Draevin was trying to doze off. He just couldn’t get comfortable though. He was using his backpack as a pillow, but no matter how much he adjusted, a hard angle was poking him in his head.
Still, he was determined to try and get as much rest before the final leg of their trek. When Ghisa got up to relieve Kruza for watch, he forced his eyes back shut and dreamed of home on Tartaradae. He could see the blue oceans, and the red sandy beaches. But even daydreaming of home didn’t help him find real sleep.
He finally gave up and decided he’d walk around a bit. Maybe that would help. He circled the room once, stopping to watch Shaifur for a bit. The Watcher seemed enthralled as he studied the Archon computer.
“Don’t you need some sleep?” he asked.
Shaifur looked up, an enthusiastic smile lighting up his face. “This is better than sleep,” he assured Draevin.
“I’ll take your word for it.” He let him be and continued around the room. He noticed Stebner get up and squat down next to the Briekar. He thought about joining them before changing his mind. Stebner had lost his own Briekar recently, and Ibzu had lost Karn. It was probably best to let them be alone.
Instead he found himself walking up to the passageway. Ghisa was leaning against the wall, her hand resting gently on her bio-rifle. She looked up as he approached.
“Well, if it ain’t the star pupil,” she said. It wasn’t mockery from here. He had trained with her a few times and found her praise to always be sincere.
He peaked down the passageway, but only saw gloom. He could barely make out the main chamber and the broken doors beyond. “Everything quiet?” he asked.
“Haven’t seen any spooks,” she confirmed.
He leaned against the passage wall opposite of her. “I guess those recordings have got me on edge. I just couldn’t sleep. Have you ever been in a fight?”
“A couple of times. Mostly in Sundasha and Atharbus.”
“Atharbus? What dangers are there on Atharbus?”
“Don’t laugh,” she scolded. “Those Tybani can be nasty little critters. They mostly keep to their own territories, but once in a while they’ll get aggressive and bands of them attack settlements.” She pulled up her sleeve, showing him a nice large scar from some very sharp teeth. “Got this my first week there. Never underestimated the flying rats again.”
He laughed along with her. He imagined her fighting off a flying predator which had decided to give her arm a chomp. He saw her flailing her arms to shake it off, the beast holding on with its teeth.
“Still,” she continued, “I’ve never fought shadows before. She hefted up her rifle, giving it an uneasy glance. “I don’t even know if these would be effective.”
His humor dried up a little at those words. But he still put his hand on his own pistol, its presence giving him comfort anyway.
He looked down the passage again. The gloom seemed to have gotten darker. He couldn’t wait for the storm to pass so they could leave. He looked back into the room behind them, seeing his comrades. He was glad he wasn’t alone on this dead world.
Across from him Ghisa straightened. She moved towards the center of the passage. He noticed her muscles had tensed up and she now held her rifle at the ready. She was peering intently into the dark.
“What is it?” His hand returned to his pistol. He undid the strap, peering forward into the dark.
She raised her rifle, activating the bio-mechanical light mounted below the barrel. The bright blue light shone into the main chamber, falling across the floor and the bones lying there. It shone upon the metal doors, the blast marks still evident even after a hundred years. But beyond the doors, no light penetrated. Only a deep wall of shadows.
The shadows moved. It was like a curtain, billowing in the wind, weaving and flowing. Draevin’s blood ran cold. He knew it was them, the shadows the recordings had talked about. He and Ghisa stared at it, tense and waiting. But they didn’t move forward. They remained in the hall, not passing beyond the doors.
“Go get Mikraf,” Ghisa told him. And he was about to move and do just that when the shadows parted, flowing away to either side. Standing where they had been was a figure. It was tall, wearing a tattered black robe. The hood was pulled up, but Ghisa’s light revealed its features. Or more accurately, its lack of features. Where there should have been eyes, there was nothing. There was no nose either. Only a thin red line where its mouth was, and the rest was smooth pale white skin. As the light fell on its face, the figure grinned, the red line parting to reveal a mouth full of fangs. Rows and rows of long fangs.
Ghisa didn’t even wait for Draevin to go get Mikraf. Instead she cried out. “Stand to, Frondauri. The enemy has found us.”
The thing never moved, instead it remained where it was, staring with its eyeless face. The smile had gone, replaced by the red line of its lips. It wasn’t coming in to get them, but it could wait there for them. They were trapped.
“Pack up the gear,” Mikraf ordered. “It looks like we’ll be fighting our way out.” The others moved to obey, though Ghisa remained at the passageway.
As Draevin hurried to get his own pack ready he heard Ghisa tell him, “You and I both know that won’t work.”
He didn’t hear the response, but he knew as well as Mikraf that it was their only option. Izine had already shouldered her pack and had grabbed Ghisa's. Her eyes were wide with terror. This whole place had been affecting her the worst. More so since she had first seen the shadow. He gave her arm a comforting squeeze.
It was then that Stebner came rushing over, Ibzu padding along behind him. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Draevin tossed him his pack and gave him a short, but perfunct answer. “The Faceless.”
Shaifur had hurriedly unplugged his devices and stuffed them back into his own bag. Like Izine he wore a terrified expression on his face. The only one who appeared fine was Kruza. They gathered everything up and hurried back over to the passage. They passed Mikraf and Ghisa their bags and drew their weapons.
“So here’s what we’re going to do,” Mikraf said, sliding his arm through the straps of his pack. “We’re gonna move out, and if it that thing moves, we’re gonna kill it.”
Stebner looked around at them, as if they’d lost their minds. “We can’t go out that way.”
“Unless you have another suggestion I’m all ears.”
He laughed, a deep hearty laugh. “How about a back way out of here.” He then pointed across the room and there in the wall a doorway stood open. Mikraf gaped at it, thrown completely off guard. “Ibzu and I just found it,” he informed them.
Mikraf punched him in the shoulder. “Praise the Archons and the two of you.”
They gave one last look towards the faceless figure. Draevin thought it must know something was up because it had stepped right up to the doorway and its mouth had parted in a snarl. “I wonder what’s keeping it outside,” he muttered to himself. He would probably never know the answer.
He and Stebner took point, though Ibzu went through the backdoor first. Izine and KRuza came next, with Shaifur between them. Mikraf and Ghisa took up the rear. After they were all in the passage, Mikraf pushed the door closed. “Let’s hope they have as much trouble finding this doorway as we did.”
With their bio-lanterns lit, they moved forward. The passageway was narrow, barely wide enough for them to pass through in single file. It curved around the room, following the wall, but after only a few meters it turned into a ramp curving upwards. They moved quickly. No one had faith that whatever was keeping the faceless out of that room would hold. It was better to move as quickly as possible.
The ramp wound around. Draevin guessed it had circled the computer room twice, before it leveled out and turned back inwards. They passed into another. It was the same size as the one below and must have been right above it. This one was filled with ancient machinery, but had long ago stopped their functions. Pipes and cylinders pointed up and into the ceiling above. They were a dull amber color, another metal that no one present had seen before.
A walkway passed over and through all the pipes and cylinders. They rushed across it, their hooves clanking on the metal grating. Shaifur took a few pictures with his imaging device, never even slowing while he did. They passed into another passage on the other side. It turned, following the curve of the room, and another ramp led them upwards.
This time the ramp wound around four times before turning into another chamber. This one was filled with more consoles. There was at least, Draevin guessed, two dozen of them. But someone had taken some kind of weapon to them. The screens were blasted apart and the panels had large impact holes through them.
On the farside of the room were two metal doors. They were like the ones that had been blasted open below, but these ones were still intact. And also closed.
“Now I suppose we have to blast these open,” Stebner said, inspecting the massive doors.
“No,” Shaifur said emphatically. “Only if we were on the other side.” Shone his light up and down the doors. “It’s gotta be here. There’s gotta be a release. Ah, there it is.” His light shone at a metal protrusion at the top of the doors.
“I can’t reach that,” Stebner said.
“What’s goin on?” Mikraf asked, catching up with them.
“Trying to get the door open,” Stebner replied.
Draevin checked the passage they’d just come up. Ghisa was guarding it, but she was giving them hurried glances. Did she think they were being followed or were her nerves fraying like his?
“You can shoot it,” Shaifur said. “That will release it.”
“Or fuse the doors shut and we’ll be stuck in here forever,” Stebner retorted.
“You wont I promise.”
“By the Archons,” Mikraf grumbled. He then pointed his own rifle and fired off a plasma shot. The metal protrusion above melted away from the heat, and a green light flooded the room as it burned.
“What now?” Stebner asked.
Shaifur sighed in frustration and moved up and pushed the doors open. They swung outward with a loud metallic creak. The sound startled everyone. If no one knew where they were before, they’d probably know now.
Draevin wasn’t waiting around to be trapped again. He was the first one through. He found himself in another passage, like numerous he had seen before. He shone his light both ways down it. Nothing moved, and no shadows were around to stop the light.
“Which way?” he asked, mostly to himself. He wasn’t expecting an answer.
But Shaifur came through for them again. He had his little device out, the one he’d used before to track down the signal source. “I’m picking up energy surges, probably coming from the storm. That way.” He was pointing to their left.
Mikraf checked his timekeeper. “We still have an hour on that storm,” he said.
Shaifur shrugged, giving him an apologetic look. “It’s either face the storm or stay here and face the faceless.”
Mikraf didn’t argue. He knew the Watcher had a point. “Stebner. Draevin. You still have the lead.”
They headed out again, taking the same positions as before. Ibzu went ahead of them by a dozen paces, and they rushed to keep up. They followed only wide passages, ignoring smaller hallways. When they passed a door leading into a room they’d quickly shine their light in and hurry pass. They saw nothing but Archon bones. The sight had become so normal to them that it was familiar. It no longer made them anxious. There was far worse than bones to worry about.
They rushed as fast as they could, not stopping to rest. Up stairways, down hallways, only choosing a path when Shaifur suggested. They came up a flight of stairs and made a sharp left turn when Draevin noticed something on the floor. A symbol was painted on the floor.
Stebner cheered when he saw them. He had painted them when they came down this way, a path to follow back to the top. Shaifur had led them on the right course. They felt renewed energy, knowing they were going in the right direction, so they picked up the pace.
As they came closer to the start of their voyage into the under passages of the Pellacon, Draevin became aware of a strange sensation in his hair and on his skin. Every few minutes he felt like his hair would stand straight up, and his skin felt tingly. It would pass after a few seconds, but then come again.
It was Shaifur again who addressed the sensation. He called for a halt and everyone obliged. Mikraf didn’t even argue with him. The last few minutes had earned the Watcher the benefit of the doubt.
“So I’m sure you’ve all been feeling that tingle in your skin. If any of you have ever been caught outside when a solar storm has passed across Pendragost, you’ll recognise it. That is the electrical surges from the storm. They’re usually harmless. By time these storms reach the capital, they aren’t seriously dangerous. But here, here they’re very likely deadly. Hopefully the worst of the storm has passed and we’re on the tail end of it, but if not, we may be jumping from the tea pot, into the heating flame.”
Mikraf nodded at him. “Shaifur’s right. But we know what’s waiting for us down here, and if we stay it will eventually find us.”
Everyone looked around at each other. Draevin made eye contact with Izine and gave her a reassuring smile. They knew the dangers. No more words were said. At the same time Draevin and Stebner turned and took the lead again. The rest followed.
They kept to the path of painted symbols. They watched the shadows still as they climbed another set of stairs. Draevin recognized these stairs as the last flight they’d need to climb until they entered the crossroad room with the painted ceiling. He also realized the tingling sensation that came and went, was turning into a burning sensation that lingered. And his hair was standing nearly straight and didn’t fall back down.
They came out of the underground maze of tunnels, returning to the surface. As they rushed into the middle of the room, shing their lights around to make sure the shadows faded, a crackle of blue electricity came rushing down one of the entryways.
Draevin felt the power in his teeth and horns. And it burned. He let out a hiss of pain and heard everyone else do the same. He could only imagine what it would be like once they made it outside.
“Which passage?” Mikraf asked through gritted teeth. “I don’t remember the direction.”
Draevin looked around, realizing he didn’t remember either. Which passage had they come in through? They needed to take the opposite one, but which was it?
Shaifur started using his device, but Izine answered first. “That one,’ she said pointing the way.
“Are you sure?” Mikraf asked.
“Yes. I remember that the Archons feet were pointing towards the one we needed to go down.” They must have all looked dumbfounded because she pointed her light upward, illuminating the mural above.
“Good enough for me,” Mikraf said and they all followed his lead out. Shaifur confirmed she was right as they raced down the avenue, putting his device back in his pocket.
Another crackling of blue electricity came down the hallway and it nearly doubled Draevin over in pain. Stebner hooked an arm under his and together they hobbled forward. No one dared to look back, instead focusing on the orange square of light ahead of them.
They raced out of the Pellacon into the light, and they were struck with the force of the Solar storm. Electricity danced through the air and they felt it burn through their skin. Welts rose up on Draevin’s arms and legs, and his hair felt like it was on fire. But they didn’t stop. They hurried down the stairs, stumbling and nearly falling a few times.
The pain from the storm grew worse the further they pushed themselves. But Draevin noticed that the intensity was decreasing. They reached the bottom of the stairs. They were dragging each other along, arm in arm by pairs. They started down the avenue again, grateful to be outside.
Draevin stole a look back and was glad when he saw nothing. They’d made it. He felt a great relief wash over him. He knew they weren’t safe at all, but the light from the Maelstrom was giving him renewed hope.
They drudged on and the storm passed. The burning pain passed with it, but the welts left a lingering burn. A chunk of a building had fallen down into the avenue and they took a rest next to it. Shaifur passed out a healing cream that everyone lathered on their skin. It soothed the tingling and relieved the welts.
They also took the time to drink some water, refreshing themselves from their race through the dark. But it didn’t last long. Ghisa, ever the rearguard, jumped to her feet. She pointed back the way they’d come. Despite having made good distance from the Pellacon, they could clearly make out three dark figures descending the stairs toward them. Each wore raggy robes, fluttering in a nonexistent breeze, their pale faces reflecting the orange light.
Halo Theme (Mjolnir Mix) - Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori
