Jalia in the North (Jalia - World of Jalon) (9 page)

The Dead City

For the first time since they left Buran the day dawned bright and blue with not a cloud in sight. It was ice cold, with frost covering the trees. Jalia and Daniel’s clothes waited warm and dry in front of the smoldering fire and the two decided they would keep on moving instead of spending longer in the cave.

Neither felt safe after the previous night’s events and confronting the ghosts in the Waste appeared to be the better option. The horses and donkeys wanted to be gone from the cave and stood quietly so that their packs could be loaded quickly.

It was still unsafe to ride and the companions led their animals up the side of the ridge separating them from the Calda Plain and the Caldorney Waste.

“Do you think that ghost thing last night was some form of magic?” Jalia asked as they began their journey.

“I don’t know what it was, Jalia. Why don’t you ask your ring?”

“It doesn’t talk, Daniel. We don’t have chats about the weather. It grants wishes provided I don’t ask it for too much, too often.”

“You asked it to find you the nearest people when we were in the grasslands. I think these magic objects are alive in some way. How else could they understand what we want of them?”

“It formed an arrow of light showing me the way.” The idea of asking the ring seemed logical to Jalia and she was annoyed she hadn’t thought of it herself. After all, if a magic ring couldn’t recognize magical things, what could? “Magic ring, give me a sign if the white shape we saw last night was magical in nature.” Jalia waited, but nothing happened.

“Now ask it if it wasn’t magical. That should confirm the answer as you should get a sign.” Daniel suggested.

“Oh really?” Jalia said; irritated Daniel was once again a step ahead of her. She spoke sarcastically to the ring, “Magic ring, you lump of cold gold, give me a sign if what we saw was not magic.”

The next second she was jumping wildly about shaking her right hand and cursing, “The cursed ring bit my finger!” she shouted at Daniel, who started to grin though he tried to keep his face straight. “Daniel, you stop laughing right now or you will feel my sword where the sun doesn’t shine!” The ring apparently objected to the word ‘cursed’ because it struck again and Jalia shook her hand. She tried to pull off the ring but it was stuck to her finger as though it had become part of her.

“Stop being silly and be nice to the ring,” Daniel suggested once he had stepped a few feet beyond Jalia’s sword range.

“I suppose you talk to your dagger all the time,” Jalia said as she jumped from one foot to the other in agony, “Do you rub it every night until it glows?”

Daniel looked a bit embarrassed. “I do tell it how grateful I am it saved our lives in Ranwin if you must know. I don’t know if magic objects can die, but if they can, I think it risked itself for us that day.” Daniel glanced at Jalia, who suddenly looked as if she might cry. “I guess you must have woken up on the wrong part of the month this morning. You always overreact when it’s that time.”

Daniel’s comment brought Jalia to a halt and she stood looking at him with her mouth open. Daniel was beginning to understand her on a level that was far too intimate for comfort. Even her father never made that connection.

“Anyway, did you notice the message the ghost gave us was more than a little strange?” Daniel asked as they started to walk up the trail.

“You mean strange because he threatened our lives? That happens everywhere we go.”

“The voice said that at least one of us would die and it got me thinking. I take it you asked about other expeditions to this place?”

Jalia rolled her eyes, “Of course I did. There were many stories of ghosts attacking people who tried to search for treasure at Caldorney. Though none of the people were still in Buran, I got several stories from people who claimed to have spoken to a survivor of an expedition.”

“Exactly. Someone has to survive to tell the story.”

Jalia thought it through, “Well one of us should make it out alive then, and I’ve always been luckier than you, so it should be me. That’s comforting.” She looked over at Daniel, “They must want to deter people from coming here a lot, to go to so much trouble.”

“We have to be careful. The ring and the dagger are our only advantages over these creatures; they obviously have some kind of power even though it doesn’t appear to be magical in nature.”

“We also have a cask of exploding powder,” Jalia reminded him. “Even magical beings will find it hard to put themselves back together once they’ve been blown to pieces.”

They reached the top of the ridge and the sight that greeted them took their breath away.

In the clear light of a cloudless winter’s day, they could see the whole of the Calda plain below them, which stretched out for at least twenty miles or more. The bright blue band of the River Calda wound its way across the plain. A dense forest covered most of the plain, except for a section five miles across on both sides of the river. There they saw what remained of what must once have been the most magnificent city in the world.

The city was cut into sections, first into squares which had once had wide tree lined avenues running between them. These had been least affected by the magic that destroyed the city, in that some carbonized tree trunks remained. While the roads had sagged in the attack they still looked like roads.

Canals fanned out from the river like the leaves of a palm. Some were dry where melted stonework blocked them, but many still held water. A network of white stone bridges had allowed the roads to cross them. Most of the bridges had survived in a distorted shape, melted by unbelievable heat.

A thousand years of rains had washed any signs of burning away and the stonework looked freshly cleaned. There had been tall buildings in city squares that now looked like cakes that failed to rise in an oven. What remained was still tall enough to rise at least three or more stories above the ground.

Four great bridges crossed the River Calda. All but one was broken in the middle, their stone buttresses having flowed like wax before solidifying and cracking when they touched the river. One bridge, which was by far the largest and must have been two hundred yards across, still stood intact though sagging.

They could see that the forests in the plain had once been fields, because the roads dividing them remained. The city must have been twenty five square miles in extent and the farms that supplied it covered hundreds of miles. It was awe inspiring to look upon the city in its death.

“How many people must have died here?” Jalia asked in a whisper.

“Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, men, women, children, babies all consumed in flame. All of them died because a single Fairie was killed here.”

“Would it have been reasonable if it had been several thousand Fairie? Do numbers make a difference?” Jalia asked as a tear ran down her cheek.

“When you and I kill, we see the faces of those who die and we know the choice we take. When you rain fire down on a city, it is impersonal. That’s another thing kings are supposed to do, be wise enough not to commit such crimes. What fear the Fairie must have of personal death to do such a thing. You should not live your life in fear.”

“It’s no wonder the Magician Kings made war against the Fairie after they saw this.” Jalia said with sadness, “But they didn’t destroy the Fairie even though they died themselves.”

Daniel began to walk down the ridge towards the city. “We should leave the animals at the city’s edge and go on foot.”

“I’ll carry the cask of exploding powder,” Jalia volunteered as she followed after him.

They reached the city in the late afternoon. They took off the gear from the horses and donkeys so they could roam free while the two were in the city. They intended to come back, but they owed it to their animals that if they didn’t, they could survive.

Logically, they should have camped on the outskirts and waited for morning, but both decided independently they would go into the city that evening. Jalia picked up the cask of powder and looked at Daniel.

“Do we go for the ghosts or the treasure first?”

“The treasure isn’t going anywhere, we should deal with the ghosts first.”

“Magic ring, show us the way to where the ghosts live.”

An arrow of light appeared and pointed towards the center of the city. They walked down the fused stone avenue feeling insignificant against the width of the road and the massive lumps of twisted stone buildings on either side.

“Where the ghosts live?” Daniel repeated to Jalia, “You’re lucky the ring didn’t bite you for a phrase that bad. Ghosts don’t live.”

“When you teach that dagger of yours to point like a dog you can criticize,” Jalia said haughtily, “Until then, you can keep your opinions to yourself and follow the guide that
my
magic ring is providing.”

The two trudged on in silence while the sky turned a magnificent red as the sun started to set.

The sunlight had faded and the first stars showed when the arrow turned off the avenue and pointed at a building. The building had sagged to the point where there were no longer doors or windows to enter. The best that could be done was to climb it.

Jalia found she was walking through the building it as though it wasn’t there. To Daniel it looked as though she was buried knee deep in rubble but to Jalia there was no sensation of anything. Daniel followed her into the side of the building.

“I don’t like walking where I can’t see,” Jalia complained, “My next step could be into a hole.”

“Try sticking your head underneath the stones.”

Jalia dropped to her knees, which left only the top of her head sticking out of a lump of melted granite. “Hey Daniel, there are some steps ahead, I’ll lead you.”

Jalia right arm appeared out of the stonework and she dragged Daniel after her. The rubble became deeper and Daniel was able to duck down to see what Jalia saw.

Inside or underneath the rubble, whichever was the appropriate description, they found they were in a well-lit room. The surface of the rubble reflected light back and looked just like the material of their tent. They walked on a grey tiled floor and a little way in front of them a wide stone staircase spiraled into the ground. The light came from bars standing vertical from the floor, which glowed with a white sterile light.

A man appeared from nowhere. A white robe covered all of his body except for his head. He didn’t look real, he looked like a statue, the muscles in his face were still and when he spoke his mouth opened but his lips didn’t move.

“You have come here and one of you will be put to death. The other will leave with memories of being attacked by ghosts.” His voice sounded flat.

“What gives you the right to kill us?” Daniel asked as Jalia drew her sword.

“Your weapons are useless. We will follow due process of law. The jury is being assembled as I speak, but the verdict is already known. Only which of you is to live and which of you is to die has yet to be decided.”

“We choose not to accept your jury’s jurisdiction,” Daniel said as he issued a command to his dagger. It left his hand and sliced the man’s head from his shoulders before returning to Daniel’s hand.

The man’s body did not fall, even as his head dropped and bounced on the floor. There was no blood and the head bounced until it righted itself. The man’s mouth opened as though nothing had happened and he spoke again.

“There is no escape. The needs of the many outweigh those of the few and you were given warning. The jury room…” Before the man could finish his sentence, his head exploded.

“Thank you magic ring for following my instructions so precisely,” Jalia said calmly. “I think we should get out of here, right now.”

The companions ran back the way they had come. Jalia was in front and hit her head on a solid stone roof that moments before had been an illusion. Daniel ran to her side and knelt beside her. She was unconscious with a nasty cut on her head. Behind them, he saw three men, identical to the first, walking toward them.

Captured

Jalia woke with a splitting headache. She opened her eyes and saw Daniel’s anxious face looking down on her. For a long second she could not remember what happened to her and then she came fully awake. She scrambled to her feet, pulling her sword from her back and looked around, ready to fight. She found that she and Daniel were in a small room with grey stone walls. A doorway without any sign that it had ever possessed a door was the only way out. A grey corridor led out of her sight.

“What happened?”

“You banged your head on the roof, which somehow stopped being an illusion. Three of those strange men, exactly like the one you killed, surrounded us. I felt that the best thing to do to surrender as I couldn’t carry you and fight them at the same time.” Daniel sighed and looked around.

“They told me to bring you and your things with me.” Daniel nodded towards the cask of exploding powder that lay in a corner of the room. “I put your sword back in its scabbard and brought you here. They said we should walk to the jury room when you woke up.”

“This is really annoying. They have such contempt for us they don’t even bother to disarm us.”

“It didn’t seem something I should take up with them,” Daniel said dryly.

“But it’s insulting, Daniel.” Jalia’s eyes alighted on the cask and she stepped over to it. “Perhaps we can start the trial with a bang.” Jalia carefully pried the wooden stopper from its wax seal and took a small leather bag from her tunic. She opened the bag, took out a length of cord, and cut off six inches with her knife. She pushed the cord into the hole the stopper had been in and then kneaded the beeswax seal around the cord till it was secured in place.

“What’s that for?” Daniel asked, having a shrewd idea even as he spoke.

“This is something the Alchemists Guild doesn’t know about. I invented it a few years ago. The cord has been soaked in a solution made from the exploding powder and then dried. When it’s lit it will burn very quickly and when it reaches the powder the cask will explode.”

“I take it you have a plan?”

“Of course I have a plan. We will walk to their jury room, since they choose not to guard us. I will light the cord with your tinder box and roll the cask across the floor towards them and then we shall run back here as if our lives depend on it.” Jalia grinned and then grimaced as the movement had made her head hurt.

“I suspect our lives
will
depend on it,” Daniel said, grinning back at her.

The corridor was cut from solid stone like the room and lit by strange glowing rods fastened to the ceiling. It curved before running straight for two hundred yards or more. At its end, it opened out into another room, which Daniel and Jalia decided must be the jury room. They stopped at its entrance.

“How did we get down here? Did you walk through this room?”

“There was another corridor that joined this one about halfway along. It seems to have disappeared.” Daniel looked at the smooth stone and wondered how the corridor had been hidden.

“We can find it later.”

Daniel gave her his tinder box as they stood against the wall and inched towards the entrance. Daniel looked in quickly and saw a room about twenty feet square with a raised platform along its left hand side. Three of the strange men sat behind a table on the platform waiting silently.

Jalia stepped past Daniel with the cask in her hands. The cord was burning brightly and emitting sparks. She rolled the cask towards the platform, and they turned and ran. Halfway down the corridor, they were flung off their feet by the blast of the exploding cask.