Book 5 - Chapter 36
“Can you sense that? Brych, or anyone else? Due east-northeast about six miles, there’s an undead scout,” said Zilly. She was looking at Brin as she spoke, only avoiding calling out his [Illusionist] Class because she couldn’t be sure no spies were watching them.
Brin checked the direction. He already had several Invisible Eyes in that area, but they hadn’t alerted him to anything. He shook his head.
“Follow the dry gulch until the end. Then there are a few trees, one of them fifteen feet high. Just past that, there are three stones. Look at the short end of the triangle they make,” said Zilly.
Brych shook his head. “My senses don’t go that far. I’m impressed that yours do.”
“It comes with [Scout],” Zilly said with a pleased shrug.
“You know what I’ve always wanted to ask you sensor-types,” said Hedrek. “Can you shut it off? I mean, how do you sleep at night?”
Brych and Zilly shared a knowing smirk, as if they both knew what they were going to say. Brych gave a half bow to Zilly, to say that she should explain.
“To answer your second question: I sleep like a baby. Every night, and half the day when I can get the chance. To answer your first, no, I can’t shut it off, and I wouldn’t want to. Even with my eyes closed, I know everything that’s going on around me for miles. I can hear every conversation, I can feel the heat of the rats in their burrows, the thermals in the air above, and I definitely know if some kind of horrible monster is sneaking up behind me.”
Marksi, who’d gone into camouflage as soon as Zilly had come near, suddenly scrambled back from where he’d been creeping up behind her, and hid again.
Zilly smiled at Brin to show she knew, but didn’t say anything. “I go to sleep each night with the comfortable knowledge that if anything dangerous approaches, I’ll hear it coming and wake up long before it can hurt me. The question is, how do you all sleep at night?”
Brych added, “You’re all half-blind, compared to us. You only have a narrow field of view, and you can even miss things that are right in front of your eyes if you’re not careful. It must be terrifying.”
“I have true men to watch my back,” said Rhun, and the others nodded their agreement.
“And one of them isn’t half-blind,” said Zilly. “Anyway, the scout?”
Brin spotted it. He’d had the thing right in front of his eyes and hadn’t seen it until it moved. A heavily camouflaged undead scout was moving away from them at good speed.
Undead Shape Taker (15)
Description: An undead soldier with the ability to change its shape and appearance.
“Damn. You think he saw us destroy that band of armored undead?”
“I’d count on it. We need to get out of here before someone dangerous shows up. But first, where’s Marksi?” Zilly looked around in exaggerated befuddlement, as if she already didn’t know.
Marksi erupted from stealth and pounced on her, knocking her to the side a couple steps.
“Oof! You’re a lot heavier than the last time you did that!” Zilly laughed and hugged the dragonling.
Marksi purred. Then he jumped down and preened, strutting back and forth.
“Oh! You’re as cute as always. Those scales, how they shimmer!”
Marksi roared, which wasn’t the same as his typical little squeak, but still wasn’t much more fierce than a kitten’s yowl.
“What’s he saying?” Zilly asked.
Brin didn’t know exactly how, but he sort of did know what Marksi was saying. “He’s glad you noticed how large and fierce he’s grown, and he has a dragon’s breath attack that you still haven’t seen yet. He says even I haven’t seen everything that it can do.”
“Can you show me now?” Zilly asked.
Marksi shook his head, smiling condescendingly.
“You’ll have to hope we run into some kind of danger while you’re with us. Dragons don’t waste their breath,” Brin explained.
“On that note, we really shouldn’t linger,” said Zilly.
“Mount up!” Brin ordered. The men retrieved their horses, who were already looking impatient to be moving again.
“Ride with us,” offered Cid. “We can escort you back to your camp.”
“I won’t be going straight there. I need to get word to an outpost,” said Zilly.
“Then we can take you part of the way. Hop up with me,” said Brych.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t. Besides, I have a travel [Skill] that will let me keep up on foot,” said Zilly.
“It’s still easier to ride. The horse won’t mind the extra weight, come on up!” said Brych.
“Well if you insist…” Zilly eagerly climbed back behind Brych on the saddle, clearly happy that he’d pressed the issue. She wrapped her arms around his stomach, holding tight as if her several hundred points of Dexterity weren’t enough to keep her balanced. Brych didn’t seem to mind at all.
They rode for an hour at a careful pace. They didn’t want to risk a horse getting a sprain by stepping wrong on the uneven clay, which meant they didn’t move as fast as any of them would’ve liked to, Zilly especially. She could’ve traveled much faster on foot.
When they found their first stream, Brin ordered a halt to water the horses and refill their water bottles. Hedrek hopped off his horse and put his whole head underwater, drinking deeply.
Zilly hopped down as well, and refilled a waterskin as well as Brin’s waterbottle–apparently he wouldn’t be getting that back–before starting to tap her foot impatiently.
“What’s wrong?” asked Brin.
“We’re still too near. They’re going to send someone, and we’re still close enough for them to find us,” said Zilly.
It was only a matter of minutes before they left again, but Zilly acted the entire time like they were late for something instead of doing the bare minimum to maintain their horses.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
They set off again, and soon they were out of the twisty, treacherous canyonland terrain and into flat ground where they could really pick up speed. They galloped the horses, feeling wild and free. It was hot, and he was still hungry, but the feeling of wind on his face was nearly enough to make him forget. They rode passed fields of grass, and Zilly and Brych started talking about the field mice that they could sense in the ground. Brych insisted it wasn’t worth it for so little meat, while Zilly claimed that it wasn’t that much trouble to prepare and cook them. Brych started talking about eating grasshoppers, and then it was Zilly’s turn to be grossed out. Brin hardly saw any grasshoppers anyhow, though there were lots of dragonflies.
After about an hour more, Zilly pointed out a spot. This area of Arcaena was flatter with a a few healthier-looking trees, but nowhere for a [Scout] like Gerin to be hiding.
“No, he’s there. I’m sure of it. He must be underground,” said Zilly. When they reached the spot she’d pointed out, sure enough, there was a cave set into the base of a hill.
Brin looked at his Lance, and saw that Cid was waiting for him to decide how he wanted to do this. “I’ll go down alone, and take one other. Brych should stay up here to keep watch, as well as Cid.”
“I’m not great with tight spaces,” said Hedrek.
“I’ll go,” said Rhun.
“Rhun then.” Brin nodded. “And Zilly–”
“I should keep moving. I’m sorry, Brin, I wish we had more time to catch up, but needs must. I should report our kills, and I still get the feeling that we’re not far enough away. I’ll send reinforcements back for you if I can,” said Zilly.
“You don’t want to greet Gerin, your comrade?” asked Cid.
“Um, the thing about Gerin is, he’s very well-liked. He’s got a regular team who would die for him. If he’s out here alone it’s because he wants to be. And one thing you’ll learn about [Scouts] is that it's impossible to get privacy, especially from each other. I’d rather not have him think I’m trying to intrude on his business.”
“I understand,” said Brin. “It was good seeing you again.” And that wasn’t totally a lie. He was glad she was alive, a little sad to see her alone and nearly starving, despite how she tried to hide it. He was a bit disappointed, too, because when she’d said “I’m sorry, Brin” he’d at first thought he was going to get an apology for Enlistment Day, though Zilly probably never thought about that day.
“I guess I’m just surprised you didn’t insist on dueling me,” said Brin.
“Ha! So eager! There’s a time and place, Brin! But don’t think I’ve given up on beating you. Next time.”
“Until next time, then.”
She turned, and started loping off into the distance. She really did have some good Skills and Achievements for that, because her casual pace ate up the ground with incredible speed. She was soon out of sight, though he kept his Invisible Eyes on her as she went. At least until about six miles away, which had been established was outside of Brych’s range, she crouched down near some bushes to answer nature’s call.
It sounded cool to have a fleet of Invisible Eyes acting as a hidden spy network until all your directed threads returned at the end of the day and you learned exactly how much time they’d spend watching people poop.
He shook his head and turned his attention to the cave. “Ready, Rhun?”
“Always.”
Marksi chirped, announcing clearly that he’d be coming as well. Dragons loved exploring cool caves; Marksi had just decided that right now.
Brin walked down into the dark. The floor was made of boulders which were a bit annoying to scramble across, and he could quite see the end. Once he was far enough inside that it wasn’t safe to keep going, he cast his magic and lit the whole place up, revealing the entire cave all at once.The ceiling hung low, nearly scraping his head, and the path of stones went on for another fifty feet until his light was swallowed up in the dark.
He debated on sending an Invisible Eye ahead, but wasn’t sure if that was the right call. The Invisible Eye couldn’t see in the dark, and he didn’t want to have his eyes shine lights in case they warned whatever was down there that he was coming before he was ready to deal with it.
But maybe that was making the wrong assumptions. Gerin was apparently down here, so nothing could be that dangerous. And who said he couldn’t see in the dark.
Searching his Lightmind, he’d found a spell called “Vision of True Darkness”. It sounded like a spell that would maybe try to drive someone mad by showing them some cthonic vision of pure evil, but what it actually was, was sonar.
Kind of. Sonar was extremely loud, and this spell didn’t make the pinging noise to get echoes. Instead, it painted a picture using the quiet natural sounds where it could, and supplemented the rest with thermal vision.
He cast it on an Invisible Eye and sent it ahead, while he and Rhun scrambled across the rocks. Marksi had an easier time of it and decided that he had, in fact, been correct when he decided that dragons loved caves.
The Invisible Eye flew down the dark cave, and Brin felt a bit of dizziness as the eye left the light but didn’t, because he could still “see” what was around. His head hurt and he felt his brain changing as pathways connected and this new sense was used to create the kind of mental map that ordinary only sight was capable of.
It was so disorienting that he missed it when the eye slammed to a stop. It had hit a dead end in the cave, hit a rock wall, and stopped.
He tried to clear his mind and concentrate on what he was seeing with the new sound-based vision. The cave ended, but abruptly. It wasn’t a natural wall of rock, it was too even. That wall was artificial. There wasn’t much else to see, not unless he turned on a real light, and he didn’t want to until he was physically present.
He had the Invisible Eye circle the room, looking for anything he migh have missed, and found a little tunnel in the side that went further down. This one was only two feet high which meant that if Gerin had gone this way, he’d been crawling on his stomach.
Brin followed the tunnel, letting it move down. It opened up into a larger cavern again, looking much like the one his physical body was in now. The ceiling sloped down until only a small hole connected it to yet another cave. On and on, Brin followed the path through the cave network, going on and on.
There was something about exploring underground, a feeling that couldn’t be matched. This was real exploration, he was seeing things that perhaps no other human had ever seen, in a place so foreign and alien to life above. Nothing lived down here, but there was air and water. Everything was damp and dripping, and it was warm, though his Invisible Eye couldn’t feel it. It filled him with the excitement of discovery, as well as a nameless dread.
What if these caverns went all the way down? What if they connected to the network of tunnels under all the other countries that Arcaena used to send her undead across the world. It wouldn’t say anything good about Gerin if he had some kind of business down there.
He didn’t want to suspect Gerin of conspiring with Arcaena, but it’s not like he knew the man. He only knew that his mother and half-siblings talked about him with a lot of respect. Surely, he wouldn’t sell his country out to a [Witch Queen] and her undead hordes.
But what could Gerin possibly be doing here? And was it a coincidence that Zilly had left him here and then fled? He didn’t want to suspect her of anything, but how well did he know her? He hadn’t even known she was a [Marauder].
What if this was a trap? These caves were terrible for maneuverability, and there was no place to hide, not if his enemies had Heat Sense. Brin’s armor had enchantments for that, but Rhun’s didn’t, and he wasn’t going to leave his man behind.
He ran scenarios. He made plans and strategies, but of course, nothing happened. There was no sign of undead from the Invisible Eye that he’d sent far ahead. He’d keep watch with it just in case.
Before he knew it, he, Rhun, and Marksi found that one solid artificial wall that the eye had seen. Brin gasped as soon as his light touched it.
The wall was solid black except for geometric shapes that had been painted in patterns all across. Or maybe not painted, but the stone itself had been made of different colors. It was oddly modern-looking, with the casual, lazy sameness that came from machine production.
A door was prominent on the wall, front and center, a rectangle of white on black. His Invisible Eye had only missed it because sonar couldn’t see color and the gap between the door and the wall was so thin as to be insignificant.
“What is this?” he asked.
“Ruins,” said Rhun.
“It doesn’t look ruined. It looks like it could have been built yesterday,” said Brin.
“I say ruins because it looks like the old fortress in Llaniffer. The fortress that hails from the time of Nhamanshal,” said Rhun.
There were some words inlay to the stone above the door, but they didn’t mean much to Brin, except for the second word and the last word. The last word of the sentence spiked his pulse, but he didn’t want to get ahead of himself and draw conclusions.
His Lightmind came in handy again. It had a translation program, and one of the languages it could translate was ancient Nhamanshalian. The interface was clunky and he had to put in one word at a time, which meant that it couldn’t get the context of a full sentence, but Brin was pretty sure he got the gist.
Et Nhamanshalte et nam Gwythe Ethgewykte EL*M et Kethwythnh do Tenerer
Translated, it said:
In Nhamanshal in accordance with all laws and respect to all G*DS, a shrine to Tenerer