Chapter 15
Naomi
My eyes felt gritty and sandy when I blinked them open after a few hours of sleep.
Sunrise streaked across the horizon, chasing away the velvet darkness with streaks of steel gray and dark purple that lightened into the first hints of the violet sun.
The endless heather-like shrubbery of the tundra had made place for a huge, mirror-smooth lake that spread out across the land as far as my eyes could see.
The water wasn’t frozen, which made me think it was salt water, but it was smooth as glass, with no waves disrupting the surface.
The biggest surprise was the building that rose up along the shore.
It was built from white stone with the faintest hints of pink veining along the surface.
It seemed to face the shoreline of the giant lake, but there was barren land between it and the water.
At least several stories tall, it seemed to have withstood the test of time, it wasn’t even overgrown with plants but maybe that was simply because it was so cold around here that nothing much wanted to grow.
“Chirp kee kee?” Kiwi said from where he was curled up on my chest, a warm spot partially tucked beneath the furs I’d been bundled up in. Wiggling my hand free, I scratched him between his little round ears with a smile.
“We’ve arrived?” I asked, raising my eyes to look at Krashe.
He was still cradling me in his arms, standing in place a short distance from the lake and the imposing building.
His expression was dark and shuttered as he stared at the white facade of stone, eyes darting from one darkened window gap to the next.
He didn’t look happy to be here, he looked worried.
He just grunted in response, a glare settling over his features when we started moving again.
Well, good morning to you too, buddy. I huffed, no I shouldn’t start to get snippy back at him, he walked all freaking night; or rather slithered, I supposed.
He had to be bone-weary, not that it showed, he just looked like his grumpy self.
That was just his face, he had that resting angry look thing going on, whatever the male version of resting bitch face was.
I felt a first wash of apprehension myself when we reached something that was clearly the front entrance of the building.
There were only shadows and darkness inside, I could not see a thing.
How old was this building exactly? What if it wasn’t stable any longer and could collapse on our heads at any moment?
Krashe ducked through the large open doorway before I could open my mouth to say anything.
I was watching his face as we went from light to darkness and for the first time I noticed his eyes doing something freaky.
Whitish, transparent eyelids slid sideways over his eyes, sliding across them from the direction of his nose toward his temples.
What the fuck were those? That looked a bit like that white stuff cats had in the corners of their eyes, only that couldn’t slide across all the way…
It distracted me enough that I was thoroughly startled when Kiwi rose up on his little paws and sneezed. Smoke plumed from his tiny snout, followed by several tiny sparks. Of course, the tiny dragon could even breathe fire. What else should I be expecting around here?
“In here, Kiwi,” Krashe murmured, his tail curling around us, from it dangling a small oil lantern.
Kiwi twisted his little neck to stare up at the Naga as if he’d grown a second head but then he did another of those sneezes and proved just how clever he was, or maybe it was just a fortuitous coincidence.
The sparks fluttered down onto the oil-drenched wick and caught fire, a warm red glow spreading to light up the interior of the building we were standing in.
I stared, shocked at how huge the space was we found ourselves in. It was two stories high, our lantern light not reaching all the way. But as we stood there, the Serant sun started to angle through the huge windows that lined the walls, casting light on what was inside.
Rows upon rows of roundish beds lined the large room.
They were spread around a central fountain, and pushed up against some kind of counter not far from the door.
My mind was trying to make sense of it, this looked like one giant hospital room, just bed after bed stacked together.
But the way the large hall was laid out…
that looked to me like a fancy mall or reception area.
There were several large sets of stairs leading up into the building and doors and hallways leading away from this large room. When Krashe started winding his way around the beds to one such set of stairs, my breath faltered when I got a look at what was on some of those beds.
The bones of long-dead Naga, endless rows of vertebrae, pelvis bones, arms, and ribs.
The skulls were disconcertingly similar to those of humans, their brow ridges the only difference that gave them away to my untrained eyes.
This was a triage room, improvised to accommodate a huge flood of injured and wounded.
That thought only solidified when Krashe passed what had to have been some kind of receptionist counter.
The back wall there flickered to life, startling me but not my Naga mate.
An image illuminated much like a giant, interactive map, starting with a picture of what this room must have looked like before.
Verdant plants in every corner, a fountain, and comfy benches to sit on.
Light and airy. There was clearly some kind of drink corner and possibly an eatery visible in the image.
I saw only rooms with more beds and more bones when I looked into those places now.
When the image shifted to a map, followed by a video of a pale white Naga talking without sound, gesturing at diagrams that looked medical to me… I knew what this was.
“It’s a fancy hospital or resort,” I said, “But this looks like they had to set up for war… Krashe, is that what happened? Did your planet get ravaged by war?” I gazed again at the nearest bed and the bones that lay there, they had weathered to a deep brown, like nutmeg.
They reminded me of the dinosaur bones I’d seen in a museum as a kid.
He had reached the nearest set of stairs but paused to look down at me with another deep frown.
“Our lore only tells us of the dangers of technology and the revenants that are part of that. Of our duty to keep them from crossing the Orshala mountain. They tell us of the dangers from the sky-ships and the heavens beyond. But I suspect you are right, this looks like a wartime healing room, and war must have been what destroyed us. War with the machines.”
I just had to think back on our encounter with that robotic centipede to guess that he was right.
War with machines made Krashe’s fear of technology, and that of his Clan, seem much more reasonable.
I would be pretty worried about anything advanced too if my next-door neighbors were murder machines.
“I really want you to teach me how to read your language Krashe, I want to know more about this!” I was feeling a little excited, and hungry.
At home I’d had a lot of time on my hands and reading had been my refuge, my way to step out the door and experience things that I couldn’t otherwise.
History had been one of my favorite subjects, but I’d had eclectic tastes.
When my stomach grumbled, Krashe started to hurry up the stairs.
“There are fewer bones upstairs, we’ll eat, and then we will find what we need and leave.
” He stopped at the upstairs landing and then put me down on a stone bench that still remained.
It was freezing cold inside this building, just like it was outside on the tundra, but at least there was no cutting wind in here so I dared to shrug out of the furs a little so I could have my hands free.
“If I had my wheelchair, I would love to explore this place with you. There must still be datapads lying around like those from your chest. Imagine what we could discover if we read them.” Krashe just grunted, not infected by my enthusiasm, and fished out a ration cake of fat, dried meat, and dried nuts and fruits.
I didn’t like them much, but they were hearty and filling so I hurriedly bit into mine.
He cocked his head to the side, coiling his body in a pile next to mine in what was sort of a sitting pose on his own tail.
“We should get what we came for and then leave as soon as possible, it is not safe.” The scales on his back rattled together, a display I’d learned meant he was uneasy.
That wasn’t a hard guess, he kept looking over his shoulder.
“Wouldn’t we be more safe in here? I doubt any of those revenants would come inside, would they?
” My question startled Krashe, he straightened his back and then peered over the railing down into the large room filled with beds.
His gaze focused on one of the huge windows in the wall, gazing out over the lake.
“I suppose. I remember sleeping here with my parents as a youngling. That is how I knew this place existed.” A soft grin suddenly spread over his face, curling his mouth.
“My dad would chase after my mom all over, as she tried to unravel this place’s secrets.
” That was clearly a happy memory, because his gaze softened and turned inward.
When we finished our food, the last crumbs of my ration cake ending up in Kiwi’s greedy belly, Krashe wasn’t nearly as uneasy as before.
He nodded when he shrugged back into his backpack.
“Fine, we will rest here for the night, and then depart.” He leaned in, brushed some of my hair out of my face, and then curled his fingers around the back of my neck.
“But you never leave my side, understood?”