The gigantic, cracked stone heads still lined the entrance of Greenglimmer, vacant eyes staring across the river as magic green flames danced high above their hollow crowns, illuminating the darkness-shrouded river. When they first sailed up the Dryanflow, Kenosera had eagerly convinced Vantra to step on deck and see the wondrous sight—and that night had revealed more than the mini-Joyful expected about the rainforest and its denizens.
Restless, unwilling to wake Kenosera and Yut-ta, and tired of listening to Fyrij’s heavy snores, she escaped to the deck. No one else but the crew was there, and they let her quietly examine the statues, the river, and the scattered boats moving with and against the current, their lights reflecting yellow off the waves.
She studied the torch-lined platforms upon which the giant sculptures rested, then craned her neck up to watch the wisps of flame course above the treetops; myth said Kjiven built them, and she wondered, now that he had caused so much destruction, if Greenglimmer dwellers would destroy them or keep them as an interesting tourist stop.
If they even knew what happened. She bet the remaining Gubs officials buried the information. Admitting an elfine terror from long, long ago reappeared and wreaked havoc across Greenglimmer, and the leadership under Hrivasine and Anmidorakj knew, ignored, and even joined in, would make the remaining council members suspect. Who would think the dregs capable of caring for future problems?
She heard footsteps just before Katta leaned against the railing next to her, Kjaelle and Vesh at his side; neither syimlin could go anywhere without an escort. While both grumbled at the lack of space, their guards did not care, and the piercing, combined glare of Kjaelle and Joila destroyed most of their complaints mid-voice.
The syimlin looked up at the sentries, then peered into the shadowy forest beyond. “I hadn’t realized, part of the darkness I sensed that night was the Bendebares,” he said, his voice just loud enough she heard him over the lapping water. “The green, the breath of life, rests there now.”
“It feels strange, leaving, like there’s more to do and I’m running away,” Vantra admitted.
He chuckled. “You’ve done plenty. Those who remain behind will see things right—Navosh, especially.”
“He’s taken the entire burden on himself.”
“I believe the Labyrinth has a bit more to say than you realize.” He crossed his arms on the top rail and settled his chin on the backs of his hands. “Speaking with Navosh, I know he respects its voice. Unfortunately, it focuses on the present and the distant future; the past is set, so why bother with it? It’s so vocal about the here-and-now, sometimes that’s all he hears.”
“Kjiven proved the past can bite you when you least expect it.”
Kjaelle and Vesh laughed while Katta sighed. “Too true,” the syimlin said. “Qira and I have experienced that far more than we ever imagined. Before I became Darkness, I thought such religious tales belonged in temples, because they taught the morality of the moment and ignored the real-life problems that arose from those events. Living through them changed that perspective.” He cupped his hands, and a swirl of Darkness formed across his palms. “A quiet night,” he murmured. “Soft and serene, the creatures that stalk and scamper among the trees are as normal as can be.”
“I expected something to happen,” Vantra admitted.
Vesh laughed. “Me, too. It seems wrong, to leave in a discreet fashion when our arrival was blazing. What act ends in such a dull way?”
“Something is happening,” Kjaelle pointed out drily, bapping him in the chest with the back of her hand. Vantra frowned at the elfine, then searched the landscape; a boat, speedier than the surrounding vessels, wove between hulls.
“I expected something dark and dangerous, not a rivcon,” the other Darkness acolyte told her.
A rivcon? Was River Controller Embrez on that boat? What did he want with them?
A glow behind them alerted her, and she turned as Jare wafted to her other side. “Dough will pull over at the last head,” he said. “It’s as good a spot as any.”
“What’s going on?” Vantra asked as dread filtered through her. Their prior encounters with Embrez had not gone well, and she hated to think what he wanted, that he sped after them despite their leaving Selaserat two days previous.
“Embrez asked that we meet,” Katta said. “Why he didn’t initiate this before we left port is suspicious, but I want to hear what he so desperately wishes to say that he chased us down the river rather than send a courier.”
“Maybe he had to build up his courage to face you again.” The thought of speaking with Veer Tul, Salan growling at his side, must sit ill with him.
Jare chuckled, and the glint in both Kjaelle and Vesh’s eyes proved they enjoyed the thought. The three were not a humongous vulf, but they would intimidate the hapless rivcon and his cowardly guards.
Where was Salan, anyway? She glanced behind, but only Dough made his way to them, an annoyed frown marring his face.
“Embrez doesn’t make snap decisions,” the pirate said, scuffing his hands as he joined them. “He must have planned to meet you at the border of Greenglimmer and Serene. After what’s happened, and knowing the Serene regional government doesn’t like dealing with Selaserat anything, that’s too odd.”
“Agreed.” Katta turned to study the eastern shore. “We’ll meet on the platform; I’d rather not have them aboard. If things go poorly, leave. We’ll catch up.”
Dough squinted at them, then removed his tri-corner hat and ran his hands over his dark brown, wavy hair. “That’s not a good plan, either.”
“No, but it’ll do.” The syimlin patted the pirate on the arm. “Embrez has yet to encounter my displeasure. If he pushes, I’ll send him and his guard into nightmares that will plague them, awake or asleep. But it won’t come to that, because I don’t think he initiated this. As you say, it’s much outside his normal behavior.”
Dough raised a skeptical eyebrow and resettled his hat. “Selaserat has a dearth of leaders. The sorry lot left at the Gubs aren’t up to managing the port, leaving a wide-open door for boot-kisser Embrez. Who’s around, to force him to do things he doesn’t want to?”
“I don’t think it’s the Gubs we have to worry about.” Vantra glanced at the speedy boat gaining on them then looked up at Darkness, pushing the words out despite her mind screaming at her to remain quiet, on board, and safe. “I would like to join you.”
Kjaelle nodded. “From me to you, I believe this has something to do with the Redemption and our enemy, so you should come with us.”
The boat roared past, shadows moving on deck. Katta followed them, then nodded. “As long as you agree that if trouble arises, you immediately return to the ship.”
“I’ll get her out if something happens,” Jare said.
“Good. Vantra, wait with me and Jare while Kjaelle and Vesh greet the rivcon. Then we’ll hear what he has to say.”
The Loose Ducky moored to the platform just after the other boat. Kjaelle and Vesh floated down and patiently waited as the rivcon’s crew secured the ropes and the ramp deployed. Jare winked at Vantra; did she look as nervous as she felt?
Two beings walked down the ramp, Embrez and guards behind them.
“That’s Whizan Chisterdelle,” Jare murmured, pointing at the elfine in a shimmery blue dress, a decorative, transparent fabric draped over her elbows and around her back—quite the outfit for so strange a meeting. “And Embrez has flattened his hair, so he’s not happy about being here. I don’t know who the other woman is.”
Embrez’s balmy blue braids, instead of standing proud, hugged his scalp, and he stiffly marched down the ramp, his large, tufted ears flat against his head, his long, tapered muzzle wrinkled in a frown, his lips pulled back just enough for a peek of white fang. As Vantra had mostly interacted with his unhappy side, she recognized it immediately.
She also recognized the true reason for his displeasure.
“The chavosine is Embrez’s sister,” she said, motioning to the woman carrying a plain wooden box. She wore a simple sky-blue robe over a loose dark shirt and wide-legged pant, her dark hair held back in a neat braid, looking more like a researcher than the daughter of a wealthy Selaserat family. “We saved her during the first attack. She has some magic ability; she told Qira she used scree-aller and tabulate to find the darkness underlying the assault.”
“Ah, yes. Qira mentioned something of it,” Katta said. “The darkness she sensed was subtle, so I think she downplays her abilities. We shall see, what she has to say.”
However Embrez felt about meeting with a syimlin took a distant backseat to the beaming presence of Chisterdelle and his sister. They spoke to Kjaelle and Vesh, and after a moment Katta chuckled.
“Alright, let’s go,” he said. Swirls of greyish purple Darkness engulfed them.
“How’s Qira?” Chisterdelle immediately asked as the stray wisps of magic pulled away from them. She sounded concerned, which surprised Vantra. The elfine did not have patience for niceties.
“Well,” Katta said. “And grumpy.”
She raised her index finger and wagged it. “Some of us are old enough to remember his first visit,” she said. “It was a pleasure, to watch him put Kjiven in his place. And some of us are old enough to remember the Beast. That’s why I wanted to catch you before you made it too far up the river.” She motioned to the woman at her side, who regarded them with wide eyes. “This is Adine, Rivcon Embrez’s sister. She’s been investigating the library materials’ disappearance.”
Adine bowed, her claw-like nails tightening on the box. “I’ve been trying to track the items the enemy stole,” she said. “I spoke with Whizan Chisterdelle, and she suggested I tell you what I discovered. We hadn’t realized you had left, so . . .” She cleared her throat, glanced back at her petulant brother, then held up her burden. “There was residue left behind, and I collected it to study.
“The rivcon’s office has ryiam sticks and wipes that I borrowed, and, well.” Her nose twitched, then she rushed on. “While it’s frowned upon, some modern magic technology has made its way from Talis to the Evenacht. My alma mater taught us how to use some of these technologies. I focused on forensics, so I know how to prepare the residue, run it through the valence cores and spidium machine, and read the results.”
Katta half-smiled. “I gifted an entire ryiam lab to the Shades, but I can’t say I’ve studied how it’s all intertwined. I believe spidium machines are reworked spin cycles, the changes based on discoveries researchers made while studying the Badeçasyon interstellar ships.”
“They are. They’re far better at detecting residue than previous machines, but they have trouble identifying what exactly that residue is. They’re a work in progress.” She set the box down and opened the lid. “The sticks and wipes had trouble removing the ryiam, so I took a shelving unit apart and ran the individual segments through both the spin cycle and the spidium machines. The spin cycle detected nothing, but the spidium did and scraped what it could off the surfaces.” She withdrew a stoppered tube with a purple liquid inside from a square partition and straightened. “This is the residue.”
Katta accepted the vial; Vantra glanced at the other three ghosts, concerned. They did not look suspicious, but curious. Apparently they trusted that the stuff wouldn’t explode and send them all to the Void.
He held it at eye level and studied the contents. “I’m shocked it detected this. The signature is faint.”
She nodded. “So am I.” She ruffled her braid, realized she pulled strands from it, and dropped her hand, embarrassed. “I’m surprised I can sense it.”
“It’s subtle, a wisp of a Touch,” Chisterdelle said, nodding. “Half the mapmakers couldn’t detect it, and they’re the strongest whizen in Selaserat.”
Kjaelle raised a finger to the vial, then glanced at Katta. “The library’s room felt sour, off, and I get the same impression from this vial. Lorgan thought the spell was a warped version of the waterdome evacuation enchantment the nymphs use.”
“That would make sense,” Adine said slowly, smoothing her dark grey fur down her jaw to her neck. “The valence cores had a terrible time identifying anything the spidium machine detected—the residue was too old, I think, so deterioration was an issue—but they picked up uthine from the bottom shelf. Have you heard of it?”
They all shook their heads.
“I hadn’t either. It took a while to find, too, because it wasn’t listed in Evenacht manuals, but Talin ones.”
Vantra felt the others perk up as her heart sank. Residue from Talis? What did that mean?
“It comes from a seaweed called uthorkevelen, or salty leaves. They’re found in the Ars and Vendala Seas. They aren’t among the official plants traded between our worlds, so someone smuggled them into the Evenacht.”
“Those are nymph strongholds,” Vantra said. “They’re supposed to have the strongest waterdomes in all of Talis.” They were robust and prominent enough, that ships sailing the northeastern and central shores had to use charts that marked their locations. If the vessels did not avoid them, they risked running aground and having their hull blown to cinders by the protective shields.
Nymphs did not mess around with waterdome safeguards. Onshore governments attempted to pass laws to get them to alter the spells, but nothing ever came of it. Who was going to force an army of mafiz to change their ways?
“So Lorgan was likely right about a warped waterdome spell.” Katta held the bottom of the vial over his palm; an intense greyish purple swirled in the center. “Adine, Erse Parr has a greater knowledge of forensic magic than I do. Would you mind, if she pays a visit?”
Adine’s ears perked up and her gold eyes lit with bright enthusiasm. Embrez’s grey fur stood on end. Poor rivcon, his life would not get easier once the mini-Joyful left the confines of Greenglimmer.
“I would be honored to host Death. She is welcome, anytime.” She glanced at Embrez, ready to say something, then smashed her lips together and turned away, subdued.
“The machines, who owns them?” Katta asked.
“The rivcon’s office.” She raised her brows and looked back at her brother. “I, ah, convinced Embrez to purchase them. They’re new additions, and the operators are still in training.”
Darkness focused on the rivcon, and he tensed. “How interested are you in discovering who this enemy is?”
He raised his nose higher, though his fingers clenched the lapels of his black duster tighter. “Now that Hrivasine isn’t holding us back, I’ve instructed my people to conduct thorough investigations into the Gubs, the undercity, and my predecessor’s disappearance. Derent and his guards are long gone, but we hope to find out what happened to them. I believe that his disappearance, Kjiven, and this new, powerful enemy are entwined, and that focusing solely on the Wiiv’s involvement won’t reveal the extent of local corruption. If Greenglimmer is to shed the legacy of the past, we must discover who wishes to keep us there.”
“There is much to learn. We are on the same side in this, with the goal of keeping our people safe, are we not?”
“Yes,” Chisterdelle, Adine and Embrez chimed together—and Vantra had the impression they all meant it. Good. Greenglimmer needed champions, not exploiters.
“Expect correspondence from Erse within the next few days. Also expect Light-blessed to accompany her when she visits.” The syimlin raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been told we have no choice in the matter.”
Jare’s satisfied grin told Vantra everything she desired to know about that.
Katta handed the vial back to Adine. “Thank you for bringing this to me. Hopefully we can piece this puzzle together and discover the enemy before they do more damage.” He eyed all three. “Whoever you take into confidence, make certain you trust them. Any doubts, don’t include them in your investigation. Chisterdelle knows; she survived the Beast.”
The whizan nodded solemnly. “I lost many a friend to him,” she murmured. “From me to you, I refuse to repeat it.” She swept her hands around her. “Hence, this meeting place.”
Katta’s smile hinted he knew something more about the proclamation than the rest of them. “May you dream sweet.” Darkness rose around him.
“Gentle waves to you,” Adine called as the tendrils swallowed Vantra and Jare as well.
