by Bob Blink
Almost half a glass passed before Daria tapped Nycoh on the shoulder and pointed. A familiar figure was making his way through the swarm of Baldari and headed their way. Walking beside him was a smaller, female Baldari, and a pair of youngsters.
“I’d say he found them,” Ash’urn said with a hint of a chuckle. “I would have liked to see that reunion.”
S’erom walked up to Nycoh and performed some kind of formal bow. She had to assume it was a means of showing respect or thanks.
“They are alive and well as you said,” S’erom said.
Nycoh smiled. She could see that both S’erom’s eyes and those of his mate were somewhat red, and the two children were animated and excited to discover that their parent was well and had returned. It was readily apparent how much anguish the separation and not knowing had caused. Nycoh felt horrible, but at the time S’erom had been captured there had been no way to know who his family was, and the ultimate goal had been to try and gain intelligence.
“Since I was not here with everyone, they assumed that I had been killed,” S’erom said. “A number are missing.” He looked at Nycoh for confirmation.
“I know,” she said. “In the attack, some could not be saved. I’m sorry for that. We did the best we could.”
S’erom nodded his understanding. He hated that some of his village had died for little reason, but the fact the Talls had tried to prevent the deaths of those who were attacking them said a very great deal. He would have to speak with the other Baldari, and think about what had been revealed.
“What of the seven back in the cage?” he asked. “Must they be kept there?”
“I will have them brought here,” Nycoh replied. It was becoming easier all the time to communicate this way. “They were not from the village, and it was thought it might be useful for you to interact with some of your kind who had been our captives for some time. Baldari captives normally do not live long, and we have only recently found how to protect you. We must talk about that.”
Nycoh felt her head throb from such a long exchange, but S’erom nodded indicating he understood. He then reached for his mate’s hand, and somewhat formally introduced her, and then pointed out his children.
“Would you have food with us,” S’erom’s mate asked. “We now have something appropriate for guests,” and she pointed at the growing pile of the pungent Ler’ver’ar that was growing a short distance away.
Internally Nycoh shivered at the thought of eating the foul smelling stuff, but this was a potential breakthrough in relations, and couldn’t be put aside.
“I’d be happy to,” she replied. “I’d like to have my friends to join us, if that’s acceptable.” She told Ash’urn what had been offered and that she had invited him along.
Ash’urn grinned happily. He’d been curious about the Ler’ver’ar, and had intended to try some as soon as he could anyway. The medics back home had cleared it as safe, and he had always liked unusual foods. Daria and Kaler looked less certain, but they were somewhat trapped by the situation.
The Ler’ver’ar was surprisingly satisfying, and while the smell continued to put one off, except Ash’urn it seemed, it had a flavor one could come to appreciate. After the meal, which was somewhat awkward because only Nycoh could communicate, and even her ability was still limited, S’erom looked up at Nycoh. Something had changed in his eyes, and she sensed he had something important to say.
“I might have an idea where the Controller is,” he said.
Chapter 55
Jeen traveled to the site of the dig adjacent to the nearly destroyed city of Roin with the wizard assigned to follow her directions in seeing the tunneling complete. He was a burly, older man with a scraggly beard and coarse features. He was broad in the shoulders, with powerful arms. He was also well suited to the task at hand, having long been a miner before magic was revealed some years ago and he had discovered he had been blessed with the gift. Jeen found him a bit tight-lipped, but he said everything would be clearer and more meaningful if he waited on explanations until she could see the site for herself. Jeen wondered if he was merely being difficult because she had been absent from the area since giving him directions to get started. She’d had a number of matters to close off back at the Outpost and with Branid’s King and Queen, and felt her presence wasn’t necessary on site until the tunnel had reached closer to where they might expect to find something. Then she had been further delayed for a few days because of the attack and relocation of the large number of Baldari. Finally there had been the unexpected revelations of Nycoh, both personal and the surprising accomplishment of actually being able to communicate with one of the warriors.
They exited the Bypass created by the older wizard in a different location than Jeen had expected. When they had been here before and scouted the area, they had discussed beginning the tunnel well away from the town, and somewhat hidden by the hills.
“This isn’t what I expected,” Jeen said, as she eyed the busy compound just a short distance away from the city. There was no way this was going to go unnoticed. In fact, she saw several villagers driving away in wagons loaded with supplies. Instead of one or two small tents to hide what they were doing, there had to be nearly a dozen, with people going in and out, and large piles of building supplies scattered around the enclosure. More of the locals had arrived in wagons, and were talking with a couple of the men at the gate to the enclosure that had been erected.
“There are still too many people here, and there was no way that other approach was going to work,” the miner said in response. “People were going to notice, and once they did there were going to be questions that couldn’t be answered in a satisfactory manner. That would have made them even more curious.”
And they haven’t noticed this?” Jeen asked.
The miner smiled. “Of course they have. But they don’t know what they are seeing.”
Jeen looked at him without understanding.
“Roin, and now Pagner, have been promised a lot of support for rebuilding. That means hauling in supplies, foods, medicines – all the things they need to get the city up and going again. The only expedient way of doing that is using portals to shift the goods. That means the Outpost was going to be involved. This is the distribution center where the goods are brought from around the Three Kingdoms. We have a staff here to see the materials are distributed properly. Most of the tents contain the more perishable goods, and the food that has come in. People don’t count the tents and think about what is in each one. They are more concerned that they come here, are given what they need, and then they leave. The fact there is one large tent that isn’t as active never occurs to anyone. That’s ours. That one covers the entrance to the tunnel, and hides what we are doing. No one knows outside the wizards here, and no one else even thinks about it. Not that I think it needs to be so secret anyway.”
“There is some concern the Brryn might discover us looking here and trigger reprisals,” Jeen said.
“Let ‘em come,” the miner said. “From what I hear lately, we are more than a match for either the Baldari or the wizards who have been turned to their side. Maybe we can end this thing.”
“Daim had decided otherwise,” Jeen countered. She had been hearing more of this kind of talk since word got out about the new capabilities the wizards had discovered. The problem was, no one knew how they would match up against the Brryn themselves, and Mitty was of the opinion it wouldn’t be all that long before the woman would break free of whatever was holding her. A second Brryn was showing signs of awakening, which would double the forces against them. If another was coming to, who could say when the others might do the same?
Jeen decided there was little point in arguing the matter. The miner obviously had strong opinions, and acted when he felt justified. She had to admit what he had arranged here was a better solution. She had been wondering how long they could keep their effort secret the way it had been planned.
“Show me what you have,” she directed.
The man grunted and pointed the way. They were met at the gate and being recognized, allowed to enter without question. Jeen was led toward the back of the busy compound toward one of the larger of the tents. They stepped inside and Jeen discovered there was a second door set at right angles to the first she had to pass through before actually entering the space concealed by the tent. No passerby was going to peer into the opening and see anything.
She was shocked at the scale of the effort around her. Along the edges of the tent were piles of materials that had to be used in shoring up the tunnel they were making. Magic and fusing of the sandy ground itself gave the tunnel a lot of its strength, but there must be places that more was believed necessary. A couple of the wizards who had been assigned were moving around on the far side of the tent. They were moving through a pile of objects that had been taken from under the sea floor.
The opening to the tunnel was far larger than she had envisioned. Four or five could walk abreast at the entrance, which sloped steeply downward and toward the ocean shore a short distance away. She could see a considerable distance down the tunnel as it was lit with a number of magical glow bulbs. In the far distance she could see that it had leveled out somewhat, and gradually the roof of the tunnel cut off further view of it. She had some impression that it would be wet and leaky since it was under the sea bed, but from what she could see it was as dry as the caves she had once traveled with Rigo and her friends.
“You have made considerable progress,” she noted to her guide.
“The ground is soft and easily worked,” he replied. “We use magic to cut away at the front of the tunnel. The material that is excavated is thrown into a locked open Bypass, which dumps it somewhere out in the Ruins. No one here sees any material being hauled away. That also makes the work go much faster.”
Jeen had to admit the technique was working well.
“How far have you gone?”
“We are under the flat and beyond the walls of the fortress that was once there.”
That caused Jeen to look intently at the miner.
“How can you know that?”
“We have found part of the walls,” he said smugly. “It is one of the things I wanted you to see.”
“Is there any indication this is something more than just an old fortress?”
“The material used in the construction was unusually uniform and something I have never encountered before. They were thick, but not as thick as one might have expected given what we were told of the purpose of this place. Most importantly, there remains a faint trace of magic in the material. Whatever it was, the walls were at one time enhanced with magic to make them stronger.”
After more than five thousand years! Jeen couldn’t help the thought. For any material to retain a trace of the magic used to create it or enhance it after such a time suggested a level of magic that greatly exceeded their own. The miner had a right to be smug. They had indeed found something of interest, and may have direct proof that what Koess had learned while in the Void was accurate.
“Show me,” Jeen asked.
“This way,” he said, and pointed toward the wide mouth of the tunnel.
Jeen wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to go into the tunnel. She didn’t like such places, even though she had traveled for days underground all those years ago. Here she could almost feel the weight of the ocean above them, and couldn’t help wonder what they would do should the cave collapse and allow in the seawater. There was nothing to be done about it, however, and she swallowed her discomfort and followed after the miner.
They walked down the incline, the air smelling of dirt but otherwise normal. The musty smell she had expected was absent, but then this hadn’t been sitting here open for centuries. After a bit they reached the point where the incline flattened out somewhat. They continued on, a distance greater than they had already come. Jeen could see now that the initial section was designed to get them well below the bed of the bay, whereas the flatter section took them out into the bay to where the fortress would have had to have been.
They could have shortened the walk by using a Bypass, but Jeen realized the miner wanted her to appreciate the effort and remarkable progress he and his team had made in a short time. They clearly knew what they were doing. He might be gruff and opinionated, but he was also competent. Finally they slowed, and he pointed to the sides and to the ceiling above them.
“Here is where we found the first signs of the outer walls,” he said. “We have taken samples, but have made no attempts at digging out a section. The historians will have a happy time of it some day, but for now, we decided this was the perimeter, and have elected to continue onward and see how far to the opposite side, and what might be found in the interior.”
The approach made sense to Jeen. She looked closely at the section of wall, the white material remarkably preserved after so long a time. It was as thick as she was tall, which meant it was remarkably thin given that the walls of the Castle in Sulen were four horses length thick at the base. She ran her hands over the material and as the miner had suggested, she could sense the magic that had once given these walls strength. What kind of magic would have been able to break them at a time when the magic was at full force?
After she’d had a few moments to examine the walls, the miner led her farther on. By now Jeen had forgotten the ocean above them, and stared with fascination at the large excavation that had been created a short distance beyond.
“We found sign of the far wall some fifteen hundred paces that way,” he said pointing. “There might be more beyond, but we decided it made more sense to have a look here rather than keep going. If you think we should do otherwise, you need to direct us.”
“I think your decisions have been remarkably astute,” Jeen said softly. “The progress you have made is impressive.”
“Yeah. Well, the scholars who study this kind of thing will be appalled at the manner in which we have proceeded. They will claim we risked destroying all manner of things, but you told us time was critical.”
Jeen nodded as she continued to look around. “Have you found any artifacts?”
“A couple. We have left them in place so you could see before we remove and mark them. They are all but uncovered.”
“Show me, please,” Jeen asked.
The first item the miner took her to see was part of a staff that looked very much like the ones Nycoh created.
“If that was made anything like those that Daim and Nycoh create, you know they are virtually impossible to break like that. This one has been snapped in half. It makes you wonder what could do that. Have you found the other half?” Jeen asked hopefully. She could see the faint symbols running around the shaft, and wondered if they could learn some of the magic by taking it to the Repository.
“Not as yet,” the miner informed her.
The second object was a very large version of the viewing plate. This one had been cracked and looked somehow as if it had been exposed to intense heat. One corner was missing, and the miner explained they had not found that either. His assessment was the whole area had been stirred around like the contents of a massive stew pot, and the missing pieces could be almost anywhere.
“How about bones, or signs of the inhabitants?” Jeen asked as he lead her deeper into the cavern.
“Nothing. No fossils. No sign of anything living.”
The last object was the most unusual. The object was built on a table-like structure, with the base coming to about mid thigh. It was clearly circular, with a diameter almost as large as Jeen was tall. A thick gold sheath heavily inscribed with symbols, most of which she didn’t recognize wrapped around the outer circumference. The centerpiece was a very large array of carefully cut and fitted pieces of power quartz. Surrounding the power quartz and filling in the region between the gold and the core were a variety of very large gemstones. She had never seen anything even close to the size of those present here. More than a dozen different gems were represented. She re
cognized emerald, ruby and diamond. She didn’t know enough to name the others. They were of varying heights, and the order was not uniform. In one area she saw three emeralds adjacent to one another. In another area, the different stones followed in sequence. Many had been broken off so the true height of the originals could not be determined. Even in the center, the carefully assembled array of power quartz was badly cracked, and a couple of pieces were obviously missing.
“Great Risos!” Jeen exclaimed. “The royal treasury couldn’t afford to buy the gems in this thing. What is it for? Are there any clues?”
“Guesses only,” the miner said. “Poor ones at that. It might have been part of the defense, or a weapon of some kind. It obviously involved a great deal of craftsmanship as well as magic to make it. It must have been important for such an effort. In the end, however, it failed just as did the rest of this place.”
“How long before you can free it completely and return it for study?” Jeen asked. “This is something that Ash’urn must see. Some of the scholars in Sedfair might also have ideas regarding the symbols. It was too large for the Repository readers, unless they were willing to dismantle it and put sections in and hope for enlightenment.
The rest of the morning was anti-climatic. The other objects were more common with no apparent magical function. When Jeen finally left the tunnel and stepped back into the tent, she was tired and felt the need to get back to the Outpost and present what the team had found.
“You have done remarkable work,” she complimented the miner. “I can’t say what any of the discoveries mean, or whether they will be of use, but already you have confirmed what was once here. That is important. I’ll be back tomorrow and plan to spend most of my time here. I need to report on this to Daim, and arrange for a team to study the staff and that strange crystal table.”
The gruff miner nodded his understanding.
