by Blink, Bob
“You might have come back and discussed your decision before going on,” Nycoh said angrily. “You not only risked your own lives, but one of the only two staffs that can allow exploration in the Ruins. Perhaps I would have selected a more studied approach. And you,” she snapped, looking at Ash’urn. “I thought you were smarter than this.”
“Perhaps it was a rash choice,” Rigo said softly hoping to defuse the situation and Nycoh’s anger, which he suspected was fueled mostly by her fear for their well being. “I assume Orna and Lorl briefed you about the Duneriders. I think we have found their home, and maybe the source of the Hoplani as well.”
“Duneriders,” Jeen said from her chair off to one side. “That’s what you have named the people that once saved you. Orna and Lorl told us they were real. We spent a full day listening to their story. You found more of them?”
“We were taken to a small community. We could never have crossed the Ruins through such a wide dead zone without the Dunerider’s help. We saw half a hundred of them living in a small village. A small oasis is nearby, but they live in the Ruins instead. We believe they live underground, so cannot accurately judge their total numbers. We also saw hundreds of Hoplani nearby. We didn’t take time to explore, believing it best to come back here, and bring along others.”
“That’s about the only smart thing you’ve done of late,” Nycoh snapped, unwilling to let her annoyance go just yet.
“They are able to control the Hoplani,” Rigo said, ignoring Nycoh’s rebuke, sensing she was already cooling off. “We saw a Morvane in their camp as well. They seem to be able to control them as well. They use them like we use horses.”
“So we were told,” Nycoh said in a calmer voice. “Do you think these Duneriders as you call them, are responsible for sending the Hoplani after us? Is there a chance of negotiating with them and making them stop the creatures?”
“I have no idea,” Rigo said. “We haven’t had time to investigate. Communication is also a problem. Ash’urn has been able to communicate a few basic ideas with gestures, but their speech is unlike anything we have encountered before.”
“They know about us somehow,” Ash’urn added.
Jeen looked at the scholar. “What do you mean?”
“They saved Rigo once before, knowing he needed food and water and to be in one of the green zones. The one we encountered was surprised to see us, but it was surprise we were there, not that we existed. He wasn’t surprised by our magic. That suggests he somehow had knowledge of us.”
“What do you think our next steps should be?” Jeen asked.
“After a bath and some sleep, I think we need to send a team back there, and see what we can learn. Perhaps not all at once, but it will take a number of people to examine this place in a reasonable time. We’ll have to see how the Duneriders react to a larger number of us. I have no idea if this is the only village, or whether there are many such groups in the Ruins. They are totally adapted to the place, and don’t seem to need much food or water. We still don’t know where the Hoplani come from. They might be raising them. I don’t know how we would even start, but it would be very useful to find a way to communicate with them.”
Nycoh had more questions, but finally dismissed them, instructing them there would be a special meeting first thing in the morning to discuss how to proceed. Rigo and Ash’urn left for their respective quarters, eager to relax in familiar surroundings again after so long in the Ruins.
Chapter 21
Ten of them returned to investigate the Dunerider village. Rigo and Ash’urn led the team. Lorl and Orna joined them once again, Orna a little miffed that she hadn’t been with them when the discovery was made. Even Nycoh came along, after bringing Jeen back to the Outpost and making her familiar with all of the details of the discovery. Jeen would be in charge of the Outpost while Nycoh was away, and would send word if something important developed. An eleventh wizard had made the jumps to the village and returned, so there was someone at the Outpost who was familiar with how to make a Bypass back to there.
“The effect of the Ruins is stronger here,” Nycoh noted shortly after they arrived in Oasis Four.
Rigo had become so accustomed to the feel of the Ruins that he hadn’t really noticed. Their slow travel across the orange colored sands had been gradual, so the distinction was not so apparent, but given the fact that a single jump back to the Outpost was no longer possible, it was a fairly obvious observation.
“I don’t know if that means we are near the center of whatever caused the Ruins, or whether it will continue to get stronger if one continues east,” he replied honestly. “Perhaps there will be no need to find out.”
The group stood in the small grassy enclosure and looked south toward the assembly of huts and the many Duneriders moving about in the Ruins. As usual, none of them had any kind of hat to protect them from the fierce rays of the sun, nor did any wear any kind of protection on their feet. The usual Hoplani and a couple of Morvane could be seen, waiting docilely where they had been ordered to stay. Several of the closer Duneriders noted the group of wizards standing in the shade of the trees in the oasis, but none did more than look for a few moments before returning to whatever task they were engaged in.
“Do you see the individual who helped you get here?” Nycoh asked, when none of the locals showed an interest in approaching them.
“I don’t know that I would recognize him if he were to appear here in front of us. I have yet to see what distinguishes them.” Rigo thought he might be able to pick out the Hoplani that had carried them here if he saw it. He had come to recognize the specific beast, but it was either too far away or not here any longer.
“The oasis and the village are built upon a plateau,” Orna said after studying the scene for some time.
Rigo and Ash’urn had approached from the north and he hadn’t really noticed the fact the land dropped away on either side to the south. Once Orna had pointed it out, the difference in elevation was readily apparent.
They broke into two teams. Rigo, Ash’urn, Nycoh and two other wizards in one. The rest were assigned to the second team. Each team carried a staff, which allowed someone in the team access to magic once they walked out of the oasis. The wizards who hadn’t been in a dead zone before were startled by the sudden sense of loss as they were cut off from their power. They suddenly had more appreciation for the situation that Rigo and his team had been forced to endure for long periods of time.
As before, the Duneriders were not startled by their appearance, and paid them little attention other than a brief look before going about their business. No one tried to prevent them from going anywhere, except it was clear that the Duneriders were not comfortable with any attempt to enter one of the small residences. When they found one unmanned, a brief peek inside showed they didn’t go very far into the ground, with only a small seat carved out of rock in a back corner. Clearly, these were not entrances to underground homes as Rigo had surmised.
Despite initial discomfort of the wizards that hadn’t been this close to Hoplani other than in a combat environment, the local beasts paid them little attention, and after a while they all became accustomed to walking near the creatures without fear. They had been exploring nearly a glass, with no success with any attempt to engage one of the Duneriders in conversation when Nycoh pointed off to the east.
“Great Risos!” she exclaimed. “There goes a whole herd of them.”
Rigo looked where she was pointing. A large herd of Hoplani were headed off to the east, moving across the desert following a lone Morvane. It was impossible to see where they had come from, the edge of the plateau blocking the desert below where the herd originated. Rigo recalled seeing a similarly sized group heading west the other day when he and Ash’urn had first arrived.
“We need to get off the plateau and see what is down on the flats,” he said. He was about to lead the group over toward the eastern edge, when Orna called to him from the second group which was headed their wa
y. He waited for her to approach.
“You need to come have a look,” Orna said when she was closer. “We found a large tunnel that heads into the ground. A lot of Duneriders seem to be coming and going from down there. I think we should have a look.”
Orna led the way to the entrance. It appeared to be a very large cave that sloped gently into the ground. The floor was packed solid from thousands of feet having walked in the entrance over many years. After some discussion, the groups were reformed. Rigo and his team of four won the right to explore. Nycoh remained with the rest topside. Orna handed her the second staff, and then followed after Rigo as they descended into the dark.
He was about to call on wizard’s light, when they saw the walls were providing a weak light that hadn’t been noticeable while they were close to the bright light of the sun outside. As their eyes adapted, they discovered it was possible to see well enough to proceed, and they followed the gently sloping floor that took them below the surface.
“The influence of the Ruins feels stronger here,” Orna observed as they descended.
At first Rigo thought she might be reacting to the loss of her staff, but when he concentrated, he could sense it as well. He checked with his staff, and found that his magic was being affected by the tunnel. He could still call Brightfire, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as before. He wondered if he would lose all ability with magic soon, even with the staff in hand. He told the others what was happening.
They passed a pair of Duneriders walking up the tunnel, who looked curiously at them, but made no move to restrict their entry. Finally, the floor leveled out, and the cave opened into a vast cavern that disappeared into the distance. The cavern wasn’t straight, and it was impossible to see how far it extended from where they stood. The glow produced by the walls of the cavern caused the embedded crystals to glitter with a faint purplish light. Rigo wasn’t certain, but to him they looked the same as the crystals they found in each of the Hoplani they had killed.
“This is remarkable,” Ash’urn observed. “Tens of thousands of the Duneriders could live down here.”
“Could, but I don’t think they do,” Rigo said, pointing off to their left at one of the walls. He had been examining the area carefully as they had entered the vast chamber and had caught sight of something that immediately earned his attention. Taking the lead, he walked closer to what he had seen.
“By the gods!” cursed Lorl. “They grow them here!”
That’s certainly what it looked like, Rigo agreed. There was a large depression in the wall, and standing in the depression was a full-sized, yet clearly undeveloped Hoplani. It was stationary, and even as he watched, Rigo could see that definition was being added to the creature.
“There are hundreds of them,” Orna said in a whisper as she looked around.
Rigo and Ash’urn looked where she was pointing. Now that their eyes knew what to look for, they could see the walls, as far as they could see, were lined with the little depressions, most filled with more of the partially formed creatures.
“They make them somehow,” Ash’urn said in surprise. “They aren’t born as we would have expected. They are manufactured.”
“Magic,” Lorl said, voicing the thought Rigo hadn’t expressed.
“Whose magic?” he asked finally. He hadn’t seen any sign that the Duneriders possessed magical skills, and thus far they seemed to ignore the creatures being formed here.
“How many are down here?” Orna asked.
“I have no idea, but a lot,” Rigo said. Then he saw something else that caught his attention. He walked over toward a small chest sitting along the wall and extracted a short sword much like the one their Dunerider had used to kill the Hoplani back at Oasis Three.
“If we are going to explore down here, we better each carry one of these,” he said, handing them out. “Our swords have no effect on the Hoplani, and the staff is no longer blocking the effects of the Ruins. I cannot access Brightfire at all.
With that sobering thought, the four explorers made their way carefully deeper into the vast cavern. They walked for half a glass, finding ever more of the stations were Hoplani were created. They saw several break free of their enclosures and wander down the cavern, only to be intercepted by one of the Duneriders and somehow directed toward large holding areas they found farther down the cavern. After a while, Rigo called a halt.
“There is no doubt this is where the Hoplani come from,” Rigo said finally.
“At least one of the places” Ash’urn added. “There may be others.”
“Let’s go back and tell the others,” Rigo said. “I don’t know what we can do about this place, but it almost certainly needs to be destroyed.”
“The Duneriders are growing the Hoplani?” Nycoh asked when they had assembled back at the Outpost the next day to review their findings.
“That appears to be the case,” Rigo agreed. “Except I don’t believe they are responsible for the creation of the cavern. Nothing we have seen has shown they have any ability with magic, and they have shown no hostility toward any of us. I think they are completing a task, without knowing why, and have no idea how the creatures will be used.”
“Then who created the caverns and who is responsible for the Hoplani?” Burke asked. He had been invited to the closed session meeting as well.
“I don’t know,” Rigo admitted.
“The Hoplani and the caverns might be something left over from the ancient wars,” Ash’urn said softly from his chair where he’d been listening quietly. “Some of the very old texts suggest the ability to create lifelike creatures was being pursued in those times.”
“And the factory has been running for untold thousands of years untended?” Orna asked. “That seems unlikely. And what about the Duneriders? What is their role in this? And what were the Hoplani created for, anyway?”
“Good questions,” Ash’urn agreed. “The Hoplani might have been a weapon, and they have been left half finished without anyone to properly direct them. As for the Duneriders, I have a theory about them. We need to investigate further.”
“How do we get more of those swords?” Burke asked. He had examined one before the meeting after being told how easily they would cut the Hoplani flesh.
“They are made from the bones of the Hoplani,” Lorl said, anxious to display his experience and knowledge. “We haven’t learned yet how they melt away the flesh, nor how they re-harden the material after it is formed into weapons, but once we do, we can make as many as we desire.”
“These are all we have at the moment?” Burke asked.
Lorl nodded. “We stole a dozen that were laying around when we were in the cavern.”
“Get as many as you can,” Burke instructed him.
They returned to the Dunerider village and spent the next couple of weeks exploring the vast underground Hoplani factory. Nycoh was no longer with them, but sent as many wizards as she could spare on any given day. They learned that there were two sets of Hoplani caverns, one on the eastside and one on the westside of the village. There was also a much smaller, independent cavern where the Morvane were manufactured in a similar manner. Much like the eastern Hoplani cavern, the Morvane cavern showed signs of cave-ins. In fact, it looked as if much more had been damaged and dug out and perhaps repaired by the Duneriders at some point in the past. Further exploration revealed that the caverns deployed the creatures they formed out special tunnels that headed exclusively toward the east or west. A little observation showed the released Hoplani were lead by a Morvane which took them into the distance both directions.
Why east? Rigo wondered as he watched yet another herd thunder off into the distance. What is out that way? They had learned that the factory on the east side had been damaged some time in the past. Several large selections in the cavern had collapsed, destroying the enclosures where Hoplani were formed in those areas. As a result, roughly half the number of Hoplani were formed on that side of the “factory”.
“Rigo,
you need to see this,” Kela said, interrupting his thoughts.
“What is it?” Rigo asked. He was studying the reports from the teams in the tent they had set up in the oasis.
“I’d rather you have a look for yourself,” she said.
Rigo shrugged, and stood to follow her. Rigo opened a Bypass to the far south of the Dunerider village at her direction to save them a long walk, something he could do from the oasis, but which they only did with one of the staffs.
“We found this tunnel opening yesterday, and thought it was just another way down into the “Farms”,” she explained as they walked into the shade of the entrance. “It turns out it goes somewhere else.”
Rigo followed, wondering why she didn’t want to explain, but it didn’t take long to reach the bottom and see. Like the Hoplani factory, this tunnel lead to a cavern with production enclosures, but the product here was different. Only a couple of the possible sites were currently active, but Rigo could see the partially formed Duneriders that were growing.
“They were designed to take care of the Hoplani,” he said. “This explains why they are so resistant to the Ruins. They probably draw their energy from the Ruins just like the Hoplani. I’ll bet they have some kind of embedded crystal for a power source just like Hoplani.”
The discovery explained a lot, including why they had never located any females or younger Duneriders. They simply didn’t exist. Whoever had created the Hoplani, had also created the Duneriders to oversee them. Rigo was disappointed. He had come to view the Duneriders as individuals. This discovery reduced them to magical artifacts, which he knew was wrong, but he couldn’t help the thought from forming..
Chapter 22
“I’m surprised she agreed to allow us to take the staffs,” Orna said, referring to Nycoh, who had been angry at Rigo’s decision to venture deeper into the Ruins.