Mary Volgelson felt the first tingling of conscious thought rousing her from slumber. Her internal alarm clock was going off again, and the thirty-five year old sighed to herself; the bed seemed so warm and inviting, it didn’t seem possible that it could be six-o’clock.
Despite her stubborn efforts to deny it, her body continued its normal routine of getting alert and ready for the day. At last she sighed and got up from the surprisingly comfortable bed she’d been sleeping in and walked to the boudoir. Pulling out a fresh uniform, she dressed automatically, her mind already turning over the information she’d received yesterday.
Waking up to the sight of an enormous golden reptile while utterly naked had been...an unusual experience, one she would rather not go through again if she could help it. Learning about being asleep for three million years, well, she wasn’t sure if that fact had completely sunk in yet or not. But the new people, the Brissons...that had rocked her to her core. Learning that they had regarded her people as part of their spiritual belief or myth had been disconcerting, and meant that she had to accept that her entire world had vanished. Gone.
To distract herself, she looked around her well-appointed room. She’d been told it was dwarf-work and she had to admit it was very nice. While noticeably lacking in modern amenities like running water and TV, it had a granite bathtub that had been smoothed and polished and formed until it was just as comfortable as any hot-tub that she’d ever been in. Just above it was a large bronze tank perched above a fire pit that could be used to warm water to fill the tub with. To drain the basin, there was a plug in the bottom that led deeper into the mountain. Large bookcases covered much of the walls, and while a handful of books stood proudly, most were bare shelves currently. The furniture consisted of three comfortable chairs, a small reading table set in front of a carved fireplace, a sofa, a dining table with set of chairs, a pantry set in one corner, a walk-in closet, and counters for part of a small kitchen.
This is certainly one of the nicer apartments I’ve ever been in. She thought to herself. If all the other rooms were like this, then she saw no problem with housing the survivors from the city when they woke up.
Like Jake, she too noticed they had no food stocks available; something made painfully obvious in their walk through the city. They hunted what they could in the sparse desert--Jake was phenomenal at bringing back a goodly amount of meat on a regular basis--but their stores of fruits and vegetables remained non-existent.
We are going to have to solve that problem, if we don’t want to start suffering scurvy and other diseases.
The specter of sickness raised its ugly head for a moment, forcing Volgelson to consider the dire possibility. They had little to no medicine, this world was as alien to them as any planet in the galaxy might have been, new peoples had evolved, therefore the bugs that would go around would be different as well, and might prove ultimately fatal. After all, though small pox and other diseases were well known to the settlers of the New World, the Indians hadn’t a single defense against it and much of the Eastern seaboard had been ultimately purged of Native Americans in that fashion.
Well, we do have the Lady to help there. Volgelson frowned, when had she started to refer to the Unicorn as “The Lady”? Many people had been calling her that, though as far as she knew there was no royal bloodline in Serena. Yet there was no denying the fact that she had just called her by the name given to her.
Volgelson sighed, while it seemed wrong for an American to call anyone by royal title, she had to admit that it fit the Unicorn, especially when she was in human form.
I’m starting to fall for the hype. Volegelson shook her head. The worst part of it was, Serena fit the bill perfectly for the ideal royal lady. She was kind, sensitive, strong-willed and a healer of renown. She stood a sharp contrast to the rest of them.
She didn’t know the centaurs as well as she might have liked; she didn’t know all of them very well she admitted to herself, but they struck her as incredibly intelligent people who were usually two or three steps ahead of everyone else. They did their best not to let it show though, or rub it in people’s faces, which made them better than half the professors she remembered in college and the scientists she worked with on a daily basis at the Pentagon.
The fairies had departed already, but she’d fought with them before and knew them to be solid people, scared of fighting, determined to do so against the demons...they were pretty much like her average recruit. But they had extraordinary powers that she’d seen them wield. She wondered briefly why she hadn’t seen them upon waking up. She’d have to bring that up on the council tomorrow, she thought to herself. Perhaps they’d been busy surveying more of the city or something for Jake.
Jake. At last they got to him. An involuntary shiver raced down her spine, quickening her breath as sweat popped on her brow. Of all them, he scared her the worst. His sheer size now, greater than ever before, combined with his natural weapons made him a force to be reckoned with. She vividly remembered seeing him flash past in the fight, his mouth dripping fiery blood while his eyes glowed hellish yellow from the heat within, his roar echoing down the city streets smothering the sound of gunfire and screams and explosions as if they were a single cricket trying to compete with a howitzer firing. They’d butted heads after the fight, in the mountain, and she’d discovered his self-assurance knew no bounds. He would calmly out-reason her at every turn with the patience of a reptile, while always ensuring that he got his way in the end. It was maddening.
What am I going to do know that I know there is so much at stake here? She wondered. What are they going to make me do?
That questioned couldn’t be answered as she wandered out to the breakfast hall. A deer had already been dressed, cooked and laid out by the time she got there, everyone else eating quickly. Most people were there, with the notable exception of Serena. She didn’t like watching people eat meat and avoided it when she could.
Volgelson found herself next to the young witch, Shyla if Volgelson remembered correctly. She had been talking to the mountain-man that Volgelson remembered was her guardian. They fell silent as she sat down.
“Morning.”
Shyla grunted at Volgelson’s greeting but said nothing for a while. Her companion simply leaned back casually and watched, giving the appearance of a man completely at ease. Volgelson knew it as the façade it seemed; Asbiorn could move lightning fast when Shyla was in danger, she’d seen them in battle on the streets and the memory of those encounters would remain until the end of her life.
“How can we help you this morning, General?” He asked when the silence had grown long.
Volgelson swallowed the deer meat she’d been chewing. She took a pull from her cup and put it down.
“Ahh. Well, not much.” She admitted. “Because I don’t know what exactly is going on.”
Shyla shrugged. “Jake is planning on a meeting here in a little while, but I don’t think that is until tomorrow. Today? I think we continue our survey of the mountain.”
“That sounds reasonable.” Volgelson nodded. “So are we going outside then?”
“Some are, but we’re going deeper into the mountain.” Shyla nodded at Asbiorn, then jerked her head to the cluster of remaining Brissons.
“Forgive me, but I thought that you had this place pretty well mapped by now.” Volgelson felt a frown slide over her face.
“Yes and no.” Shyla laughed at her confusion. “You see, the mountain has constantly shifted and changed the longer we’ve been here.” For a moment, a look of awe crossed her face. “The amount of magic required to do something of this scale is staggering, I don’t think anyone else except Jake and Serena could accomplish a tenth of this power and complexity.” She shook her head, silent for a moment, before resuming. “You see, though much of it has been explored, everyone has been so busy with events outside; the mudmen, the demons, Cassandra the Spider Queen, and taking care of the forest in general, that a true survey has never been done. Jake suggested to me that this place had to have a source of water to supply it in times of drought or siege that would make it impossible for enemies to poison it, so that would indicate water sources inside the mountain.”
”I thought you’d found some with that water-powered cold room.” Volgelson asked.
“We found a room that was flooded constantly by being in the center of a waterfall. The water cooled it to a regular temperature because it didn’t sit. But now that flow is gone as well, so the source of water must have gone away during the Ages.” Shyla explained. “So we are going to look for that source and see how to resupply it when Tom and Stacey get the water flowing again.”
“That seems reasonable.” Volgelson nodded. “If you don’t mind, I think I will join you.”
“Sounds good to me.” Shyla shrugged.
***
Shyla grunted for a moment straining against the resistance of the ages as the door in front of her remained stubbornly shut. The low window came almost to her chin and mocked her with silent laughter behind its iron-barred guard. Shyla suppressed the urge to hit the door with her fist; while she suspected she would feel much better, all she would most likely get out of such an act would be a sore hand.
“Well, now what?” Volgelson asked.
“Let me try.” Asbiorn suggested.
He stepped up to the door after Shyla stepped away. She watched with the others as he put his great hands to the ring. His muscles bulged under his shirt as they strained mightily. Everyone waited with breathless anticipation as the door creaked in protest at the force being applied to it.
As long moments passed, Shyla reached into her back and pulled out her magic book. Not her original, possessed black magic book, but a compendium of neutral-aligned spells for common needs. Flipping through the pages, she found one that might work for what they need.
“Mordet! Shikali! Delightnak! Opendi!” she gestured like the diagram in the book.
A blue flash lit the passage, the door gave a shuddering groan while Asbiorn gave a terrific heave and the door swung slowly opened on its rusty, mildewed hinges.
Beyond the door a coal-black cloak presented a forbidding defense to entry, making it impossible to see what lay ahead.
“Mordic Illuminitus” Shyla whispered.
A blue flame erupted into life above her hand, twisting and sputtering like a candle, giving off little heat or light. Everyone stared.
Shyla felt embarrassed and quickly muttered “Grolnic towardnus camfital”
The candle became a roaring campfire hanging in midair. It compressed rapidly to a stone about the size of a fist, losing neither its power nor fierceness.
“All right, let’s go.” Shyla said quickly, trying to cover her flaming cheeks. Shyla couldn’t believe she’d made such a rookie mistake, but she pressed on.
The darkness withdrew reluctantly from the light, clinging to every crevice or fold in the walls in defiance. The tunnel went on and on, going down in straight lines for a while before abruptly turning ninety and then ninety again. It wasn’t long before Shyla realized that they were descending in a spiral to the very foot of the mountain.
Abruptly the tunnel widened and the ceiling vanished, invisible in the murky gloom that formed a night sky underground. They stepped out from the passage onto a broad porch lined with stone handrails guarding blank space beyond. To their right the handrails turned ninety and vanished, indicating a broad stairway below.
As they stood in the dark, Shyla increased the power of her light until a miniature sun blazed with eye-tearing strength, before hurtling upwards perhaps two hundred feet or more. The light it cast revealed a space too large to be called either gallery or chamber, filled with graceful columns embossed with dwarf faces, fantastic creatures, and strange runes.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
The sound of water heartened them, and they peered downward, straining to see the floor. Shyla stood dumbstruck, looking at the source of the noise.
Below there stood a broad stony shore close to the wall, extending perhaps a hundred feet out and stopping at a sharply-defined shelf and continuing on to the water’s edge. Criss-crossing the shore were smooth paths, cut and polished like paving stones, which led around the edge of the resevoir or to a bridge that disappeared towards a dim, hulking shape just out of sight.
The water reflected the light of her star, twinkling like gems in the night. To her dismay, she noted how little water remained there.
It can’t even get close to the old shoreline, marked by that shelf there I think. It must have been huge when it was full though, there’s enough room here to match some of the lakes near my house!
Even Volgelson seemed impressed with their find. Shyla couldn’t read her yet, but she could tell by how long she remained silent she was definitely awed.
“Amazing.” Gavin breathed, reminding her that they weren’t the only people standing there.
“It is, isn’t it?” Shyla nodded sagely. “It seems that the dwarves had a severe Napoleonic complex and built accordingly.”
Volgelson barked a laugh while the Brissons just looked confused.
“Never mind.” Shyla grinned. “Human joke.”
She felt her humor slip away as she stared down at the lake beneath them. “But the real question is, how are we going to get enough water down here to refill that lake?”
That question silenced them all.
“I suppose we should go and explore it a little more thoroughly.” Volgelson suggested. “And then make a map of it to show everyone.”
“That’s a good idea.” Shyla agreed quickly, wondering why she hadn’t thought of the idea first.
She rummaged in her pack for a sheet of paper and a pencil. Using the flat handrail has a writing surface, she sketched her quick impressions.
The group waited for her to finish before moving down the bannister to the shore. The closer they got to the shore, the more details popped out at them. Ahead, they could see the form of a causeway that led out over the center of the lake into the distance. What its purpose was could only be guessed at that point, but Shyla knew they would have to explore it and soon.
They continued around the edge of the lake for a short time, studying the ancient water levels and mapping out any interesting feature they saw.
“Look!” Annabel cried, jolting Shyla from one of her frequent mapping efforts.
“What is it?” Shyla asked irritably, noting how part of her map had been mis-drawn and would have to be fixed.
“I think I see pipes!”
Shyla frowned. What would pipes be doing here? She looked where Annabel was pointing and saw, for the first time, great stone pipes that seemed to be leading away from the wall towards the lake.
They hurried over to the enormous, stone pipes that had somehow been carved and emplaced using the same mysterious building techniques of the dwarves.
You have to hand it to them, they never did anything by halves. Shyla thought to herself as she studied them. There were three in total, each about eight feet in diameter, their shells embossed with more reliefs. Shyla couldn’t read the runes with them, but the pictures told enough to gather that the pipes ran up towards the surface before branching into hundreds of smaller pipes whose concealed entrances collected rain water and melt water and directed it down to the lake.
Shyla found herself filled to bursting with excitement; some of the feeder pipes showed their entrances at the very base of the mountain as well, which meant that if they could locate them on the surface they could bring the irrigation channel straight to them and have water pour down to refill the lakes and have full water supplies for all of them!
Everyone grinned giddily, but it was Asbiorn who brought them back to their senses.
“We should keep up our search to uncover the secrets here. We have only a day and much remains to be explored. I would like to know more about that causeway, and the buildings near the center of the cavern. You see there? Those shadows? I think they must be several stories tall, if not more, and I cannot help but wonder what their function is.”
Shyla studied the oblong shapes in the murk. From her angle she couldn’t tell exactly what they were used for, and there seemed only one way to get there.
“It looks like the causeway is the path to get to the buildings.” She suggested. “At least, I don’t see any other way there.”
“Neither do I.” Asbiorn agreed. “And I wonder if it’s that way for defense, because they only needed one way to them, or for some other purpose that we have no knowledge of.”
“We won’t know until we explore it.” Shyla agreed. She checked her watch. “We still have about two hours left to finish up our exploration if we want to get back in time for dinner, which Serena said would be held about eight tonight.”
Gavin looked startled. “Have we truly been here that long?” he asked.
“Afraid so.” Shyla said. “It took several hours to get down here in the first place, then exploring the shores and bannister and the pipes, not to mention drawing, has taken several more. It’s about three in the afternoon now. If we take till five to finish up, then we can head up and should be back at the main hall by eight, I think.” She shrugged helplessly. “Who knows if that is true or not, but we can hope!”
“Okay.” Volgelson broke in, her calm voice determined.