Before long they were stood in the wake of the arch. Up close, Weave-energy rippled across its surface like an electric current pulsing through a pond. The path beyond was obscured, even from sensing. Cian didn’t even pause as he reached the aperture. He stepped in, vanishing with a strange glooping sound, the liquid-like material seemingly dragging him in. Seb glanced around, trying to hide the terror that gripped him. None of the others seemed concerned. Either the other magi were without fear or they were blocking him, either way it didn’t help his own assurances.
‘After you,’ Reuben said, a knowing smile on his face as he gave a mock bow, waving Seb on. Screw you, he thought, not willing to give the brother any ammunition for further mockery, and stepped in without a pause.
The world he knew vanished in an instant. A howling wind screamed in his ears, the world before him turning a blinding white. He raised his hands but they were ineffective, the luminescence burning into his eyes. The ground shifted beneath him, his foot suddenly touching nothing. He tried to scream, but the air filled his lungs with such ferocity that he couldn’t draw breath. Panic flared. He flailed madly, his arms and legs kicking into nothing. His chest burned, a pressing fire that expanded from his lungs.
I’m drowning.
The thought, cool and calm, seared his mind with an unshakeable clarity. The white light was still there, but it was fading now, fingers of darkness growing from the periphery of his vision. He felt his eyes close, the light now an angry orange behind the lids. The world began to fade, the wind lessened in his ears.
Then he hit solid rock.
He arched his back, sucking in a lungful of cold air. The dark fingers receded, and a new sensation of pain throbbed into life.
‘Fuck me!’ Someone shouted from nearby.
‘It’s never pleasant the first time,’ someone else said, a deeper, growlier voice.
‘Shit, Seb!’
A familiar face appeared above him. The yellow eyes were furrowed, the face pursed with concern. ‘Breathe, fella, come on, slow and steady’s the way.’
Cade’s advice had come about thirty seconds too late, although thankfully he’d figured it out by then in any case. He bit back the retort that sprung to mind, focussing instead on taking in further breaths of air. The panic was receding now, his heart rate down to just an eager rattle in his chest, and sensation was returning to his extremities. His vision cleared further, and he accepted Cade’s offered hand, rising to his feet.
He glanced about him, taking in his new surroundings.
‘Holy shit.’
Cian turned, a smile on his face for the first time in, well, ever. Seb felt a flutter in the Weave, and a glowing orb sprung into life in the air above them.
‘Welcome, to the Way,’ Cian said.
Chapter 41
Seb didn’t know what he’d expected in all honesty, but in all his wildest imaginings he never would’ve conjured up something like this.
The Way was vast, but that didn’t cut it. Compared to the arch in which they’d crossed, the structure beyond defied all reason. The tunnel, if that’s what it was, was easily the width of a football pitch, with barely visible walls, constructed from moss-covered bricks each the size of a small car. High above the ceiling vanished out of view, even beyond the range of Cian’s orb. Every now and again the jutting point of a stalactite loomed out of the shadows, but this was a rare occurrence. Beyond them, the road extended into the distance, vanishing into dark. The air smelled of earth and something else that he couldn’t quite recognise.
‘Right, let’s go. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about this far away from the Nexus, but be alert anyway, starting now,’ Cian said.
Seb activated his sense, the reassuring cone of perception extending far, joining with the larger ones cast by the other magi. He felt the rattan sticks sheathed against his back, more for reassurance than for anything else. Either side of him the brothers fanned out, forming a fighting line, automatic weapons drawn, yellow eyes glowing in the gloom.
They walked down the tunnel. At first, after the initial sense of wonder had worn off, Seb thought that this was it, that the monotonous structure would just continue this way to their destination. That thought was quickly shattered when a lifeform entered the periphery of the sphere, a glowing red shimmer in their minds’ eye.
‘Contact,’ Don whispered.
The brothers vanished into the shadows. The three magi remained, as did Seb, although he drifted to one side, favouring Cade’s location to his own.
A noise filled the chamber now, a dull grumble, growing with every passing moment. Something loomed out of the dark, entering the range of Cian’s orb. Next to him he felt Cade tense, his gun levelled at the approaching creature.
A rickety cart, drawn by a horse that had clearly seen better days, trundled out of the dark. Barrels were strapped into the back of the cart, partially covered by blankets. An old man, hunched over and gnarled like a tree root, sat at the reins. He looked human, but wasn’t, his aura almost inverted. Most humans appeared as a dull blue, this one had an aura of red.
‘Hold,’ Cian said, raising the staff high, the light expanding, filling the chamber.
The horse whinnied and shied, almost rearing onto its back legs. The man jerked into life on the cart, nearly falling off himself.
‘What in the Shards! Who the hell are you?’ he said.
‘Travellers, seeking passage through the Way. What brings you so far out here?’
‘No reason, just like the sights and sounds of the tunnels,’ the man said.
‘Liar,’ Cian said.
‘And you are no traveller, Sir,’ The man replied, sitting back against the cart. Seb noticed then his hand reaching for something under a blanket by his side. He sent a mental alert to the magi, receiving a sharp we know in response.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Cian said.
‘Do what?’ the man said, his eyes wide in mock innocence. ‘I’m not going to do anything st-’
Jesus he moved fast. Before Seb could even blink the man had yanked something, some kind of firearm, from underneath the rags by his side, sighting it at Cian, who simply didn’t move. Something flashed in Seb’s mind, the source one of the magi. The man yelped, dropping the weapon, gripping the arm that now hung limp by his side.
‘By all the!’ he said, clutching the arm against his chest. ‘Your types don’t belong here! You shouldn’t be here!’
Without a further word, and leaving his weapon behind, the man yanked the rein with his one free hand, the horse leaping to life. Cian held a halting hand to prevent any further attacks as the cart trundled off into the dark back from where it came.
‘What the hell was that?’ Cade said, emerging from the shadows.
‘Probably a bootlegger of some kind. People pay good money to get something moved between Shards. In the old days it was unthinkable, but I guess times have changed since I was last here.’
They walked for what seemed like miles, encountering no further travellers. Here and there smaller tunnels trailed off on either side into the darkness. They ploughed on ahead, Cian leading the way. As the distance grew, so did the design of the Way. At the entrance, back on Earth, it was simply a massive hole, carved into reality. Here though were more and more signs of life. The ragged rocks became fine bricks, measured to a clean angle. The mud floor was replaced by cobbles. At regular intervals they encountered stone podiums, the statues either no longer present or eroded into shapeless lumps.
‘Before the Sharding people used to cross these roads all the time,’ Don said, seemingly reading Seb’s thoughts.
‘How many Shards are there?’ he asked, trying to imagine the former splendour this place would’ve been when it was properly in use.
Don shrugged. ‘I don’t know, no one knows I don’t think. Mik?’
‘Could be ten, could be thousands. So many were lost in the Sharding, and we only know those that definitely exist from the people that made it back
. But in reality, it could be a countless number.’
Seb slowed, eyeing a statue that had survived the test of time better than most. It was larger than the rest, carved into the shape of a massive beast with many heads, all serpentine in appearance. Something rang a bell, an itching of his memory, but he couldn’t quite place it.
‘It must’ve been amazing.’
‘I’m sure it was,’ Mik replied.
Seb looked at him. ‘You never saw it, I mean when it was, you know, in use?’
Mik laughed. ‘Hell no, this was centuries ago, before even Cian was born.’
‘Christ, I thought Cian was born before Aura itself!’ Don laughed, Seb joining him.
‘Enough,’ Cian said, putting them to silence.
The road descended, but instead of it getting darker, there now seemed to be a growing luminescence. It was purple in hue, emitting from the lichen that clung to the walls.
‘Is that the Weave too?’ Seb said, trailing a hand against the lichen.
‘No, perfectly natural,’ Cian said, ‘some things are native to the Ways. Many of them, like this, are harmless. Some though, are not so friendly.’
They moved on, legs aching now. Seb found himself envying the magi who used their staffs for guidance, leaning on them as they moved further down the Way. The light increased, and up ahead he could see that the tunnel ended in an impossibly large arch. Some kind of giant lantern hung from the roof just prior to the aperture, casting a welcoming pale haze into the chamber beyond.
Seb reached the lip of the road just after Cian, ahead of the others. He stumbled then, his mind unable to process what his eyes were telling him.
It was beautiful, wondrous and terrifying all at once. The chamber was beyond huge, extending into darkness on all sides. In the centre was some kind of dais, raised from the ground on stone pillars. The platform was five-sided. Atop the platform was a circle of interlinked arches, like doorways cut out from church vestibules.
They descended the steps down into the chamber, the walk itself taking another ten minutes. It was only as they reached the base did Seb realise how truly large it was. The pillars that raised the platform were each the size of a multi-storey building, the strange portals on top extending it further, almost like sky scrapers.
‘This, gentlemen, is the Nexus, the hub of worlds,’ Cian said. His voice echoed round the empty chamber, rebounding back at them a thousand times over.
‘I have never conceived of such a place,’ Cade said. He paced ahead, spinning as he walked, taking in the sight.
Seb simply didn’t have the words. How could such a place be constructed? Shit, he’d seen the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China. Manmade constructs, feats of engineering that had lasted the ages. Yet this, this was something else. How could anyone have built this? Even with the Weave, his mind couldn’t wrap itself around the architecture, around the sheer intelligence it would’ve taken to conceive of such a design, never mind build it.
‘This is the oldest construct known to us on Aura,’ Cian said. ‘It used to be a bridge between Realms, built long before the Sharding. It links, or did link I should say, many of those Shards that would otherwise have been lost to the void.’
‘So why has it packed up?’ Cade said, walking an invisible perimeter around the platform.
‘They didn’t. They were sealed on purpose.’
‘The sheol.’ Seb said.
Cian nodded. ‘When Danu sent the First away to Aura, he sealed the entrance to the Way from his end. When Woden and the First arrived here, they closed it at the other end.’
‘And that’s what you did earlier? You reopened our end?’ Reuben said.
‘I did.’
‘So if the sheol are about down here, then they’ve now got a direct path back to Earth?’
‘No. The path closed behind us. The Way has been engineered so that only those magi with the required knowledge can open and close it.’
‘Not Marek?’ Seb said, speaking what he was sure was on everyone else’s mind.
‘No. This is not something that can be learned from a book. It is handed down from the Magister’s to their successors.’
‘It’s a shame,’ Seb said, surprised at the hot ball that appeared in his throat, his eyes suddenly moist.
‘How so?’ Cian said.
‘That access to such places is lost to us forever.’
Cian nodded slowly, his eyes lost in memories of another age.
‘So,’ Rueben said, idly twirling around as he sauntered across the massive stone flags. ‘If this thing doesn’t work, then why the hell are we here?’
‘It’s not that we’re here for,’ Cian growled, ‘it’s that.’
Seb followed everyone’s gaze, beyond the central platform to the far side of the chamber. He couldn’t see anything at first, but as he channelled his vision the gloom gave way, revealing a massive door, its outline barely visible in the murk.
They walked across the chamber, the magi together, the brothers fanning out, forming a five pointed front as they moved. The journey itself took another ten minutes, and it was a relief when Cian ordered them to rest. He passed a bottle of water amongst them.
‘Should this be open?’ Cade said, breaking the silence.
‘What?’
‘Here.’ Cade was stood at the centre of the door, the smooth surface covered with intricate Runic Script that seemed to be part of the stone itself, not etched on the surface. Cade reached his arm in, the limb vanishing into darkness before coming out. Cian rushed over.
‘That isn’t good news.’
‘What? That someone’s been here already?’ Reuben said. ‘Did you just think the Consensus had just stopped doing whatever it does just for the sake of it? Come on old man, of course someone’s been here. Why else would we be suffering this god awful place if not for that?’
Seb held his breath as Cian snapped a look back at the Second Sword, the veins on his neck bulging, eyes aflame.
‘Anymore of your insolence, Brother, and I’ll cave in your skull. To hell with any blasted Oath.’
Rueben bristled, but did not respond. Instead he took the safety off his modified Beretta submachine gun, sighting the red laser dot against the wall. He looked back at his men then, ‘Come on, let’s get this shit over with.’
They emerged into a smaller chamber than the one they left. This one was much more uneven, lacking the fine architecture from the Nexus. It was as if this place had been built, and sealed, in a hurry.
In the centre of the chamber stood a loose circle of statues. As they moved further in, Seb saw that these were all humanoid in appearance, wearing similar smocks to the magi.
Cain rolled out a large mat across the floor in the circle before the statues. He nodded to Mik. The mage rushed over and carefully emptied a series of bound velum scrolls onto the floor. Cian unrolled each and weighted them down before him.
‘These were human once, well, most of them were.’ He searched the open scrolls with a gloved hand, eventually finding the one he sought. He moved it in front of him, on top of the rest, and weighted it down with rocks.
‘These are the First?’ Seb stopped in front of one, a familiar figure that he’d seen in tomes back at Skelwith.
‘They are. These are the ones who led the way for our kind after the Sharding. They made the ultimate sacrifice. When the Shards were formed out of the remnants of Aura, it was decided that we couldn’t allow the risk of another One War to occur. That meant binding magic, in all forms to the will of the observers. Together, they bonded in an eternal link, their collective powers creating the Consensus. They passed the control of reality back into the minds of the unaware. It would be those that decided how reality would evolve, but it would be natural, not wild and free like that which consumed Aura.’
‘That why you can’t just make a building disappear, or turn a man into a pig?’ Cade said.
‘Exactly. As time moved on, and science with it, the ability of the magi to affect their wi
ll on reality diminished. All that remains are the skills we’ve evolved now. These work with subterfuge, without going against the collective will of the unaware.’
A thought occurred to Seb. ‘So that means there’s no such thing as the unaware? Not really, anyway.’
Cian’s finger stopped in its zigzag trail down the parchment. ‘What?’
‘Well, they might not know it, but everyone has a say in it. It is by their will that reality is formed, so if they all decided to say, turn someone into a pig, they could do it?’
Cian thought on that for a moment. Then, something rare happened.
He smiled.
‘Yes, I suppose that’s right.’
‘Can we cut the philosophy and get back to reality. Do your shit mage, then we can get out of here.’ Reuben said.
‘What’s wrong, Reuben? Something scaring you?’ Cian replied.
‘Nothing scares me, mage. I just want this madness over with so we can get back to the real world.’
Reuben shuffled on his feet, his eyes darting left and right. He checked and rechecked his weapon. Cian was right, the Second Sword was acting odd. The rest of the Brotherhood didn’t seem to share his concern though, if anything they seemed disinterested about the whole thing.
‘Then let me work, fiendling, and we can be done with this place quicker.’
‘What will you do?’ Seb said.
‘I must commune with the First. Their souls may have drifted far from their bodies so I will need to Weave-walk to find them.’
‘What? You mean they’re still alive?’
‘Of a form. Their bodies are gone, their minds no longer coherent, but they still persist. That is how they maintain the restrictions on reality. Magi, come here, I will need your help in this.’
Seb did a double take. ‘Me?’
‘You are an acolyte, yes. However you are still a user of the Weave. Your powers will aid and supplement our own.’
Seb shrugged the doubts from his mind and stepped forwards. What was he meant to do? Focus, he told himself, focus. He followed Mik and Don’s cue and sat in the ring near Cian. He closed his eyes and entered a light trance.
Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) Page 22