“They are very good at that,” Timmy said. He could remember one particularly unfortunate owl that had swooped on what it believed to be a helpless rat only to end up as dinner for the ninja rats. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a few charms made of metal. “Oh, I want each of you to take one of these. You’ll need them from now on. Since you can all use magic, you should memorise the runes and seals. They’re not complicated, but they could save your life.”
Gerald studied the charm Timmy had given him. “I’m not an expert in runes and seals, but these look like…”
“Runes and seals of hiding, concealment, and deterrence,” Old Man murmured. “I saw you carving these onto the walls you made around our campsite too. Do we really need them out here?”
Timmy’s lips curved up into a smile. “You’ll see. We might be close enough now to notice something.” He glanced up and nodded. “Look up at the stars.”
They all looked up.
“I don’t see anything –” Gerald gasped. “What was that?”
Timmy knew what Gerald had seen. Out here, in the desert with nothing around for miles and miles, the night sky was unbelievably clear. The stars were bright and easily visible – and something had passed in front of them, darkening the sky temporarily even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
“We don’t know a lot about what happened when the empire here blew itself up,” Timmy said. “But I’m fairly sure they used something they didn’t fully understand.” He reached for his shovel and put it across his lap. “There’s an inscription on a tablet deep beneath Black Tower Castle. It’s made of a substance that I’ve never seen anywhere else, and it’s a warning about the things that live underneath the castle.”
“I know that tablet,” Katie said. “It says to never summon anything that you can’t kill with your own hands. You told me that some kind of weapon might have been involved in the destruction of the empire. Do you think they summoned something too?”
“No.” Timmy peered into the fire. “At least, not on purpose. But when you gather enough magical power in one spot – enough magical power to obliterate an empire – then you’re bound to tear a few holes in reality and have some things show up that have no business being in our world. Maybe it’s the ghosts of the people who used to live here, or maybe it’s something from another world that was drawn here by the power they gathered. Who knows? But every so often, people go missing here, and it’s got nothing to do with the desert or the local wildlife. I doubt that people like us would have any problems dealing with whatever is responsible, but I’d rather not take any unnecessary chances.”
Timmy warmed his hands over the fire. “It always happens at night. The people here tell stories about it, about the darkness that swallows the stars and takes naughty children. You see them along the edges of the Desert of Glass. Once you’re further in, you don’t see them anymore. I think there’s something about the residual magic that they don’t like.” He paused. “Now that I think about, the residual magic in the middle of the desert does feel similar to yours, Avraniel.”
The elf scoffed. She had, somehow, procured some marshmallows, most likely by picking Katie’s pocket. Rather than wait for dinner, she had already poked some onto a stick and was busy heating them over the fire. “Don’t try to pin this on me, idiot. I’ve blown up a lot of stuff in my time, but even I can’t blow up an entire empire. And, sure, I’m old by your pathetic humans standards, but what happened here happened way too long ago to be my fault.”
“Hey!” Katie had finally noticed the marshmallows. “Those are mine!”
“They’re mine now, twerp.” Avraniel cackled. “But if you’re nice, I suppose I could give you a few.”
“You should give me the rest of them. They’re mine!” Katie made a grab for the marshmallows and failed miserably. “Master, make her give me back my marshmallows!”
Timmy sighed. As amusing as it was to see Katie actually acting her age, he wished it didn’t involving her asking him to order around someone who could melt a castle with her magic. “Avraniel, they are her marshmallows. Give them back.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll make sure the rats don’t share what they caught with you.” Timmy folded his arms across his chest. “Sure, the demolition rats like you, but Rembrandt is in charge of them, and they live in my castle.”
“Fine.” Avraniel huffed. “You can have your stupid marshmallows, but you’d better share them with me.”
Katie was about to point out how crazy Avraniel’s line of thinking was before realising that was about as close to a win as she could get. “Fine. You can have some more, but only after dinner.” Spot bumped her hand with his head. “And, yes, you can have some too, Spot.”
“Anyway,” Timmy said. “I wasn’t trying to blame you for what happened to the empire, but it does make me wonder. Maybe a distant ancestor of yours had something to do with it.”
“It makes sense,” Gerald said. “We say that the empire that used to be here predated the elves, but what we really mean is that it predated the gathering of the elves into large organised groups. It’s possible that a small, wandering band of elves with one of your ancestors in it blew up the empire.”
“Hey!”
“Well said.” Old Man nodded sagely. “I agree with Gerald.”
Katie snickered. “It would be just like an ancestor of yours to be involved in blowing up an empire.”
“Don’t make me take my cloak back and call Spot over here,” Avraniel threatened. “I have no problems watching you freeze to death.”
“No way.” Katie tugged the cloak on tighter and wrapped her arms around Spot. “I’m keeping the cloak, and Spot is so warm and cuddly.”
Spot preened under the attention. Not far away, Rembrandt glared. It wasn’t his fault that he was currently on patrol, and it definitely wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t provide as much warmth as a dragon!
“In any case, I thought I’d let all of you know about what’s up there.” Timmy pointed at the sky and then leaned forward to inspect the stew cooking over the fire. It had a while to go yet, but he gave it a good stir to help it along. “Also, Gerald, can you get out the goggles I asked you to store with your magic?”
“Of course. I was wondering when you would explain what they were for.” Gerald lifted one hand. The space over his hand bent and warped, and several sets of goggles dropped onto the ground beside him. Unlike normal goggles, the lenses were clearly darkened and tingled faintly with magic. The metal frames were also inscribed with runes and seals.
“You’ll need those tomorrow,” Timmy said. “At least, you’ll need them if you enjoy not being blind.”
“Is it really that bad in the Desert of Glass, master?” Katie picked up the goggles with a pink frame. “You got me pink ones, and in my prescription too!”
“Yes, because it would be a hassle trying to fit those over your normal glasses, and I’d have to put up with you plotting my demise for days if they weren’t pink.” Timmy smirked. “And, yes, it is that bad in the Desert of Glass. They’re designed to filter out glare as efficiently as possible, and they can even help you see at night if you channel magic through them. The Desert of Glass is… you’ll understand when we get there. Just make sure you put those on before we break camp tomorrow. There are even some for your camels. Make sure you put those on too. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with a half-blind camel for the rest of the trip.”
“Okay.” Gerald tried on his goggles. “Wait. How do you know how big my head is?”
“Gerald,” Timmy said. “You’ve fainted enough times for me to get accurate measurements.”
“Ah. I see.”
“What about Spot?” Avraniel asked. “His eyesight is almost as good as mine.”
“Spot has goggles too.” Timmy handed Avraniel another pair of goggles. “And so have you. But Spot should be fine. There are wyverns and drakes in the Desert of Glass, and they aren’t blind. I’m assuming that their eye
s have adjusted to the glare. It’s quite possible that dragons have made similar adjustments over the years since they have to be able to see through their own fire to aim it properly. For that matter, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you bothered by how bright your flames are either.”
“Hmm… I never thought about it. I’m even more amazing than I thought.” Avraniel shrugged and reached over to scratch Spot under his chin. “I’ll hold onto your goggles. Tell me if you need them.”
“I think I’ve covered everything I wanted to talk about tonight.” Timmy’s stomach grumbled. “And dinner should be almost ready too.” He felt movement in the sand nearby through his magic and stood up. The rats had returned with a desert python that was six feet long. He’d have to ask the rats how they were moving it – only four of them seemed to be pulling on the dead reptile. “And there is more dinner.”
Dinner proved to be warm and tasty, perfect for a cold desert night. They enjoyed stew and the roasted python, which the rats were generous enough to share. Midway through the meal, Spot noticed a pair of jackals creeping toward the camp and flew out to meet them. A few minutes later, he flew back, much more slowly this time, and with a much fuller stomach.
“Okay,” Timmy said. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We should get some sleep. We can take the watch in shifts.”
The rats talked amongst themselves before Rembrandt gave a reply for the entire group.
“Rembrandt says that they’ll be happy to rotate the watch between them as well,” Katie said. “They aren’t very big, so they can stay up all night and hitch a ride during the day.”
“Fair enough, but I want at least one of us to be on watch at all times.” He inclined his head at Rembrandt. “I know you guys can handle keeping watch, but I don’t want us to slip into bad habits.” He ruffled Katie’s hair. “You should take first watch Katie. You can spend some time with Rembrandt and not have to worry about waking up in the middle of the night. After all, you need plenty of sleep if you want to grow. I’ll take the middle watch. I don’t need a lot of sleep – and I’m not short either.”
* * *
Katie didn’t think the Desert of Glass could be that bad, but she trusted her master’s judgement. He had said some crazy things over the years, but he was almost always right about those crazy things. Then again, given some of the things she’d seen while with her master, the world was actually a pretty crazy place. A few hours after breaking camp and continuing toward the Desert of Glass, she understood exactly why her master had wanted them to wear goggles. As they crested a large sand dune, they finally got their first real look at the Desert of Glass – and they were almost blinded by it.
“My eyes!” Gerald screamed. He would have toppled off his camel, but Katie managed to steady him with her shadows. His camel, however, was completely unperturbed. It simply closed its eyes and waited while Katie used her shadows to take the camel’s goggles from Gerald’s saddlebag and put them on the dromedary’s head.
“I did tell you to put on your goggles.” Timmy sighed. “Close your eyes, Gerald. Katie, thank you for putting goggles on his camel. Please, put Gerald’s goggles on him too. I have a plan for breaking into the Nameless Citadel, but it won’t work if you’re blind or screaming.”
The reason for Gerald’s current agony was right in front of them – and it was blindingly obvious.
When Katie had first heard of the Desert of Glass, she had thought that her master might be joking about the whole place having once been melted into glass by a powerful magical explosion. Sure, it was entirely possible that the empire had blown itself to bits in a single massive explosion, but the power to melt an area this large into glass would have been even more ridiculous than the already astronomical amount required just to blow up the place at all. Short of some god-like being, it was difficult to imagine anything with enough power to do that, even allowing for the possibility that the ancients had wielded magic that was no longer known.
The most powerful bomb the demolition rats had ever designed – but not yet built – had an estimated blast radius of four or five miles, assuming everything went perfectly. It also required a huge amount of Avraniel’s magic to operate. If the maps were correct, the Desert of Glass was hundreds of miles wide.
But looking at it now, Katie had to admit that her master hadn’t been joking at all. The entire area ahead of them – as far as her eyes could see – was covered in sand that had the appearance of finely crushed glass. This entire desert must have been reduced to glass by the unbelievable heat of the explosion that had destroyed the empire. The glass would have broken and worn away over time, creating a desert whose sands were made of glass. It was unreal. It went on and on, an endless desert of glass that caught the harsh desert sunlight perfectly.
The glass sand was lit as if from within, producing a blindingly bright glare. It was like staring into the sun or standing on top of countless magical crystals. It was no wonder people didn’t like travelling here. They’d all end up blind inside of a day or two, maybe less. Each time the wind blew, the glass sand moved to create an ever-shifting wave of light as the sunlight lit up the tiny shards of ancient glass.
“Now do you see why I wanted all of you to wear goggles?”
“I don’t see much of anything, idiot.” Avraniel had chosen to put her goggles on, but Katie was curious to know if she really needed them. The only one not wearing goggles was Spot. The dragon blinked a few times before he seemingly adjusted to the glare. He appeared to be more interested in how his goggles would taste than in putting them on. The elf gently poked him on the forehead and took his goggles. “I can see pretty damn far, but I can’t see a thing except glass sand.”
“You won’t see anything, not from a distance. The Nameless Citadel is hidden from sight by magic. I know where it is, but the barrier around it will prevent you from noticing it until you’re much closer.” Timmy slipped his camel a treat and urged it forward. “Let’s get moving. We’ve got a lot of travelling ahead of us.”
Katie found it hard to stay focused. It was like they were travelling across an ocean of light or a vast field of glowing snow. The only member of the group who didn’t find the whole thing bizarre was Gerald’s remarkably easy-going camel. However, it wasn’t long before her attention shifted to more mundane aspects of travelling. The glass sand was horribly abrasive. She summoned more of her shadows and coiled them around herself and her camel to better shield them whenever the wind kicked up. When the wind got particularly bad, her master would use his magic to divert the sand away from them. And the residual magic in the area was something else.
Her master had been right about the residual magic even if she hadn’t noticed it right away. He had told her many times in the past that her large reserves of magic had the potential to make her less sensitive to things that mages with smaller reserves would have noticed easily. It was similar to how a fully-grown dragon wouldn’t even notice a wolf since it wasn’t a threat at all, or even much of a meal, but a villager would most certainly notice a wolf due to the threat it posed. It startled her to realise that her magical reserves would one day dwarf her master’s. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a lot of magic – he was no slouch in that area – but his reserves simply weren’t in the same class as those of people like Avraniel or Vicky.
Katie shivered despite the heat. She didn’t know exactly how much magic Vicky had, but the cleric’s one visit had hinted at terrifyingly large reserves. Avraniel’s reserves were likewise too large for Katie to accurately assess. But her master had never been dangerous because of how much magic he had. He wasn’t one of those mages who relied on brute force and overwhelming might to win a fight. He didn’t throw his magic around carelessly and bury people beneath an avalanche of power. What made his magic dangerous was how skilfully and cunningly he used it – and his ability to exploit the weaknesses of his opponents while leveraging his strengths. Many of the people who had faced her master over the years had called him a cheater
– and they were right. He was happy to play fair when it suited him or when there was nothing at stake. But in a fight to the death, all bets were off, and he knew how to win better than anyone Katie had ever met. If someone were trying to kill him, he would gladly sneak up on them and whack them in the head with his shovel or kick them in the back. He was a survivor through and through.
The residual magic here didn’t feel exactly the same as Avraniel’s, but it gave off the same impression of raw heat and power. If it could still be felt after all these years, then it must have come from something far more powerful than the elf. It would have been fascinating to map the lines of magic that ran through the Desert of Glass, but she had a suspicion that most of them would be badly warped and damaged from whatever had created the desert. Oh well. They couldn’t afford to waste any time. As it was, the glare had begun to put the camels off. None of them liked wearing goggles. Well, there was Gerald’s camel. It didn’t seem to mind anything. Katie wondered if it would even blink if a sand hydra burst out of the ground in front of it. It would probably just look at the hydra and then keep plodding along while Gerald screamed his head off on its back.
They made good time throughout the day. Unlike at the fringes of the desert, they didn’t run into any animals. Perhaps it was the size of their group, perhaps it was Spot, or perhaps they were simply lucky. Katie was just glad they’d made it through the day without any trouble. They settled down for the night on a rocky outcrop that jutted out of the sand. After spending the whole day fighting through the ever-shifting sand, it was nice to have firm ground under their feet. The outcrop was made of jet-black rock, and it looked utterly out of place amidst all the glowing sand. The sand also made a noise, she realised as she sat down by the fire. It reminded her of a snake hissing, and it made it hard to relax.
Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3) Page 18