Thief of the Ancients

by Mike Wild

  “Awe inspiring, isn’t it?” the voice said again, and this time it sounded more familiar. “Some say the whole expanse exists on the head of a pin.”

  “Sonpear?” Kali said.

  “Sonpear?” Pim repeated.

  “My apologies for your abrupt departure. In the circumstances, I am afraid I acted instinctively, my magic reflecting what was on my mind.”

  “Hey, don’t worry about it,” Kali said.

  “You’re talking to Sonpear?” Pim chipped in again.

  “Yes!” Kali snapped. And then more slowly: “Although I’m not sure how.”

  “‘Sending’ and ‘receiving’ is my trade, Miss Hooper. Or had you forgotten?”

  Kali hadn’t. Sonpear’s abilities as a telescrying spy had helped lead the Final Faith to the Clockwork King. She just hadn’t realised his talents were quite so powerful.

  “It isn’t exactly telepathy,” Sonpear went on, and Kali could almost hear a smile in his voice. “But I challenge any thaumaturgist to explain to me the difference.”

  “So you’re a man of many talents. Does one of them include a way of getting us back from where you’ve sent us?”

  “Do you not prefer to remain where it is safe? Do you not yearn to explore your new environment?”

  Oh, Kali yearned to explore, all right – very much. But she also knew that now was not the time to do so. As it happened, Pim vocalised the question she was about to ask.

  “How bad is the Underlook? How are our people?” he shouted into the air, turning as he did as if that might help Sonpear hear him better.

  “There are no casualties. The fireball destroyed the hotel tower in quite dramatic fashion but the resulting damage was, thankfully, localised.”

  “I asked you a question! Answer me, dammit!”

  “Um, I think only I can hear him,” Kali pointed out.

  Pim faltered. “Oh, right. Well, then, what did he say?”

  “The fireball blew the roof off but, otherwise, everyone’s all right.”

  “The turret’s gone?” Pim said and, clearly thinking of his collection, his face darkened. “When this is over, I am going to sue the wands off those bastards in the League.”

  “When this is over. And somehow I don’t think it will be unless we stop it.”

  “I’d welcome any suggestions as to what we can do,” Pim said.

  “Wait,” Kali said, and then addressed Sonpear. “Earlier you said ‘what was on your mind’? We were talking about weapons, Sonpear, so why should that make you think of this place? Are the weapons here?”

  Sonpear sighed. “Among countless other artefacts. The Expanse was considered by the Guild to be a safe depository for such items, yes.”

  Kali remembered her visit to the Three Towers’ forbidden archive, where she had summoned virtual projections of its treasures, mere representations of the real things. But this was where the real deal was. This was where the artefacts actually were.

  “Tell me where. They could help.”

  Sonpear paused. “I remain reluctant to do that. Such weapons, were they to find their way into the wrong hands, could easily tip the balance of power on the peninsula.”

  Kali slammed her hands on her hips and shouted at the sky, without feeling even vaguely foolish. “Sonpear, listen to me. In case you hadn’t noticed the balance of power has already been tipped. In favour of the k’nid. They don’t belong on the peninsula any more than these weapons do. Give us the means to fight them!”

  “Proceed west,” Sonpear instructed. “But I warn you again, Miss Hooper – there may be hazards involved.”

  “What kind of hazards?”

  Sonpear hesitated again. “I pray that you do not find out.” He sighed. “I need to cease our communication for now. The effort is exhausting.”

  “Okay. But, Sonpear, don’t go far.”

  “Fear not. I shall return to you as soon as I am able, Miss Hooper.”

  Kali and Pim moved cautiously through the ghostly darkness, in a direction that, if they were on their own plane, would be taking them towards the Andon Heart. It was somewhat disorientating, the knowledge of what they were passing through back home jarring with the sights around them, the towers and spires in the distance, the topology of this unknown time. Amidst it all, however, there soon became visible something that was strangely familiar – and strangely disturbing.

  Ahead, soaring above them were three thick and writhing pillars of energy, powerful not only in appearance but in the discomforting buzz they produced in Kali and Pim’s bones. As she and the thieves guild leader moved closer, Kali saw that they were more than just pillars and seemed to be filled with the ghost-like hints of a floor level here, a doorway there, a staircase between them.

  “This looks like –” Pim began.

  “It is.”

  The almost impossible structure that was the headquarters of the League of Prestidigitation and Prestige had always generated speculation among the people of Andon as to how exactly it had been built and remained standing – with sorceries, surely, but now Kali and Pim knew the truth. The Three Towers had its foundations here in Domdruggle’s Expanse, magically rooted in another plane of existence. In other words, it was unique. The only thing on Twilight that spanned two worlds.

  As revelatory as that was, what grabbed Kali’s attention more was that this translucent echo of the Three Towers wasn’t empty, filled not with the mages who thronged there in its physical reality but a variety of objects that glowed more brightly than the structure itself. Kali knew immediately what she was looking at. The Forbidden Archive. It was one hells of a warehouse.

  “Come on,” she said to Pim.

  The pair of them approached the towers slowly, Kali’s head craning upward, Pim’s turning from side to side, still taking in the Expanse and clearly not at ease with it.

  “It’s lonely here,” he said. “Eerie. Soulless. Why do you suppose whatsisname – Domdruggle? – did this, conjured the Expanse? I mean, what possible purpose could it have?”

  “Before seeing it, I’d have said your guess was as good as mine. But now we know when it was created – the End Time – maybe it was meant to be some kind of bolthole. Somewhere to hide. And don’t ask me from what, because I haven’t a clue.”

  “Bolthole? What, for the entire population of the peninsula? All the elves and the dwarves?”

  “Why not? It’s as big as our world.”

  “Yes, but…” Pim trailed off. “There’s nobody here.”

  “I know, and that’s what worries me.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  Kali thought about the body of the dwarf she’d found in the Mole, that lonely metal coffin buried far deeper than any grave or resting place should be, and wondered again how it was that no one had come to help him.

  “If Domdruggle conjured the Expanse as some kind of sanctuary from whatever wiped out the Old Races, they obviously never had time to come here. That suggests to me that they were gone, just like that.”

  “Pits of Kerberos, that fast?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Fark.”

  “A question for another time, though eh? Right now we have our own problems, the main one being what the hells we’re looking for.”

  “Allow me to assist you with that, Miss Hooper,” Poul Sonpear interjected. “I would suggest the artefacts you seek will be found on the third level.”

  “Suggest as much as you like, Sonpear, but I’ve a better idea. Why don’t I choose what’ll be most effective against the k’nid?”

  “You are there and have that prerogative, of course. I would question, however, how you would endeavour to transport from this place a dwarven sonic cannon, say, or a –”

  “Okay, fine, point taken. So what are we looking for?”

  “Portable armaments, light but powerful. In this case, discharge weapons. The elves called them crackstaffs.”

  “Crackstaffs?”

  “You will recognise them when you see them.”r />
  “Right, fine. Third level it is, then.” Kali moved forward then hesitated. “Sonpear, the stairs in this place – they are negotiable?”

  “This Three Towers possesses residual corporeal mass, yes. But the experience of negotiating it may be a little disorientating.”

  Sonpear wasn’t kidding, Kali soon discovered. The disorientation hit her and Pim as soon as they entered the structure, mainly because all of their senses persisted in telling them that they hadn’t entered anywhere at all, misled by the translucency – and, in some areas, almost complete transparency – of the sorcerous manifestation. Kali couldn’t describe it any other way than as weird – like walking through a hall of mirrors where the mirrors cast no reflection at all. Nevertheless, she and Pim managed to navigate their way to the central staircase and, treading warily on its insubstantial risers, made their way up to the third level.

  Kali’s heart thudded, though not from the climb. Laid out before her were any number of objects that she had summoned in the Three Towers’ virtual forbidden archive many months ago. Though here, of course, they were real. They could be touched. Examined. Explored. And she longed to do all three. For a moment she felt that it wasn’t fair that she was stuck with having to risk her life exploring all manner of lethal ruins when the League of Prestidigitation and Prestige had such a collection – perhaps years’ worth of adventuring! – here for the asking. But then she reminded herself of the lesson Merrit Moon had taught her long ago. Twilight simply wasn’t ready for certain things, and to unleash these objects on the world might well bring about catastrophe. Even so, who were the League to make such judgements? And could they even be trusted to be the guardians of such potentially devastating might? To be honest, she was actually a little surprised that they hadn’t rolled out these big guns during the last war, because they would have been pretty much guaranteed to put Vos in its place.

  “Here,” Pim said, interrupting her train of thought. “These look pretty staff-like to me.”

  Kali moved to where Pim stood examining four racks of what appeared, at first glance, to be simple lengths of metal. But closer inspection revealed them to be inscribed with complex runics and tiny studs that had to be part of a magetech device. The metal tubes seemed to be of different ages and all had been preserved in varying states of wear and tear. This suggested to Kali that they had been collected from various locations, rather than a single source. Perhaps some of them – the more dented and bashed ones – even from some long ago won or lost battlefield. But if they had been used in battle, she wondered who the combatants might have been, because from the look of them they came from the third age of dwarven and elven development, when the two races should have been at peace. She sighed at the fact that it was just one more puzzle to ponder over.

  What mattered now was that they worked and, to that end, Kali hefted one of the tubes from a rack and was surprised to find herself thrown off balance because the object was so light. It was strange because the staff felt heavy – cold, hard, unyielding – and yet it was perfectly balanced and weighed so little that she could spin it in the palm of her hand. One possible reason for that, she discovered, was that it was hollow. Thinking that Sonpear had sold them a dud, she first shook it and then peered down its length, moving it around until she had Pim framed in a small circle. It took the thieves guild leader a second to spot what she was doing but, when he did, he waved and frowned.

  “Do you mind?” he said, stepping out of the way. “That thing could go off.”

  “Don’t see how. Unless there’s a rack of blowdarts around here somewhere.”

  “Even so…”

  “But,” Kali mused to herself, “I suppose it has to be called a crackstaff for a reason.”

  It was, as Kali discovered that very second.

  What exactly she had touched on the length of metal she had no idea but, whatever it was, it appeared to have been the ‘on’ switch. Kali suddenly found herself blown backwards as a bolt of blue energy fired from the crackstaff with a recoil like a kick from a giant mool. Winded and dazed, Kali slid to the floor and watched the powerful bolt of energy that had been discharged still fizzling away around the edges of a jagged hole in the far wall. Instead of a pained expression crossing her face Kali began, slowly, to grin.

  “Wuhh-ow.”

  “Hells,” Jengo Pim said softly, echoing the sentiment. “How the hells did it – ?”

  Kali flipped herself up onto her feet.

  “No idea,” she said, moving over to the racks and sweeping up as many of the crackstaffs as she could carry, before thrusting them at Pim. “Maybe these tubes channel magical threads or maybe they somehow concentrate them but one thing’s for sure – they work. Pim, we’ve got something with which we can even up the fight a little bit.”

  “I’m not so sure we have – yet.” Pim said slowly.

  “What are you talking about? Pim, we don’t have much time so grab some more if you can!”

  “Miss Hooper, I think we have company.”

  “What?” Kali said.

  For the first time she noticed the thieves guild leader was staring past her, back towards the stairway they had used to get here, and followed his gaze. Several things were climbing – no, sweeping – up the stairs towards them. Spectral, ghostly shapes that Kali couldn’t quite pin down enough to identify but knew immediately she didn’t like.

  “Oh, fark. I guess there is no such thing as a free lunch.”

  “I warned you this might prove hazardous,” Poul Sonpear’s voice commented. “I am afraid your careless use of the crackstaff has disturbed them.”

  “Them? Them, who? All right, Sonpear, so these are your hazards but what in all the hells are those things?”

  “We call them residuals. They have become attracted to your vital energy.”

  “I’m flattered.” The figures had reached the top of the stairs now and she could see them in a little more detail. “Wait a minute. Are they what I think they are?”

  “They were what you think they are.”

  “How can that be?”

  “It is believed that when Domdruggle created his Expanse there were sacrifices that had to be made. An area effect at the point of conjuration that ended the lives of Domdruggle and those who assisted with the ritual, condemning them to a half-life here in the Expanse. They volunteered for it, Miss Hooper, elves and dwarves, but now I doubt that they even remember who or what they were. They know only what it felt like to be and hunger for that feeling, still.”

  “Hunger. Okay, I’m not sure I like the sound of that. So, they’re attracted to us why exactly?”

  “To extract the life force from your bodies. Make your souls part of the Expanse.”

  “Gotcha. Sonpear, why didn’t you tell me about these things before?”

  “There was a chance you would not encounter them, and so I did not wish to worry you.”

  “Next time, Sonpear, give me all the facts.” Kali grabbed another crackstaff from the rack, then shoved the thieves guild leader. “Out of the way, Pim.”

  Bracing herself this time, she aimed and pressed the same stud she thought she had previously used, gratified to find she’d made the right choice.

  A crackling lance of blue energy shot impacted in the centre of the approaching residuals. But instead of blowing them apart, as she had hoped, the lance passed through them harmlessly, doing no more damage than a hand might wafting at some fog. It did something, though, because the spectral figures suddenly quickened their approach, coming right at her with a renewed determination.

  “Shit.”

  Suddenly they were close enough for Kali to see them in full detail. She could make out wasted bodies and haunted faces with gaping mouths and what she thought might be weapons. With flowing beards or streak-like, angular heads, they looked as if someone had drawn them on the landscape and then had a hasty rethink, half rubbing them out with repeated swipes of an eraser.

  Kali staggered backwards as one of them scree
ched like a banshee and slammed into her. Then, with a cry of alarm, she scissored back to avoid the wisps of a blade whooshing by where her stomach had been. The passing blade left behind tracers, like tiny furls of mist.

  Somewhat aggrieved by the development, Kali threw a punch in retaliation but, as had the energy lance, her fist went straight through. Next to her, Pim suffered the same experience.

  Now that was a little unfair. They could touch them but not the other way round? In the circumstances there was only one thing they could do. Dodging another rush, Kali pulled off her belt and made a makeshift strap for her back before grabbing an armful of crackstaffs and snapping her gaze at Pim, instructing him to do the same.

  “Run,” she then said to the thieves guild leader.

  “Where? There are more of them on the stairs!”

  Kali thought fast. “The hole I made. Out through there.”

  “This is the third level!”

  “You got a problem with that?”

  “Yes!”

  “Pim, trust me – just do as I do.”

  Pim swallowed. “Go.”

  The residuals hot on their trail, the pair of them raced for the breach in the Three Towers wall and hurled themselves through. It was the first time that Kali had been grateful for what she considered the somewhat disturbing design of the Three Towers. Because, as she expected, the two plummeted out not into empty air but onto the tapering, semi-organic slope that, at their base, was a more gentle incline than further above. More gentle but they weren’t out of the frying pan yet. The pair landed on the taper on their behinds, bouncing slightly and scrabbling for purchase to slow their descent before riding it down towards ground level, then tumbling into a heap at its base. Behind and above them, the residuals – probably about fifteen of them now – poured through the breach. Untroubled by such considerations as gravity, they began to sweep down towards them.

  Kali quickly picked herself up. “Move!”

  “I hate to repeat myself, but where exactly?”

  “Away from here!” Kali shouted, already on the move. She tilted her head to the sky. “Sonpear!”

  “You are doing the right thing, Miss Hooper. Avoid physical contact of any kind.”