“More flying, less whining,” Wren growled. “We don’t want to fly high anyway. Red sky, black suits, we might as well scream ‘here we are’.”
“Wonder if it gets dark?” Ziedra said, gazing around. “That would be the best time.”
<All that talking is a bigger announcement of your location, hush would you?> Senalloy broadcast telepathically.
<The forces in here are weird,> Daena thought. <I don’t know what my powers are going to do if I try anything big.>
<Magic is crazy too,> Ziedra added. <It’s insanely strong for one thing—not that it’s much of a surprise with this place sitting on the biggest magic generator in the universe.> She blew out her cheeks which were flush. <It’s making me dizzy.>
<You won’t have a problems will you?> Wren asked.
<You mean besides the fly spells letting you go so fast you burn up or ordinary fireballs that incinerate small towns.> She shrugged. <No problem.>
<Well,> Bannor interjected. <From a tracker’s standpoint, the good news is that I haven’t seen anything to indicate any inhabitants besides animals. The bad news is that the growth is so thick that a rhinotaur could be running around down there and we wouldn’t see it.>
They continued to float down the mountainside. Ziedra was right about the magic being strong. He felt it in her flight sigil. The slightest urging had him shooting forward like an arrow.
The group needed to duck down to go below the high reaching boughs of several closely spaced forest titans. As he dipped closer to the ground he caught a whiff of something foul. He looked around for evidence of what his nose picked up.
<Hold up a moment,> he asked. The rest of the group already pulling away from him paused and hovered.
Dropping to some of the scrub trees he pushed some branches aside and peered around. There was something else… a sound.
<What is it?> Wren asked.
<Just a feeling,> he answered. Stomach tightening he dropped down to ground level and followed the droning-noise coming from near the base of one of the trees.
<Bannor, be careful,> Daena cautioned.
As he drew closer, the sound resolved into a swarm of insects. The smell became obvious as well—carrion. Laying in a small clearing was the stripped carcass of an animal—a big one. <Found it.>
The skeletal remains lay collapsed in the middle of the patch of coagulated blood and brown needles. From the hip and shoulder joint it had been something that moved on four clawed feet. It had died less than a day ago, what little meat remained hadn’t yet even turned black. The strange thing, he saw no other tracks besides those made by the creature itself. Aside from an unusual curve in its back, he found no evidence of what killed it. The forest floor, covered in a thick layer of needle-leaves, showed little sign of disturbance, certainly not enough for the kind of pitched mêlée such a beast would cause if confronted.
Senalloy dropped down through the foliage on his location. The silver haired woman frowned. <That’s a big kill,> she said. <What do you think it was?>
<Broadpaw, or something similar, a big one too, probably a hundred, maybe two hundred stone.> He shook his head. <I don’t like this.>
Daena swooped in from another direction. She grimaced, green eyes narrowing. <Yuck,> she murmured. <An old broadpaw keeled over in the forest, why is that alarming?>
<It’s out in the open. Predators that are sick or old tend to conceal themselves. There aren’t many things that can bring down a broadpaw—not one this big. One thing is certain, none of them would be stealthy about it. If it had lost a territorial fight, the area would be marked by the winner.> He scanned around again. <There’s nothing like that around here.>
<We haven’t seen many carrion creatures,> Senalloy said. <Could something this big get stripped that fast?>
His brow furrowed. He dropped down and poked around the bed of needles and dirt. <There’s evidence of a smaller creatures, but not a lot of them. Not enough to clean it to this extent in less than a day.> He touched the band on his arm and willed the shaladen into sword form. In a flare of sparks and a rasp of magic, the weapon stretched into a long two edged blade gleaming in the forest shadows. He waved away the buzzing swarm and poked at the skeletal remains.
His jaw dropped and his stomach tightened as three of the large vertebrae of the thing’s spine tipped away and hung by tendons. The bones didn’t look deformed or cracked, they had been severed clean. “Whoa,” he let out.
<I don’t get it,> Azir thought, frowning down on him from above.
<Rules out dying of old age I guess,> Ziedra said.
<Huh?> Daena frowned.
<Its spine was severed,> Senalloy told her. <That’s what killed it. Another animal couldn’t do that.> She landed by Bannor and peered around. <It doesn’t look like it was done with a sword or axe either.>
<No. I don’t know what could do this.> He poked the bones. <This is a clean cut—through bone.>
<It should,> Bannor said. <The way this cut looks, it probably died in a single stroke.> He narrowed his eyes. Bone that thick was almost like armor plate. Even with a magically sharp blade he didn’t think he could slice through living bone that thick, not with all the surrounding musculature and a fist’s thickness of hairy hide dissipating the energy of the attack. The blade that killed this creature would have to be unimaginably sharp or urged with amazing strength.
<Well, it’s clear we aren’t going to solve this mystery,> Wren said. <So let’s get off the ground in case whatever did it is still hanging around.>
Bannor nodded and rose into the air on a humming column of mist.
Wren led the way. He trailed after. He willed the shaladen back into a band on his wrist. He kept the others in sight but moved at a more gradual pace, he glanced back over his shoulder.
Senalloy looped back to cruise in the air next to him. The silver-haired Baronian studied him with violet eyes. She smiled. <I keep waiting for you to blurt out what you think.>
He frowned and glanced back through the trees even though the kill site was long out of view. <I’m wise enough not to shoot off my mouth without evidence.>
<And it’s the evidence bothering you.>
He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
They weaved around a knot of trees and dropped into a trough between two ridges. The forest of giants gave way to more normal-sized trees another thousand or so paces down the hill. <You know just this environment is amazing. It’s all underground but it feels like we’re on the surface.>
<It’s some powerful magic, yes,> Senalloy agreed. <A bigger question in my mind is ‘why?’. Why did they choose to live in here when they could live on the surface of any of millions of worlds?>
<I figure they built it as a convenient place to live while they were constructing that huge installation above.>
<I would agree with you, but they could probably teleport as easily as we do. Here or half a universe away is almost the same, unless they couldn’t come and go freely. Either it was inconvenient to come and go because of security, or they didn’t feel safe on other worlds. The universe was next to empty at that time, so what were they protecting themselves from?>
As he flew along he shook his head. He glanced to the rocky terrain and vegetation passing below them. The woman asked hard questions, not that she expected him to know the answer.
Senalloy rolled onto her back and dropped a little below him. <So, what do you think killed the broad-paw? Hmmm?>
<Something scary,> he frowned at her. <You’re not going to make me say it. If you want to say it—go ahead.>
She rolled her violet eyes. <You’re no fun.>
He kept his eyes on the terrain. <Aren’t you the least bit scared?>
<Of what?>
<What if it really is…???>
She ra
ised an eyebrow. <Oh, so you do think that’s what it was.>
<What else could it be?>
<Could be a lot of things,> Senalloy said with a shrug. <I could do it: fly spell, some strength enhancement and stealth… I could kill that animal with one swing.>
He sniffed. <You’re pretty scary yourself.>
She grinned. <Thank you, I try to be.> She rolled over in the air and drifted up so she was flying beside him again.
<Still don’t understand why you wouldn’t be a little concerned if this just happened to be one of the creatures that were killing Kriar.>
Senalloy drew close until her shoulder was touching his. <Bannor, I’m one of the creatures that were killing Kriar. Remember?>
He stared at the landscape as they cruised down the hills over the smaller trees. That lake was still a fair distance off. Wren was focused on the terrain ahead of them. Her body was stiff like she expected trouble. Daena, Ziedra, and Azir, though they used different body language to express it, all seemed equally concerned. Senalloy appeared to be the only one who wasn’t worried.
As he looked at the woman, he had to admire her confidence, not just in this matter, but in nearly everything. He guessed that was the benefit of living to be that old.
<So, because you’re a predator, that makes you immune I suppose?>
She shook her head. <It’s nothing as facile as that. If I die, it was my time. Worrying accomplishes nothing. I’m here because I like your family. You looked at me one time and accepted me. It feels good to be trusted, to be looked up to.>
<Doesn’t Corim trust and look up to you?>
She sighed. <He’s so reserved—he’s afraid to like me because of Dulcere. It is frustrating.>
<He’s missing out. If I hadn’t met Sarai first, I’d tell him to take a seat. I think I would have played for your—affection…> His voice trailed off as he said it. Something dug at the back of his head. Why did saying that make him think of the mystery of Kell?
Senalloy’s eyes widened and her face colored. <Really now? Even though you find me scary?>
He laughed. <You learn to live with fear. Have Kalindinai for a mother-in-law and you have an intimate relationship with terror.> He paused. What if in some other time and place he had fallen in love with Senalloy? It really wasn’t that hard to imagine. In the ancient past, his tao had been intertwined with both Daena and Ziedra.
<Well, you should be careful thinking things like that,> Senalloy admonished. <Sarai will kick your arse.>
<Yes. Sometimes, you can’t help but consider the what-ifs and how things might have been different.>
<Indeed.>
The last of the mountain forest dropped away beneath them. Wren followed a gleaming thread of water heading through the foothills toward the lake.
He found it odd that if the first ones had occupied this place, why weren’t there signs of habitation—even ancient ones? Had so much time passed that they had all disintegrated? That didn’t make sense given the artifices of Starholme had survived for eons without a blemish.
Wren sped up. She obviously felt that with no ready cover they might as well just cover the distance as fast as possible. Soon they were shooting through hills at a speed that rivaled a bowshot.
<Oh now we’re talking,> Senalloy laughed. She spread her arms and did a roll as they streaked down through the shallow valleys and grassy rises. Bannor kept up, he wasn’t fond of flying, but against his wishes he was getting more proficient in maneuvering.
From the way she swept through the turns Wren appeared to have trained to fly. Ziedra, the one who had granted them the gift of flight seemed almost bored. These maneuvers, as perilous as they seemed, were apparently of no moment to her. She stayed at Wren’s shoulder, shifting above and behind as the needs of the terrain dictated.
Daena loved the flying, the faster the better it seemed, her youthful face was lit up in an open display of fierce glee as she ducked and weaved through the obstacles in their path.
Wren’s brother was no flier, he followed his sister with gritted teeth, eyes riveted on the environment ahead. No doubt with the recently strained relations he felt reticent to complain about what was going on.
At such speed, they were out of the hills in a matter of a few long breaths. Over the flats, Wren leaned into even more speed, taking them over the landscape so fast the air was a roar in his ears.
The six of them shot out over the lake, kicking up wakes as they shrieked across the tranquil surface. When they were near the middle Wren pulled up and hovered. She looked down, frowned and judiciously rose until she was a good ten paces above the blood-colored ripples.
<Place is empty,> Daena murmured the thought. <Didn’t see a whit on the way over.>
<Not like we could,> Azir grumbled. <Flying at that insane speed.>
Arms folded, Wren frowned over at her brother. <Grow some stones, it wasn’t that fast.>
<I got stones, Sis,> he remarked. <Maybe you’re trying to prove you got a pair too?>
<You two better stop this before I smack you both!> Ziedra growled, hands on hips.
Azir frowned at the dark-haired savant. <And who are you, my mother?>
<Az, don’t start with me. Just shape up, otherwise you are both going to find yourselves on foot a really long way from home. Get me?>
They both glared at her.
<When you two are done frowning at me, there’s a strong concentration of magic over that way.> She pointed to what looked like a cluster of boulders on the shore.
Ziedra’s declaration seemed to focus Wren. She turned and looked where the mage had indicated. <Okay, go slow. Stay well above the water, until we get a handle of what lives around here, assume everything has teeth.> She made a coming gesture and wafted toward the shore.
As they started in that direction Bannor focused a thought for Ziedra only. <Zee, drop back here for a moment.>
The mage pulled up and circled around to him as the others drifted along after Wren. The woman’s brow furrowed as her dark eyes met his. She obviously knew something was up because she narrowed the thought down to him alone. <What’s up, Bannor?>
<Wren,> he said. He studied the blonde ascendant as they eased toward the rocks. She was being really cautious all of a sudden. Perhaps she felt the same strangeness in the air that he did. They were still a ways from the site so he had a few moments to broach this with Ziedra. <Have you ever seen Wren act erratic like this?>
Ziedra grimaced. <No, but I’ve never seen her under this much pressure either.>
<I just want her to be okay,> he told her. The shore was close now. Wren gestured for the group to spread out. <I can run things if she wants.>
Ziedra touched his shoulder. <Thanks for caring about her. Let’s just keep an eye on her for the time being, okay?>
He nodded.
Ziedra sped up and went in the direction the blonde savant indicated.
Senalloy pulled close and leaned in with a raised eyebrow.
<What?>
<Leading is the last thing you want to do, why did you offer?>
<You heard that!?>
<You need more practice doing private telepathy,> she told him with a smile. <If we get in trouble, let me take charge, okay? I prefer to relax and let others lead but I don’t want anyone dying because I was lazy.>
<Okay, I’ll back you,> he said. <Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.>
The whole area made Bannor nervous, although there was no specific source to point to. A stippling of whip trees and sway-bark covered the otherwise barren shoreline. A narrow span of tumbled rocks smoothed over with dirt and mud jutted out into the lake twenty paces before ending in a large split boulder upon which a spiral shape had been carved. Flat rocks pressed into the hard dirt formed a path leading around the side of a broken rock formation over thirty paces high.
He sniffed the air, detecting nothing but the smell of marsh dirt and vegetation. Aside from the quiet hiss from Ziedra’s flight magic the only sounds were the songs of a few s
cattered birds, the breeze and the lapping of the lake water against the shore.
<That can’t have been here very long,> Daena remarked, hovering over the makeshift quay and glancing back to the chunk of split granite at its end. <There’s no tracks though—weird.>
<I guess that solves the whole mystery as whether there are critters living in this place,> Azir remarked. <That sure wasn’t made by a broadpaw.>
<No,> Wren agreed. <Stay spread out, but keep each other in sight.>
Bannor circled around the outcrop, staying high enough to avoid entanglement from the ground and anything potentially jumping at him from the vantages higher up.
Thick copses of trees formed a circle some five hundred paces across on the side of the outcrop. On the far side of the massif, the ground dropped away into what at first glance appeared to be a large pit. It looked as if a giant hand had scooped a hunk out of raw stone, leaving a scalloped depression some fifty paces deep and a hundred long, with the windward side forming a gradual slope up to ground level. Against the back of the pocket was a structure hacked out of solid heart rock. The arrangement was little more than six columns supporting a roughly domed roof. Centered under the roof were a large bowl and a waist high rectangular slab. The whole construct sat on a series of six tiers, each a few hands high. Two broad effigies leaned against the back wall on either side of the bottom-most tier. They depicted an enormously round and endowed female caricature with its hands outstretched.
Like everything else, the place looked empty and unused, as though built and shortly thereafter abandoned.
Wren floated down from above him and studied the area with a furrowed brow. <A shrine to Gaea? How odd.>
<Why is that odd?>
<The first ones didn’t revere her. I don’t know of any culture that worshiped her actually. These people obviously did though.> She looked around. <Zee, where’s the magic you detected? It isn’t by that bowl thing is it?>
The ascendant of magic tilted her head. <It’s by the bowl thing.>
<Great.> She looked around. <You don’t think they built this on top of the first one stock pile do you?>