeen said softly.
The others looked at her expectantly.
“I am certain I can make a Bypass to where this image is coming from. I don’t know how, but I can feel the image in my mind and although I’ve never been there and don’t know where it is from here, I can sense the Bypass would open.”
“You mean we don’t have to go searching for Rigo?” Daria asked. “We can jump right to where he is now?”
“If this image is really real,” Jeen said.
“What are we waiting for?” Kaler asked, as he drew his sword. “The image shows him outside in the open. This is as good a time as any.”
Chapter 50
Nals, Capital of Sedfair
Rigo was escorted from the cell alone for the second time in as many days. Ash’urn and Lorl had been more than prepared to fight this time, but Rigo had asked them not to intervene. He believed what the woman named Carif had said. She would be venting her anger at Ash’urn before she did anything serious to him. This unexpected arrival of a pair of their wizards, Casters he reminded himself, had to be something else. From the unhappy looks
on the faces of the two women carrying the magic enabling staffs, this might actually be something that was favorable to him. One of the women he recognized. She was the Caster who had been present when they were captured in the village near the Ruins.
They made their way back up the winding ramp toward the upper levels, but instead of turning inward toward the core of the building as they had done the previous trip, his escorts headed in the opposite direction. Rigo followed along, three armed guardsmen in front of him, three in back, and one of the Casters on either side. He smiled briefly to himself. They afforded him more worry than was appropriate. One of the guardsmen was more than sufficient to restrain him, and two would have been overkill.
Within a few moments Rigo could see the bright light of day. It appeared they would be leaving the building. This pleased Rigo immensely as he had been confined indoors for some time, and he eagerly anticipated the chance to see the sun once again. The group exited through a large door, wide enough that three could pass abreast without difficulty. They stepped into a large courtyard. This was not the way they had come in, and Rigo took the opportunity to observe everything he could. One never knew when such information might be of use.
It was a gorgeous morning, and there were only a couple of clouds to be seen, the bright sun still making its climb higher. The trees bore ripe fruit, indicating the lateness of the season, and Rigo guessed that in another month the leaves would start to turn in anticipation of the coming fall. Today, however, it was warm, with just a hint of a breeze. The air was incredibly fresh after the days of confinement indoors, and he filled his lungs, enjoying the faint odors that rode upon the wind.
They were walking away from the building where he had been imprisoned. Ahead, still some distance away, he could see an even larger structure that he hadn’t noticed when they had been brought here. It had to have been hidden by the side of the mountain. The structure was far larger than the building he was leaving, and surrounded by a double wall of fitted stone. The walls were high and thick, and Rigo would have been willing to bet had been formed with the addition of magic to strengthen them. Wide walkways were present along the top of each wall, and Rigo knew that armed men, especially archers would be positioned there in the event of an attack. He was certain he was looking at a castle, and since they were headed that way, this might prove to be an interesting meeting.
