Industry & Intrigue (50 page)

“
I’ll admit it’s odd for an
agorid to be commanding bandits, but based on
her accent, I don’t think she
grew up on the steppes. She sounded like she’s from Enz. I wouldn’t
worry about her anyway. It’s the big, quiet one who creeps me
out.”

Cassandra
knew the guard he was talking
about and agreed with him. The tigress agorid, Atira, was
accompanied by a huge hulking man in black armor. He wore a death’s
head mask and never said a word. He followed the tigress around
everywhere like a bodyguard. She didn’t know why, but looking at
that mask sent a shiver down her spine.

“
If they were going to kill us,
they would have by now,” said Reese. “Otherwise they wouldn’t waste
time keeping us in here and feeding us.”

Cassandra
wasn’
t as
confident about that as he was. “They were happy enough to kill our
driver.”

“
Only
so they could take us by surprise.”
Reese sounded nonchalant, considering their situation. He must be
still be preoccupied by whatever had been distracting him
lately.

“
And what if they’re keeping us
alive for something
else?” she asked. “Something they need us for.”

“
What in the hells do
they
need
from a bunch of academics and students?”

She didn’t have an answer to
that.
Before
she could ponder on it further, Xerin headed back to her students
and asked them to gather around.

“
Alright, listen up,” said
Xerin. “Professor MacShim tells me they have been here for three
days. They are looking for something. He has been promised by their
leader once they have what they want, they will leave without
harming us. So sit tight, do as they ask and keep your heads
down.”

“
What about the attacks?”
asked Cassandra.
She recalled her conversation with the driver and wanted to know if
they were in danger from something other than their captors. Xerin
blinked, but Cassandra couldn’t tell if the drakon was annoyed or
surprised at her question.

“
What have you heard?” asked the
drakon.

“
The carriage
driver mentioned
that people have been going missing over the last few months. One
of the guards turned up dead.” That elicited a few gasps and
whispers from the other students. Cassandra was regretting bringing
it up, but she wanted to know for sure.

“
It is true there were deaths
earlier in the year,” admitted Xerin. “But Professor MacShim
assured me it was nothing more than a mountain lion. The guards
shot it a few days before the intruders took the site.”

The students murmured in
satisfaction and c
almed down. Cassandra sat back against the wall.

Then Reese spoke up,
“Does Professor
MacShim know what they want?”

The drakon shook her
head
. “I am
afraid not. They have not told him much. They claimed to be a lost
hunting party and asked for food and shelter. Once they were
inside, they ambushed the guards and locked everyone up. The agorid
questioned Professor MacShim briefly, but only about the south-west
quadrant of the site.”

South-west
quadrant
,
that’s the same area Reese mentioned
thought Cassandra. It could be a
coincidence, but it was also a plausible explanation for the
presence of the armed men. “Professor?”

“
Yes
Cassandra?”

“
How much wo
uld a colossi fossil be
worth?”

Reese turned his head to her.
She could see the realization spreading on his face. He was
dra
wing the
same conclusion.

“
It i
s difficult to say,” replied Xerin.
“There have been so few found. What little has been uncovered at
this site, is still yet to be confirmed as colossi or not. If they
had an eager buyer, then it could be worth a lot. You believe that
is why they are here?”

Reese gave a small shake of his
head. He didn’t want her saying anything
about his book. She bit her lip. “I
don’t know. It was just an idea. I mean they have to be after
something valuable right?”

Xerin nodded
. “It is possible that is what
they could be after. I have always believed that there are colossi
fossils here. But I am not an excavator, I have not spent enough
time here to find hard evidence. I wonder where they would get the
idea they could find colossi remains here?”

Xerin walked back over to
MacShim and
started conversing, more excitedly this time.

Reese sat next to her again. “Thanks,” he
said.

“
For what?” she
asked.

“
Not mentioning
my father’s book.
It’s not that I’m trying to hide it or anything. But I think you
could be right. If they’re not after treasure then the only thing
of value here is the colossi. They could be looking for the same
object my father was after. If they are, then the less of us that
know about it the better off we’ll be.”

“
What do you mean?” she
asked.

“
Whoever these people are,
they’re soldiers and
arms men. I doubt they know the first thing about
excavation. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, soon
enough they’ll want us to do it for them.” He gestured at the rest
of the people in the room. “They can’t help if they don’t know
anything.”

He was right
. She didn’t want to think
about what their captors would do to get answers if they thought
she knew something.

***

Atira
sat at what had been the desk of the
chief excavator, Professor MacShim. The desk was located in the
largest of the tents on the site. It was made from oak and was so
long that she couldn’t reach the ends of it if she extended her
arms. It had been covered in a clutter of documents, scrolls and
books when she arrived. She had cleared it off and placed a
detailed map of the site and the picture her father had given her
on it.

It was not easy
work, her father’s
men had to be told what to do every step of the way. She hadn’t
even bothered using Falco for the digging operation, he would only
get in the way. She set him to guard the building where she was
keeping the prisoners.

The
two books she was using dated back to
the site’s initial discovery. A Chasan pilgrimage had discovered
numerous dragon fossils which quickly drew in a torrent of
excavators. When the novelty wore off, the imperial government had
decided to give custody of the site to the University of
Alkos.

Both books made mention of the
initial surveying of the site, and contained clues to the object
he
r father
needed. The problem was that so much had changed since then. The
site had been dug up and had tunnels collapsed numerous
times.

She was certain the object was still in
the same place. It gave off a certain high-pitched frequency and
she had found one mention in the books of worker’s complaining of
odd headaches. Wherever they had been working, the object was
underneath, but the book was frustratingly lacking in exact
details.

“
Fuck
,” she said in frustration and stood
up. She crossed the room and took a long sip of water. This was
going to take far too long. Then it occurred to her; she could use
the staff and students she had locked up. They weren’t doing
anything else useful and they knew the site and the history far
better than she did.

She called in one of the men. He came
into the tent. “Yes, Atira?” he asked.

“
Have Falco bring the chief
excavator and the university teacher out he
re. I need them for
something.”

“
As you command.” Her father’s
men obeyed her without question. All of them were faithful to him
and the cause of the Endless.

***

Cassandra had
drifted off to
sleep, when she was awoken by the sound of the doors. Her eyes
snapped open and she saw the death-mask brute stride into the room.
Several students screamed and backed away as he walked forward. Now
that he was closer, Cassandra could hear a clicking, mechanical
sound emanating from him.

Was he carrying a pocket watch?
She wondered why in the hells he
would even bother. With those meaty hands
of his, he would break a watch as soon as he pulled it
out.

Another
of the men came in behind
him.

He pointed at Professor
MacShim
.
“That one,” then he turned and pointed at Xerin. “And the drakon
too.”

“
Lady Ati
ra has requested your
presence,” the man said to them, “Falco here will escort you to her
tent.”

The brute leaned forward and
made a loud grunting noise, then he gestured with his enormous,
misshapen right arm.
Both academics, the human and the drakon, looked
at each other and walked out of the room. The hulk, who the guard
had referred to as Falco, slammed the door shut.

“
By the
Creator
,”
whispered Cassandra. Reese had also been woken by the sounds and
watched them exit.

He nodded
in agreement. “That can’t be
good.”

Chapter
49

The two experts, one in
archeology the other in zoology, stood in front of
Atira
. She
could tell they were nervous, their scent gave them away. Agorids
had finer senses than other bipeds and tigers had the best sense of
smell. Atira could detect sweat dripping off the human and palpable
fear emanating from both of them.

She looked at them coldly and
said
, “The
two of you are here because I need your help. My men are good
warriors but they don’t know a thing about this site or how to find
what I’m after. Professor MacShim, you lead the staff here, so you
know this site intimately. Professor Xerin, you are renowned
zoologist and a leading proponent of the colossi
theory.”

She stood up, her voice increasing in
volume. “I want to make this clear. You will both help me find what
I’m looking for or I will have Falco here,” she gestured behind
them, “kill one of your staff and one of your students for every
hour that you refuse. Understood?”

They both nodded.

“
Excellent. The object I seek is
twelve and a half million years old. It comes from the Pardrax
Empire era. I know it lies within the south-west quadrant.
Professor MacShim, any idea on where we should start?”

The man cleared his
throat
. “If
I may?” he asked and gestured at the map.

She nodded and let him step
forward.

“
If it’s a Pardrax object then
you should start at this tunnel. It’s the deepest one in the
quadrant and leads to most of the larger and oldest fossils that
we’ve found.”

“
Thank you
,” she replied. “Professor
Xerin, what I seek is-“

“
The Sphere
of Katarus,” the drakon
finished the sentence for her.

The human had a confused look
on his face, he had clearly never heard of
it, but the drakon knew what she was
after. She shouldn’t have been surprised, Xerin was an expert in
colossi after all.

“
Y
our reputation is well-earned professor,”
she said.

“
And you a
re a fool if you think the
sphere is truly here,” replied Xerin. “It is nothing more than a
myth, a fairy tale. Like Avathrax the Tyrant or the Lost Cities of
Cartral. You could spend decades digging up this entire site. You
will never find it, it does not exist.”

Atira ignored the
condescending
remarks. Xerin didn’t have the same information as her. The drakon
hadn’t heard the voice of the Endless speak through the lips of her
father. Of course she didn’t believe in the sphere.

“
I don’t
care what you believe or not.
What I do want to know is if you had to guess where such an object
was, where would you look?” The drakon looked like she wanted to
insult her again but her common sense must have
prevailed.

“
Farrin is
correct
,”
answered Xerin. “Best to start at the most ancient dragon fossils.
You will have to dig deeper though. The only colossi fossil found
at this site was at a greater depth than the current
tunnel.”

Atira nodded
. “I want you two to come.
Let’s see if those brilliant minds of yours will have insights when
we get down there.”

“
We’re going down at this
hour?” asked Farrin with concern.

Atira narrowed her eyes at him.
She didn’t appreciate
him questioning her command. “The quicker I get
what I’m looking for, the quicker I leave in peace.”

Falco came up behind the
man
and
placed his mailed right hand on Farrin’s shoulder. The man turned
in fright and looked up. “Uh…alright. Yes…anything you
want.”