Dave scratched at his beard. "Are you saying somebody left them for us, knowing that we'd come this way? Could it have been Cyrus?"
"No. He can only travel between Mountainside and the Oasis Outpost."
"Then who could've left them?"
"I have no idea," Ander said. He did have one idea, but it was ridiculous. Warrick would never have left them a map leading them to him.
Then again, this quest had been far too easy. Nothing all that dangerous had threatened them. The Imperial Guards in Marion had given up their chase without much of a fight. That was unusual. Normally, Imperial Guards pursued criminals until they were apprehended. Was Ander missing something?
They eventually located the section of the canyon the symbols had indicated. Ander held his staff over the edge of the canyon, and a translucent yellow bridge appeared.
Feeling queasy, he placed a foot on the bridge. It was solid. "Go get the others. We have a bridge to cross."
Chapter 40: Beneath the Ruins
Nadia screamed as she plunged into the darkness, sure she'd made the wrong decision. Farther and farther she fell, leaving the ruins behind. She couldn't hope to survive when she hit the ground.
She should have given this more thought.
Just when Nadia thought her fall would never end, she slowed, and there was light below. When she hit the ground, it felt as if she'd jumped from perhaps five feet up.
The room she'd landed in was large and bright, lit by those blue magical torches present throughout the ruins. A large stone door at the chamber's far end was closed for the moment. No one stirred in the chamber. She approached the door in eerie silence.
When she was about halfway, a silvery figure appeared in front of her—a man floating a few inches above the ground, his body mostly transparent. A ghost.
"Well done," he said. "Not many people would have made the decision you did."
"Then I did make the right decision?"
"Yes, you did. Now the secrets of these ruins are yours."
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I am Deron. I'm the last remaining Keeper of Sandersburg. It is my duty to protect the secrets of these ruins from those who might use them for evil ends."
"I don't care about all these secrets," Nadia said. "I just need one of them. It's a potion recipe that should heal the man I love. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
"Yes, I do. I can lead you to what you need." He floated a few paces away, then stopped. "Is that truly all you seek here?"
"It is." Nadia followed him. "Did you say your name was Deron?"
"Yes."
"Then you were friends with Warrick and Cyrus?"
Deron had a distant look in his eyes. "So many years have passed since that time. I died more than five hundred years ago, and I pledged myself to this city as one of its keepers before I did. I've spent the last five hundred years watching over this place."
"That sounds terrible."
"Time does not pass the same way for ghosts," Deron said. "It has been a long time, yes, but it has not quite felt like it. Not entirely."
Nadia didn't understand what he meant. All she could think about was saving Markus.
Deron began gliding again, leading her toward the door at the far end of the room. The door opened as if sensing his presence. As they stepped through the door, entering a narrow stone corridor, Nadia said, "Do you know where my friend Rik is?"
"The young man with the red hair?"
"Yes. Is he all right? Can I find him?" Nadia prayed that Rik hadn't gone to the Shadowed Land like Kara. His disappearance had felt much the same.
Deron stroked his beardless chin, his expression pensive. "Unfortunately, I don't know where he has gone. I know little of what happens beyond the borders of the city. He could be dead. He could be in the Shadowed Land, or somewhere in our world, or in another world entirely. There are those who can do this, people you'd call Travelers." He shook his head slowly. "I have no idea. I'm sorry. The Shadowed Land is most likely, but that's only a guess."
Nadia felt a sudden rush of tears. "No, I can't lose Rik like this. I can't go back to Markus, heal him, and then tell him that his best friend is gone. I can't do that. There has to be some way to save him."
Deron placed a hand on her shoulder as they walked. She expected it to feel freezing, like the touch of the Spirit of Malavia, but his hand felt warm and oddly solid.
"I know this must be hard," he said, "but I'm sure your friend accepted the risks when he went on this journey with you. He wanted to save his best friend, and sometimes that requires sacrifices. It won't be easy to move past this, but you must do it. For Markus."
"You don't understand." Tears flowed down her cheeks. "This is just like how I lost my closest friend. She went to the Shadowed Land. She is lost to me forever."
"No one is lost forever."
"How can you know that?" she demanded, following him.
"As a ghost, I've found I have access to the Webs of Fate, more access than I ever had in life. I can't see them with the clarity Warrick can, but just now, I did look for your friends in them. I can see many paths in which you are reunited with both of them."
"But how certain are you?"
"The Webs of Fate are never certain," Deron said. "I can only tell you that you shouldn't give up hope. You should go on with your life. Do what you need to do. Let them handle their parts."
"That's not the type of person I am."
"Then you'll have to change. There's nothing you can do for them right now."
"I can't accept that. I just can't."
"We all have our own failures," Deron said. "Things we wish we could change. You know that I was friends with Warrick. Did you also know that I once supported everything he believes in? That I contributed, at least indirectly, to his tyranny? Now, I could sit here and lament the decisions I made in the past, but there's no point in that. In life, you have to accept the things you can control. Your friends' fates are outside your control at the moment. It's all right to miss them, but you shouldn't let that interfere with what you have to do. And you do have very important things to do."
Nadia looked up at the ghostly man through tears. "Are you saying that I might get another chance at Warrick?"
"As I've said before, the Webs of Fate are not easy to read. Even Warrick can't see the future perfectly, and the farther in the future you go, the more difficult it becomes to make any sense of the strands. But I can tell that you might be very important. The second Great War is coming, and you have a role to play in it. A very important role, if you choose to accept it."
"And if I don't?" Nadia asked, though she knew she would. After all she'd been through, she couldn't back away from an opportunity to kill Warrick and help the world.
"That is your decision," Deron said as they rounded a corner. The stone corridor looked the same everywhere. "It may lead to horrible suffering, though."
Nadia's tears had dried now. "In essence, you're saying I don't have a choice?"
He smiled. "Judging by what I know of you, you're correct in that. You could never back away from a chance to help the world. That's easy enough to see. You are the first person in a very long time to make the right decision in that final challenge. Most people couldn't make a decision at all. They never even considered the possibility of sacrificing themselves. That makes you a very special person, Nadia. You're the kind of person who can change the world."
Nadia hadn't thought of things that way. She didn't know if her decision was truly that rare. Surely others would have made the same choice.
"I still don't know how I'm going to tell Markus about Rik," she said.
Deron drifted closer to her. "You'll find a way."
"I wish I had such confidence in myself."
"I think you'll find that confidence one day." Deron floated down the corridor, toward a door at the far end. Again, the door opened without him touching it. Nadia followed him into a narrow corridor that branched in many directions.
&
nbsp; She stayed close to him. "I have another question. When Rik and I were going through the Fire Mountains, we found a chamber with Luminian symbols on the wall. The symbols seemed to refer to me, telling me to go to Luminia. Did you leave them there?"
"No, I have no idea who left them there. It couldn't have been me. I can't leave these ruins. However, I do agree with this person. Luminia is the next step in your long quest."
"Then who do you think left them there? It had to be a sorcerer. Someone who can read the Webs of Fate. Do you think it could have been Warrick?"
"It's possible." Deron stopped next to a large door at the end of a corridor. "But speculating on something like that is useless. You should focus on saving Markus and then making your way to Luminia."
"But I have to know who left it there. If it was Warrick, going to Luminia might be the wrong thing to do."
"No, it's the right thing to do."
"And how do I know I can trust you?" she asked, leaning against the cool stone wall. "After all, you were friends with Warrick. You even said you believed in the same things he did. Maybe your beliefs have never changed and you're trying to lead me to my death."
"You know your history, don't you? I was the mayor of Sandersburg, the most powerful man in the city. I chose to become a Keeper. Only those without evil intentions can become Keepers. Not only that, but Warrick destroyed my city and killed me in the process. And what about my friendship with Cyrus?" His voice rose in anger. "Does that count for nothing?"
"I-I'm sorry," Nadia said. She'd backed against the wall, terrified by his sudden anger. Though she had no idea if a ghost could harm her, she didn't want to find out.
Deron shook his head, silent for a few long moments. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper. I'm afraid I'm still a little sensitive where Warrick is concerned. It's understandable that you're suspicious of me. In your place, I would probably be suspicious of everyone I met."
Isn't that the truth? Nadia thought. She couldn't recall the last time she'd felt she could trust anyone she didn't know. All her life, she'd had to keep her doings secret from Imperial Guards, and even from her own father—not to mention trusted friends like Avia.
Again, she felt a rush of tears, but she held them back. She had a mission to accomplish, and wallowing in self-pity wouldn't help her with that goal.
After a lengthy silence, Deron said, "Are you ready?"
She nodded, and he drifted toward the door. It opened as he approached, and he glided through, beckoning for Nadia to follow. The room beyond was the largest library Nadia had ever seen. The bookshelves stretched as far as she could see, illuminated by the same blue magical light. She felt an overpowering desire to remain here and look through all these books.
"This is the knowledge of the Old World," Deron said. "The knowledge that nearly destroyed our own world. Very few people have ever seen this place."
Nadia felt a fluttering in her stomach. "Can I return here later?"
"Yes. Since you have passed the test, this place is open to you." Deron led her through one of the aisles. Nadia felt dwarfed by the shelves, which towered at least fifty feet high.
"How do you reach up there?" Nadia asked. "I don't see any ladders."
Deron pointed toward one of the shelves. "Press that red button and make sure to stand on the tile directly in front of it."
A small red circle stuck out from the shelf on her right. It glowed as if it were magical. She pressed the button. The floor opened around her, and railings fashioned of shiny metal emerged. They rose about five feet and snapped into place with a loud click.
The platform rose beneath her, making a soft whirring noise, and stopped a few feet above the floor. There was a small lever on the railing to her right.
Hovering beside her, Deron said, "That lever raises and lowers the platform. Try it."
Nadia felt tense, but she did as he'd instructed. The platform ascended at a steady pace, leaving the ground far below. She examined the titles of nearby books. There were so many that they all collided in her mind.
"Is this platform magic or technology?" she asked.
"It is both."
Nadia pulled the lever again, and the platform descended. Once she was down on the ground, she said, "Where is the potion recipe I need?"
"I'm not entirely sure. We'll have to search for it."
"How are we going to do that?"
"Don't worry. It shouldn't be that hard. We'll just use a computer."
Nadia gave him a doubtful look. "A computer? I don't know what that is."
"Here. Let me show you." Deron drifted to the end of the aisle, into an open section of the library. In the center of that area were stone chairs and matching desks. But Nadia's gaze was drawn to what lay atop the desks.
"Are those the computers?" She pointed toward rectangular things glowing with a strange blue light. Long thin objects ran from the back of those rectangular things to tall black boxes beneath the desk.
"You are quite astute," Deron said. "But those glowing screens aren't the computers. They're the monitors. They allow you to interact with the computers." He pointed toward the black boxes under the desks. "Those are the computers. You don't have to worry about how they work. All we need to do is a little search. It shouldn't be a problem."
Nadia approached the desk hesitantly. "Are you sure about that?"
"You're a smart young woman. I think you'll figure this out. It isn't too hard." He gestured toward the nearest stone chair. "Sit down. I'll walk you through this."
Nadia lowered herself into the seat, staring at everything with wide eyes. Deron gave names to some of the objects. The things trailing from the back of the monitor were cords. On the desk in front of her were two objects: a keyboard and a mouse.
The keyboard made a little sense. At least she recognized the letters on it. She had no idea why the other object was called a mouse, though it was about the size of one.
Deron told her which keys to press. She had no idea what she was doing, so she hoped he knew. At last, he told her to press the keys on the keyboard to spell out the words for the potion she needed. To her relief, Deron knew exactly what she was looking for.
With his help, it didn't take long for the monitor to show them a location. The random numbers meant nothing to her, but Deron nodded as if he understood.
"How do these things work?" Nadia asked as she followed Deron away from the computer and toward the shelf where she'd find the potion recipe.
"Have you ever heard of electricity?"
"I think I've read the word," Nadia said, "but I don't know much about it."
"That's by design. The knowledge of how such things work was supposed to be kept secret here." Deron shook his head. "Of course, it didn't stay that way. That resulted in the Great War. In its most basic sense, the war was a battle between those who favored technology and those who didn't. Such knowledge can be very destructive. In the end, we sealed most of that knowledge away again."
"But not all of it?" Nadia asked.
"There is one nation, the New Earth Empire, which still holds that knowledge. They were loyal to Krinir in the Great War, or at least most of them were. We didn't have the numbers to take that knowledge away from them, but with some help from Lionar, we sealed it there, much like Warrick was sealed within his Empire." He smiled. "Though the source of Warrick's imprisonment is different. It resides deep underground, in a place known as the Underground City."
"How can you seal knowledge away?" Nadia asked. They had entered another row of shelves. Again, Nadia felt dwarfed by the vast amounts of knowledge stored here.
"Anyone who leaves that nation forgets anything they learned about technology while they were there. This benefits the rest of the world and benefits the New Earth Empire. They prefer to remain separate. They allow very few people to enter, and they monitor every ship that sets out from their shores. The penalties for stealing technological secrets are very severe. You are executed, no questions ask
ed."
"That sounds like a terrible place," Nadia said.
"In some ways, I suppose you're right, but it is also the most prosperous place to live in our world, or at least it was hundreds of years ago. I've only received scattered reports of the world beyond the Empire, but I believe things have remained much the same." He smiled at her. "I have the feeling you're going to see the place for yourself, in time."
Nadia didn't want to think that far ahead. If she fell into that trap, anxiety would consume her. She already had enough on her mind. Markus's health. Rik's disappearance. Kara's life in the Shadowed Land. She had to focus on the present, on what she could control.
"Here we are." Deron pointed toward one of the books. "This is what you need. The potion maker should know what to do with this book."
Nadia grabbed the book and flipped through its old, dusty pages. Though she could read the words, their meanings were almost indecipherable. How could anyone make sense of this?
"Are you sure this is all I'll need?" she asked, stuffing the book into a pocket on the inside of her traveling clothes.
"It is," Deron said. "You'll take that recipe to the potion maker in the Prison City. He'll brew the potion for you, and then you'll return to these ruins. I'll be watching for you. As soon as you cross the magical barrier around the ruins, I'll be waiting for you. I'll take you back to this place, and then you'll use the teleportation platform here to return to Markus."
"You mean it can take me out of the Empire?"
"The teleportation platform here doesn't have the limitations of those Warrick created. The same goes for the Underground City, should you ever find it."
Nadia didn't care about the Underground City. She was too busy thinking of how close she was to healing Markus. Despite her lingering anxiety, she felt as if a massive weight had left her chest. She'd thought she would have to make the journey back.
Now she could return to Markus in an instant. But then she remembered that Rik wouldn't be with her.
"It's time to go," Deron said.
"Thank you for all your help. Because of you, I have a chance at saving Markus."
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