Heir to a Lost Sun: A Caverns of Stelemia Novel

by Riley Morrison

  Kara squinted. What was that about? Had she seen another ghost like the ones she'd seen in a previous visiondream? Was there a message in what she'd just witnessed? If so, she couldn't discern it.

  After waiting a moment to make sure nothing else happened, Kara continued down the street. Deeper into the city, the curbside shops and unit complexes were replaced with office buildings, a multi story shopping precinct and a park with dead trees, picnic tables and frost-coated play equipment.

  A strange feeling overcame her, like someone had thrown water into her face. She stopped and scanned the park. Before her eyes, the world unfroze and she saw it in greens, browns, yellows and reds. Flowers bloomed, a pond teamed with orange fish and a mother duck swam along the surface, four ducklings spread out in a line behind her. Children played on the equipment, their mouths split into wide grins.

  The colors were beautiful, the sky pristine blue, the world vibrant and alive, like it hadn't been for millennia.

  Watching the park, Kara's emotions went all over the place. One moment she experienced intense nostalgia, the next, sadness and loss. What was happening? She'd never seen anything like this before. It was even more alien than the frozen city.

  An old woman appeared several feet in front of her. Kara backed away. The woman sat on a park bench watching a boy and a girl rolling around on the grass. The children looked so alike, they had to be twins. The boy had dark hair, the woman long golden braids.

  Another woman rode past on an electric bike as a metal man trimmed a hedge. The machine looked up and waved to her. The woman ignored him and sped on until she disappeared into thin air.

  Kara tried to get a closer look at the metal man but the scene dissolved and was replaced with frozen decay. She was back in the present, the cold closing in around her like a fist.

  The old world had been beautiful. How could Imogen create the very things that had destroyed it? What purpose did her Steel Children serve? Why had people allowed her to make them? Perhaps the metal man Kara had just seen was one of those Steel Children. Maybe they'd been created to help people, to serve them.

  But if they had, what had gone wrong? How did the world end up the way it had?

  The sun had dimmed as she stood watching the past. The shadows of the surrounding buildings darkened the street, their empty windows and broken walls a testament to the destruction Imogen had brought down upon her people. According to the ghost woman, this place was a mirror representation of the real world. If it could be so desolate here, so devoid of hope—what would the real surface be like? Did the Steel Children build anything beyond holy groves to their mother? Did they play together? Did they have children? Did they know how to love?

  Or was the frozen bleakness all they knew?

  As if in answer, a cold, numbing fear began to grow inside Kara. She had to move. Something was coming.

  Leaving the park, Kara scanned for danger as she entered a great intersection with half-a-dozen exits, the road full of the wrecks of ice encrusted cars and trucks. The fear surged until it became all encompassing. She raced headlong through the vehicle graveyard, pursued by something she couldn't see nor hear.

  Then her terror was given voice. With an ear-splitting shriek, the Great Shadow emerged from behind one of the skyscrapers, about a mile distant, and landed on the head of Imogen's colossal likeness. Kara bolted down one of the exits, a four-lane thoroughfare, as the creature swept its gaze over the city.

  Did it know she was there?

  Ahead, was a tunnel, descending underground. Kara raced toward it. The Great Shadow let out another monstrous high-pitched roar and then took flight. It swept along the tops of the buildings, heading her direction. Intense fear spurred Kara on. She dived down the stairs leading into the darkness of the tunnel, not thinking of the injuries she might sustain. When she crashed down onto a landing, her bones ached, her breath coming fast.

  Leaping back to her feet, she ran on, her eyes adjusting quickly to the low light. A roar followed her, then the boom of giant feet landing on the street. Claws raked at the top of the stairway, black tendrils spilled down the stairs, but she was well out of their reach. Descending several more flights of stairs, she found she'd entered a subway station. No light penetrated this deep underground, the only sound the beast raging above.

  Kara's dark-vision allowed her to see the underground world in shades of gray and black. The air was icy, the gloom oppressive, her breath misting before her.

  Arriving at the rail platform, she stopped to take stock of her situation. She was tired and hungry, but had no food and didn’t feel comfortable resting in such a strange, dark place with a living shadow fighting to dig its way down to her. But then, by the time she got back to the surface, the sun would have set. Perhaps the station was the best place to spend the night so she could continue her journey the next day.

  Images of trains running between stations and passenger seats, electronic train tickets and metal wheels filled Kara's mind. This time she knew what they were. Memories. But not hers. Imogen's.

  Perhaps Imogen had walked this very train platform, catching a ride, long ago. Was it possible the vision of the park from earlier, also belonged to Imogen? But that memory was a more vivid one that stuck in Imogen's mind and made Kara feel as if she was truly there.

  Had the playing twins been Imogen and Dressen?

  The swoosh of wings pulled Kara from her thoughts. The Great Shadow let out an angry roar.

  Deciding it best to follow the rail line to the next station, Kara jumped off the platform and onto the tracks. Silence fell as the Great Shadow moved on, and with it the terror that was driving to flee. Did the beast leave to find another entrance to the subway or had it given up altogether and gone in search of easier prey?

  Only time would tell.

  Kara headed the direction that led deeper into the city and after a mile reached the next station. Climbing onto the platform, she shivered. It seemed her power to keep warm was being pushed to its limit.

  This station seemed as silent and dead as the last one, but an unearthly eeriness hung over it. Far greater than what she'd felt earlier with the ghost man. Kara held her breath and tried to make no sound as she crept along. It felt wrong to tread here, as if she were trespassing on something she wasn't meant to.

  Dread smothered her heart. She didn't like this place. Not one bit.

  Kara made her way back to the rail line and dropped down and crouch-ran along the inside of the platform so nothing could see her from above. She'd need to keep going and hope the feeling she'd gotten here didn't follow her.

  It took twenty minutes to reach the next station, this one larger than the previous two. Climbing onto the platform, she was relieved to not feel the lingering dread she'd experienced at the last one. Twin sets of broken escalators ran up the center of the station. They seemed to lead up to the next level. Not seeing anywhere comfortable to spend the night where she was, Kara climbed them and found herself on another platform. The rail lines on this level headed in different directions to the ones below.

  A door leading into a stationmaster's office lay broken on the floor. Perhaps she could find a comfortable seat in there to sleep in. She made her way across the tiled floor then froze. A faint noise had broken the silence. Training her ears, she tried to work out where it came from.

  It sounded like a woman crying from inside the office. Could it be the ghost woman?

  After a moment's deliberation, Kara decided to risk seeing who was in there.

  Sneaking to the edge of the doorway, she peered around the edge. A woman dressed in black leather armor sat against the back wall, her head buried between her knees, shivering uncontrollably. Clasped in her hand was a strange-looking egg-shaped object.

  The stranger didn't look up as Kara stepped into the room. "Hello. Are you here or are you another ghost?"

  The woman snapped her head up, dropping the object and sending it rolling across the floor. Kara froze in place, her heart skipping a beat
. The woman looked like Kara had—back before the poison had changed her—but this woman had scars all over her face. "Who... Who are you?" Could it be Semira? How...

  Screeching something incoherent, the woman leapt to her feet and dove for Kara. The impact knocked Kara off her feet and flat on her back, the woman landing on top of her. "Die, half-blood," the woman wailed, then clasped her fingers around Kara's neck and squeezed.

  DAWN OF A LOST SUN COMING DECEMBER 20TH 2017