Chapter 42 Cero #3
She laughed then, and it was warm and unrestrained and contagious. Cero did not understand how anyone who heard that laugh would think she wasn’t worth knowing.
They decided to hike inland. Cero felt a sense of urgency now.
Every day they did not return was a day Aiz was murdering more people, either through her bombs or her magic.
Their map gave little indication of where they were, but Cero suggested they make for higher ground, so they could see the shape of the shoreline.
They collected what gear they could from the Sail. Cero tucked the Loha into his pocket, wrapped in oilcloth, and Karinna fashioned a sort of sling so Abzi could ride on her shoulders when she got tired.
Groves of gangly trees rose around them as they set off.
At the sound of chittering, Abzi’s back stiffened and Karinna’s scims were in her hands.
But it was only an unusual furry-looking creature, a cross between a monkey and a cat.
It ignored the humans, instead climbing a tree and picking the fruit from it, shoving one into its mouth before loping away. Karinna began to gather the fruit up.
“At least it’s edible.” She took a small nibble, and then tossed one to Cero. Its flesh was soft and chewy, with a floral flavor redolent of dates. He offered half of his to Abzi, who sniffed it and then looked away in disinterest.
It was hot—unpleasantly so, and dry, but they were able to refill their water at the river. Cero hadn’t caught sight of anything that resembled human or animal habitation, and Abzi, ever watchful, slept, even as her ears perked up at the smallest sound.
By noon, they’d gone well past the jungle and entered the hills Cero had seen from afar. As they climbed, exhausted from the unrelenting heat, the land dropped away before them, the brush darkening into a scanty forest that disappeared to the horizon.
Karinna pointed, her sharp vision once again catching something his hadn’t. At first, all Cero saw was a carpet of trees. But then, among them, he noticed something out of place.
“Those are buildings.” Karinna pulled a spyglass from her bag and handed it to him. Indeed, there was some kind of structure there, though there was no movement.
“We have to get closer,” she said. “But carefully.”
They worked their way down through the scrub.
Stepping lightly, single file, looking ahead and back, weapons at the ready.
By midafternoon, they were both red-faced and sweating.
Cero tried to conjure up some wind, but he couldn’t manage it.
There was no air to be stirred, and his magic was skittish and distant.
As the sun dipped low, they reached the ruins.
They were not large, perhaps a dozen buildings, all clustered around a huge round one that looked as if it were once a watchtower.
They were built of a material that was neither wood nor brick but a type of stone that had no seams. The architecture was unfamiliar to Cero.
Other than the round building, the other structures had crumbled to their foundations.
Here and there, Cero caught glimpses of intricately carved stone and colored glass.
Abzi was awake now, body tense. She hopped down and disappeared almost immediately amid the ruins. Cero and Karinna made an unspoken agreement to stay together, but as they walked, they saw no signs of life.
In some spots, Cero felt lightheaded. Moments later the feeling would pass. He thought, at first, that it was a remnant of his earlier exhaustion, but at one point, Karinna had to sit.
“The heat, maybe,” she said, but Cero didn’t think so. She was hardy and desert-born and in any case, this didn’t feel like heat sickness.
“Let’s find some shade,” he said, and nodded to the high round structure.
The forest had tried to reclaim it, and it was half-hidden by the thick brown vines that smothered it.
When they approached, Cero couldn’t find a door.
He began to pull at the vines, but they were dug into the building, as if one with it.
“How old do you think it is?” Karinna said. “It looks—oh—”
She’d drawn her scim so suddenly that Cero didn’t see the threat at first. Not until a voice spoke from behind him.
“Hail, travelers.”
It was a woman about twice their age with warm brown skin and green eyes. She wore a high-necked blue dress that looked a little like a cleric’s robes.
Cero’s stomach dropped when he saw her. He knew her. Spires—he’d seen her. The apparition in the tunnels below Kegar. They were one and the same.
“Go from here, travelers,” she said. “For the Fount has been cursed, and so too has this land. Woe to those who are left. Woe to those who trespass. Go from here and live. Stay and die.”
She disappeared.
“What the bleeding hells—” Karinna spun, her scim out. “Where did she go? What language was that? What did it mean?”
“I’ve seen that woman before,” Cero said. “In the tunnels below Dafra cloister. She looked identical. And the language she was speaking—that was Kegari.” Dazed with shock, he turned to Karinna. “It means we made it, Karinna. We’ve reached Old Kegar.”