by Troy Hooker
“It can’t be,” Gus inched toward the Stone. “It was here just like Mr. Sterling said …” he trailed off.
“Gus, what is it?” Emma asked quietly, her hushed whispers echoing deeply off the stone walls of the tiny room.
“I believe it is the one and only lost Watcher Stone. No longer lost if this is the real deal, I suppose.” Gingerly, he picked up the Stone and held it carefully in his palm. “See the four streaks throughout the Stone representing each region of Lior?”
“Unbelievable,” Lillia added excitedly. “But too easy.”
“So why hasn’t anyone in the Council come for these things?” Sam wondered.
“Miss Karpatch said that the Office of Research indicated there was nothing left, remember?”
Sam remembered the night Mr. Sterling asked him to go. He had told him there was reason to believe that the library could still be standing even though the Office of Research said everything was destroyed. It was strange, but then again, with the Darkness around the City, who could blame them for fudging a few reports to avoid it?
Lillia reached her hand out to feel the soft ridges in the Stone that, at her touch, glowed slightly.
“I don’t think—” Emma began, but then something made her stop mid-sentence.
Sam knew what had quieted her instantly, as he suddenly felt another presence sweeping over him like a rush of wind blowing throughout the room. He couldn’t explain it, but mixed emotions poured over him suddenly, leaving him breathless. There was a longing, a heavy loneliness, and then there was hurt—deep, intense hurt. He didn’t know who, or what, the feelings came from, but he did know that it originated from the presence in front of him.
Without thinking, he reached out in front of him to attempt to touch the presence, but it quickly rushed past his face, sending a surge of warm static electricity throughout his entire body.
It wasn’t the feeling that made them afraid, but the unknown of what had happened that caused an uneasy feeling to come over them. It was as though someone was watching the entire group in the room. Sam couldn’t see anything or anyone, but he knew something was there—or had been there. A quick glance at the others was enough for them to call it a day.
***********************
“Guys, I think we should head back up now,” Emma said.
“I agree.” Sam heaved big breaths of air as if someone had just punched him in the gut.
“What—was that?” Gus was wide-eyed, his face sheet white.
“Maybe some leftover spirits were trapped here after the invasion of the City,” Lillia snickered, but none of them were interested in her humorous remarks.
“Let’s go, now, please,” Emma pleaded with them.
Lillia nodded as Gus reached for the Stone and handed it to Emma, who pocketed it.
“I’d feel better if you kept track of this, Emma,” he said quickly as they exited the glowing blue room to the dimly lit Hololibrary, where the door promptly thundered closed behind them.
Lillia suggested the temple just outside of the library for the night, but Gus reminded them that they needed water badly, and Lillia agreed that even if it meant sleeping outside of the comfortable library, it wouldn’t be too awful to have water for coffee and a fire to fend off the night chill. Not to mention the rest were not too interested in spending the night that near to the strange wind they had just experienced.
After climbing back up the hidden stairwell, back through the library and out the giant temple door, they made a beeline for the nearest watering site, which Gus said from the map would be back near the old City Center. They agreed that the best spot from there to make camp would be the garden courtyard since it provided the most wood.
After setting up camp underneath the broken statue in the City Center’s garden, and dinner of rice and dried meat with root cakes was on the fire, they discussed their options for getting back to the Lightway and back home.
“We could find an arch,” Sam suggested, noting the cylindrical map holder poking out of Gus’s backpack. “Wouldn’t there be an arch here?”
“There used to be, but they moved it to the new city. It was a big to-do with its size and all,” he said.
“We could walk back,” Emma offered, knowing instantly it would be a bad idea, as Gus reminded her of the Himalayan-sized mountains between them and Lior City, not to mention the nearly twenty days it would take to travel it, or the potential leftover pockets of Darkness that awaited them in the forest depths.
“I’ve been thinking about our options,” Gus continued, “and I think that, unfortunately, our best and quickest route is to get to the Outer Dunes.”
Emma frowned.
“You mean the outpost south of the Great Swamp that has been abandoned for years? Why would that station still work? No one has any reason to go there anymore.”
“Not to mention the swamp is one of the worst places to be in Lior … and most dangerous,” Lillia added.
“I figure it’s worth risking. Otherwise, we have a long hike over the mountains to Deep City … at least a week,” Gus sighed. “Plus, if the boathouse is still here in the old city’s waterway, we can float through the swamp instead of walk. It would take us two days at the most.”
Sam scowled.
“Why can’t we just go back up to the Light station on Mount Halpa?” he asked. “It’s got to be the closest one.”
Gus nodded.
“True, but the cliffs of Mount Halpa are sheer three hundred foot faces on almost all sides—and below zero at night. It would be a nearly impossible trek for even a seasoned mountaineer.”
“We don’t have the gear for that, newb,” Lillia pinched his cheeks in jest. “Wouldn’t want to frostbite that pretty little face. Then Emma wouldn’t be able to make out with—”
“That’s enough, Lil’,” Emma said suddenly, but the irritation she felt wasn’t directed only at Lillia. The idea that all of them were stranded so far from the home they knew was disheartening, to say the least, but the fact that no one had left them clear instructions was the most frustrating.
“I just don’t understand why they would have sent us out here alone.” Emma accepted a cup of coffee from Gus. “I mean, we have only been through the gate three times in our lives! And never outside the City alone!”
“You’re right. Princesses deserve better,” Lillia joked.
“I’m not kidding Lil’!” she flashed an angry glance at Lillia. “This place is really dangerous!”
Gus sighed deeply.
“I just wish we could somehow help them locate the spy within Lior.”
“If there is one,” Emma retorted.
Suddenly the coffee no longer tasted good. It was now cold, and there was no sugar or cream to tone down the strong flavor. Sam wondered if a good night’s sleep would do them all good, perhaps clear their minds a bit, and he was tired anyway from all the walking, and arguing.
Before he opened his mouth to suggest turning in, however, he glanced over at a very uncomfortable Emma Sterling, who was fidgeting with her coffee cup. From the little time he had known her, he could tell that something about the conversation was making her nervous.
“Emma, what is it?” he asked her calmly.
Her eyes welled up with tears instantly.
“I—um, I can’t believe I forgot about this …”
Sam squinted over the light of the fire at Emma, whose hair glowed soft blues in the light of the moon overhead.
“Em’, we really need to know.”
“I overheard dad talking with some protectors,” she blurted out. “And there have been incidents of Darkness alarms going off in the City Center at strange times.”
Sam scowled.
“That’s funny. I remember that happening when I was there with …” he stopped suddenly, aware at once of the consequences his words would bring
.
“With who?” Lillia demanded.
He didn’t want to answer her, but after saying the words, he couldn’t turn back. It couldn’t be true anyway. The man was in their cabin circle, for crying out loud.
“When I was with Mr. Calpher,” he said quietly.
Lillia snorted.
“Talister Calpher? High Council member and overseer of the Sons of Light? Wow, that’s a conspiracy if I ever saw one.”
“It’s not true!” Emma thrust her finger in Lillia’s face. “He’s our friend and has done great things for the City! You can’t just go around calling people spies!”
“I never called him a spy. I just said it would be quite a conspiracy if it was him,” Lillia defended.
“She’s right, Lil’. We can’t call him a traitor from an isolated incident Sam saw,” Gus stopped them, “but we can discuss it in the morning. We will need our sleep for where we are going.”
No one argued with Gus’ suggestion, with the exception of Emma, who didn’t move. When the rest of them noticed, they stopped and turned to wait for her. She seemed as though there was something left to say, so they waited for her to spill it.
“I’ve been worried about Uncle Calpher for a little while now,” she forced out. “He’s been acting strange lately, leaving the City for days and—” she stopped. “I just can’t believe it could be him.”
“It’s not,” Sam lied. Lillia and Gus nodded along with him to soothe Emma’s fears.
“I just can’t help but think what could be happening in Lior while we are gone. It must not be good,” Emma finished.
No one answered her, because they had nothing to offer. They had all been thinking it since the moment they stepped through the Lightway, but Emma had been their beacon of hope, their island of faith in a system that seemed to be quickly disintegrating.
Chapter Sixteen
The Outer Dunes
The next morning, over coffee, they watched the soft patches of fog lifting from the cool of the night.
Undoubtedly, Emma’s discouraging words the night before hit home, to all except Sam. Since the fall of the old city, there had been no report of Darkness spreading anywhere in Lior. Metim were at their lowest numbers ever, and three of the four most dangerous Dark Lords were locked away. While rumors had been floating around for years about the growing Darkness, the ideas had been dismissed on account of the word of the Seer Chamber and the Protector’s Office. But if one had the right access to some of Lior’s highest offices, a grand deception was possible. Given the level of secrecy in the Seer chamber and the PO, it was conceivable that the right people could pull it off. But the thought that the point man for the conspiracy could be Talister Calpher was none other than shocking to say the least.
“When were they going to let all of Lior know about the alarms?” Lillia asked over breakfast. “And how could you just forget about something like that ‘till now?”
Emma seemed in no mood to answer her, so instead she put her efforts into crumbling the dried meat into a pan with the edible plants Lillia had found growing near the castle. Sam was just now waking up and accepted a cup of coffee from a quiet Emma. Gus was sketching a copy of the Watcher Stone that sat in front of them all next to the fire.
Gus looked up from his drawing and took a sip of coffee.
“I’ve been thinking. We know it isn’t logical that they would let us come alone without a meaningful reason,” he said.
“Yeah, they wanted us out of the City for Sam’s sake,” Lillia said.
“I know that. But there’s something more. Like perhaps they already know the perpetrator and we are part of a greater plot to catch him. Perhaps we are only to trust them. Maybe it isn’t Mr. Calpher at all, and he has to play the part just like Mr. Sterling.”
“Wow Gus,” Lillia nearly choked on her breakfast. “You are starting to sound like a Mentor with all that faith.”
“I’ve been—trying to see different perspectives.”
Sam was watching Gus draw the Stone, noticing that he was taking detail to a new level. There were hundreds of books already in the library with drawings of it, but Gus was intent on looking for something specific, perhaps whether or not it was the real thing.
Gus’ theory was good, however, it didn’t explain Talister setting off the alarm before going into the Chancellor’s office. Or perhaps it was the Chancellor that had dealings with the spy, and Talister was only waiting for the right time to expose him.
At that moment, however, instead of pelting Gus with questions, Sam decided to bring up the more immediate problem: how to get back to Lior City. While the options were already limited, he couldn’t figure out for the life of him how they were going to get back down the plateau and around the opposite side of the City to where Gus pointed out the swamp where they would have to make their next leg of the journey.
“So what’s our plan?”
Gus seemed to anticipate the question.
“According to the maps that you found in Lior’s main library, there should be a boathouse …” he pointed behind them, “that way, which I believe is a way out of the City to the swamp.”
He pointed to the far end of the ruined city, past the temple where the edge of the buildings just seemed to drop off into the horizon on the other side.
“If I am not mistaken, there is an old underground escape route down the plateau—” he paused for a moment, then set his finished drawing on the large stone setting next to him, “—in an underground river, I believe.”
Lillia shook her head in disbelief.
“First you tell us about the mosquito-infested nightmare of a swamp, and now an underground river? I’m afraid to ask where we end up next.”
Gus chuckled nervously as he tossed the remainder of his coffee on the last of the coals in the makeshift fire pit.
“I promise nothing,” he smiled.
They packed up camp, and after poring over the map and any alternative routes if needed, they set out to find the curious boathouse that should be resting on top of the plateau. It was quite a drop from anyone’s perspective, and all four friends were a bit anxious as to how the boat would get them to the swamp below, if in fact the boathouse was still in functioning order.
With Gus’ uncanny ability, it took only a few minutes to find hidden routes on the map that led them through the maze of broken rock and bricks that littered the streets of Old Lior. Before lunch, they had located a possible entrance to the boathouse and the escape route to the forest floor below the plateau, and Gus had estimated that they would hopefully be on the forest floor by late afternoon.
They were still skeptical that there would be a boathouse hidden inside the City since the City was perched high on the plateau with no visible waterways, but no one argued with Gus and his mapping abilities. If he had done the research and said there was a boathouse that would lead them out of the City, they trusted him. He had been right about most everything else so far.
Dark and hidden in the side of a rock was a small stone opening that looked as though it had been heavily guarded in spite of its conservative design. While Gus was certain that this was the only way in, currently the entrance appeared to be merely a hole into a dark passageway to which all four were reluctant to enter.
“Alright, I will go first again,” Emma stormed ahead finally, snatching a lantern from Gus’s hands. “I swear I am with a bunch of cowards,” she huffed, entering the passageway.
The other three shrugged and followed, unsure as to what had happened to give their friend such courage in such a short period of time.
It was intensely dark in the opening, even with the lantern Emma carried, and until Gus produced another from his pack, the meager light that extended from Emma’s feet beneath her robe was the only light that could be seen in the stifling dark passageway.
The cold stone walls of the passagewa
y seemed to go on forever as they climbed upward toward what felt like nothingness in front of them. They had caught up to Emma, but even with the extra light, they were eager to be rid of the feeling of being trapped in the depths of another secret hideaway of the old city.
On and on the passageway continued, twisting and turning in various directions, sometimes taking sharp curves to make them wonder if they hadn’t just been walking in circles.
Just as they were beginning to believe they had entered an abandoned mineshaft instead of the entrance to a boathouse, a glimmer of light showed ahead of them and they hurried toward it, shuffling through the sandy floor as quick as they could in the darkness without risking a fall onto the unknown of what lie below them.
Blinking to adjust for the light of the room, the group emerged into a huge open cavern with a spectacular stained glass dome above them, partially broken but still retaining its original beauty, gracefully spraying blue, green, and yellow sunlight. In the center of the room were the remnants of a three-pronged stone structure.
“This must be the arch room!” Gus said excitedly, pulling out his map and making marks in his journal as the others explored the cavern.
“And boathouse,” Sam held up his hand for silence. “Water … that way,” he pointed toward the far end of the cavern.
Gus sadly pried himself away from the arch remnants. Although the arch had been moved, the room still contained many exquisite stone carvings into the columns throughout the cavern.
“It must have been a fully functioning hideaway for many of the City’s people in times of danger. Look, there’s the kitchen, and the latrines,” he pointed at the areas sectioned off within the massive room as they walked through the arch rubble. “I wonder why they didn’t use this place when the City was burned.”
“So many people died out there for nothing when there was a perfectly safe place in here,” Lillia said gravely. “What a waste.”
“I’m not sure they had time, Lil’,” Gus responded carefully.
“Look, guys. Boats.”
