Into The Ruins (33 page)

Less than a glass later the two Casters were back at the normal zone far out in the Wastelands.  They had brought with them the fifteen guardsmen that the Saltique had assigned to their mission.  None looked particularly happy to be here.  They didn’t have to be told where they were.  Even though the small ellipse of green was reasonably comfortable, the harsh orange sands that surrounded it made it clear what lay just outside.  The oddness of the Wastelands wasn’t completely blocked inside the zone, and all could feel it invading the senses.  The men didn’t know how deep into the harsh wilderness they were, something that would have left them even more uncomfortable than they already were had they known.  Kirin and Suline weren’t concerned.  The men would do as ordered.  The future they could look forward to would be very bleak if they did otherwise.

For Suline and Kirin, this was becoming a familiar place.  Two of the strangers had been taken prisoner here, and they had spent additional time organizing the careful search of the small oasis and the Wastelands immediately surrounding it.  Nothing appeared to have changed.  The footsteps made a few days earlier when the two were detained were undisturbed, and nothing suggested others had been here.  Even so, they had the men make a search of the area looking for anything that might have been missed or that had been disturbed recently.  It gave those who hadn’t been here some time to adjust to the Wastelands.  That was important, because they were going to travel even deeper into the forbidden lands.  Both Kirin and Suline felt a chill at the thought.

The map that Kimm had provided along with the transferred memories identified this as the last of the normal zones the four strangers had visited before making their way into Sedfair.  Suline pushed back a strand of blond hair that kept being blown into her eyes by the growing wind coming off the Wastelands.  There hadn’t been wind the last time she had been here, and she wondered if one of the massive sandstorms that could sometimes be seen from the border was brewing.  If so, that would make their task even harder.  She wondered how the sandstorms affected the oasis.  It appeared to stand immune to the Wastelands, but perhaps that wasn’t so once the winds picked up.  With the various magics at play here, anything was possible.  More importantly, would a storm out here have any effect on their magic, and their ability to return to Nals?

Kirin was directing the guardsmen, having decided she was in charge.  Suline didn’t mind.  She could tell that Kirin was a favorite of the Saltique.  That had been apparent at the meeting with the Guild’s leader and by the attitude that Kirin projected.  Suline wondered if her own inclusion in this search was a matter of expediency because she was already involved, or if she had managed to catch the eye of their leader.  Suline vowed to make an impression.  It wasn’t often that such an opportunity was presented to one.  At the same time she couldn’t help wondering why the Saltique wanted to keep this a secret.  Clearly there were matters that weren’t being shared, something to keep in mind as they probed deeper into the desert wilderness.  The Guild was known for its politics and Suline didn’t want to be caught in the middle of something she didn’t understand.

“I don’t think anyone has been here since our last visit,” Kirin said a short time later when the guardsmen had completed a careful search.  “Are you ready to go on to the next location?”

Suline’s private reaction was that she didn’t want to go any deeper into this place than they were.  It made her skin crawl to feel the blocking magic of the Wastelands pushing at her from so close, and she could imagine jumping into a spot where they couldn’t leave.  Letting nothing of her inner turmoil show on her face, she calmly nodded to her companion. 

“Let’s go.  I didn’t think we would find anything here.  I’ll make the
Doorway
.”

The mental picture of the next location on the map was crisp and clear as though she had already been there, but it was the memory of the woman who had died under the stress of the Reading.  Suline and Kirin had no memories of how the four strangers had made the trip between the two locations, and Suline wondered if they had known of the locations in advance, or had somehow crossed the harsh desert finally locating the widespread oasis.  Such information hadn’t been deemed important by Kimm, who had selected which memories taken from the woman they should have.

Suline’s
Doorway
opened without a problem, something she had wondered about.  She had heard of the implanting of memories before, but this was the first time she had actually had them given to her and tried to use them to create one of the portals.  It was reassuring to see it work.

Kirin led the way through the portal, still playing the leader.  She was followed by the guardsmen, leaving Suline to bring up the rear.  After a final look around, Suline stepped into the arch, and out into the next normal zone.  Two things struck her immediately.  The impact of the Wastelands was stronger here, and the oasis was smaller and had less water.  She didn’t know if the pressure she felt exerted by the desert was due to being deeper into the vast Wastelands, or because the island of normalcy was so much smaller.  It didn’t really matter, but she found the pressure unnerving.  A quick look at the others and she could tell they were feeling it as well. 

Kirin already had the men starting their careful search.  Suline walked over to one of the few trees and knelt beside the base where she had spotted a footprint in the dirt.  Several prints, she noted.

“Someone’s been here,” she called out to Kirin, who hurried over to verify her find.

“Only a couple of prints are clear,” she agreed.  “There weren’t a lot of people.  I think we can safely assume it was our four prisoners.  Unless we find something else, I’d bet they didn’t camp here.”

The careful search turned up nothing else of interest beyond a few patches of grass that looked somewhat trampled. 

The next location was in the Wastelands itself, except for some reason the site failed to block their magic.  Kimm had made a point of checking the spot out because some kind of artifact had been discovered there.  The guardsmen looked even more uncomfortable than Suline felt as they stepped out of the
Doorway
onto the burning sands that stretched as far as the eye could see in any direction.

The object was huge, and clearly had been recently unearthed.  The sand that was piled off to one side had almost certainly been moved by magic, and hadn’t yet been redistributed by the winds of the Wastelands.  Both women laid their hands on the golden metal of the object.  Kirin even tried to cut it with her belt knife, but it was far harder than it appeared.  Despite the look, it wasn’t made of gold.  Most of the writing was completely unfamiliar to Suline, but she could see a similarity of the runes around the base to those used in Casting.  They seemed somewhat misshapen, but that was something one of their scholars could determine.  She couldn’t help wondering if the strangers understood the writing and the purpose of the object.  The team left somewhat sooner than planned when a large herd of Chulls appeared in the distance and headed their way.

All were anxious to move onward, and while not spoken aloud, all were relieved when they emerged from the next
Doorway
into a large oasis with a substantial pool of water.  It was clear immediately that this place had been used by the four.  Empty food sacks were found adjacent to where they had camped.  The signs suggested the site had been used for a number of days, but a careful search turned up nothing else.  All evidence they had found thus far supported the belief that the four had traveled alone.

The next jump took them to another large oasis.  They were impossibly far from home.  Suline couldn’t help realizing that they were deeper into the Wastelands than anyone from Sedfair had ventured in recorded history.  As in the case of the previous oasis, this one showed clear signs of having been used as a camp.  The area showed more signs of being disturbed, and the remains of a number of cloth bags that probably had contained supplies were stacked at the base of a large tree not too far from the pool.

“I think this was their base camp,” Suline said, when Kirin walked over to see what she had found.

“Looks like it,” Kirin agreed.  “I think we should follow suit and make our camp here.  It’s getting late.”

Even though their travel had delayed the setting of the sun, it was late in the day, and dusk was less than a glass away.  Suline nodded her agreement.  This was a comfortable spot, and the size of the oasis made the Wastelands seem less pressing, if only the pressure on her senses could be set aside.  Kirin ordered the guardsmen to make camp, and they directed the two horses that were pulling the wagonload of supplies into the clearing, where the men quickly offloaded the essential items and efficiently made camp.  Before long, the welcome aromas of seared bison and baked brack root filled the air.

“How long do you think it took them to make the crossing?” Suline asked Kirin as they ate.

Kimm probably has those memories, but from what we have seen, it appears they made their way on foot to each succeeding safe zone.  Then they jumped back for re-supply.

“It must have been harsh, not knowing how far the next zone would be, and unable to use magic in between,” Suline mused aloud.

“We can’t be certain that magic was restricted all the time.  The Wastelands didn’t block us around that artifact.  Perhaps the land is riddled with areas where magic works normally and they moved between such zones.”

“Maybe the artifact pushed aside the effects of the Wastelands and that is why our magic worked there,” Suline countered.  “Around each of these little green islands, magic is completely useless.  It is likely that way over most of the Wastelands.”

“If that is the case, then they knew something we don’t.  I cannot see how anyone could cross between these islands without resorting to magic sometimes.  Look at what happened to Assh.”

Assh had been shot by a small plant when they explored around the last safe zone.  The pellet that struck him was almost instantly fatal.  By the time Suline reached the man, it was too late to use what magic she could have called upon to remove the pellet and cure the infection.  He had died, and rapidly started to decay.  They had left him rather than risk carrying something unknown back with them.  The death weighed heavily on the minds of the other guardsmen, who had become very cautious when outside the oasis.

Morning brought a couple of surprises.  First was the discovery of another staff, also split and charred like the one they had found with the woman and old man when they had captured them.

“They do use staffs,” Kirin insisted.

“Perhaps,” Suline replied thoughtfully.  “But why are they damaged, and why only two?  Also, notice there are no runes inscribed into the staff to make it work.  Neither staff was constructed to allow a power crystal to be attached.  There were four of the strangers.  Are the other staffs waiting to be found farther up the trail, or did they only have the two?  That is difficult for me to understand.  And if the staffs became damaged and they traveled on without them, how did they manage to still access their magic?  There is something important we are missing.”

“We will bring it back to the Saltique nonetheless,” Kirin directed, and handed the broken stick to one of the guardsmen to put into the cart.

The next thing they discovered was they were unable to continue onward.

“The vision is clear in my mind, but the
Doorway
will not form,” Suline complained angrily. 
What could be blocking her
? she wondered.

“It’s not just you,” Kirin said a moment later.  “I cannot create a
Doorway
either.  For some reason we are being prevented from moving to the next location.”

“That is one place we were specifically ordered to investigate,” Suline said angrily.  “The next stopping point is where the Chulls come from.  We must find a way to get there.”

Kirin was equally frustrated.  The Saltique would not be happy if they returned so soon, far short of their ultimate destination and without having viewed the vast chamber where the Chulls were formed.  If they could reach the spawning place, there was hope that the fearsome creatures might be eliminated, ending the long-standing threat to Sedfair.

“Nothing,” Kirin said finally after trying several more times.

“I wonder if we can come at it from the other direction?” Suline said, and tried to open a
Doorway
to the spot her memory said was some distance beyond the place where the beasts were formed.  She cursed loudly after a few moments when that didn’t work either.

“What did you do?” Kirin asked.

Suline told her how she’d tried to jump past the Chull Farms.

“There has to be a way,” Kirin objected.  “The strangers passed through here.  We have their memories to show it happened.  How did they do it?  We must discover the means they used.  I don’t want to report failure.”

Neither did Suline, but a flash of intuition told her they were not going to succeed.  She was suddenly certain that the staffs that they had dismissed so casually were somehow linked to the stranger’s ability to make the
Doorways
.

“How can that be?” Kirin asked, the doubt apparent in her voice after Suline had told her what she suspected.