He wasted no time. A moment later, his boots and gear were on the bank and they watched him disappear under the green rippling surface of the river.
It was an agonizing wait.
“Hasn’t he been gone too long?” Brytnoth asked Jared anxiously. “He’s not been up for air…what if he’s….”
“He’s not. He’s a terrific swimmer. Just wait.” But even though his words were confident, his tone betrayed his misgivings.
After another thirty seconds that seemed to take ten minutes, an explosion of bubbles erupted near the center of the river. Jared’s hand gripped Brytnoth’s arm like a pair of pincers, and they waited breathlessly to see what would follow.
The boat surfaced like a great sea beast, water cascading from her decks and spurting out the bilge pipes. Then she steadied herself and leveled out on the surface, shuddering until Rafe, dripping but triumphant on the deck, shut off the propulsion engine and switched over to the main motor.
“And there you go!” he shouted. “She’s a bit damp, but she’ll dry in no time!” He steered her cautiously toward the shore and tossed them the tie-off line.
Jared flung Rafe’s gear on board and he and Brytnoth were on deck a moment later. Rafe gunned the engine and they sped away from the shore.
The banks raced past them now, and Jared felt relief and renewed hope flow through him with every beat of his heart. As the dusk shadows poured around them, filling the land like water in a basin, his thoughts turned back to Sahara. He wondered if she were still angry, and if he could reopen their communication.
The trouble is, I don’t know how, he reflected. Childir never explained any of this to me…I don’t even know how it works. It always seems to happen by accident.
He sighed and looked with envy at Brytnoth, who was stretched out on the deck deep in sleep. Another glance toward the foredeck showed Rafe manning the wheel, lost in his own musings.
Jared sighed again and leaned back, staring up at the stars that were both so new to him and yet somehow so familiar. And then it seemed like he closed his eyes, for the stars were suddenly blotted out.
I’m not angry at you, if you want to know.
His vision cleared, and he saw her. She had a wan smile on her face, but she was so pale and worn that his heart leapt into his throat.
Are you…is everything… He fumbled for words, but she understood what his incoherence failed to convey.
I know you’re not going to leave me here to die. Her eyes locked with his, and he felt pierced to the very soul. Are you, Jared?
No, no, by God! Brytnoth found the boat…Rafe got it to work…we’re coming as quickly as we can…everything’s going to be just fine, I promise!
A sudden brightness and even triumph spread over her face. You found the boat?
Yes. Yes, we did. It’s going to be all right.
I knew it would be…I knew you would find a way…. Her voice and face faded, but he saw her smile, and peace flooded his soul.
He woke to Rafe’s groggy voice in his ear. “Get up, will you? I need to sleep.”
Jared blinked at him for a moment and then rubbed his hands over his face. “Yeah, of course.” He stared around blankly for a moment. It seemed to be the deadest hour of the night. “Where are we, anyway?”
“We’ll be in Albadir by dawn.” Rafe dropped onto the deck next to Brytnoth and rolled onto his side. “Just steer straight up the river. Don’t hit a tree or anything.” And he was asleep.
Jared made his way forward to the cockpit, grumbling a little to himself. “Brytnoth’s had more sleep than any of us!” he muttered. “Why’d Rafe get me up?”
He guided the boat gently along, the tranquility of the rippling river and the twinkling stars quickly overwhelming his irritation. But it was not long before he had to slow the boat’s progress, and then to stop altogether.
“What is that?” he mumbled, peering ahead at what seemed to be a giant cloud hovering over the river and as far as he could see to east and west. Not two hundred feet in front of him, the vegetation ceased abruptly, giving way to an undulating surface that gleamed silver in the starlight.
All of a sudden, he knew what it was. He scrambled aft to their packs and began rummaging frantically through them. It was all there, buried under the rest of their equipment. He pulled out the silver cloths and goggles and then hurried to wake his friends.
“Quick!” he said, shaking them vigorously. “Get up!”
Brytnoth swatted at his hand in annoyance and Rafe cursed at him. But Jared persisted. “Wake up!” he shouted at them. “Do you want to eat sand for breakfast?”
With that, they sat up, staring at him stupidly.
“What? What do you mean, eat sand?” Rafe asked.
Jared shoved the cloth and goggles into his hands. “You want to aspirate that?” he asked, pointing upriver toward the raging cloud of sand.
Rafe paled as he realized how near they had come to making a fatal mistake, and they silently put on their gear.
“Thanks, Jared,” said Brytnoth. “Sorry.”
Jared nodded and headed back to the wheel. He gunned the engine and sped into the blinding sandstorm.
Once within the maelstrom of sand and wind, he had to slow the boat’s progress to avoid running aground. The goggles enhanced his vision, but the storm was at its peak and even with the goggles he couldn’t see more than ten feet in any direction.
“It’s so strange, isn’t it?” asked Rafe, joining him. “After the freshness of the south, to come back into this wasteland?”
Jared nodded. “It’s like death,” he said. “Our world is dying, Rafe.”
“Dying, yes, but not dead. Not yet.” He stared into the gritty haze for a moment, and then added, “Not if we can destroy them first.”
Brytnoth came to stand with them at that moment. “It also seems strange,” he said, “that the fate of your planet would be tied to the fate of an outworlder.”
Jared smiled under his mask. “She’s an outworlder no longer. And neither are you.”
They maneuvered on in silence, the hours trickling by. At last, the wind ceased to howl, and their vision began to clear. The sand settled in a film on the water in front of them, coating the boat and their clothes with a layer of fine dust. To the east the sky was a paler blue, and a line of gold was streaking along the horizon.
When at last the air had cleared and the sun had pulled itself over the horizon, they shed their masks and goggles and took deep breaths of unfiltered air.
“Makes me miss the south,” Brytnoth commented, shaking his head and watching a cloud of sand fall around him.
“Look,” said Jared, pointing to the north. The watergates of Albadir shimmered in the early morning sunlight. “Home.”
They sped up the river, not slacking their pace until they had arrived within the walls. The city still slumbered, and Jared was thankful for that. Their mission had been undertaken in secret and he wanted it to stay that way.
As soon as they reached the boathouse, Rafe leaped onto the dock and tied the boat fast.
“We haven’t a moment to lose,” said Jared, tossing him their bags of gear. “We need to change out our gear, report to Arnauld, and be ready to head for the mountains by this afternoon. Rafe, you and Brytnoth can handle the gear. Pack light—only bring what we’ll absolutely need. Plenty of food, some herbs for Sahara’s wounds, and a kali for each of us. I’ll brief Arnauld. Let’s go.”
“What’s a kali?” Brytnoth asked Rafe as they set off for the city.
“A curved dagger that we use for close-quarter combat. It’s a double-edged weapon…really nasty.” He flashed Brytnoth a smile. “Good for hunting lizards.”
Jared made his way to Arnauld’s quarters and hammered on the door. There was no answer, so he hammered louder, banging away until the door opened under his fist.
“What in hellfire is the matter with you?” hissed Arnauld, cinching his silken robe around his waist. When he recognized Jared, his attitude c
hanged completely. “Jared!” he exclaimed, grasping both Jared’s arms and beaming. “You made it! Come in, but quietly! Aliya is still asleep.”
He drew Jared into an adjacent room, where comfortable couches nestled against the walls and a gurgling fountain in the corner invited guests to take refreshment and peace.
“Tell me what happened!” Arnauld said, ushering Jared to sit down. As soon as Jared was seated, he snapped his fingers. A servant appeared in the doorway. “A bowl of fruit and some water for Lord Alareth!” The servant bowed and vanished, and Arnauld turned his attention back to Jared. “Well? Tell me!”
“The Great City still stands, but it’s totally in ruins,” Jared said. “Its people are either dead or enslaved. We found nothing alive within the walls…nothing, that is, save a few maggoty scouts of the Dragon-Lords.”
Arnauld’s eyes narrowed. “You had trouble, then?”
Jared flashed a grin. “No, my lord. No trouble. We were able to handle them, and we got what we were after.”
“The weapons?” Arnauld breathed in amazement and disbelief. “They were actually there?”
“Yes, my lord. They were in the necropolis under the Great Temple, just where we thought they’d be. We recovered them and left the city, but we were delayed. They had taken the boat.”
“They? Who’re they?”
“The Dragon-Lords.” He heaved a sigh and studied his hands. “Childir warned them of our coming just before I killed him. They took the boat and sunk it some way upriver.”
“Childir is dead!” Arnauld breathed. “And by your hand!”
“Yes.” Then, continuing the story, Jared added, “But we found the boat, and Rafe was able to save it.”
“With the underwater propulsion system, yes?”
“Yes.”
Arnauld chuckled and rubbed his hands together gleefully. The servant entered with a tray of fresh fruits and a pitcher of water and set them on the low table before Jared.
As he bowed and left, Arnauld said, “You know, when the shipwright told me about that system, I thought, ‘What an extravagance! Why would I ever need such a thing?’ But I wanted only the best, and I told him so. I never thought it would actually be useful for anything.” He laughed again. “I guess it just goes to show you that you never know what good will come of seemingly insignificant things.”
“It’s only too true, my lord.”
“And what now? What is your next step?”
“We’re heading into the mountains today to seek out the place of sacrifice. We have but two days until the new moon…there’s no time to waste.”
“Where will you look?” Arnauld asked. “Do you have any ideas?”
Jared bit into the spicy-sweet flesh of an edulia fruit and considered for a moment. “I have a vision,” he answered.
“A vision?”
“A vision. And illuminations in a manuscript.”
“Those hardly constitute a map, Jared.”
“I know.” Jared took a deep draught of water. “But is there any other way?”
Arnauld thought hard for a moment, as though weighing whether he should speak or not. “Have you been to the map room?” he asked at last.
“The what?” Jared leaned forward in his seat eagerly.
“When the Great City was under attack, two clerics of the temple smuggled as much of the library out of the city as they could. They were waylaid, and much of what they carried was destroyed. But the maps survived. Our scouts found them hidden in the rushes near the river. They have not been looked at for many, many years, for there has been no need and no one to interpret their meaning. But you might find something in those maps to guide you more effectively than a vision.”
“Where is this room?” asked Jared.
“There is a secret passage within the library. On the seventh shelf along the east wall there is a large tome. Its binding is faded, but three letters yet remain in gold along the spine. Remove this book from the shelf and look behind it for a small lever. Pull it, and the passage will open.”
Jared was already on his feet. “Have I your leave to go, my lord?”
“Go with all blessings, Jared. And I expect you all to return with Sahara by week’s end.”
Jared smiled, bowed, and left.
Arnauld shook his head, hope flooding out of his face. He picked a fruit off the plate Jared had left, bit into it solemnly, and sighed.
“I only hope they make it in time.”
Chapter 25
Half an hour later, Jared, Brytnoth, and Rafe stood in front of the designated bookshelf in the library. The faded red volume squatted on the shelf between two enormous tomes on natural history and taunted them with its brilliant gold inscription.
“Who knew?” Rafe said, breaking the crypt-like silence at last. “Who knew there was a secret passage in here?”
“I always thought the place looked bigger on the outside than it did on the inside,” Brytnoth remarked.
Jared took a deep breath. “Well, here goes.”
He reached for the book and drew it slowly out of its place. They all peered into the void it had left.
“I don’t see anything,” said Rafe impatiently.
Jared reached his hand inside and felt around. After a moment’s vain searching, his fingers caught on a small protrusion at the back of the shelf.
“I found something,” he said.
“Well, pull it!” exclaimed Brytnoth.
Jared curled his fingertip around the small lever and drew it downward. With a groaning and creaking, the eighth shelf drew back and then slid behind the shelves next to it, revealing a dark and very dusty passageway that wound down into the guts of the earth.
“Another underground hiding place,” said Rafe. “Lovely. I was hoping we’d get to stay above ground this trip.”
“Did you bring a light?” asked Brytnoth.
Jared took a light stick out of his pocket and cracked it, revealing a set of curving stone steps that ran away from them into the darkness. They plunged into the tunnel, ducking large cobwebs and breathing in a stench of damp stone.
“You didn’t read anything about spiders in those agriculture books you found, did you, Brytnoth?” asked Rafe as he got a particularly large web right in the face.
“Nothing you’d want to hear about at the moment,” he answered with a grin.
The spiral tightened the further down they went, until they barely had room to walk single file between the stone wall on their right and the central pillar on their left. Just when they thought the stairs would pinch off completely, they suddenly rounded the shaft and stepped off into a vast chamber. Jared flashed the light around the room, but the beam was not strong enough to penetrate all the way to the far walls.
“Good God,” breathed Brytnoth. “I wonder what else is down here besides maps!”
“I don’t know, and we haven’t got time to find out,” Jared said. “Let’s find what we came for and get out of here. We’ll have plenty of time to explore later.”
“Unless we die fighting the Dragon-Lords,” said Rafe. “Then we’ll never know.” He shook his head. “What a shame.”
“Well, if we’re dead, then I guess we won’t care whether we know or not,” said Jared, a smile taking the edge off his words. “Let’s go.”
As they made their way around the room, they passed shelves loaded with manuscripts far more ancient than any kept in the upper library. Other shelves held trays and baskets full of gold, jewelry, and loose gemstones. A long, intricately carved chest stood against one wall, filled, as they supposed, with weapons. Suits of armor, of an intricate artistry the likes of which Jared had never seen before, hung above the chest.
“It’s like a treasure house,” Brytnoth said at last, spying strange scientific instruments gleaming on a set of long tables. “But whose treasure?”
“I’ve never seen workmanship like this,” Jared said, turning a gold arm-ring over in his fingers. “This is from an age long past…perhaps from the t
ime before the Dragon-Lords. The Golden Age.” He gently replaced the band on its shelf.
“Is that what we’re looking for?” asked Rafe suddenly, pointing to an enormous table in the middle of the room.
Stacks of parchments littered the surface, some of them so old that Jared feared they would crumble to dust if they were moved.
“It looks like a map table,” he agreed. “Let’s see what we can find.”
As the first hour ticked slowly by, Jared felt his frustration and anxiety swell. They didn’t have time to waste mucking around in old documents. They needed to be on the move.
“What exactly are we looking for, anyway?” asked Brytnoth, voicing Jared’s impatience. “This seems like a waste of time to me.”
He lifted a large stack of crumbling parchments and set them down, none to gently, in front of him. Something slipped from between the pages and fell with a small tinkling sound on the floor.
“What was that?” asked Rafe, looking up from the faded mappa mundi that he was studying.
Brytnoth was already on his hands and knees under the table. “I don’t know.”
Jared and Rafe bent down and watched him scuffle around, swiping the ground with his hand. After a few moments of breathless silence, his hand knocked against a small object. The next moment, he had it in his grasp and they were crowding around him to see what it was.
“It’s like a seal or something,” said Rafe, taking the object out of Brytnoth’s open palm.
It was indeed like a seal, small but heavy, with deep groves in the base as if for stamping wax. The dull, lead-colored metal seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.
“It’s ugly,” said Jared. “Compared to what else is down here…look at it. It’s just…it looks evil.”
“There’s no ornament on the stem,” remarked Brytnoth. “Nothing to explain whose it is or where it came from.”
“No, we’ll have to actually use it to find that out.” Rafe rubbed his finger over the base of the seal, a furrow creasing his forehead as he did so. “Let’s go,” he said suddenly.
“Go where? We haven’t found anything yet!” Jared snapped, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
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