by Franc Ingram
Daycia sighed deeply, gazing out the window in the direction where the yetis were gathered. “I hope that stays true. If the yetis are trying to cut us off, we need to get outside and see what they’re up to.
100101
Daycia pulled at the leather vest cinched tight around her chest. Paley had insisted on the added layer of protection when Daycia made it clear she was going with the team, venturing outside the wall. The yeti barricade was on its fifth day, and Daycia couldn’t stand around and wait for their next move. She had to make one of her own.
The evening northern sky was awash in the greens and oranges of a dying day, giving the perfect background to the rings overhead. They sparkled like a trillion diamonds making their lazy way through space. Looking up at them Daycia wished she had such a view from on high to look down and see the whole picture of the world.
“If you’re listening up there, please do whatever you can to make sure Oleana and her boys are okay. We need them now more than ever,” Daycia called to the Twelve.
“We’re ready,” Paley said. Her gloved hands were covered in dirt from prying open the hidden door in the wall.
Their group of six was going to breech the wall and get a look at the yeti blockade from the outside, to see if there was more purpose to it than just causing trouble. Even with the reemergence of the Heirs, Daycia didn’t figure Solon to be an important enough target to warrant such a risk from Cornelius. His break from pattern worried her.
Daycia, Paley, Yolanda, Zyair, Brent and Terry were to observe and report back. It was a fact-finding mission. They were all armed, but a fight would cost lives and Daycia didn’t need any more of that on her hands. They’d lost two good rangers in Cornelius’ freak ice storm a few days ago. Zyair didn’t have any more men to spare. He didn’t even like the fact that Daycia insisted on coming herself.
Zyair, as the ranger in charge, took the lead. “Keep to the shadows, keep close to the wall, and keep quiet,” he ordered. “You know your assignments?” He looked every one of them directly in the eye, making sure everyone was on their game, his eyes lingering on Daycia at the end. Daycia and the others nodded. “Don’t engage unless absolutely necessary. Move,” he barked.
One of the other groups of two slipped out first, then it was Paley and Daycia’s turn. Paley went first, then Daycia followed close enough behind to reach out and touch her apprentice. There was a short tunnel carved under the wall, into the bedrock Solon was built on. There was a slight decline into darkness. Daycia got the feeling of being swallowed up by some unseen stone beast.
They didn’t take torches for fear of attracting attention. Daycia trusted Paley to lead the way to safety. The younger had studied the blueprints of the tunnel extensively before they headed out, and she always did have a good sense of direction. The tunnel leveled out. They walked five steps on level ground before making the climb back up.
Daycia remembered when she helped carve out the tunnel four centuries ago. She was young and enthusiastic then, fresh off a victory in war, and ready for whatever else life had to throw at her. How different that time was from now. Now she was holding on to the last shred of hope she had buried deep inside herself, begging for change to come quick, before the world collapsed around her.
Back during the war Daycia took up the cause of humanity and the Twelve promising to rid the world of wickedness. Then she’d settled into Solon and figured it was enough to just keep her eye on Cornelius and leave the rest of the world to others. With Oleana on the run and Cornelius at large, Daycia felt too old and stagnant to be of much good to anyone.
The darkest part of Daycia understood why Cornelius fought so hard for control. The ultras were built to rule. Daycia was only part ultra, and it drove her to the brink of madness to sit idle for too long. Her mother’s blood with its fierce genetic instincts gave her the notion that her ideas were above that of humans. It was a haughtiness that Daycia fought every day.
Cornelius thought himself above even his creators. His madness was complete. He didn’t know how to do anything else but force others to his will. Daycia could feel sorry for him. He was a victim of the Twelve’s flawed design, but that wouldn’t keep her from fighting him to the death.
They walked up into the light coming out of an open door, dust sprinkling down on Daycia’s head. They came out inside a manmade mound, which was covered by a row of shrubs, perfectly placed to hide their exit.
Paley held her fist up and Daycia waited. The younger woman poked her head around the shrubs. Daycia strained to hear if anybody was nearby. All she heard were the coos of the baymar as they lulled themselves to sleep.
Paley waved her forward, and Daycia stepped out into the night, stretching her back for the first time since moving into the tunnel. She felt an errant ligament pop back into its proper place, and relief washed through her. The centuries were really taking their toll on her body. Paley moved toward the mountain, and Daycia dutifully followed.
They were given the task of mapping out the route the yetis were taking to run supplies to their planted troops. If they could cut them off, it would force the yetis back up the mountain. Daycia promised she would just observe. If she felt up to fighting she would have resisted Zyair’s order, but the wound on her chest still burned and her heart fluttered irregularly. Daycia didn’t feel like the spry thing she did before confronting Cornelius. She would avoid fighting to save herself the agony of defeat.
She and Paley found a secluded spot by the road to hunker down. There was a bite in the wind coming down from the mountain. It was going to be a cold night. Daycia pulled her woolen jacket tighter over her shoulders. As a daughter of the Fire Ultra, Daycia naturally didn't like cold. The northern city wouldn’t have been her first choice of residence, but she adjusted over the years. Still there were some days that the cold cut her to the bone, and Daycia was forced to use her abilities to combat it. She was grateful for the leather vest and the long-sleeved shirt covering everything but her face. Using any ultra power with the yetis around was asking to call them. She would just have to suffer.
“Are you sure they would be stupid enough to use the road?” Paley asked in a barely a whisper.
“I’ve been around since the yetis were first created. They are basic creatures who put in as little effort as the task demands. The road is that shortcut. If they aren’t using it directly, they’re following it nearby,” Daycia replied. She rubbed her gloved hands together, regretting her need to see things for herself.
Their wait wasn’t long before a group of three yetis strolled by heading up the mountain. Daycia crouched down low, holding her breath as they passed. She remembered clearly the strength in those fur-covered arms and the sharpness of those teeth, she didn’t need another confrontation.
Before the yetis could march out of sight, Paley and Daycia moved to follow them. The road only went so far before the tundra took over, and people that ventured beyond it made their own path, following instinct and family routes tested over generations. They moved from stiff frost covered grass to a land of ice and snow.
Daycia remembered back to the days when the snow-covered land had been a deciduous forest for as far as the eye could see, eventually giving way to the rocky foothills leading up to the mountain range. The tundra around Mt. Elmire was not a natural phenomenon. It was the result of Cornelius showing off his power and carving out a territory of his own.
Daycia grew up at the foot of an active volcano. Her mother, Emmaray made it her home so she could prove to the locals that she truly was a goddess of fire, unafraid of the lava flows. The guardian of the Crystal Tower barely stepped a hundred feet away from the tower where all intelligent life on Euphoria started. The ultras were creatures of habit, and found comfort in extreme mono climates. And as humans have a tendency to do, they managed to find ways to take advantage of even the tundra. Daycia couldn’t help but admire them for that.
The yetis traversed the frozen earth with a speed that Daycia found difficult to keep up w
ith. Several times Paley grabbed her to keep from falling. The two women supported each other across the ice, passing a fishing hole abandoned in haste. The bobbing fishing pole was still sticking out, and gear scattered around the sight.
The night fell over them like a blanket. The large moon, and a sky filled with stars, lit their way. Maintaining a safe distance and keeping an eye on the yetis proved impossible. They followed the distinctive tracks instead.
The three sets of footprints lead into an ice cave. Daycia hesitated at the entrance. If they stepped in there, they could be walking into a nest of the beasts. Turn back, and all their walking would have only yielded a possible route for supplies.
“We can turn back, and come again with a platoon of rangers to explore it in the daylight,” Paley offered.
“Getting a platoon up here would be next to impossible without being detected, and a huge risk. We can’t afford it unless we’re sure this is where their supplies are coming from.”
Daycia took her hat off and scratched her head. They had to be sure. There was no other choice. They could wait until some yeti came back out, hopefully loaded with supplies, or they could go in and explore for themselves. Daycia didn’t think a night in the cold would do her any good. The possibility of fighting a host of yetis felt like the better option.
“Into the breech,” Daycia said firmly. She adjusted the grips on her fighting batons, three-foot-long staffs with hard metal caps at both ends, and moved forward with purpose.
The walls were smooth ice shooting a thousand different distorted versions of Daycia back at herself. The ground was crushed stone, packed so tightly it didn’t make noise as they walked over it. The cold was still there, but the biting wind was gone, replaced with the rushing noise of a nearby stream. The smell of yetis was cloying. It felt like Daycia had a yeti foot resting on her tongue.
Three feet into the cave, and the light died. The yetis had the unique ability to adapt dark places, and the bright white light reflected off the snow. Daycia wasn’t built for such things, and neither was Paley. Daycia reached into her backpack for the firestone she stashed there. It was a special crystal, made the same way as the Crystal Tower in Evermore. It had been shaped into a rose and fit perfectly in Daycia’s palm, a gift from a relative. With the right application of heat, it emitted a low frequency light that Daycia hoped would be mistaken for some errant sunbeam bouncing off the ice walls.
The stone cast enough light for Daycia to see about five feet in front of her, but it occupied one of her hands. She would have to drop it if they needed to fight. Daycia hated the thought of losing it to the cave. It was a one-of-a-kind treasure, from a life among the ultras who she had left so long ago. While she didn’t regret choosing the side of humanity, she did mourn the loss of feeling truly understood by people with the same long lives.
Onward they moved, with caution born from a healthy appreciation of the dangers around them. They moved from one cave into another, then they heard noises ahead. Daycia slowed. Paley led her close to the wall, inching up on the opening ahead of them. There was light coming through, so Daycia put her stone away, happy to have it tucked safely out of sight.
The opening led to a cave large enough to fit the Thousand Years Library inside with room to spare. Just craning her head around, Daycia saw that it had multiple open levels. Icy catwalks crisscrossed the space with rails on both sides, sitting waist high, riveted by the marks of thousands of claws that had dug into them.
With a quick glance, Daycia spotted fifty yetis easily, and saw tunnels leading deeper into the mountain. The infrastructure Cornelius managed to build under their noses was astounding. The yetis were wheeling in carts from other tunnels, dumping them into piles ready for others to sort and stack in racks along the walls.
There were weapons. Crude swords and spears, but clearly weapons. Never had Daycia seen the yetis use anything but their claws and teeth to do damage, but from the operation she saw in front of her, they could supply several armies.
“What’re they going to do with all that?” Paley whispered, her face so close to Daycia’s that her tight black curls tickled Daycia’s cheek.
“Slaughter everything in their wake, I’m guessing,” Daycia said, her soft voice trembling. “Our only hope is that these aren’t for them. Maybe some bargaining chip for future allies? If the yetis know how to fight with weapons, they’re more organized and sophisticated that I would have thought possible.”
“We can’t just leave them like this,” Paley shot back.
“I have no intention of letting all these instruments of destruction just walk past my door,” Daycia sniffed indignantly. “I have an idea. It's dangerous, and it goes against our explicit orders, but I'm up for it if you are.”
Paley nodded. Daycia smiled. She always did have a soft spot for young women who liked breaking the rules. Daycia seemed to have built her life around the type. She couldn’t help being one herself. She would have to find some way to make it up to Zyair, smooth things over with the man she trusted to protect her city, the man she cared so much about. After things were explained, he was sure to understand why they had to do it. That was if they made it back to Zyair.
“I intend to bring this cave down on top of them. That means it’ll be coming down on our heads as well. We’ll have a limited window to get out. But as soon as I start heating the place up the yetis are sure to be alerted. You make sure you get out of here. Get back to Zyair and tell him what you saw here. No matter what else happens, you get out,” Daycia spoke slowly, stressing the importance of her orders.
Paley kept her face blank, which was a credit to the ranger training she had in her transition to adulthood. Daycia realized everyday how lucky she was that Paley choose the college path, instead of staying with the rangers.
“I uhm,” Paley’s voice trembled and her blue eyes locked onto Daycia’s face, as if she were trying to memorize every nook and cranny. “I understand, but I’d much prefer if we both made it out.”
Daycia smiled. “Me too, my dear, me too.” Daycia cleared her throat, afraid her emotions might get the better of her.
“Zyair will kill me if I come back without you,” Paley forced a smile but her blue eyes held a heaviness that aged her.
“You can blame all of this on me,” Daycia said trying to smile back but her face refused to tell that lie. “We need to get to the outer chamber, and pull these walls down on their heads.” Daycia pulled out her firestone. It had a pink tint to the delicately patterned crystal. The petals folded in on themselves in a life-like rendition of the perfect rose. Daycia would mourn the loss of her little keepsake, but its sacrifice would save countless Solonians, and that mattered more to her than anything her family ever gave her. “You’ll be the most beautiful bomb ever made,” Daycia whispered to the stone. I just hope you’ll be enough.”
Paley led the way back into the first tunnel. They still had to keep an eye out for traffic. Daycia needed a few minutes to set up her bomb. She had to add energy slowly to the crystal. She wasn’t exactly sure how much it could take before it exploded. She didn’t want it going off in her hands.
The fire stone was only the size of her palm but it was heavy, because the crystalline matrix was so dense. Daycia would force her core body heat, which hovered around two hundred degrees, into the crystal until its particles vibrated so hard and fast it would explode. She intended to expend all of her body’s heat if need be.
Paley searched for the perfect spot to plant their bomb. The apex of the cave was ten feet above their heads. It would have been the perfect location, but there was no easy way to reach it.
“I can carve some footholds, but not quietly,” Paley offered, adjusting her grip on her sword.
“Can you do it quickly?”
Paley placed her hand against the wall. She scratched at it, and nodded her head. “Yeah, the ice layer is light enough.”
“Then do it,” Daycia said, her tone cutting through Paley like a knife. “I’ll worry a
bout the yetis.” Daycia tucked the firestone into her shirt, resting it on her chest, letting her body do its work.
That left her hands free to start trouble of their own. She stripped off her wool coat. She would miss it on the trek back down the tundra, but it was just another necessary sacrifice. She pulled it into ribbons and laid them across the floor, creating a distinctive line of division. She gave Paley the go ahead, and heard the loud echo of ice breaking away fill the hall.
A yeti howl pierced the air, and then the pounding of feet shook the walls. Daycia had to wait. Her little fire strips wouldn’t last long and she needed the shock to scare them as much as the actual fire.
“Are you crazy?” Paley asked, her usually pale face now whiter than a sheet.
“Just climb,” Daycia ordered breathlessly. Despite the cold air whipping around them, sweat poured off Daycia in rivulets. Her skin felt inflamed.
Daycia braced herself. If the fire didn’t work she didn’t have much time to grab her batons, and she wouldn’t be able to fend them all off anyway. She would just have to set off the bomb and hope it caused enough of a collapse to at least slow them down. Daycia spared her apprentice a quick look. Paley scaled the wall like she was built for the icy terrain. The girl was full of surprises.
Five yetis came into view. Then sixteen. Daycia held off. They howled, and hissed, and the venom in their eyes would have caused a lesser person to flee, but Daycia held still. They charged, and Daycia counted the steps. One. Two. Three. Four. The first yeti was a step from crossing the line when Daycia set them ablaze. The flames shot up waist-high, catching the beast’s fur on fire. He stumbled back with a growl, and ignited two others behind him.
“Ready!” Paley yelled.
Daycia took the glowing firestone from her shirt and flung it at the waiting Paley. The younger girl almost dropped it. Steam emanated from her gloves as she held onto the edge. She stuck it into the crudely carved hole at the height of the ceiling. Paley started the climb down, but there wasn’t enough time.