“I found Simms,” Marla whispered back, “He’s dead.”
“So he wasn’t a demon after all?” Claude sighed in relief.
“We need to find the others, if they’re still alive,” Marla said.
Claude looked back toward Alyss. “Do you think it’s safe to leave her alone?” he asked.
“No,” Marla said, “We’ll have to bring her with us. Can you help me support her?”
“I’m not broken, you know!” Alyss called out, “I’m just really hungry, and my face hurts.”
Marla walked back and helped Alyss to her feet.
“If this is what the outside world is like, I understand why nobody ever leaves the city!” Alyss grumbled as she plucked the seaweed from her pants legs.
“No,” Marla said, “This is actually... really bad.”
“Oh good,” Alyss said, “Let’s get out of here and go someplace nice.”
“Marla!” Claude called out from the mouth of the cave.
“What is it?” she asked as she rushed to his side.
Claude pointed to a plume of green smoke rising into the sky beyond a wall of rock further down the beach.
“Alyss,” Marla called, turning to look back, but jumping a little as she found the Arkadi girl standing directly behind her.
“Let’s go look,” Alyss said, “Maybe they’re serving breakfast.”
They followed the shoreline until the pearlescent sand beach trailed off into a mass of jagged moonshards jutting up from the crashing surf.
“So this all used to be up in the sky, right?” Alyss asked, her words muffled by her mask and the whispering breeze.
“If the legend is true,” Marla said, looking for a safe path through the rocks and finding none.
“And the Volgrem wanted to bring it down?”
“Yes,” Marla said, scanning the ridgeline above.
“But why?” Alyss asked, “I mean we wouldn’t have the moon sand to use for the portals if the moon was still in the sky, and, anyway, the portal room in Thrinaar was obviously built pre-fall, so the dragons wouldn’t have been able to use sand to operate it anyway.”
“I don’t know,” Marla said as she cautiously picked her way up a narrow crevice that wound between the huge shards of glowing crystal. Claude and Alyss followed along behind her as she climbed.
“So it stands to reason that the dragons didn’t need the moon sand to operate the portals,” Alyss continued, “So what did it matter to the Volgrem if they brought the moon down or not?”
“We could ask the Valganna when we find him,” Marla said.
“I think we just did,” Claude said, pointing down to a little inlet between the rocks below, previously hidden from the view of the beach.
Marla gasped at the sight of a spindly body clad in black leather, half-submerged in a swirling pool of lake water.
They scrambled down the rocks overlooking the pool. Marla winced at the lingering pain of her injured ribs, but she pushed it out of her mind as she worked her way down far enough to get a better look at the spot where the Valganna lay. Then she could see that the elder vampire would not be answering Alyss’s or anyone else’s questions.
The old vampire must have lost his cap and goggles in the wreck, for the gleaming white of his sun-blasted skull shown from the top of his facemask as the tide rolled his body back and forth in the shallow pool.
Alyss gasped and looked away.
At least he must have died quickly, Marla reasoned. As old as he was, he could not have lived for more than a few seconds exposed to direct sunlight.
“We can’t do anything for him,” Claude said.
“We can’t just leave him there!” Alyss protested.
“We can’t risk climbing down there!” Claude said, “None of us have the strength, and there’s nothing to be gained by it.”
“He was our friend!” Alyss cried.
“And we will mourn him,” Marla snapped, “... but not now.”
Alyss stared blankly at her with the false sunlight of the island reflecting off her goggles.
“Let’s keep moving,” Marla sighed, climbing again toward the column of green smoke.
They crested the ridge to look down upon another beach of blindingly white sand below. The green smoke rose from a small canister, half-buried in the sand, next to a large tent of black canvas that fluttered and boomed in the night wind. Lump the cave troll sat solemn guard next to it, wiggling his big toes in the splashing surf that rolled almost all the way up to the door of the tent.
Alyss laughed in delight, and Marla’s heart lifted as they made their way down the ridge.
“Hello!” Claude called out as they trudged through the blazing sand toward the black tent.
Lump looked up at them with glowering eyes, his wide mouth pulled into a toothy frown. Apparently sunlight had little effect on the creature, except perhaps to make him seem in an even fouler mood than he had been in on the boat.
“Hello?” Claude repeated as he stooped by the entrance of the tent.
A goggled and masked head poked out from the flap.
“I thought you were dead for sure!” Master James exclaimed as he lifted the flap to beckon them inside.
Marla’s goggles adjusted quickly to the dim interior of the tent. She looked around to discover that they were huddled between the outer flap and another black canvas, hanging the width of the tent within.
“Where did you find this?” Alyss asked as Master James buttoned down the outer flap behind them.
“Lump and I grabbed the emergency gear on the way out of the boat,” James answered, “I take it you saw my signal?”
“Yes,” Alyss said, “Will they be able to see it from the shore of the lake and send help?”
“They’re probably out lookin’ for us right now,” James said, “All we gotta do is hold tight until they come and pick us up.”
Marla almost permitted herself a moment of hope before her heart sank again. She lowered her head as she remembered the Volgrem’s words.
“No one else is going to see that signal, are they?” Claude asked.
“What do you mean?” James scoffed, “They’ll see that smoke from the Shard, if they’re lookin’!”
“Could you see this island from anywhere on the lake?” Claude demanded.
James stared at him blankly for a moment before stripping off his mask and goggles to give the young gaunt rider an angry squint. “What are you sayin’?” he asked, “Are you sayin’ nobody can find us here?”
Claude looked to Marla.
“I’m the only one who could find this island,” Marla whispered, “No one else is going to be able to help us... We’re on our own.”
Master James shook his head in disbelief.
“Can’t we try to fix the boat?” Alyss asked with a desperate hope in her voice.
“The boat’s gone,” James answered, “It’s gone.”
A low moan came from behind the inner flap of the tent.
“Nerrys?” Marla cried.
James slowly unbuttoned the inner flap before lifting it to reveal the Haedrian vampire, lying unconscious beneath a heavy blanket of glossy black cloth. Her head lay upon a sort of leathery air bladder that served as a pillow, her white helm on the floor of the tent beside it. Her reptilian eyelids fluttered as she moaned in her sleep.
“She got hurt pretty bad in the wreck,” James whispered, “... well, mostly after the wreck.”
“What do you mean?” Marla asked as she moved to Nerrys’s side.
“She lost one of her gloves in the crash,” James said, “She got burned by the light... I never seen anyone burn like that before.”
He lifted the edge of the glossy blanket to reveal the charred rim of Nerrys’s left vambrace where her hand had once been. Marla drew back, sickened by the sight, and James let the blanket fall again.
“Will she be all right?” Alyss whispered.
James shrugged. “Lump and I have been feeding her...”
&nb
sp; “You have something to drink?” Alyss demanded, ripping open her facemask to reveal her sunburned grin.
James smiled and pulled a sloshing canister from beneath a second blanket. He tossed it to the hungry vampire girl and watched with amusement as she pulled the stopper from its end with her teeth and gulped down the blood inside.
“How much do you have?” Marla asked, pulling off her goggles and mask as well.
“A whole troll’s worth,” James chuckled, “Though I’d appreciate it if nobody drank poor old Lump completely dry. I’ve grown kinda fond of the big guy... and me and the lovely lady here owe him our lives. He pulled us out of that boat before it could take us all to the bottom... We lost track of the Valganna and his boys in the confusion though. I hope they made it to shore like you folks did... Haven’t seen Simms either, though, knowin’ him, he’s probably holed up somewhere, enjoyin’ a nice long nap.”
“Master Simms and the Valganna are dead,” Marla said quietly.
“Oh,” James said, his eyes falling, “You... found ‘em out there?”
Marla nodded. “They both died in the wreck,” she said, “There wasn’t anything we could have done for them.”
Master James whistled forlornly as he took it in. “Simms... that’s hard to believe, you know. I mean... Simms too?”
“I saw no sign of the Valganna’s guards,” Marla said, “Perhaps they are still out there somewhere.”
James sighed and shook his head. “We went down pretty fast once the water started in,” he said, “I’m surprised any of us made it out of that wreck alive.”
“We have to find a way off this island,” Claude said, tucking his goggles under his arm as he rubbed at his weary eyes, “Has anyone seen anything around here that’s not made of stone... something that would float?”
“We’ve got a couple of these,” James said, holding up an air bladder like the one that served as Nerrys’s pillow, “They’re mainly meant for breathin’, in case your boat springs a leak, and you have to try to plug it from inside.”
“What about if you had to go outside the boat?” Alyss asked, passing Marla the half-empty blood canister.
“Then you get eaten by the gnawers,” James chuckled, “We never really had a plan for what to do if you lost your whole boat... didn’t think there was much point in worryin’ about that.”
“Wood then,” Claude said, “Has anyone seen any trees on this island.”
“You gonna make us a raft?” James laughed.
Claude gave the boatman a narrow squint. “You have any better ideas?” he asked.
“Look, son,” James sighed, “There’s a reason our boats are covered in metal. A raft wouldn’t last more than a minute once those gnawers set in on it, and you won’t last anywhere near that long, once they lay tooth on you!”
“If we stay here, we die!” Claude hissed, “How long do you think the five of us can last here, cut off from help?”
“Six of us,” James said, “and I’m inclined to count Lump more than once.”
“Listen, we don’t know what else... or who else, we’ll find on this island,” Marla said, licking the troll blood from her lips as she passed the canister to Claude, “We came here looking for answers, and, whatever else happens, I intend to find them.”
“Fair enough,” James said, opening a jar of cream and passing it to Alyss.
“Thanks,” Alyss said, scooping out two fingers of ointment and rubbing them over her burned cheeks and lips.
“Anybody else get flashed?” James asked, looking at Marla and Claude as he took back the little jar from Alyss.
Marla touched her cheek, but felt no pain there. Her burns must have already faded.
Claude shook his head.
“All right then,” James sighed, “Let’s button up and go have a look at our new home.”
Marla, Claude, and James crawled back into the blazing glow of the false daylight outside, leaving Alyss to watch over Nerrys inside the tent.
The enormous cave troll looked at his master with a questioning grunt.
“How’re you doin’, Lump?” James asked.
Lump shrugged his massive shoulders and grumbled noncommittally.
“Can he talk?” Marla asked.
“Sometimes,” James said, “but he’s gotta work himself up to it. We give him a keg of fairy wine every New Year’s, and he’ll sing us one of his troll songs.” James kicked at the canister buried in the sand as the last wisps of green smoke trailed away into the breeze.
“You have any more of those smoke bombs?” Claude asked.
“Three,” James answered, “but what’s the point, if nobody can see us here?”
“I don’t know,” Claude sighed, “but we might find some way to get one outside the fog.”
“It wouldn’t help unless I went with it,” Marla said.
“How’d you get to be so special anyway?” James laughed.
“Lady Veranu is born of the line of the Dragon Queen,” Claude answered with a terse edge to his voice.
“The Dragon Queen?” James asked.
“Yes,” Marla answered.
“Pigsblood!” James scoffed.
“You have another explanation for how you wound up stranded on an island that doesn’t exist?” Claude demanded.
“Yeah, well...” James sighed, “I just wish she’d picked a different boat to honor with her presence.”
Claude snorted but chose to let it drop as he continued to scan the misty horizon for any sign of deliverance.
Marla turned and looked inland, seeing nothing but jagged boulders of sun-bright rock piled against the slopes of the fiery mountain. Even with her Bremmerite goggles, she could barely make out the dim outlines of the crooked paths leading from the beach.
“Let’s see if we can find anything this way,” Marla said as she stamped her way through the dry, opalescent sand toward the rocks above.
“Watch the girls for me, Lump!” James called back as he followed Marla and Claude.
Lump grunted and returned to splashing his toes in the surf.
“What if we need his help?” Claude asked.
“Then we yell for his help,” James muttered, “I’m not leavin’ the ladies unprotected... not here.”
Marla paused, scanning the sky above for a moment.
“What did you see?” Claude asked.
“Nothing,” Marla answered, “There’s nothing there.”
“What’s wrong then?” Claude asked.
“No... she’s right,” James said, looking skyward as well now, “There’s nothin’ up there.”
“What do you mean?” Claude asked, looking up toward the star-swept expanse of sky above.
“There are no monsters,” Marla said.
“Not a chimera in sight,” James agreed, “not one!”
“Maybe they’re hunting elsewhere,” Claude offered.
“No... not all of ‘em,” James said, “Something’s not right... They’re just gone.”
“Let’s go,” Marla said renewing her ascent on the slope ahead.
“Yeah,” James agreed, sounding slightly shaken.
Claude paused to scan the hazy horizon again for a moment before he hurried to catch up with the others.
“There’s nothing alive here,” Marla said as they climbed into a shallow depression between two massive crystalline boulders.
“We found those weeds on the beach,” Claude said.
“But they washed up on the shore from the lake,” Marla said, “and even there, we didn’t see any of those gnawing fish.”
“Yeah, I was surprised we made it to the shore with all our parts still attached,” James said, “Well... except for the lady’s hand, but that was sunflash, not gnawers.”
“So the only living thing we’ve seen was the dragon in the water,” Claude said.
Marla didn’t answer as she led them through a tight fissure between the largest boulder and the hillside.
“Dragon?” James demanded.
&n
bsp; “The one that sank our boat,” Claude said.
“I thought we ran aground,” James said as he suddenly stopped following the other two, “Are you telling me there’s a dragon on this island?”
“That’s what we came to find out,” Marla said, pausing to look back at the two men, “and she may be our only chance to get off this island, so I suggest you help me find where she went before we all die here!” She did not wait to see their reaction, but simply resumed her climb up the narrow gulley of shining rocks and gravel.
“Yes, Ma’am,” James mumbled as he fell in behind Claude, following Marla up the hill.
The climb only grew steeper after that, and, before long, Marla was gasping for breath as she ascended a natural chimney of crystalline rock that stretched to an almost vertical slope in places.
Marla’s side ached where she had bruised her ribs on the reef, and the seaweed plaster covering the site had long since dried out and peeled away. She now forced herself to ignore the throbbing ache where she knew the false sunlight of the island was burning her exposed skin through the tear in her jacket. Again and again, her thoughts returned to the memories of Valganna Morst’s sun-blasted skull and the charred stump of Nerrys’s arm. How old did a vampire have to be for sun exposure to prove lethal?
She pushed these thoughts out of her mind, holding her hand over the wound as they emerged from the top of the chimney-like ravine. She could not afford to worry about herself now. Her friends were stranded on this island because of her, and, if she didn’t find a way to escape, sooner or later, they would all wind up like the Valganna.
“Marla,” Claude called out, rousing her from her dark thoughts, “Look there!”
Marla paused and moved to the edge of the knife-like ridge of moonrock they now climbed. Claude stood, pointing down at something in a deep valley on the far side of the ridge.
Marla blinked in wonder at what she saw.
A deep shadow filled the valley from the ridge where they now stood to the far side, nearly a mile away. Marla’s enchanted goggles took a few moments to compensate for the relative darkness of the valley, surrounded as it was by towering bluffs of blazing moonstone. At last she could make out the valley floor, formed of the same jagged crystalline structures as the rest of the island, but here the stones cast no light at all.
Trials of the Twiceborn (The Songreaver's Tale Book 6) Page 13
