A palace, hidden amongst the clouds? A week ago, Shanna might not have believed it. Now, she accepted it without question.
"Valacia is an elusive place to find. Once, I knew its location. But that was before I had commissioned to have the Griffin built. The palace moved, carried along by the winds, so the knowledge of where it had been soon became useless. Valacia never remains in the same place for long, for, you see, it flows with the very air. Many years of collecting data and studying the patterns of the winds while onboard this very ship finally revealed its course to me. Now, if my calculations are correct—and, of course, they are—we follow in its wake."
Shanna felt the man’s stare on her.
"You did well with the Element of Fire. Perhaps my approach to your learning has been flawed. I release you from further lessons. Now, I must see to matters below."
Shanna stayed, only mildly surprised that Erlek seemed content to allow her to keep the two Elements in her possession. Perhaps Erlek let her keep them because there was nowhere for her to go as long as the airship remained aloft. Perhaps he simply knew that, now, he could not take them from her.
Shanna wanted to remain abovedeck, but she soon noticed she was the only nonessential person remaining. Most hatches leading below had been sealed already. She saw there was only one still visibly open, presumably for her. The airship's crew, with their heavy jackets, gloves, and masks looked alien to her now. Though their eyes were concealed behind circular oculars, still she felt them on her. There was little kindness in them. Suspicion, mistrust, perhaps fear. They knew their mission and what she'd been sent down into Cauldron Mountain to retrieve. But there was more to it than that. Engus Rul hadn't said a word to her since she'd taken control of the Element of Fire. He'd hardly looked at her, except to flash her a look of disappointment. Shanna knew what they all feared the most: that she was becoming another Erlek. She wished there was a way to reassure them she was not. But no one came near her unless some ship's task required it. At those times they saw to their duty, not looking her way or saying a word to her before they were off, leaving her alone once more. Even Tom seemed to want nothing to do with her now. Once she'd returned onboard Shanna had tried to exchange a glance with him, but he’d refused to return her acknowledgment.
Now, memory of it caused her to leave the thin air abovedeck for the pressurized areas below. She made her way straight to her room, sequestering herself there. It was several hours before anyone came to her door. Shanna knew it was Mirna by the soft knock. Resting in her hammock, Shanna did not respond to the woman's request for entry. The woman soon went away. Shanna immersed herself in the solitude, staring at the ceiling when lying on her back and the floor when on her stomach. Eventually, Mirna returned. This time, she entered, but so quietly Shanna never even heard the door open. It was only to leave a tray of food, though, and she soon left, closing the door behind her as quietly as she’d come. Shanna eyed the food, thinking she was hungry, but the sight of it only churned her belly in an unwholesome manner. She rolled over, closed her eyes, and must have dozed off, for the next time she looked about the first tray of food had been replaced by another. This time, Shanna did eat. She took the tray to the hammock, draped herself across it, and consumed the meal of lukewarm stew without relish or taste. When she was finished, she curled into the hammock, staring at the ceiling until sleep reclaimed her.
When next Shanna woke it was to find Mirna standing at her side, the woman's hand lightly shaking her awake. No words passed between them. Mirna's look told Shanna all she needed to know. They had arrived. Shanna rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then lowered herself from the hammock. She took a moment to wash from a basin Mirna had brought. Once finished, she gathered the Elements and, with Mirna a step behind her, the two made their way to the upper decks. Or at least as far as they were allowed before having to don the airmen's high altitude clothing. There was a jacket a tad long and insulated boots made for a cabin boy, but they fit Shanna well enough. Gloves and the mask also, the latter with straps adjusted to their smallest and a belt with two of the air tanks. Shanna was instructed to breathe normally. She found the mask restricted her vision as she stared through the slightly scratched, circular oculars and felt the jacket and boots overkill, for while the interior of the airship had gotten colder, she still experienced no discomfort. Except that by wearing them Shanna knew she'd stand out less. Right now, she very much wanted to blend in.
There was a suit for Mirna, but she politely excused herself, saying she wasn't to leave the ship and so would remain belowdeck. The hatch was opened just long enough for Shanna to go through alone.
The Griffin had come to a stop, or at least moved at a very slow cruising speed, keeping time but still some distance from a bank of clouds from which the palace of Valacia sprung. Right away, Shanna's notion of a great castle floating amidst the clouds was dispelled, for there were no walls, no turrets, no towers. There were instead pillars, arranged in rows that disappeared into the ever-shifting mist. In the distance, statues rose up singly and in pairs at regular intervals amongst the columns. Despite the meaning of the place's name, Valacia really wasn't a palace at all. More a temple, Shanna thought. A magnificent temple, set upon the clouds by sorcery of a kind Shanna imagined no longer existed and, according to Erlek, by a race gone extinct a millennium ago. Even in her most vivid dreams Shanna doubted she'd ever imagined such a place. Her eyes were locked on nothing else as the Griffin sailed closer. Gradually, the airship descended, until she was only a stone's throw from the first of the pillars. Then she slowed, matching the moving cloud's speed until the two were as one.
The expedition was the same as before: Erlek, with his sitheri guard, Engus Rul, carrying his covered axe, and Shanna. All but the snakemen wore high altitude clothing, though Engus Rul had chosen not to wear the wool jacket. Shanna doubted there was one broad enough for him, anyway. The sitheri showed no signs of discomfort, though it seemed to Shanna their movements were slower, their breathing more shallow.
Several mates secured and lowered a rope as before, though the distance they'd have to descend was nothing compared to when they'd hovered over Cauldron Mountain. While the group waited for them to finish, Erlek spoke, his voice muffled from behind his mask.
"Valacia is an ancient place, built in a forgotten age, by ones whom scholars knew little enough about even five hundred years ago. Empyreans, they were called. They were a gifted people, inventive, and, as you can well imagine, masters of flight. But they are gone now, their secrets lost.
"Killius Roe chose this place for a reason, for one does not simply walk into an Empyrean palace without paying a price. It is why, even on land, their temples, sanctuaries, and cities remain unmolested. The Empyreans may be gone, but something of them remains. It is a sort of magic which no one fully understands. Some call it a testament to the Empyreans' strength. Others call it what it is: a curse. Whatever it may be, it does not suffer trespassers—or thieves—lightly."
"But the Element…" Shanna began. Speaking through the mask, her voice sounded odd to her ears, as if she were underwater. "We're not stealing it. It doesn't belong here. It doesn't belong to the Empyreans." She wasn't sure how she knew this, but she did.
"That matters not. Killius left the Element of Air behind. Whatever curse guards this place also now guards the Element."
"So how are we going to deal with this… curse? Surely you know a way around it. Why else would we be here?"
"Of course." There was such smugness in his voice Shanna imagined he must be smiling.
With the rope declared ready, Erlek wasted no time, following the first of his sitheri over the side. The second snake-warrior went next, followed by Engus Rul, who stopped right before lowering himself to eye Shanna. "You should have burned him alive in the bowels of Anaktoa." They were the first words the dwarf had spoken to her since they'd returned. He left no opportunity for reply as he lowered himself down the rope.
Shanna chewed her lip and glanced out ove
r the side as she'd done before. The Griffin was much closer to the 'ground' this time. The first sitheri and Erlek already walked about on the thick layer of white. Though their feet and ankles were lost in the vapor, they did not fall through and plummet to their deaths as Shanna hoped they might. Shanna lowered herself as before, holding tight to the rope the whole time. She held it especially tight when she very carefully probed the cloud's surface. Her foot touched something soft and yielding, like clay, but which solidified as she dabbed the toe of her boot further down. Even through the boot's thickness, it felt cold. She put her other foot down, still clinging to the rope. She did not fall through, so she finally let go.
Walking was done with caution. Each step was a slow, deliberate act, with a test performed to gauge the cloud's stability and to take measure of its ability to support each of their weights. Erlek was the first to gain enough confidence to first walk at a normal pace and then at a hurried one. He soon left the others behind. Shanna and Engus Rul took longer to convince, but after a dozen or so steps they grew satisfied enough that they didn't stop to test each footfall. Only the sitheri remained wholly unconvinced. The two of them remained stationary, lifting one foot and putting it down, and then repeating the exercise with the other foot. They were left behind to overcome their fears on their own.
The cloud's surface spread out before them like a field of newly fallen snow broken only by the towering pillars and marble white statues of Valacia. Shanna watched as Erlek, who raced ahead of them now, stepped past the first of the columns to enter the palace. Once he had, his pace slowed, but not enough to allow him time to admire the statuary or the great pillars. The man had no interest in either.
Shanna noticed that Engus Rul's gaze never stopped probing for danger. She wondered at what warnings Erlek may have given the dwarf, if any. Shanna tried to maintain her own vigilance, but her sense of wonder gained the upper hand and she found herself drawing ahead of the more cautious dwarf. She circled one of the great pillars, counting out the number of Engus Ruls it might take to fully wrap its thickness. She made it to five when she reached out a hand to touch a stem of ivy carved into the pillar's surface. Leaning back at the waist, she let her gaze follow the strand as best she could as it wrapped around and around until finally it ended somewhere at the pillar's top. The others were like that, too, carved with ivy or vines. Some even bore marble fruit. Shanna wondered if the Empyreans meant the pillars as substitutes for trees, for she felt as if she walked amidst a forest or, more likely, a grove, for the columns were arranged with such perfect symmetry she'd no doubt she walked amongst something artificial. Still, there was beauty never seen before in the artistry and arrangement. The forest was populated, too, with the most amazing creatures. Shanna readily recognized the more common animals: a pack of wolves, a solitary fox, a pair of badgers, and a family of bears, all standing frozen but so lifelike Shanna hesitated to approach at first. It was their eyes—stark and so blank—that finally convinced her of their lifelessness. Carved of white marble like the pillars, their bodies were as white as their eyes, though teeth and claws appeared so real Shanna withdrew a hand that had been ready to touch the largest bear she'd ever seen. She turned her attention to the other statues, the ones she most certainly did not recognize. Wonder mixed with fright as she looked on a great monster with a hundred eyes, another with eight limbs and three tongues, and yet another with wings covered in scales whose form reared back, ready to strike. Shanna gave them a wide berth, hurrying past them to statues more inviting. These were of men, or so Shanna thought at first, for as she drew nearer she saw they weren't men at all. They were man-like, but their faces were too long and stern, bare chests too sculpted, and, crowning the list of differences, feathered wings that sprouted from their backs. She wanted to ask if these were the Empyreans or just some demigods they had once worshiped, but Erlek had gone so far ahead she didn't see him at all now. Fearful of becoming lost amidst the forest of pillars, she was relieved when she spotted Engus Rul. She moved to join him and, together, they found Erlek. The sitheri still trailed behind, but they were not so distant now.
Erlek ignored the two of them. Similar to when they'd first set down on Cauldron Mountain, when he'd set off with no regard for any of the others, Erlek now performed an inspection of the space between a specific group of pillars before moving on to a different area. He eyed one particular pillar, glancing down the lines of its peers one way and then the other. A moment of that and he was on to the next. Shanna and Engus Rul watched in silence as the man continued to establish his bearings. Finally, he stopped, but it was only to say, "This way." Then he was on the move again, leading them ever deeper into the aerial palace. He followed a specific line at first, but after he'd stopped to perform another inspection, he set off in an entirely different direction. After a repeat of this ritual several more times, Shanna lost all sense of direction or hope of ever finding her way out without the savant's guidance.
Finally, Erlek stopped. He did not look about this time. "The Element is here."
Shanna, Engus Rul, and even the sitheri, who'd caught up now, looked all around. They saw nothing but pillars lined up as far as the eye could see and more of the statues—a winged serpent in flight, another of a great cat-man prowling, and others—but that was all. There was no sign of the Element of Air.
Erlek turned to face Shanna. "Bring forth the Elements of Earth and Fire and come closer."
Shanna took the Element of Fire out of its protective box. The flame of it sprang to her hand with little prompting. The fingers of her other hand closed around the Element of Earth. With both held before her, she approached the savant. Erlek stepped away, giving her room for whatever came next.
"Now, stand ready. All of you! The moment we have the Element of Air, the curse—the guardian—of Valacia will be on us. I do not know what form it may take, but be prepared." Erlek looked to Shanna. "Concentrate on the Elements. Just as Earth guided you to Fire, let them both now reveal Air to you. They remember the purpose for which they were created and long to complete their long journey. Only let them know their wait is nearly over, that Air is near and that soon they shall be one. Now, invoke their power."
Unlike before, Erlek did not provoke her. He simply hovered in the background, waiting expectantly. He knew something was different about her, just as she did. She felt no great mastery over either of the Elements. But holding them in her hands, feeling their presence swelling into her, it was all easier. As the Elements came to life, power suffused her. There was a moment of panic, for she'd never felt such energy before. But it caused her no harm. Unbidden, the two Elements called out to the third.
Shanna saw the Element of Air then, right before her, so close she could reach out and touch it. The Element was air itself, immaterial and indefinable, yet it was there, a swirling mass like a vortex. She felt only the slightest disturbance from its presence. Shanna wanted to raise a hand to touch its edge, but both her hands already held something. The matter was decided for her when the Element of Air, with no prompting, moved to touch her. Only it didn't stop there. Shanna squeezed her eyes shut as, with a brief flurry, the Element encompassed her. But the flurry only lasted a moment, then a relative calm settled around her. Shanna opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by a swirling vortex. It lifted her hair about her mask, ruffled her jacket, and blew across the bit of skin still exposed, but caused her no harm. In her hand, the flame of the Element of Fire flickered. She looked at the others, seeing them as if they existed in a world apart from her own. Engus Rul was shouting something indeterminable. The dwarf had his hammer held ready, but not the axe Soljilnor. The sitheri were crouching, the tips of their spears leveled. None of the three looked at Shanna. Neither did Erlek, who stood still and quiet and unperturbed by the commotion, as if simply waiting for something. Shanna was just beginning to wonder what when she saw it. It was small in the distance. But only for the span of two heartbeats, for then it came for them. Not slowly, but in a flash of move
ment. One moment it was a speck amidst the distant columns and statues. The next, it stood—or rather hovered—before them.
'It' was ethereal, like the Element of Air, but tall and thick like the great Empyrean pillars and rimmed with a gray column of smoke that shifted, churned, and seethed up and down the full length of the thing.
Engus Rul and the sitheri moved back. Shanna wanted to do the same, but the Element of Air kept her fixed in place. Only Erlek actually moved closer. The man was weaponless, feeble before Valacia's guardian. Yet he stepped forward as if he'd gone mad or—realization struck Shanna—as if he knew exactly what he was doing.
Erlek raised his arms before the swirling pillar. "We know our trespassing offends those who once dwelt here! We have not come to disrupt anything of theirs! What we have come for does not belong here!"
The pillar of smoke emitted a wail and closed on Erlek.
"No! Wait!" Erlek stood taller, shouting at the top of his lungs to keep from being drowned out by the whirl and wail of the pillar.
Cocooned in the vortex of the Element of Air, Shanna barely heard him.
"We know there is a price and we shall pay it!"
The pillar kept coming.
Erlek stumbled, falling to his knees. With one last great effort, he flourished a hand in the direction of Engus Rul and said, "Behold! We bring you Soljilnor!"
The pillar stopped.
Half-immersed in the mist of the cloud, Erlek went on. "Soljilnor! The Flaming Cutter! Axe of Firl, son of Jelheim! It is yours! Also, take—"
The Five Elements Page 27
