by K. Aten
“Is that grown into the wall?” Tosh reached up to touch the wood that seemed as if it had grown around the box, trapping in in place. The only thing they could really see clearly was the intricate lock on the front. “Will you just cut it away?”
Qent shook his head. “You can’t just cut stuff like that because you don’t know how delicate either the box is, or whatever is inside the box. You could damage the treasure you seek.”
“He’s right. I’ve dealt with similar things before because so many of the artifacts left by the Makers have been lost for generations. It’s easy enough to strip away small bits of the surrounding wood using apportation.”
Specialist Qent shined his light farther above them but only saw darkness. He had no idea how high the hollow of the massive tree rose into the trunk. “What do you need us to do while you work?”
Olivienne pulled her gaze away from the box and shined her own light around. “Just keep an eye out for any movement, listen for any sounds that don’t seem as though they belong. I don’t want to accidentally set off anything while I free this.”
It took about twenty meens to remove enough wood for the box to pull free of the wall. It was painstaking work to carve it out bit by bit but eventually she was able to take it in hand. “Should we open it here?”
Castellan looked at the metal box in Olivienne’s hands. It was about eight inces wide, two tall, and five inces deep. “I have a three rating ferrokinesis, I could probably remove the lock, or even put a crude hole in the side. Though Leggett has a higher rating and could probably do either with more accuracy.” She started to reach her hand out then stopped again.
“What is it?”
Tosh answered Olivienne’s question without taking her eyes off the box. “We should wait. I’m certain that we should have Lieutenant Madlin put her hands on it before we go any further.” When the Connate gave her a curious look, she elaborated. “She’s rated four in psychometry, she’ll be able to give us some history before we do anything rash.”
“You’re right, that’s a resource I didn’t consider at all.” Olivienne turned to Castellan with a big smile on her face. “There may be some merit to your special team after all!”
Tosh grinned back. “I have my moments.”
As soon as Olivienne moved from the platform onto the top step Qent paused. “Can you hear that? It’s coming from above us.”
Without another word from him, Tosh used her telekinesis to sweep all three of them off the supportive steps and platform into the blackness in the center of the tree. But rather than free fall to the ground, she controlled their decent to the center of the chamber with her levitation. When their feet hit the ground, all three people shined their lanterns above and Spc. Qent’s eyes widened. Crashing sounded above and they ran toward the place where light was streaming in through the tunnel. As soon as they reached the outside of the tree, they collapsed to the ground and a muffled whoomp followed their relief as well as a goodly amount of dust. Castellan looked at Qent in the dim light of the suns as it filtered through the canopy above. “What was that?”
He gave her a wide-eyed look, clearly still shaken. “I don’t know, but it was massive and it fell from the ceiling. Our weight on the platform itself must have been a trigger, which released as soon as Connate Dracore stepped off and the weight on it was decreased. “
Olivienne groaned as she stood and inspected the entrance to the middle of the tree. “Bollux, I should have known to look for that! I’m such an idiot!”
Tosh stood as well and put her hand on Olivienne’s shoulder. “It’s all right, we all survived.”
“It was that close.” Tosh followed the Connate’s finger to see what she was pointing at only to find smooth wood at the end of the short tunnel they’d come through. Whatever had fallen from the ceiling inside the hollowed out tree had filled the entire space at the bottom. They would have been crushed flat.
“Close only counts when you’re pitching dung. Is everyone okay?” Lt. Madlin had come around the base of the tree to see what the commotion was about.
Cmdr. Tosh gave her a tight smile. “We’re fine.” Truthfully they would have been because Castellan was certain she could have held the falling object long enough for them to escape but it was good she didn’t have to. No sense draining her energy when they were only halfway through the adventure. “We need you to see if you can get a psychometric read on the box we brought out.”
Olivienne held it out for the lieutenant to grab with both hands. Lt. Madlin closed her eyes and stiffened for an instant before relaxing once again. “I sense danger. Something small and pointed, perhaps spring-loaded—”
“Can you tell anything about who left the box there?” The Connate leaned forward, nearly as curious about who put the treasure in the tree as she was about the actual treasure.
Lt. Madlin focused harder and lines formed between her eyes as dark auburn eyebrows drew together. “Gray ones...eyes black and long fingered hands...three and one not five...” She trailed off.
Tosh tilted her head whilst trying to make sense of her lieutenant’s words. “Three what? And what do you mean gray ones?”
“I don’t know.” It was the strangest psychometric reading that Lt. Auda Madlin had ever experienced and she handed the box back her sovereign. “I’m not sure what the rest means but I got a definite sense that the box is dangerous to open.”
The Connate turned to Tosh. “Her reference to needles indicates it’s probably got a spring trap. I’ve seen it before where there is a small hole with a poisoned needle inside. The needle is spring loaded so if you try to pick the lock, or just open the box you’ll get stabbed with it. Based on what I’ve encountered in the past, I think your idea of opening a hole in the side has merit.”
“Leggett!”
Tosh gave a mental shout that anyone in the vicinity with telepathy was sure to hear.
Spc. Branda Leggett jogged around the trunk of the tree to their location. “Yes, ser!”
Olivienne carefully set the box on the ground and stepped back then Castellan pointed at it. “We need an opening made in the side facing the tree. Delicately. Do you think you can handle that?”
Leggett smiled. “Yes, Commander.” Tosh directed the rest of them away from the box and Spc. Leggett went to work. She focused her ferrokinetic channel on the back side of the box and slowly a hole began to appear. She kept going until it was nearly two inces across. “How is that?”
Tosh walked closer to the box on the ground and gave a little tap with her foot. A shickt sound came from the small rectangle and a collection of sharp pins shot out of the hole and stuck into the bark of the tree. “Sheddech!” Tosh jumped back in reaction. She glanced at Madlin with more than a little shock. “You certainly weren’t kidding around about the danger.”
No one seemed particularly willing to move so she stepped forward and gave the box a little tap again. When nothing happened, she used her telekinesis to lift it and tip the opening toward the ground. The sound of something sliding inside had them all nervous until a decorative pendant fell out and landed in the dirt below. Tosh carefully discarded the box off to the side then bent down to pick up the artifact that had fallen out. She didn’t inspect it herself, because it wasn’t her place. Instead she held it out to Olivienne. “I believe this is yours.”
The few guardians that were on their side of the tree crowded around as the Connate took the treasure in hand and examined it. It was an intricate representation of the highly familiar temple symbol. The interwoven circle and triangle were made of two different metals. The triangle appeared to be copere and the circle made of stele. It was a little over an ince across and prominently featured a blue gemstone set in the center. “It’s beautiful...but how is this a key?”
Tosh shrugged, having no answers for Olivienne. “I can’t and won’t pretend to understand the ways and workings of the Makers but if it is supposed to be a key, we’ll treat it as such.”
Olivienne pulled
a length of cord out of her pocket and threaded it through the pendant before tying it tight around her own neck. She glanced at Tosh and shrugged. “For safekeeping.”
Everyone was happy to leave the tree and get back to their camp in the forest proper. Tosh was the last one to crawl out of the exposed field and gave a sigh of relief when the danger was successfully past them. A low beep sounded from the supply cube and Spc. Lazaro jogged over to answer the voteo alert. The commander called out to the rest of the team. “I want to break camp now and start back. It’s still fairly early in the dae and we can make good progress back to the beach if we leave now” Afterward, she followed their communications specialist to the cube with the long-range voteo, curious as to why one of their other two teams would contact them.
Specialist Dante Lazaro was younger at only twenty-two rotos, but he seemed to know his way around the equipment quite well. He cued the mic. “Mater base receiving, request ident. Over.”
There was a brief hiss then a familiar voice came over the small speaker. “Filia base, Lieutenant Savon. I have a message for Commander Tosh, over.”
Tosh took the mic and cued it. “Tosh here, go ahead Savon.”
“Commander, the channel between the islands is clogged with Atlanteen guests, I think somehow they’ve figured out we’ve got people on the island. I don’t sense they’ll leave anytime soon and the ships won’t come into the channel even with rocs as cover. I also had a vision that your team would be picked up on the eastern beach instead.”
Olivienne had walked up in time to hear Lt. Savon’s transmission. “Isn’t that near the roc’s nesting grounds?”
Tosh nodded and cued the mic again. “Lieutenant, your prescience says it’s safe despite being near the location of the roc hatchlings?”
“Yes, ser.”
Commander Tosh blew out a long breath and shut her eyes to consider her lieutenant’s prescient warning. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this and I want to get back to the mainland as soon as possible. What do you think?”
The Connate frowned. “I think it’s a trap. The Atlanteens are looking to pinch us between their creatures of the deep and the rocs. They know if we get near the nesting grounds, we’ll be in danger of attack from above but what choice do we have? If the channel is impassible then we have to rendezvous with our boat elsewhere.”
“I don’t have as much experience with Lieutenant Savon, has his prescience ever been off?”
Olivienne shook her head. “Never.”
Tosh didn’t say anything to acknowledge the statement. Instead she pulled out the map she carried in the pocket sewn onto the outer thigh of her trousers. “Look at this.” She pointed at the area they’d have to traverse to get to the new rendezvous point. “The eastern beach is half as far from our location as the north one we landed on. And it’s downhill so it will be a considerably faster march on the way out.” She cued the mic again. “Roger the east beach, Savon. Convey to the captain that we will rendezvous directly east of the marked Fortuna Ligno tree on the map. That is around the bend from the south beach and I’m hoping that will be enough to keep us out of rocs’ sights. Copy?”
“Yes, ser. ETA?”
Castellan glanced at the map again before responding. “Thirty-eight oors which is nine hundred the dae after next.”
“Yes, Commander. I’ll let them know. Savon out.”
“Tosh out.” She handed the mic back to Lt. Lazaro and he quickly powered down the machine back to its receiving mode and began packing it up for the trip to the eastern beach.
They traveled the rest of that dae before making camp, then had another dae’s travel after that. They set up camp within sight of the beach where the ship would collect the team. Tosh addressed Olivienne and the six guardians while they ate their evening meal. “I want to break camp at first light tomorrow and be on the edge of that beach by eight hundred.”
Their original plan called for the ship captain to pick up the team on Filia before coming to collect the team on Mater and the commander never specified different the previous dae. Even though the pickup for the Connate’s team was farther away than expected, the ship wouldn’t have a problem performing both retrievals on time. “I don’t want to expose our location until we receive communication from Lieutenant Savon.” A chorus of affirmation met her words.
Tosh eventually grabbed her own meal and sat next to Olivienne to eat. The Connate had the pendant removed from her neck and held the piece in the palm of her right hand, cord dangling down between her legs. “It is beautiful, the closest thing to art I’ve ever seen from the Makers.”
Castellan set her empty tray aside when she was finished eating and held out her hand. “May I?” Olivienne gave it to her and Tosh turned it between her fingertips, looking at all sides. It was circular and flattened, but not nearly as thin as a coin. The detail and artwork that went into the interwoven metal shapes was breathtaking. And the gem sparkled in the dim firelight. “I don’t see how it could be a traditional key unless the shape matches up to a cutout somewhere.”
Olivienne shook her head slowly and took the pendant as Tosh handed it back. She tied it back around her neck with a double knot for safekeeping and tucked it down the front of her shirt. The commander watched in fascination as the artifact nestled into the cleavage that she could see peaking from between open buttons. When Tosh raised her eyes, she was caught in the dark gaze of her sovereign. Some of the pressure of the adventure was off them with the retrieval of the artifact and Castellan felt the first stirrings of her passion return as she looked upon Olivienne’s face. The shadows flickered across the planes and valleys, making the sovereign’s image jump around. She was startled by Olivienne’s quiet voice. “Do you need to look at the pendant again, or perhaps you would be more interested in discussing strategy in my cube later?”
Castellan flushed at Olivienne’s implication but smiled rakishly in the firelight. “Perhaps a long...strategy session is in order. We’re fairly safe here after all, and near enough to the end of our journey.”
Both women reveled in the thought of another night of dalliance but neither would say why. Oors later, when all was done, they were much too exhausted to part company afterward and Tosh fell asleep pressed tight behind Olivienne. She worried for a bit before sleep could fully claim her. Each new intimate act seemed to draw them closer together and she didn’t know what to make of the connection. One thing she knew for certain though, it was going to affect their future in one way or another.
AT EIGHT HUNDRED the next morning, the team was fed and fully assembled with their gear nearby and their weapons at the ready. They had taken positions just inside the edge of trees where the forest grew right up to the rocky beach. There were rocs circling in the air high above but it was off to the south and a fairly good distance from their current position. The team was in place for nearly thirty meens when desperate screeching off in the distance could be heard, steadily rising in intensity. At the same time, Lt. Madlin called out to Tosh in a panic. “Commander!” She staggered and grabbed her head, nearly falling to her knees in the loam near the forest edge.
Tosh rushed to the stricken lieutenant. “What’s wrong?”
“Distress...my animal empathy is resonating so much fear. I think something is happening down beach.”
“That must be why they’re kicking up a racket.” Olivienne got out her spyglass and tried to see more. “I see an unusual amount of roc activity in the sky—bollux!”
Castellan pulled out her own spyglass from the pouch at her waist. “Tentacle! We’ve got a leviathan off the south beach. Specialist Lazaro, best inform Lieutenant Savon and the ship.” The guardian in charge of communications quickly fired up the machine he carried on his back and sent an urgent message to Lt. Savon.
“Ser! The leviathan is heading for the rocks where the young birds are located.”
“They’re all afraid. The fear is nearly overwhelming, Commander.” Lt. Madlin still had her eyes closed and Tosh debated what
to do. She contemplated letting the scene between the leviathan and the rocs play out simply because they were not equipped to interfere. Their small team didn’t have the firepower to take on something that could drag entire ships beneath the waves with little effort.
Olivienne broke through her thoughts. “You can’t leave it to take their young! Rocs only lay a few eggs a roto!”
Castellan turned to her with a pained look. “Connate Dracore, we do not have the resources to meet the challenge of protecting the young rocs, not to mention the adults would attack us as well. Ultimately, we are responsible for your safety and I will not jeopardize our objective.”
Olivienne looked at Tosh with something close to fury. “What is protocol two of the Sovereign Code, Commander?”
The officer looked back at her like she’d gone mad. “Protocol two dictates that no subject of Psiere may lay a hand on a sovereign without their express permission, nor are they allowed to use their channel on a sovereign without the same permission. I don’t see what this has to do with—”
Her words cut off as Olivienne abruptly dropped her pack and took off like a shot through the forest, headed in the direction of the south beach. Based on where the cries were emanating, they were at least five meens away at a run. Panic filled her as she realized what Olivienne was doing. “Sheddech!” She quickly called out all to the team. “Lazaro, stay with the gear and the long-range, tell Savon that the Connate has gone to engage the leviathan and that we are heading to the south beach. The rest of you leave the gear but bring any weapons you have. Follow the Connate!” She wasn’t carrying her own pack but she grabbed her bolt rifle from where it was leaning against a nearby tree and took off after the foolhardy sovereign. Per the code she had just recited, she knew she couldn’t stop Olivienne without risking exile to the prison island of Iuvenis. All she could do was follow and protect her to the best of her ability.
