Kloss’ face crumpled under Wist’s assertions and all of the energy evaporated from the Hylob. She nodded and turned her back on them. Assuming that they should follow, Aviti took Haumea’s arm and with Wist behind them, they went with Kloss.
‘I must tell you that many here do not approve of your presence. Or of my accompanying you. Or caring for one of your number.’ Kloss’ voice trailed off down the tunnel that she led them along.
‘Kloss, we thank you for the care you have given Aviti, but this is bigger than just the four of us, or you, or even your entire race.’
The Hylob did not answer; she just shrank back into herself. Aviti watched Kloss’ fingers trail along in the dusty scree that covered the black rock floor.
Rather than try to break through the Hylob’s silence, Aviti turned to Wist. ‘Why did the Spires react that way to your touch?’ What she really wanted to ask was, what is wrong with you?
Wist shuffled along behind them for a few moments before he replied, ‘Why did it glow for you Aviti?’
She shrugged again, then said ‘I have no idea.’
‘Because you are the future Aviti and I…I am the past. Night and day.’
The lights said something to her like that. They said that they were the past and the future as was she. At the time, she had thought they meant that she was the past and future. She had not understood it then and the meaning was no clearer now.
‘Do you always have to talk in riddles? I swear you are worse than Nikka.’ Haumea laughed and even Wist smiled.
‘It was not meant to be a joke.’
The tunnels wound on and on, taking them further away from the Spires and from Kloss’ doocot. These tunnels were packed densely here, lots of small tributaries running off their path. The floor was worn smooth here and very few of the holes that decorated the curved walls remained.
Groups of Hylobs passed them going the opposite way. These groups were segregated into either all white skin with grey faces, or grey skin with black faces. Males and females, Aviti realised.
For a while, they got stuck behind a group of elderly Hylobs that they could not get around. Wist tempered his impatience at Haumea’s request and listened to the Hylobs whom, unaware or uncaring of their presence behind them, began to sing.
Blood and sweat poured into the cracks
Of our proud foundation
Our bravery knows no end
In a timeless land
The monuments of below
Built in the core
May eons past
Rise again
Under Hylob rule
Nothing thrives in the Source that they have created
The fallen empires tell us
What was known is forgotten
No more worship of above
No more will shame infect our home
We are that which seeks itself, the seeking and the sought
The monuments of below
Rot in the above
May the eons past
Rise again
The monuments of above
Empires fall and stone will burn
The eons pass
Humanity will never learn
No one can thrive on the Overland
And when the final shadow is cast
They will be dust along the path
To the monuments of below
Built in the core
May the eons past
Rise again
Empires fall and stone will burn
But humanity will never learn
No one will thrive on the Overland
And when the final shadow is cast
They will just be dust along the path
To the monuments of below
As the song ended, Wist said, ‘I’ve heard that before. The whole thing. I’ve heard it before. The words were different, totally different, but the tune was identical.’
‘Maybe in Mashesh?’ asked Haumea.
‘No,’ said Wist, ‘From my old life, my other life. They have twisted the meaning.’
‘But how is that possible?’ said Haumea.
‘I do not care,’ said Aviti, frustrated by questions without answers.
‘We are here,’ interrupted Kloss.
They had arrived at a large door set into a blank, black wall. The pale-white marble door had two square openings in it. The glass in these openings were framed with rusted iron, which left weeping trails of dirty orange down its facia.
Two Hylobs stood at opposite sides of the door. They bore no weapons or armour, but their chorded muscles, left Aviti in no doubt to their purpose.
When Wist stepped forward, preparing to argue their case for entry, the Hylobs nodded and pushed the door, which swung inwards without a noise. Aviti caught a glimpse of the recessed brass hinges on which the door moved. She glanced from them to the bangle on her wrist, but then she shrugged off her doubts and walked on with her friends.
The floor sloped upwards away from the door. Aviti could see a semi-circle of light at the top of the tunnel that flickered with an array of colours. As they approached it, she thought of the Intoli’s Sakti. Aviti had been presented to the queen of the Intoli in an old stone keep, inside a castle, somewhere deep in the forestlands of Pyrite. Tilden had been there in his Intoli guise. When the light fell through a stained-glass window onto Tilden, it had revealed his deceit. But no one noticed, apart from her, and she had been a slave, so no-one listened to her.
The tap of Haumea’s staff brought Aviti back from her reverie. The Giantess smiled at her, but said nothing.
Kloss led them from the tunnel into a room, where a small replica of the Spires sat off to one side. It was set into the floor, with the vertical pipes reaching to the ceiling and intersecting with the vertical spokes. Colours ran around it just as they did on the beautiful structure they had left behind, but they looked artificial here, as if they were painted on the surface. Even its position in the room, near one wall, as if it were an afterthought, set Aviti’s nerves on edge.
In the centre of the room was a stone table. It was made from the same material as the room, but it had been carved and polished to reflect the light that fell on it. Around it, four Hylobs sat on stone stools - one on each side. They all turned to examine the newcomers. The two dark skinned ones exchanged a glance and a couple of muttered words. The grey one nodded to Kloss as she approached, but it was the other Hylob that intrigued Aviti.
The one that sat furthest from them was completely white. Its face lacked any trace of the usual darker pigment.
‘Molock,’ said Kloss to this Hylob, ‘This is Aviti, Wist and Haumea.’ She gestured to each of them in turn with her overlong arms.
‘Welcome,’ said Molock. His voice was deeper than Kloss’, and more restrained than gentle. ‘This is Muoll, Brach and Cambo. Please be...welcome.’
Part 3 - Despair
21 - Words Darker Than Their Wings
None of the Hylobs rose to greet their guests and no one brought them chairs, so they stood around the table. The lights continued to glitter as Aviti and her party waited for the others to speak.
She pushed the air in and out of her lungs, conscious of the sounds of her breathing as it echoed around the chamber. The two grey Hylobs stared at her. They ignored Wist and Haumea and stared straight at Aviti. Their irises were so dark it made their eyes look like pools of blackness. Her skin crawled as she stood like a prisoner awaiting sentencing.
The silence was periodically broken by the drip, drip, drip of water, somewhere at the rear of the chamber. Each drip grew louder inside her skull. Her hands started to tremble as she waited for one of the Hylobs to speak.
‘Can’t we just cut through all this shite?’ said Wist.
The eyes of the Hylobs flicked to him and Aviti flinched.
‘Really, we don’t need this. We need to move. I don’t have enough time for this.’
‘Wist,’ said Haumea. ‘This is not the way.’
‘Haumea, with t
he greatest of respect, we cannot waste what little time Decheal bought us with pleasantries.’ He turned from Haumea to face the Hylobs once more. ‘Will you help us reach the Dhuma? Will you help us put an end to the black sun?’
Kloss began to stammer out a protest, but one the dark skinned Hylobs slammed a fist down upon the polished table and shouted, ‘Kill them, Molock.’
‘No, Muoll!’ said Kloss.
‘Silence,’ the older Hylob snapped back at her, and the youngster cowered under the pressure.
‘Kill us?’ laughed Wist. ‘I don’t think you could, even if you wanted to.’
‘No Muoll,’ said another Hylob. ‘We need not soil our hands with these Overlanders. Send them back, before they pollute us.’
‘Pollute?’ laughed Aviti. She had not meant to speak, but the words leapt from her mouth before she could stop them.
‘Enough,’ said the light skinned Hylob. Aviti went to reply, but then she realised that the Hylob addressed her own folk. ‘You do not speak for the Hylobs, Cambo.’
‘Nor do you Brach. Do not preach to me about my role. You have only been allowed onto this council with the loss of Hoolab.’
‘Hoolab is not lost,’ said Muoll. ‘You are the one who should not be here Brach.’
‘Silence,’ said Molock in a booming voice that echoed off the walls and they all obeyed. The aged Hylob straightened on his stool and stretched his overlong arms.
‘Molock,’ said Wist altering his tone. ‘We thank you for your hospitality and care. You have provided us with food and water and, more importantly with shelter. Thanks to Kloss, Aviti is now healed. We cannot delay anymore. Please tell us how to get to the Dhuma. I don’t know what you call it, but it is where the Waren… the darkness, was imprisoned. You must help us.’
Molock stared at Wist and rolled his jaw.
‘This cannot be ignored. The Sun has already succumbed.’
Then Molock got to his feet and lumbered around the table. He headed towards the flickering lights. As he ran his hands along the thin beams that carried the flashing points, he said, ‘You have seen our lands. As you have said yourself, you have tasted our food and drank our water.’
‘Did you see the Sun?’ asked Molock.
‘What?’ Wist managed to stammer out.
‘The Sun, of which you surface dwellers are so fond of, did you see it whilst you explored our land?’
‘You know I didn’t, we’re God knows how far underground.’
‘No. You did not.’ The Hylob continued to walk around the structure, tracing the lights’ path with a gnarled digit. ‘Do you know how many Hylobs alive have ever seen the Sun?’
He did not wait for an answer. ‘One. Me,’ he said moving his hand to point at his own bare white chest. ‘In my youth, I chose to leave my people behind. In my pride, I believed that there was more to life than just this place, so I took the path to the surface and I saw the land above.’
‘Where it was not encased in impenetrable whiteness, it was blackened and scarred. What a barren wilderness the Above is. And the Humans,’ he said, spitting out the word, ‘treat their own kind with contempt. I watched as they beat and whipped their mates. They enslaved their brothers and sisters, and befouled the land with their reckless wasting.’
‘And the Sun, Wist. The Sun. I could not bear to look at it. And so you tell me that the Sun is gone. I say so be it.’
‘So be it?’ shouted Wist. ‘You think that this place will survive without the Sun? How do you think that your water gets to you? But it’s not even that. Have you looked at your colours, at your Spires? Not this little model you have built yourself, but the real thing. Go out and look at it.’
Aviti caught the tremor that passed over Molock’s white face.
‘You already know, don’t you?’ Wist accused the Hylob.
‘Know what?’ asked Brach, her muscles rippling beneath the taught, pale skin. He flicked his obsidian eyes between Wist and Molock as he waited for a reply.
‘Mind your tongue Brach,’ said Muoll. ‘This Overlander has come to sew discord amongst us. The sooner we are rid of them, the better for all of us. Just like – ‘
A glance from Molock silenced the other Hylob. Wist began to speak, but Aviti interjected. ‘Just like whom?’
‘Do not think to question us,’ Cambo said, but Aviti ignored her.
‘Who has been here? Was it recently?’ she said and she took a few steps towards Molock.
The leader of the Hylobs puffed out his chest and said, ‘Silence Human. Do not prove Muoll’ assertion right, that allowing Kloss to heal you was a waste of food.’
‘A waste of food?’ she said dumbfounded. Then she lunged forward before she could stop herself. Only Haumea’s quick reactions stopped her from plunging the golden dagger she had formed through the Hylob’s skull.
The Hylobs shrieked their outrage at the humans and Muoll bounded over to protect his leader. The blade in Aviti’s hand deformed and flowed back around her wrist. She shuddered as it solidified.
‘I am sorry,’ said Aviti. ‘I have been through a great deal to get here, as have my friends. It is no excuse. Forgive me.’ She shuddered again as the metal tightened on her wrist. Haumea released her grip on Aviti’s shoulder and she relaxed.
‘Forgive?’ spluttered Cambo.
‘There is nothing to forgive,’ said Molock, in a cold, leaden voice.
‘Who was here?’ repeated Wist.
Molock’s eyes flicked back and forth, from Wist to Aviti, then from Aviti to Wist.
‘Who was here?’
‘It was an Intoli,’ said Kloss. All of the other Hylobs jumped up, shouting at him in protest. This time Molock did not intervene, but glowered at the Hylob and bared his teeth.
‘Shit, said Wist to Aviti over the tumult. ‘I thought it was...’
‘Wait,’ said Aviti as the pieces started to move around in her mind. ‘Kloss, why did you not say? When was this?’
When Kloss ducked her head again, Aviti placed her hand upon the Hylob’s arm. ‘Kloss,’ she muttered, ‘This is important. When did the Intoli visit? It was recently, was it not?’
Kloss did not speak, but the look that flitted across her face gave Aviti her answer. After learning to read emotions on Sevika’s face, Kloss could not conceal anything from her.
Then Wist turned away from them and said ‘Ravan.’
Enceladus or Ravan as he had called himself. The glittering sentinel that had appeared when they had most needed him. Then he had disappeared without warning.
‘He spoke to you,’ she said to Molock. ‘He spoke to you, that is how you knew to expect us. That is why we are not dead or turned back out to the cold.’
She glanced at Kloss as she spoke, but the Hylob’s head remained bowed. Perhaps she had known this already and chose to lie? It did not matter. She turned her attention back to Molock.
‘What did he say?’ she said, her voice taking on a dangerous edge.
It was too much for the Hylobs. Cambo and Muoll jumped over the table and threw themselves at the humans. Before they could reach them however, they were stopped in their tracks when Haumea hammered the burned end of her staff on the floor. The booming echo brought them all to their knees. Even Aviti and Wist took a step back.
‘There shall be no violence in this chamber,’ said Haumea, her voice thundering around the hall. She spoke as if she stood in her own hall - as if it were her subjects that she addressed. Even Molock was cowed by the majesty in Haumea’s voice. The Giantess ran her fingers over the bloodstain mark that Wist had left on her staff as she waited for them to obey.
The leader of the Hylobs blinked twice then roared, ‘Sit down,’ at his kin. ‘Do we need an Overlander to remind us of who we are? I wish that the damned Intoli had never visited us. Ever since he was here, things have…been awry. Damn him and damn his kind.’ The Hylob breathed a few times then added, ‘And now we have one of them wondering about our lands.’
‘What did this Intoli sa
y?’ Aviti repeated again, but this time her voice was soft and measured.
‘Very little,’ said Molock, his face now showing all of its years. ‘He only told us that you were coming. And,’ he added looking at the other Hylobs, ‘that you were not to be harmed.’
‘That was nice of him,’ said Wist.
Aviti shot him a hard glance, then she turned back to Molock. ‘Where is he now?’
‘He is gone,’ snapped Cambo. Her white skin rippled as she glared at Aviti. ‘And we are better for it.’
Better for it? ‘Why are you so scared of the outside world?’ Aviti asked. ‘What is it that terrifies you so much?’
‘There is much to be feared from change,’ said Molock. ‘We have existed like this forever. We have immutable boundaries. These protect us from the future. Within these walls, we are complete. Within these walls, we abide.’
The last two statements reminded Aviti of the Teachings of Wist; the text from which the Heirn priest would read to them from, on holy days. As children, they were meant to learn passages from the book, so they could recite them without effort. Her brother had memorized them all, much to their father’s dismay.
‘Not all change is to be feared,’ said Wist with a rueful smile.
‘The damned Intoli, changed us,’ said Molock.
‘How so?’ asked Aviti.
Molock sighed. ‘The darkness in the lights. When the Intoli vanished, the darkness appeared in the lights. The other Hylobs grumbled.
‘He vanished?’ said Wist.
The Hylob nodded and then stared at the ground
‘So,’ Aviti said, uninterested in the Intoli, ‘will you help us?’ She asked it more in desperation than hope.
‘We cannot, and we will not,’ said the Hylob.
Cambo snorted and said, ‘No.’ Then she slapped her bare foot onto the stone floor. Muoll nodded his head in agreement, but the other two Hylobs remained motionless.
‘Cannot?’ said Aviti, struggling to keep the emotion from her voice.
‘What is it that you would have of us?’ said Molock.
‘Help us get to the Dhuma? Please?’
‘There is no path to this Dhuma,’ said Molock. ‘I know all of the paths. I have travelled every one. There are paths that lead down into the lava pits. There are paths that lead back to the surface from where you came. There are none that can lead you through anywhere.’
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 84
