by C. K. Rieke
“That’s it,” Veranor said. “One more. Just one more!”
Veranor watched in worry but also in eager anticipation. It would only take one more stroke, but the Aridon thrashed like a violent wave in a sea storm. It did everything it could to fling the girl from its back, to let her plummet all the way back down to the sands. Veranor readied himself to catch her if she was to lose her grip and fall, but he knew that from that height, she wouldn’t survive. Her life was now in her hands.
As he watched the mythical beast twist and turn, scraping with its claw to find her again . . . the fight ended suddenly. The beast floated back down toward him in a circular pattern, like a crow’s descent toward its next lifeless meal. The Aridon’s wings stopped flapping and it returned to the desert floor with a light plume of sand. Its eyes had turned from a ferocious bloodlust to that of a docile animal. It lowered its neck and head, and its body relaxed. Veranor looked up at the mythical beast, and the girl atop its back with a grand smile across her face. Her black hair whipped in the wind behind her. Her silver eyes made her look mythical as she straddled the first Aridon in the Arr in many generations of man.
“Kera—” he said. “I watched you die. How have you . . .? How are you still alive?”
“I’ll tell you once we’re in the air.” She gave another wide smile.
Veranor returned hers with a rare smile of his own. “The gods were right to fear you, Kera. There will be songs sung of your deeds someday.” Then he brushed his cape back behind him and went over to the side of the Aridon and lifted a leg over its back. He sat behind Kera and gripped tightly onto the lion’s fur.
“Fly, great Aridon, fly!” Kera said. With that the Aridon’s wings flapped, and with the strong gusts of wind on both sides, it lifted from the ground. “East, take us to the Xertans!” Veranor’s grip loosened as he released that even with their combined weight, and the force of the rushing winds as they flew through the air, they both sat easily atop the Aridon with no winds trying to brush them off.
“You truly are magical,” he said to the Aridon. He leaned forward. “You’ve got to name this one too, after you tell me how you survived back there.”
They flew through the high sky then, high above the desert floor at great speed. The Aridon’s wings whipped through the air, with its silky feathers cascading with different hues of pearly whites.
“We found something in the cave in the Dune of the Last Dragon,” she said. “Burr got them from the Headdress of the Borendúr for me.”
Veranor thought for a moment, then realized what Burr had given her. “That’s quite a gift he said. The Stones of Geminos are back in the possession of man.”
“Not man,” Kera said, “woman.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Not a single damned cloud in the sky, huh, Lilaci? That’s just our luck,” Fewn said. She’d been walking next to Lilaci for the better part of an hour before she finally spoke. “Hot as the Eternal Fires, and not a shadow all around us. Phew, not a shadow except down there. I bet it’s nice and cool down there. Loaded with fresh water and fish.”
“Sure, Fewn,” she replied. “I’m sure it’s just brimming with fish.”
“You might think I’m kidding, but water only flows one way—down. Last time we crossed a canyon, one that was created from out of nowhere. You remember what happened? Roren could have died from that flood. So could you.”
“Worth the risk,” Lilaci said, her voice unwavering. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to have her by my side again and to be able to hold her in my arms again. I’d jump clear off this ledge down into the darkness of this canyon if it meant I could find her again. I can feel my Sanzoral is growing in power with every day, but it’s not strong enough to carry me more than a few feet.
“I’m glad you didn’t die,” Fewn said. “I know Kera’s probably far off on the other side, and with the one who caused such misery in both of our lives, but we’ll find her. I want to let you know I wouldn’t want to be with any other in this quest to save—”
Then she stopped as a voice called suddenly back from the rear. “There,” Burr said, “what’s that there?” Lilaci looked back to see him, hanging his head over the side of the canyon pointing past Lilaci at the lead. “You see that?”
“I see it,” Ezmerelda said from behind, her voice more exuberant than Lilaci had heard before. Lilaci quickly found what Burr pointed at. It’s . . . it’s a break in the rock. It looks like an enormous spike went and drove itself down into the rock itself, splitting it in half. There hasn’t been anything like that in all our days searching. It must be something. It has to be the way down.
“Hurry!” Lilaci whipped the back of her Iox with the harness strap, and the animal let out a low bellow, but quickly moved to a fast trot forward. “Move, let’s go!”
A great plume of dust rose from the desert floor behind them as the caravan moved into action. The pounding of large, muffled hooves hit the dirt with urgency as the group darted forward.
“What was it, Lilaci?” Fewn asked. “I didn’t see it, what’s up ahead?”
“A way down, I hope.”
At such a quick pace, none of them dared look over the side of the cliff as they rode, but Lilaci knew well enough how far off the crack seemed to be. And once they were riding just a bit more than twenty minutes at a full gallop, she saw the crack off in the distance before them. It looked to her like a giant had taken an ax and drove it clear into the wall of the canyon, leaving a sharp triangular cut.
“I see it!” Fewn said. “We’re close.” By that time, Roren had caught up with them at the lead, and passed Lilaci and Fewn. Both the women were astonished at the speed his Iox carried him, it was as if he had a spell propelling him in his haste.
It only took another ten minutes, give or take, to reach the break in the rocks, and as Lilaci looked forward to watch Roren dismount his Iox at the side of the crack, she wondered what he saw. It was difficult for her to judge his reaction, as he seemed to not have one. He only stood there, still, with his back to them, staring down.
Roren looked back at the two women, and they saw the tears rolling down his face.
“Roren,” Lilaci called to him as she dismounted, “what’s the matter? What’s wrong?”
His blue eyes were glazed over with tears as he looked deeply into her eyes. “See for yourself.”
Her and Fewn approached cautiously, but then both looked down over the edge into the giant’s ax-cut. This is it. The way down.
“It’s a miracle,” Roren said.
Lilaci saw that embedded in the wedge-shaped cut in the cliff that trickled down into the darkness, was a seemingly infinite number of tiny ledges in the rock. Little, jutting pieces of angled rock were protruding down each side of the wedge.
“Each ledge looks wide enough for some grip,” Fewn said. “It looks like it goes on like that all the way down.”
“By the heavens,” Lilaci heard Gogenanth say as he had arrived and peered down the crack. “It appears to be a miracle.”
“Yeah,” Fewn said. “Roren said that already. Maybe you’re both right then, maybe it was a gift.”
“How did this get here?” Ezmerelda asked. “There’s nothing like this anywhere around. This just doesn’t make sense. Any chance this might be a trap? I don’t know these lands as you do.”
“Knowing these lands,” Gogenanth said. “Even with how long I’ve been away from them, this screams trap to me.”
“Yeah,” Fewn said. “Probably is.”
“Doesn’t matter if it is or not,” Roren said. “I’m going down. Who’s coming with me?” He turned back to his Iox and rummaged through the packs on the Iox, readying his single pack for the climb down.
Lilaci went over to hers and packed for her climb. Burr then caught up to them all with the wagon pulled behind him. As he looked over the side of the crack, his eye grew wide, and his mouth went agape, behind his gray beard. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “It’s a—”
“Miracle,” Fewn said. “Yes, we know. It’s a miracle. Now let's get packing, so we can go and walk into a trap.”
“Yeah, it’s probably a trap,” Burr said. “I don’t know who else would’ve made this. It ain’t natural.”
Burr looked up at the others, Fewn turned and went to packing with the others, collecting all the things they’d need that they could carry, such as the tents, clothing, weapons, food, and water. He looked at Gogenanth, whose brow was furrowed as he looked down at the dark canyon. “What do you think? You ever seen anything like this? In all my years, short of the work of the gods, how lucky is this that this exists? It’s as if it was made for us. Dânoz would never have made a mistake like this, when he formed this intentionally so that we couldn’t make it across.”
“In a sense,” Gogenanth said, “I’ve seen something similar, but nothing like this.”
“You talking about what happened in Sarcasus?” Ezmerelda asked. He nodded, still examining the ledges creeping down into the darkness.
“Sarcasus?” Burr asked, both his eyebrows were raised. “You’ve been to the northern continent? Why in the heavens would you ever go there?”
“It was never a place I wanted to go,” Gogenanth said. “But in this life, I’ve seen things I wouldn’t wish on my enemies. Yes, in Sarcasus, our friends and we were on a mission in the frozen desert.”
“We didn’t have a way forward,” Ezmerelda said. “Until something, or someone came and helped us. It wasn’t like this, it was all different, but I can’t help but agree, that it feels similar.”
“I want to hear more about this,” Burr said. “I’ve never met someone who's been to Essill and Sarcasus.”
“He’s been to the Worforgon, too,” Ezmerelda said.
“You’ve been to—” Burr began.
“Let’s get a move on,” Lilaci said as she and Roren came running over, Roren was already making his way down the first couple of ledges. “Hurry.” She put her hands onto the desert rock and let her first leg dip over the side and find a solid ledge that the tip of her boot could rest upon.
“This conversation will be continued later,” Burr said to Gogenanth. “You’re an interesting fella.” Burr, Gogenanth, and Ezmerelda went to the caravan to retrieve their things in haste. After their bags were packed, Ezmerelda went to each of the Ioxi and removed their harnesses and cut a hole in the last barrel of water for them to drink from.
“There you are,” she said. “You’re free now. Go live your lives wherever you wish. Thank you for your help. Now go be free.” She turned and went running toward the crack but stopped suddenly and turned back to them. “Oh yeah, and look out for dragons out there. They’re mean beasts.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lilaci grasped the sharp edges of rock and found it unsettling the ledges weren’t covered in the normal dust and sand. It was like fresh-cut stone, and it made for a quick route down into the darkness. The group climbed down with their packs full on their backs, no one spoke. There was such an urgency to get down and the only thing on their minds was the climb at hand.
Roren paused when he found the darkness approaching, he dipped his boot into the black mist, but once he felt no sense of pain in his leg, his eyes showed a determination that had become a welcome virtue he possessed. Then, with a couple of grasping hands on ledges that sounded like muffled claps, he disappeared.
“How far down does this go?” Fewn asked. “I know we’re not turning around, but how are we going to see down there?”
“You’ll just have to feel out for the rocks,” Lilaci said, pausing before the darkness. Then, a shimmer of purple light enveloped her shoulders, and floated down her arms from her elbows to her hands. As dull fires emitted from each of her hands, the black mist turned to an orb of purple haze around her.
“Easy for you to say,” Fewn said.
“Magnificent,” Gogenanth said. “The Sanzoral is quite beautiful.”
“Aye,” Burr said from above, “you should see it in battle. A spectacle of raw power is what it is.”
Lilaci dipped out of the clear air and into the dark. Fewn quickly followed, tracing the purple light as it slipped down, inching its way further and further into the deep.
“Ready for this?” Gogenanth asked Ezmerelda.
She gave a quick nod. “Where you go, I follow.”
“Let’s make haste then,” Burr said. “The Dragon’s Breath needs us. She’s all alone with a true monster.”
“I know that monster all too well,” Gogenanth said. “He’d better pray he doesn’t lay an ill-intended finger on her. Or he’ll pay for it with more than his meager life.” Then Gogenanth’s gaze focused down, and he slipped away into the darkness. Then Ezmerelda, with a look up to the sky as if praying to the heavens, Burr climbed down into the black.
“Everyone alright?” Lilaci called out, only her hands visible in front of her. The group called back. “Roren, you find anything?”
“Not yet, still trying to focus on the climb, but it’s all still hidden.”
What sort of unnatural fog is this? Was this created by Dânoz as well? Up there on the cliffs above, it looked like the darkness of looking into a cave, but now that we are in it, it feels more like an encompassing mist, not like the bleakness of a cave, no, I can sense it all around me.
They continued the climb down for what felt like hours, but as the climb continued on, Lilaci found that the Sanzoral had sensed her need, and had come back more to her. The glow that emitted from just her hands had grown with each passing grasp of rock, and over the climb she was fully enveloped in the purple glow, even shedding enough light so that the others were able to find even the vaguest outline of the rock wall, expediting their descent.
Rock after rock, Lilaci found her way deeper and deeper down into the canyon. The pack on her back grew heavier and heavier, but it mattered not to her. She could climb down into the Eternal Fires if that was what it was going to take to find a way back to Kera. The thought of Kera formed a pit in her stomach, when she thought about all the times now that they’d been separated, and how it seemed as if the wicked tongue of fate whispered another cruel tune into fate’s ear.
What if that was the last time I saw her? Back when Dânoz appeared in the sky to form this canyon? Did I upset her by not trying hard enough to stop Veranor from taking her? Where is she now? Is she hurt or in trouble?
“Lilaci,” Roren said. “Everything alright up there?”
Lilaci focused back on the rock wall to see the Sanzoral had faded from her in her worry, and the darkness had crept back in all around them. “Yes, I was just preoccupied. Give me a moment, I can re-summon—”
“Wait,” Roren said. “I see something.”
“What have you found?” Burr called from above, his voice echoing in rippling waves.
“I can see my boot, hold on, let me just—” Roren grunted from climbing down quickly. “Yes, down here, come on, it's clear. Hurry down!”
The group did just that. It was still dark, like the darkness of a cave with hints of sunlight. But as she climbed down further her eyes adjusted to the rock wall, and she could see her hands in front of her face. The thick fog had been left behind higher up as she made her way down.
“The air is fresher down here,” Fewn said.
One by one they all climbed out of the dark mist. It hung above them like freshly sheared wool from a black sheep. And it reinvigorated their climb, with each of them moving quickly again, as they could see where to place each foot, not feeling out blindly.
Another twenty minutes later, and Roren had found what they’d been looking for. “The bottom,” he called up. “I can see it, just another couple of minutes.”
“Can you see anything else?” Lilaci asked.
He scanned below for a few seconds. “Looks bare,” he said.
“Ready your weapons once we are down,” Gogenanth said. “No telling what lurks down here.”
They continued down, and Roren eventually fo
und a foot, flush on solid ground, and he drew his sword instantly, it let out a sharp, ringing echo that shot through the dark. Then Lilaci descended and pulled her sword, the faint purple light of the Sanzoral flowed back into her hands and its thin wisps floated up the sword she’d found in the cave up in the cliffs of the Dune of the Last Dragon.
They were soon all down on the flat ground at the bottom of the canyon.
“It's about time we—” Fewn said in her normal voice, but Ezmerelda reached over and grabbed her by the wrist, shushing her with a finger in front of her lips.
“Quiet down here, we have no idea what’s around,” Ezmerelda whispered.
“Yes,” Burr said. “Feels eerie down here, like we’re being watched. Lilaci, can you give us a bit more light?”
She focused on her inner light, and the Sanzoral moved up her arms, and even lit her eyes, the first time she’d been able to do that since their last unfortunate meeting with the gods. The purple haze around them grew, illuminating the darkness around them, but not showing anything but a large empty space around, and before them.
“Nothing,” Fewn said. “It’s empty, let's get a move on.”
“Wait,” Ezmerelda said. “I think Burr is right, I think there’s something out there . . . Can’t you feel it?”
“I’m not afraid of the dark,” Fewn said. “We will kill whatever is out there.”
“You see that?” Roren whispered to Lilaci. “That, there.” He was pointing straight ahead, and Lilaci instantly caught what he was referring to. It was a thin, white light bobbing up and down, slightly, and she quickly realized the light was getting bigger. The others noticed too, and the group grew as silent as the night, ready to fight with their weapons fixed and ready to strike.