The Reach Between Worlds (The Arclight Saga, Book 1) (15 page)

“The other team’s probably already found the artifact,” Edrin said. He laid on his back, tossing a rock into the air and catching it.

Pipes was nearby, bending a wings on one of his tin birds with the earnestness of a boy trying desperately not to think too hard about where he was.

“If a door is the only thing in store for us, this’ll be the easiest trial in history,” Suri said.

Suri nodded. “This is a vacation compared to the Hell we had last year. They don’t make water hot enough to clean off the muck we had to crawl through.”

Pipes let his aluminum bird go and it fluttered around the room for a moment, but in the middle of a stride it sputtered and dived head-first into one of the puddles of red muck. He went to fish it out, but it fluttered back into the air. It fell again, this time inches from the fire. When it touched an ember, there was a tremendous crackle and bang and burning metal fragments exploded in every direction.

“Is everyone okay?” Ven said, lifting his head.

The recruits were fine, if a bit startled.

“What’s in those things?” Taro asked.

Pipes looked horrified that his little construct was gone, but quickly gathered himself. “Nothing explosive.”

Taro inspected the red muck. He picked up a thimble-sized amount of the clay-like goo and told everyone to cover their ears. He flicked the clay into the fire and there was another explosion.

“Something leaking from the
Titan
?” Ven said.

“How would it get on this side of the door?” Suri countered.

Taro’s eyes brightened. “Ven, give me your pack. I have an idea.”

Ven did so, and Taro emptied everything from his own pack into his. He then used his spade to shovel the mud into his bag.

The others quickly figured out what he was planning. They consolidated their packs together and were able to get another two bags filled.

Suri gave Taro a concerned look. “This could bring the whole roof in on itself.”

“It’s better than sitting here freezing to death,” Taro said.

They laid the packs in front of the door and made a thin trail from the bags to the corner.

The others packed a good distance into the halls. Taro went to light the bags, but Ven stopped him. “No offense Tar, but I think it’s better if I do this.”

Taro join the others without argument and watched Ven from a distance. Ven pressed his index finger to the line and a spark flashed from his fingertip. Taro expected it to work like a trail of gunpowder (a fizzling line, then a bang) but in fact, the entire line exploded almost at once. Flames shards of stone shot in all directions, and Ven was hurled backwards.

The explosion shook the ruins and cracked the foundation of the walls. Huge chunks of the ceiling collapsed, followed by mountains of snow.

When the rumbling stopped, Taro was on his back, buried under two other recruits. He shoved free pushed the rubble and snow off Ven.

“He’s not breathing!” Taro slapped Ven’s cheek and shook him hard.

Suri stumbled over and folded her hands against chest, pushed down several times, then breathed into Ven’s mouth. She did so two more times and Ven coughed and groaned.

Ven’s right hand was scorched and bleeding and when he tried to pull himself up, he found his ribs were cracked.

“Thought you were a goner,” Taro said.

Ven’s goofy smile was underscored by his obvious pain. His chest heaved, and he could barely speak. “All... part of the plan.”

“Plan?” Taro said.

“I got Suri to kiss me,” he said. “So worth it.”

Suri scrunched her eyes. “I swear, if that bomb hadn’t kicked your ass, I would.”

Ven’s hand was in awful shape, but he insisted they help the other recruits.

The others were lucky: scrapes, sprains, and bruises. Ven got the worst of it.

The stone door had been completely destroyed. Puffs of dust and smoke filled the room making it difficult to see what lay beyond. When it cleared, there was another rumbling, but this one was different than the first. It was wasn’t an explosion, it was like the rasping snarl of a wolf intermixed with the scraping of metal against stone.

The recruits froze and listened intently.

“It’s probably just something collapsing,” Ven said, though he didn’t sound too sure of himself.

Taro wasn’t so sure either.

The Roots of the Magisterium

The other side of the door was pitch black. The recruits paused and exchanged unsure looks.

“I thought we were supposed to find a crashed airship,” Edrin said. “I don’t think we’re meant to go this way.”

“Maybe it leads back to the surface?” Taro said.

“I’m not going down there,” Edrin said.

“We need to keep moving,” Ven said.

“Who made you the leader?” Edrin said.

“I’ve trialed before.”

“Trialed and failed.”

Ven shoved him. “We all pass this trial or none of us do, idiot. Turn back now and we’re as good as done.”

“We’ll never make it through in the dark,” Suri said.

Suri plucked out three glass spheres from her pack. She gave one to Taro, one to Ven, and kept the third. The spheres were already inscribed and Taro’s glowed with a small bit of templary applied.

“We’ll pass them around,” Suri said.

The dim red light the orbs produced was hardly enough to see more than a few feet ahead. None of them dared make them too bright, as there was no telling how long they’d have to keep the enchantment going. After thirty minutes of concentration, Taro felt sluggish and had to pass his to Edrin.

This part of the structure was mostly in-tact compared to the rest. The walls were white stone with colored murals: images of Old Gods fighting demons, the sun and moon, and gold-leafed Deific script that all looked orange in the dim red light.

Suri examined the paper imprint of the door as they walked. “I think I figured it out.”

Taro moved closer to see. “Figured what out?”

“I thought this word was ‘light’ or ‘energy,’ but it’s used again on this mural to mean ‘fire.’”

“So which is it?” Taro asked.

“It’s all three. It’s talking about drawing the heat from rivers of fire.”

“Brilliant,” Edrin said unenthusiastically. “And that helps us how?”

Before Suri could respond, her foot caught something on the ground and she fell forward. Her orb rolled down the cavern and dimmed. She’d fallen into a puddle of more red muck and frantically wiped it off her arms and uniform.

“What the hell is this stuff,” she said wearily.

“Dry off or you’re going to freeze to death,” Ven said.

“Actually, it’s really warm,” Suri said.

“I noticed that,” Taro said, sifting it through his fingers. “But how can that be?”

No sooner did the words leave his mouth than did a sound come from the tunnel. The orb Suri dropped was ten yards ahead of them, and just before its light faded completely something passed in front of it. It was an enormous stone-and-steel construct obscured by shadow. It moved with a distinct scraping and clicking sound, and two yellow eyes appeared in the darkness. It climbed up the walls and disappeared.

Huge chunks were torn from the wall by what appeared to be claw marks. They were covered in more red muck. Taro rubbed it between his fingers, and found it, too, was hot to the touch.

“I think it’s hurt,” Taro said.

“Maybe that’s why it didn’t attack,” Suri said, picking her orb off the ground.

“This has to be some kind of fuel, right?” Taro said. “If it’s leaking so much, so fast, it’s either going to die soon, or it has a way to get more.”

“You’re missing the most important question,” Ven said.

“What’s that?” Taro asked.

“What the hell could’ve hurt something like that?”

The hall opened into a square chamber with a tall ceiling and so many walls that it seemed a vast maze. Dark as it was, it was impossible to tell just how far it went. One thing that stood out was that the further they got into the ruins, the hotter it got. This room was downright boiling.

Taro squinted into the darkness. “Pipes, did your dad mention any of this?” There was no answer. “Pipes?”

Everyone searched for a frantic moment, but Pipes was not among them.

“Wasn’t he was just here?” Taro asked.

“I don’t remember seeing him since we got down here,” Suri said.

A grim realization appeared on Ven’s face. “We’ve got to find him.”

“Pipes!” Taro shouted into the halls. There was no response. “We’ll split up in groups. Try to stay within earshot. If you see anything, just yell.”

“This sounds like a good way to get killed,” Edrin retorted. “That creature is still out there.”

“We’re not leaving Pipes behind,” Ven said.

The point ended up being moot, as a yelp echoed through the halls. It was unmistakably Pipes. Taro and Ven broke from the group and followed Pipes’ voice to an adjacent hallway piled high with rubble.

Pipes’ tiny frame was tucked away in a corner with his arms around his knees. When he saw them, he tried frantically to crawl away.

“Ven?” Taro spoke like he was talking to a frightened dog. “It’s us.”

“My dad was right,” Pipes rasped. “They’re still here.”

Ven helped Pipes to his feet and brushed the stone dust off his shirt. “Who’s here?”

“They told me to follow them.”

“He’s losing it,” Ven said. “We need to get him out of here.”

They each took one of Pipes’ arms and carried him back to the others.

“Tell us exactly what you saw,” Suri said. She passed Pipes a canteen of water, which he gulped down.

“The crew of the
Titan
.”

“There’s no way they could survive down here for so long,” Taro said.

“They didn’t survive. They died.”

“Edrin scoffed. “He’s cracked in the head.”

“Shut up,” Taro said.

“Come on, you know it’s true!”

“This can’t be a coincidence,” Taro said. “First I see a witch from a story, now Pipes is seeing things too. What does it mean?”

“That you’re both loons?” Edrin said.

Taro ignored him, and instead turned his attention back to Pipes. “Can you walk?”

Pipes nodded and they continued through the maze-like chamber. On the far end was more red muck and a cracked ascending stairway. They followed it through a winding tunnel until they met a welcomed sight: sunlight. Curiously, the closer they got to the sunlight, the colder it got, and the tunnel exited to a courtyard surrounded on all sides by ruins.

Here the pools of red liquid were ankle-deep and littered throughout slushy, muddy soil. The pools boiled and steamed.

Near the center of the courtyard was an airship slightly smaller than the one that dropped them off. The letters on the side confirmed that it was the
Titan
.

Other than being rusted and having the top covered in ice, it might even have been sky-worthy. The skeletons of several crewmen lay at the base of ramp leading inside, but there were fresh marks in the slush and mud.

“Looks like we got here first,” Ven said as they hopped over the pools towards the
Titan
. “Some of us will have to stay and secure the ship, the rest need to find the artifact.”

Rattling came from inside the ship, and Yoresh appeared waving a steel rod. He raved and screamed as he swung. Taro and Ven were able to subdue him, but it took a few moments of struggling before he calmed down.

Yoresh’s eyes were glazed over. “Adrun kaya anvoldus.”

Taro slapped his cheek a few times. “C’mon, speak a language we can understand. What happened?”

“They’ve gone lanora.” Yoresh fumbled trying to find the correct Amínnic word. “Crazy. All of them.”

“Where’d they go?” Taro asked.

Yoresh pointed towards a hole in the wall across one of the bubbling pools.

“We located the artifact, but were stopped by a macha,” he said in his thick Sahaalan accent.

“Macha?” Suri said curiously.

Yoresh searched for the word. “Machine. A construct. We damaged it, but began to see... creatures.”

“Why didn’t it affect you?” Suri asked.

“I and four others were told to guard the ship. One by one they left to check on the others, now only I remain.”

“I say we fly this ship away right here and now,” Edrin said.

“Without the artifact we fail the trial,” Ven said.

Edrin pointed to the skeletons. “It’s better than dying.”

“There’s no reason to believe any of them are dead,” Taro said.

“Didn’t you just hear him? Everyone who went into that door never came back. I’m staying right here.”

“You do what you want,” Taro said. “I’m going. Is anyone with me?”

Ven and Suri were the only volunteers.

“Seriously? No one else?” Ven shook his head. “Fine then. The rest of you get this ship ready to fly.”

“The ship is ready now,” Yoresh said. “But it cannot be piloted alone.”

“Good. We’re going to find the others and bring them back,” Taro said.

When Taro, Suri, and Ven were at the base of the ramp, Ven nudged Taro with his elbow. “That’s a tall order.”

“Maybe a little confidence will keep them from flying off without us.”

The heat coming from the gap in the wall was overwhelming, like stepping into the furnace room at Crissom Foundry. The Waystation was unlike the rest of the ruins, it sloped down into a natural cave with rough black walls interlaced with smooth stone and metal architecture identical to that of the Magisterium. Taro could feel the heat on the soles of his shoes.

Ven touched some of the hot ash from the cave floor and winced. He brushed it away and uncovered a fist-sized gear. There were more pieces (nuts and bolts) scattered nearby.

“I think these are from the construct,” Ven said. “At least we can be reasonably sure that’s not just in our heads.”

They soon came across one of the recruits from the other team. It was a boy Taro recognized as Mylo, a first-year about Nima’s age. He was tucked away in a break in the cave wall, covered in ash, with a positively terrified look in his eyes. When they approached him, Mylo scratched at the wall and screamed.

Taro grabbed him by the shoulder and shushed him. “It’s just us.”

Mylo’s chest heaved and his bloodshot eyes zeroed in on them. His voice barely cracked above a whisper. “He told me you’d all been killed.”

Suri whipped some of the ash from his eyes. “Who told you that?”

“He’s been chasing me for days,” Mylo said. “You guys can hide here with me if you want.”

Taro shook him. “There’s no one chasing you. This place is messing with your head.”

Mylo was delirious and Taro realized reasoning with him wouldn’t help. He glanced at Suri. “Can you get him back to the ship while we move forward?”

Suri held Mylo up by her shoulder. “I can try. With him and Yoresh, that leaves eighteen unaccounted for.”

“Hold on for a moment,” Taro said. He shined his light ahead of them as far as he could. There were several others sprawled through the caves in similar condition to Mylo. The recruits writhed in the ash, tried to climb up the walls, and banged their heads against rocks.

Suri propped Mylo up with her shoulder. “This is going to take a few trips.”