The Heartstone Saga

by Archibald Bradford

  “They’ve excavated most of my Avita’s colony. But have yet to find anything.”

  “Let’s get down there then.” Miranda suggested; “Call your workers out. It’ll be easier for Jan to sniff around without other scents muddling up the place.”

  Julia frowned at having to rein in her frantic searchers, but agreed and without delay they followed the Wolfen’s lead and entered her daughter’s colony.

  It wasn’t the first time that Nameless and his girls had been underground, the last time being when they found Volka’s shield beneath the Sansee Wastes.

  But following the course of a methodical excavation like that was different than following the whims of an Antlion queen’s colony; without Queen Julia to guide them through the rough-cut stone passages they would have very quickly gotten lost in the winding labyrinth.

  And somehow Nameless had forgotten the muted feeling of so many tons of rock above his heads in the claustrophobic space.

  Following the queen’s lead, they delved into the longest of her daughter’s tunnels. Mostly it was sandstone around them, but once they reached the bottom they inevitably hit a hollowed out space that ended with walls of solid granite, largely untouched by her daughter’s workers and their tools.

  “This is it. This is the deepest tunnel she had.” Julia fretted as she looked to Jan, already snuffling around; “Please, there must be something!”

  But all too soon the Wolfen sighed and shook her head.

  “I’m sorry Queen Julia, but all I smell is your workers and us.”

  The Antlion’s chin trembled and she wrung her hands together.

  “I... I don’t know what we do now.”

  While they talked though, Nina moved around the room, tapping at the walls and floor with her hands and feet, her brow furrowed in concentration.

  “Dearheart what is it?”

  “Shush. Antlions aren’t the only ones who understand the bones of the earth.”

  A bit indignant at being shushed, Ophelia crossed her arms over her breast, but said nothing.

  Erica gnawed at her lip and shook her head.

  “No offense to the old dog-lady, but maybe Grant would have been a better choice, not for Bruti’s nose but for Linda’s ability to-”

  “SHUSH!” Nina repeated, much louder this time, the ground around them shaking alarmingly.

  All eyes looked to her as she glared at the harsh granite wall, her fingers moving through the occasional gouge from an Antlion’s tool.

  Queen Julia drifted closer to her, the handful of soldiers that had accompanied them into the excavated colony eyeing the tiny red girl, gauging the level of threat she might present to their sovereign.

  Eventually Nina turned to the queen and shook her head.

  “Are you sure this is the deepest part of your kid’s colony?”

  “Yes, why?”

  But the Gigas didn’t answer; instead she took up her hammer and lightly struck the wall, a few chips of fractured stone falling away as once again they felt the vibration of her strength through their feet.

  Immediately after hitting the wall she set her palm against the smooth stone and closed her eyes.

  Everyone in the little chamber was breathless as they watched her.

  Finally she nodded her head firmly.

  “Cool. Your daughter was right, there are caves down here.”

  Miranda drew closer to her, the glowing lost-tech orb in her fist sending the giant’s shadow dancing across the solid wall.

  “I’m not going to ask how you know, but are you sure?”

  Nina nodded, choosing not to get prickly about the inane question.

  “I’m sure. But they’re above us. It looks like Avita’s workers missed it with this tunnel and gave up once they hit the granite.”

  “So what does that mean?” Jez asked impatiently from her perch on Kala’s back.

  After her rebellion against Ophelia, she had opted to stick closer to her Amazon bond-sister.

  The Gigas shrugged and turned towards the desperately hopeful queen.

  “It means you need to show us the second deepest part of this place.”

  Erica looked back at the sloping tunnel they just came down, distaste on her face at the idea of climbing back up it, but out of respect for the worried Antlion Queen she didn’t complain.

  Not long afterwards they were standing in a similar little node within the colony, except here the walls were sandstone again.

  Jan sniffed around, but once more shook her head helplessly, any scents of the former Antlions overwhelmed by the latter ones.

  “Spread out!” Julia ordered her soldiers and a small group of workers she’d summoned from the surface; “If Avita found a way into these caves it must be near here!”

  Nina set to work examining the walls, but Nameless felt a growing sense of frustration from her.

  “I know it’s here somewhere, I can feel the open space.” She muttered to herself as she moved around the room, then back through the tunnel that lead to it.

  Feeling useless, Nameless just did his best to stay out of the way.

  But a few minutes later he felt a jolt of excitement from his Gigas as she stopped in her tracks.

  “Light! Somebody bring me light!”

  The tunnels of the colony were certainly more spacious than an actual ant-colony, but they were crowded now as everyone converged on Nina to see what she’d discovered.

  Unable to get past the press of bodies, Miranda tossed her glowing orb to Ophelia, standing closer to the giant.

  “Yep. Fucking hell I deserve a promotion or a cake or something.”

  “What have you found?!” The queen demanded, her girls moving aside to allow her through.

  “Look here, this isn’t natural.”

  Nina smacked her palm against the wall, a chunk of loose sandstone falling away.

  “Was that... plastered in place somehow?” Ophelia asked as the Gigas kept digging with her bare hands.

  “Mortared.” Nina corrected; “But let’s not split hairs. Now everybody quit crowding me so I can do this thing.”

  Soon she had cleared away the plugged up hole, revealing a narrow opening, where presumably Avita’s workers had initially discovered the hidden caves that they now sought.

  Once again Nina asked for light, and this time tossed the light orb through the opening.

  “Bit of a drop. We’ll need rope for the squishies.”

  The Antlion workers came prepared and once they had helped Nina to widen the opening, they tossed down a ladder made from rope and solid planks of wood.

  As soon as the Gigas leapt through the opening with her heavy hammer and proclaimed it to be safe, the rest took it in turns to climb down, Ophelia and Volka of course simply gliding down into the wide-open space below.

  And once they had more light in the place it became instantly clear that this was not a naturally occurring cave.

  It was some kind of subterranean passageway, the ceiling easily fifteen feet above their heads and curving down to either side to meet the floor, while the passage itself extended as far as their light could see in either direction.

  “These walls look familiar.” Milly remarked as she ran her hand against the smooth and perfectly even stone.

  “Yeah, just like the bunker in the desert!” Erica agreed from beside her; “Man, I hope there aren’t more of those Seeker things down here.”

  “You encountered a Seeker?” Julia said in surprise, the cat inadvertently distracting her from her worries again.

  Naturally Erica was incredibly blasé about it.

  “Sure did. Milly kicked the snot out of it. My sister is a badass.”

  Before Julia could follow up with more questions though, Kala shook her head as she looked into the dark tunnel extending in either direction with no sign of an end.

  “These strange caves could extend for miles. And if it branches off and we aren’t careful we could get lost down here and never find our way out again.”

/>   “We will do no such thing!” Julia promised with some indignation; “Antlions do not get lost underground. Even now I can point to where the sun is in the sky.”

  “Yeah, and as long as I know which way ‘up’ is, I can dig us out.” Nina affirmed.

  While they spoke Jan was hard at work, sniffing at the air and all along the floor.

  She frowned suddenly and looked to the queen.

  “Were any of your workers hurt down here? Like a major injury?”

  The Antlion’s antennae wiggled for a moment before she shook her head.

  “No, a few minor cuts, but that was in the excavation far above.

  The Wolfen sighed and she nodded.

  “I was afraid of that.”

  She moved her foot against a spot on the floor, sweeping aside the broken bits of sandstone from Nina’s digging to reveal an ugly dark stain.

  Immediately they all knew what it was.

  “Antlion blood.” She explained unnecessarily; “It’s weeks old, but-”

  “Avita!” The queen cried, moved into motion in the direction Jan had found the blood.

  “Wait!” Miranda called out, risking injury at the hands of the soldiers by putting herself in front of their queen; “We have to go carefully Queen Julia! We have no idea what we are walking into.”

  The mother’s longing to charge into the darkness was plain to see, but she was wise enough to hold back.

  “There was a fight here, some time ago.” Jan continued as her keen nose found more evidence, a few more spots of blood coming into few as she shifted the dust around; “But I can’t tell much more beyond that, I’m sorry but the old scents are getting all muddled together with all of ours.”

  “I... I will call the rest of my soldiers down.” Julia turned away to hide the tears on her face, her antennae wriggling to summon her Antlions.

  “So her colony was attacked.” Miranda mused, scratching at her chin.

  “Seems like it. But they were attacked from below which is really spooky.”

  “Maybe it is Seekers then?” Ophelia suggested worriedly as Nina put herself between her bond-mate and the darkness.

  “This close to Algrade? Not bloody likely!” Miranda exclaimed; “It’s amazing enough that these tunnels haven’t been discovered with all of the digs going on around the city. If there was a swarm this close, no way would it have gone undetected for so long.”

  Volka was frowning as she mimicked Milly from earlier, her hand on the wall.

  “What if this tunnel doesn’t go near Algrade?”

  “You find something?”

  The Valkyrie’s glow brightened, making the lost-tech orbs that Nameless and Miranda were still using for light unnecessary.

  “Perhaps.” She mused.

  Her eyes grew distant and Nameless felt a swirl of vague memories from her past overtook her mind.

  Memories of war.

  He made an effort to keep his breathing steady to avoid distracting her as she delved into the pain of her bloody past.

  After several seconds Volka turned from the wall, her eyes wide with realization.

  “The capital. By my goddess how did I miss it?”

  “Okay, cut it out.” Nina huffed; “Explain.”

  “The landscape of this world has changed much over the millennia, and never more so than when the emperor of the Divine Republic fell, his final act unleashing the arsenal of man-”

  “Yeah yeah.” Nina waved impatiently; “He was a dick, the magic tribes tried to stop him, world got busted. What does that have to do with this?”

  Volka sighed at her bond-sister’s impatience, but nodded.

  “Wars are not fought with one side and then another each taking half of a perfect board. Wars are fought over the complicated topography of the world. I believe that we are now standing within an underground network of tunnels constructed by the Divine Republic... around their capital city.”

  Miranda shrugged.

  “You’re talking like that’s a big reveal, but I’m pretty sure that it’s the prevailing opinion of the history buffs at the university. Hence why the dig-sites in Algrade are amongst the richest known. But like the red girl said: so what?”

  Volka pulled away from the wall, her light dimming somewhat when she realized her mistake.

  “Forgive me, I was distracted. I was going to suggest that the reason this place was never found is because that network I spoke of was built outside the capital. It was a staging area for their armies and supplies. But I suppose that it isn’t relevant to our present circumstance.”

  From the heartstone set in her shield, Nameless felt a twinge of embarrassment and even remorse at her memories distracting them from their purpose.

  “It might be actually.” Queen Julia declared with a nod as she looked around, no longer bothering to hide her tears; “If my daughter stumbled upon something down here that put her and her colony in danger, she could have ordered her workers to seal them in, to spare the rest of the world.”

  Her throat closed as emotion overtook her, meanwhile her soldiers advanced into the darkness on either side of them and set their shields against the unknown threat.

  Nina took her hammer in both hands and rudely elbowed past the defensive line.

  “Alright then. Let’s assume it’s something like those Seekers and be super-duper-extra careful about it. Jan, you find any more blood? If there were any survivors it could tell us which direction they went.”

  The Wolfen nodded.

  “I was about to suggest that actually.”

  “Too bad I beat you to it, so I get all the credit.” The Gigas declared bluntly; “Which way?”

  A bit sullen, Jan resumed her tracking efforts and soon found more blood, moving towards one side of where they entered.

  Finally she pointed into the dark tunnel heading to the right.

  “That way, whatever hit them seems to have come from there; this is where the signs of combat are the heaviest.

  “My daughter.” The Antlion Queen sobbed; “What nightmare did you uncover down here?”

  “There is only one way to find out.” Volka declared as she drew her sword of light, her wings spreading wide as her aura extended outwards to bathe the tunnel in angelic radiance; “Lead on, Jan. And let us seek out this nightmare for ourselves.”

  “I will stand with you against it Dominar.” Kala pledged as she readied her spear.

  “And me.” Milly agreed as she took up position on the other side of the angel.

  “Guess that means you and me are stuck guarding Master.” Erica quipped towards Ophelia.

  At the oblique reference to him, Miranda turned to order Nameless to prepare some lost-tech countermeasures just in case, but had to bite back the words when she saw he already had a canister ready in either hand, having handed off his light orb to Ophelia.

  She felt weirdly proud of him, but quickly looked to Jan.

  “Alright then, you follow your nose Jan and we’ll follow you. Nina, could you-”

  “I’ve got her back, you just keep one eye on my man in case shit gets serious.”

  “I will protect him myself if it means finding my Avita!” Queen Julia swore; “But please, let us hurry!”

  They proceeded like that into the darkness: Jan crouching low in front with Nina at her side, followed by Volka, Milly and Kala and a wall of Antlion shields.

  Barely ten minutes later, they encountered what Kala feared earlier: a wide open space with a number of tunnels branching off into different directions.

  The cavernous chamber was easily forty yards across, with a half-dozen other openings leading out of it. Each was identical in size and structure to the underground boulevard they had come in from.

  “If that archeology guy from the desert were here, I think he’d shoot in his pants.” Erica observed as she looked around; “Because this is pretty incredible.”

  While they spoke Jan sniffed around the massive room.

  “Yes.” Volka agreed, though sh
e seemed sad; “The Divine Republic always excelled at construction. The fact that the Bastion in Garland wasn’t the tallest structure they built is testament to that!”

  “You getting anything puppy?” Miranda called to her bond-mate, her voice echoing around the open space.

  Investigating one of the passages nearby, at first the Wolfen shook her head, but suddenly she stiffened in place.

  “No.” She breathed out; “Oh no.”

  Nina stepped in front of her to protect her from the darkness, not looking away from it as she spoke.

  “Gimme more than that. What do you smell?”

  Jan turned to face the main group, now a circle of forty Antlion soldiers around a squishy core of humans, not to mention the Katje, Gripau and Flutterby.

  “We were wrong. It’s not Seekers.”

  Erica flinched beside Nameless, and suddenly she had a knife in each hand.

  Jan had a much better sense of smell, but her hearing was superior.

  “Something’s coming!” She hissed out in warning.

  “Where?” Miranda replied tightly.

  Erica’s eyes reflected the light of the orb gripped in the older woman’s fist as her ears swiveled on her head.

  “Everywhere!”

  “What is it dearheart? Seekers?” Ophelia whispered.

  Queen Julia slumped as they all heard the chittering cacophony of the approaching mob.

  “No.” She lamented with yet more tears; “It is my Avita.”

  Seconds later the chamber was flooded with Tenebrae.

  Chapter 23:

  Fallen Monarch

  The well-trained legion of ant-girls brought their shields to bear, forming a solid circle to protect their queen and her allies.

  Meanwhile Antlion workers swarmed out of the various branches of the tunnels, seeming to be never ending.

  From behind the wall of shields Queen Julia’s heart was broken.

  “Give me back my daughter!” She cried irrationally.

  “We will save her!”

  She looked down and to the side to see Nameless watching the dark-eyed workers with his jaw set in determination.

  Every time he encountered a Tenebrae, every time he entered the mind of a girl so tormented by negative emotions, his resolve grew. To the point that now he showed no fear at all for the workers about to collide with the queen’s soldiers and his bond-mates.