Innocence Lost

by O. J. Lowe

  “I’ll give you points for originality.”

  “Don’t get that request a lot?”

  “Most people say gold when they hear what I can do. Sometimes diamonds. Never sapphires. First time truly for everything, I suppose.”

  Wilsin had stopped listening, tuned out as he studied the last of the equipment. He might be about to take back what he’d thought earlier. Those tendrils on the rustlers, he’d seen the way they’d torn through Fazarn and Nmecha with ease. They’d been unprotected, the fabric of their jungle gear providing little defence against them. He and Brendan had been here covertly, neither of them had sought to bring body armour.

  He glanced back towards Reeves, did a double take as he saw the deck. Once it had been pristine white, wood glossed to avoid rotting against the water, aged but the sort of sturdy that came with a long life. Now though, he saw a sea of blue spreading out across it all, a thousand little shimmers in the sunlight. The sapphires were almost the same colour as the water beneath them, he didn’t want to even think about how much wealth he was stood on. Slowly his eyes came towards Reeves who grinned at him, lifted a hand and waggled his fingers.

  “Impressive,” Wilsin said, he found he meant it as well. “If the Vedo thing doesn’t work out, you can retire an incredibly wealthy man.”

  Reeves smiled, though it was an expression devoid of happiness. “You know, you’re not the first one to say that to me, David. It’s not a funny joke. Worse, some people aren’t even joking about it. Might not be a Cognivite but I can tell when they’re sincere or not.”

  “You need to make notes about these things,” Wilsin grumbled. “Can’t keep track of them.” He straightened up, cut across to the bags of clothes he’d decided to abandon. None of it was any use.

  Wilsin saw the bag filled with food and water Reeves had prepped, he approved of that choice. He’d thought of suggesting it, had decided against it. The Vedo wasn’t stupid, the food had been stored in his half of the boat, only would he have brought it up if forgotten. He split the rucksack open, pulled out on of Brendan’s padded vests, lightweight and cool against the heat. Plenty of pockets.

  Before, he wouldn’t have bothered. The protection on offer would have been minimal, worse than nothing. It had layers within it. Thin layers of fabric, weak cotton, thin on their own but when they were stacked on top of each other, a respectable depth.

  “Ben,” he said. “You think you can do something for me?”

  Chapter Twenty-One. Jungles and Dragons.

  “I do not fear the unknown.”

  The five words written on the tomb of famed explorer, Gin Farwalker.

  He was going to miss the boat. It’d been their home for days now, they’d become close aboard it as people did in circumstances like theirs. In the end though, it had never been a home. It had been a means to an end and now that end had come. Maybe one day, someone would find the boat with the mysterious sapphire deck and go home with some hells of a story and untold riches from it. Maybe it’d be lost to time. He didn’t know. Reeves had assured him the changes to the deck were as permanent as could be unless another Alchemite came along and changed it back. He’d shown no inclination to do it himself. Wilsin couldn’t blame it. An effort like that, he’d be proud of it too.

  What he hadn’t admitted to Reeves was it had been too long since he’d ridden Aroon, since anyone had straddled the back of the dragon. Credit to Aroon, he took it with a sense of mild bemusement as the two of them fixed on their packs, Wilsin wearing his new vest. If he fell off, it wouldn’t do much good, but it might give him an edge. He didn’t have fancy powers or a laser sword. What he had was his wits and his reflexes, an ability to plan and improvise. He meant to damn well use it.

  As the caller to Aroon, he felt the duty to get on first, silently ordering the dragon to fall to his stomach. The boat dipped as Aroon landed on his four legs, spikes leaving cracks across the sapphires, he gave Wilsin a grin that probably would have terrified someone who didn’t know better, before dropping to a prone position. He raised his leg, stepped over the neck. Inside he was pleading Aroon not to suddenly rise in surprise. Best case scenario there, he ended up sore and Reeves killed himself laughing while he tried to rearrange his groin into something resembling a regular shape.

  How best to do this? His first thought had been to straddle the base of the neck, he quickly realised that wasn’t a viable option. The wings would chafe him quickly, Aroon would probably get fed up with his weight on his neck and might even look to dislodge him. A spirit couldn’t directly hurt a caller, didn’t mean that they couldn’t accidentally knock you off in mid-air.

  He stepped back further, looked under the wings, the lower back area. Might be a tight fit between him and Reeves, they’d have to get up close and personal with each other but wasn’t like they had too much of a real option. The back was broad, but not enough for them to spread out. He gestured to the Vedo. They were both adult enough to get on with this.

  “Ready to get out of here?” he asked. “They had to go somewhere. Let’s get following them. You sense anything, give me a shout.”

  Pilot and navigator, like none the jungle had ever seen before. Reeves had said he could hone in on them now he’d felt them. He could bloody track them if it came down to it, even if he didn’t know that was what he was going to be doing yet. The Vedo took his hand, stepped behind him and Aroon rose up, pushing them both into a seated position across his broad back. Wilsin’s legs just about made it to the scaled belly. Reeves wrapped his arms around Wilsin’s stomach, his hands found loose scales he’d modified into Aroon’s back to serve as handholds for a situation like this.

  “We got everything?” he asked. No harm in one final check. It’d be prudent, above anything else. Once they left, they weren’t coming back. Weapons, he knew were there. He wasn’t leaving them behind. Food, water, medicine. All there, split between the two of them. Hopefully they could catch up with them before night fell. He didn’t fancy sleeping on the jungle floor, not after what had happened to Ballard Brown the first night. They were to travel light, and he wasn’t sure about taking camping gear with them. He’d declined. They’d fly all day, ride all night if they had to. Once they started, there was no stopping them.

  “I can tell by your growing sense of certainty you’re starting to come around to the idea that we have,” Reeves said from over his shoulder. He could feel his breath on the back of his neck. He wasn’t going to lie, he felt a little uncomfortable, shifted to make himself more secure. That might be quite important. They’d be on here for quite a while, he guessed. “You ready to kick this off?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.” His voice was strong, he sounded convinced. He couldn’t fear the unknown. The unknown was there to be conquered, just another one of life’s mysteries which only gave an answer to if you took the plunge. Wilsin patted Aroon on the neck, returned his grasp to the scales. The dragon let out a snort, twin streams of smoke breaking from his nostrils, studied the sky.

  “Let’s go, Aroon.”

  Wilsin didn’t need to say it out loud, he did regardless. The dragon flared his wings, gave them a first flap to test them. Brought back his head and roared proudly, one step forward and they were off, airborne.

  Those first few seconds had been absolute hells, Wilsin had been glad for the handholds, he’d almost been torn off by Reeves, felt the drag back, heard the screech as hands scrabbled at his waist. He’d not been expecting it, fingers dug into his side, searching out any sort of grip. He winced, felt the vest almost tear before Reeves gave him a reassuring pat on the stomach.

  “I got it!” he shouted. “Sorry. Took me by surprise.”

  “Thought you were supposed to be able to see the future!” Wilsin shouted back. It was petty, but he didn’t care, he thought it was a valid point. Reeves either didn’t hear him or didn’t dignify him with a reply. He’d bet the latter. Behind them, the gleaming blue deck of the boat was already turning into a speck as they cross
ed into the mainland, he could see the previous night’s campsite below. He guided Aroon to a hovering halt for a moment, considered the direction they’d taken Brendan and the others the previous night. From a dozen feet above the treeline, he could see the outline on the ground where they’d been initially dragged before the tracks had vanished. Maybe they’d been hefted onto backs. Worse, the rustlers didn’t leave any sort of trail. They’d just melded into the fauna.

  Terrific. He shot a glance back to Reeves. “You get any sort of hint on where they went? Psychically?”

  Reeves’ look gave nothing away. “Think so. They went…” He freed a hand from locked around Wilsin’s waist, stuck a finger in his mouth and held it up to the sky. His eyes glanced back and forth across the jungle, the electric blue around one orb flickering. All Vedo he’d ever met had that, it’d surprised him at first and yet it was eerie how quickly he’d gotten used to it. “That way. I think.” He pointed out across the tops of the trees, gestured through dozens of miles of jungle. “Yeah, that way. They’re in that direction.”

  “You sure? We get this wrong…” Wilsin didn’t have to finish the sentence. He hoped Reeves got how important it was.

  “I’m sure.” He didn’t sound impressed at being questioned. Yet Wilsin had to be sure. “I’ve been combining psychic traces of those plant things, the energy signature they left behind, I can feel them, but it’s faint.” He exhaled sharply. “Just as I can also feel traces of the group from last night. It’s fading but hopefully it’ll get stronger the closer we get.”

  He couldn’t argue with that. He made a good case for having done due diligence. He shot Reeves a grin. “Sorry for doubting you. Look, we need to get them back.”

  “It’s okay.” He didn’t sound okay with it, but he looked like he understood. Wilsin freed one of his hands from Aroon’s neck, reached into his pocket and found the beacon. It didn’t look like much. A white plastic disc with a button and a bulb. Very simple. Only meant to be used in an emergency. If this didn’t qualify, he didn’t know what did.

  Sorry, Brendan for the final time. I know what you told me to do and I just can’t do it.

  He hoped that being rescued would soften the old man’s heart. He was in a world of trouble if it didn’t. Unisco didn’t take kindly to disobeying of orders, even when intentions were good.

  Mentally, he gave Aroon the command to go and the dragon started flying again, powerful wings breaking great strides through the air. He’d delayed because of this, his faith in the speed and power of his dragon, Aroon could keep pace with a few damn rustlers. Finding them at night would have been impossible. Defeating them in the dark would have been even harder without the fire.

  “What the hells is that?”

  They’d been flying for what had to have been hours, time felt like it had melted away into one long unending sequence, the land beneath them one continuous blur of dark green ocean as he, Reeves and Aroon had flown. He didn’t want to think about how many miles had passed, how far they were from the river. He’d glanced back more than once wondering if he could hear sounds of their evac in the distance. If it had been hours, they had to be in the air now. They’d likely have to scramble from Serran, getting airspace permission would have been tricky. If all had gone to plan, they’d have already had the flight plan in place, awaiting clearance to transmit. If the Vazaran authorities suspected anything, they’d delay them even if they couldn’t refuse outright. Just to be contrary.

  Wilsin heard the shout, raised his eyes and started in surprise. He’d only let his head sag for a few moments, focused on his own thoughts and the pattern of the scales on Aroon’s back, he looked up and the entire landscape had changed.

  “Great Divine shitballs!” he exclaimed.

  The sea of green had only intensified, thicker and brighter below them than it had been before, he looked back and there was a very clear point where it changed, went from one colour to the other. Before, there’d been the occasional gap between the trees, offering sight of a patch of brown below, now it was a continuous desert of foliage. All the way to the clearing ahead, the size of a dozen stadiums where nothing grew from the ground but a huge stone structure which looked anything but congruous to its surroundings.

  “Great Divine shitballs is right,” Reeves said. Wilsin said nothing, kept his eyes on the contours and crevices of the stone structure, mentally examining every protrusion and buttress, trying to take in the shape of the whole thing. He knew what it looked like, he knew exactly what it was, but he also knew it was impossible. Fazarn’s story from the previous night nibbled at his mind. Before, he wouldn’t have had a bloody clue. Now though, there was only one thing in his mind as to what it looked like.

  The rock was shaped like a damn cradle, curved in all the right places, giving the impression that the only thing missing was a giant stone baby to curl up inside it. Maybe a giant stone blanket and a giant stone teddy bear. The image made him smile briefly.

  Cradle Rock.

  They’d found the one thing people had been looking for over the centuries the way Fazarn had told the story, searching for it without success and yet they’d happened across it. The two of them entirely by accident had found it.

  Impossible meant something different these days to what it used to, it felt. He wasn’t sure he was secure in that knowledge. He liked the times he remembered when impossible meant impossible, not merely improbable.

  “David.”

  “I know,” he said. Two words which simply couldn’t sum up the depth of feeling rushing through him. All the while he could remember an old riddle about the man who doesn’t need something finding it while the man who was desperate for it not being able to get it. He felt a little that way. When Fazarn had told the story, he’d given the impression that Cradle Rock had been lost in the ravages of time, it had been shattered by unknowable forces and left broken out of shape by them all. This rock looked as new as a formation like that could look. His initial assessment had been right. It looked manmade, as impossible as that thought was.

  There was that word again. Impossible.

  He sighed, gave the mental command for Aroon to start his descent. He’d mull this over when they got there. Approaching from the sky was risky, all it’d take was for one of those things to look up and they’d be visible. Not another beast or bird in the sky around them for miles. The closer they got to landing, the more the trees started to bear in on them, the more the heat started to intensify. He could hear the chatter of insects in the distance, very distant at his guess, like listening through a jar.

  “Something isn’t right here,” Reeves said. “The entire area feels off.”

  Wilsin glanced at him. “Off how?”

  “Just a feeling.” He shrugged his shoulders, gave the area around him a furtive glance like he was worried they were being watched. Maybe they were. This entire situation was filled with variables he couldn’t start to comprehend. All he could do was deal with it in the manner with which he’d been trained. “Like sometimes, you go somewhere something bad happened, you get a bad feeling. It’s not a quantifiable. It’s just there. I can feel it growing in the pit of my stomach, it wants attention.”

  “You know what they say?” Wilsin asked. “Listen to your gut. It’s usually right. Something feels off, it’s probably off. I sort of get what you’re saying.” Reeves nodded at him, he looked grateful he didn’t have to explain things further.

  “You knew though, didn’t you?” he said. Not accusing but just a simple statement of fact seasoned with a hint of suspicion.

  “Knew what?” Wilsin was nonplussed, didn’t know what he meant. The look of confusion crawling across his face wasn’t an act.

  “You knew something like this was going to be the case, didn’t you? I mean, you were talking about us possibly flying for hours. We’ve not even done a fraction of that.”

  Wilsin nodded slowly. No harm in building some credibility. Suspicion was all it had been, it didn’t mean he hadn’t cons
idered the possibility. Whatever these things were, the rustlers, they hadn’t walked for miles to ambush them. Now he thought more about it, he was sure he’d seen one earlier in the day yesterday at the riverbank. Maybe a sentry. Whatever else they might be, they didn’t lack for organisation which he found troubling. They’d showed some effort of planning their attack, they’d waited until they were settled around the fire and distracted with the stories which hinted at intelligent coordination. Most animals couldn’t plan like this, not without modification and enhancement, so they were above the beasts in the food chain in that regard.

  Part of every successful attack was an escape. No point in trying if you were going to get killed while leaving. Always have a way out, Wilsin remembered that was a lesson that they’d made sure to drum into them at the academy. Sometimes, it was even best to have more than one possible exit from a situation. Things went awry given half a chance. More words to live by from the academy. In his time as a Unisco agent, he’d discovered the truth in that statement more than once. Things didn’t only have the chance to go awry, they’d jump at them if they could. Situations hated people who tried to plan for them in his opinion.

  Anything could have happened. They’d not planned for a Vedo to attack them, they’d not expected the fire to come at them. The blasters yet, but not the Kjarn. Now they knew, would they adjust their tactics accordingly next time? Were they smart enough or was he trying to outthink them a little too hard?

  Yes, he and Reeves could have chased them into the jungle at night. Anything could have happened but wasn’t a guarantee all would have survived. They’d had to have come from somewhere. It wasn’t an army they’d encountered last night, it was a raiding party, a group chancing their success and they’d gotten it. They’d routed them. Three dead. Three captured. Only him and Reeves left on the table. If this was a raiding party, the main bulk of them had to be somewhere. If the sentry had summoned a raiding party, they had to be relatively close. They had no signs of communication Wilsin had seen, then again who knew how walking plants spoke to each other in the first place.